February 4th, 2010 by Jim Donovan
Last night, I had the pleasure of sharing my “Best Life Seminar” with the Huntingdon Valley Rotary group. As always, I had a great time, met some terrific people, had a nice meal (always a good thing) and got to share ideas with the group. Here’s what the group had to say:
“Tonight our guest speaker was Jim Donovan who lives in Upper Bucks County and is a best-selling author and inspiring motivational speaker.
Jim spoke about his recent book titled, “Don’t let an Old Person move into Your Body” which shares the recipe for living a long purpose filled life. Jim shared numerous real life people who started new careers while in their 80’s, 90’s and even at 106 years young.
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October 22nd, 2009 by Jim Donovan
Excerpt, Don’t Let an Old Person Move Into Your Body
A butcher for most of his adult life, Jimmy Smith was content with living a modest, middle class lifestyle. He was a happy man blessed with a loving wife and six children, until at sixty-two years of age he had the rug pulled out from under him. Due to his failing health and being unable to stand all day cutting meat, he was forced to leave the job he had held for most of his life.
While this is surely something that would be a challenge to anyone, in his situation it could have been devastating. Fortunately, for Jimmy, a friend introduced him to the network marketing industry, providing him an opportunity for self-employment and a chance to build a business of his own.
After being in the business for a time, Jimmy Smith found his passion in both the leading edge products and the business opportunity offered by Isagenix International, a company whose vision is to make a positive impact on world health and free people from physical and financial pain, and in the process create the largest health-and-wellness company in the world.
I have personally experienced the Isagenix products and found them to be one of the highest quality nutritional products available as have two of my colleagues John Gray and Jack Canfield.
Jimmy had found his calling. With the the health benefits he realized from taking the Isagenix products and the business opportunity it provided, he was on fire and ready to tell the world about his new business.
When I met Jimmy Smith, a few years ago, he was turning eighty and had the energy and stamina of a man half his age. Not only does he look and feel great, he went on to become the top earner in his company, making himself and his family very wealthy, while building a lasting legacy for his children and grand-children.
Perhaps what best describes Jimmy’s energy and passion for what he is doing is the experience that I had while attending an all day event with him. I was leaving the event after being in the hotel for over 12 hours. Riding the elevator down to the lobby with Jimmy’s daughter Grace, talking about what a long day it had been, I asked where her dad was. “Oh, he has a few more meetings,” she replied. We both laughed at the fact that while we, decades younger, were both ready to call it a day, Jimmy the Butcher was still going strong.
Jimmy Smith is the perfect example of what can happen when a person’s passion is ignited by something larger than himself. If you ever have the opportunity to meet Jimmy Smith, by all means, do so. It’s a life changing experience.
Excerpt, Don’t Let an Old Person Move Into Your Body
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September 16th, 2009 by Jim Donovan
At a Business Card Exchange several years ago a well-dress woman walked up to me, business card in hand and, in perfect form held it in both hands in front of me, gesturing for me to take it. I took the card from her and smiled. She looked up and in a polite voice, said “Thank you,” and walked away. How sad. Here was this obviously well-intentioned woman, who most likely owned an interesting business but never learned what to do at a card exchange. Somewhere she bought into the idea that you were suppose to hand out as many business cards in as little time as possible. Clearly, this does nothing but waste business cards. Great for card businesses, not so great for yours.
The other extreme is the person who spends the entire time at a card exchange talking to the same individual, sometimes even people from their own company. Again, this is quite unproductive. The purpose of a business card exchange is to get to meet new people in a pleasant atmosphere.
While there are many good books to help you hone your networking skills including, Sue Roane’s How to Work a Room, the essence of networking is quite simple. Businesses run on relationships. I’ve always felt that everything that we do is about personal relationships and a business just gives us a playing field on which to do it.
Following that theme, growing your business is about developing and nurturing relationships and card exchanges and similar networking events are really the starting point to begin what will hopefully become a mutually rewarding relationship. Since your time is limited, it is a good idea to spend only a short time speaking with people, especially those you already know. If you feel a resonance with someone you’re talking with, make arrangements to follow-up your connection at a later date and move on to meet someone else. I’m sure the shy looking person in the corner, who is probably there for the very first time, has something interesting to say. Why not go over and extend your hand.
The other big faux paus I see over and over again, are the people who approach the networking meeting with a “me, me, me” attitude. A better approach is to learn about the other person first. You then have the option of explaining how what you do might be of interest to them. This establishes a stronger platform for communications, for as speaking legend Zig Ziglar says, “You get what you want by helping other people get what they want.”
Care about the other person
There are better ways to network and meet prospective business contacts. For openers, (no pun intended) people are more responsive if you first show some interest in them and what they do. There is an old cliché that says we have one mouth and two ears for a reason. If you listen more than you talk, you will automatically find people more interested in talking with you and being around you.
Marketing guru, Jay Abraham, once said that “Discovery is the fuel of competitive advantage.” Get curious. Become interested in other people and what makes them tick. Really care about the other person. If you take the time to investigate, you will find that even those people who appear quite ordinary have a story to tell. If you show an interest in them and their lives, you will not only increase your chances of doing business with them but you may gain a friend as well.
How do you do that?
When you do introduce yourself, do so in a way that states the benefit of doing business with you. Saying “Hi, my name is Mary and I sell insurance” is not very exciting. However, if you were to say, “My name is Mary and I help people prepare for the uncertainty that may be in their future.” This causes the other person, if they are at all curious, to ask, “How do you do that?” At this point, you have opened the door for a further explanation or “commercial” for your business. You can go on to explain the benefits of your products and services.
As an exercise, devise three or four ways to introduce your business. Let each one focus on a different benefit of your product or service. Test each of them at your next networking event.
Remember: people do not buy products or services, they buy benefits and solutions.
The more you focus on communicating the benefits gained from using your products or services, the more you will benefit from the increase in business. With prospecting new business becoming more and more difficult, a personal relationship is even more important than ever.
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August 27th, 2009 by Jim Donovan
“While being young is an accident of time, youth is a permanent state of mind”
Frank Lloyd Wright
Have you ever noticed that some people age well, becoming older with grace and dignity, looking vibrant and alive and remaining physically and mentally active well into old age? Frank Lloyd Wright, quoted above, was still designing when he passed on at 92.
Others, it seems, begin getting old in their youth. What makes the difference?
Why is such a large portion of our society aging so poorly? Why are hospitals and nursing homes overcrowded and many older people just barely alive?
Is this a natural progression or can we actually alter the way we age?
The Bible teaches us that we have a natural life expectancy of 120 – 150 years. Many of the people written about in the Old Testament lived to be over one hundred, and in some parts of the world today, entire villages live well beyond one hundred years of age.
What are the secrets of a long and productive life and what can you do about it? More importantly, how can you live your life to the fullest, enjoying an abundance of health, wealth, and happiness? How can you make the most of your life, for however long you are here?
How can you live, laugh, and love more? What steps can you take, starting now, to achieve the best level of health and fitness you are capable of reaching? How can you get back in touch with your dreams and desires and begin to experience them? How can you learn to age with passion, purpose, power, and prosperity?
In Don’t Let an Old Person Move Into Your Body, you will be asked to reevaluate and question the preconceived notions you have about aging and the commonly accepted beliefs about health. You will be asked to examine your attitudes and beliefs and come to understand the important role they play in how we age. You will learn ways to age without becoming old.
You’ll be introduced to people who have aged successfully and learn their strategies. You will learn about the latest developments in the field of longevity and identify ways you can minimize, even slow, the process of aging. You will create a compelling vision for your future and a plan for a long, active, and prosperous life.
I invite you to join me in this exciting journey into aging and learn how you, too, can develop your personal plan of aging with passion, purpose, power and prosperity, and make sure you don’t let an old person move into your body.
It is your God-given birthright to have a life of joy, happiness, health, love, fun, prosperity, excitement, abundance, and all the other wonderful things life on earth has to offer. To accept less is to shortchange yourself and your loved ones.
To learn more about how you can make the rest of your life, the best of your life, and take advantage of special pre-publication pricing, go here
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March 6th, 2009 by Jim Donovan
Twitter, MySpace, Facebook, Linkedin, Plaxo, the list goes on and on. Chances are, if you are over the age of 25, you think these social networking sites are places young people go to get a date and post pictures of their most recent party. Well they are, however, they’re also the hottest business building opportunity to come along; especially for a small business.
As a matter of fact, according to almost every expert source, if you are ignoring these platforms, you are setting yourself up to experience real pain in the future. The reason for this is really quite simple, your customers are already there, and chances are, they are already talking about your business, your industry, and your competitors. You just don’t know it.
It’s no coincidence that Hewlett-Packard has fifty of its executive’s blogging. Smart companies, of every size, are using these new technologies to promote their brand, solidify their relationship with their customers, test market new products, solicit ideas, and gain valuable customer feedback. Small businesses are gaining a competitive advantage by taking their message, for virtually no cost, directly to their customer on these sites as well as on video sharing sites like Youtube.com and Ecorptv.com.
Their “Tweeting” away on Twitter to keep a buzz going, while developing loyal new followers and fans on places like Facebook and MySpace. Sites like Linkedin are enabling savvy sales and marketing people to use their networks to connect with prospective customers and penetrate new markets.
What was once six degrees of separation is now more like three.
The question is, where do you start?
Step one, get a blog- If you don’t already have a blog, set one up. You can do this quickly and easily at blogger.com (owned by Goggle) or use the Wordpress platform. I prefer Wordpress for several reasons. For starters, it’s hosted on your own server so your blog address is something like http://www.jimdonovan.com/blog. It also presents a more professional image. For links to a no cost Wordpress system, complete with all the necessary plugins, visit http://www.jimdonovan.com/resources.html
Next, create a personal profile or page on Facebook- If you are an individual, like an author, speaker, coach, or consultant, a personal Facebook profile will suffice. If you are a traditional business you can use the Facebook “Page” feature to accomplish the same thing.
Once you are set-up on Facebook, you can join groups that relate to your industry or your interest. You can upload photos, videos, audios, post notes and so on and begin inviting friends to “connect with you.”
Start by connecting with people you know or people who belong to the groups you’ve joined. Make a habit of posting items of interest and make every effort to be helpful.
Do not start promoting or hyping your products and services- This is a death rattle in social media. It’s called “social media” for a reason. Network and get to know people and let them get to know you. Be real and be helpful. Make friends. Share ideas and get involved in the conversation. The business side of things will take care of itself. Remember the old adage, “Givers get.”
Depending on your customer demographic, you may want to have a presence on MySpace. The community there tends to be younger so if your targeting a young audience it’s an important place to be.
Twitter is next- It’s been said that it’s almost impossible for someone over the age of 25 to explain Twitter. It’s essentially a “micro-blogging” platform that asks, “What are you doing?”
To get started, sign up for a Twitter account and start following people. They can be people you know or admire, people who are well known in your industry and/or your friends.
What makes Twitter so popular is that “tweets” (Twitter posts) are limited to 140 characters so it forces people to be concise. Like Facebook and MySpace, you can share ideas, tips, links to interesting sites and more. There are several books and ebooks that will help you learn more about Twitter and other social media sites. And, of course, there are consultants to guide you service businesses who will handle all the details for you.
What’s important is that you do not let this opportunity pass you by. Start using these Web 2.0 tools to grow your business and enjoy the process.
Jim’s newest business, River Run Consulting, is an ecommerce company that helps small businesses in Bucks County and Montgomery County, PA and Hunterdon County, NJ, tap into the power of Web 2.0 technology to produce measurable results.
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February 20th, 2009 by Jim Donovan
That’s right, these three amazing women, Carrie Wilkerson, Kathleen Gage and Mari Smith are just three of the women that make up the “Dynamic Divas series.
A while back, I wanted to do something really “out of the box.”
While lots of people have produced information series with groups of experts, this is the first program to tap into the expertise and knowledge available from an amazing group of women.
There’s way too much to explain here, so I’m asking you to take a look at the site and see this awesome group for yourself.
PS. If you hurry, you can still take advantage of the introductory offer.
PPS. For you guys reading this, it’s not just for women.
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January 5th, 2009 by Jim Donovan
If you happened to watch the New Year’s Eve festivities from New York’s Times Square, you may have seen Mayor Michael Bloomberg being interviewed and heard him say, as far as he is concerned, the operative word for 2009 is “Optimism,” which according to Wikipedia, is an outlook on life such that one maintains a view of the world as a positive place.
I’m with him. It’s about time we had optimistic talk being spread over the airwaves. We’ve certainly had our fill of the other kind.
As with anything else, if we believe this and begin affirming it, we will make it so. It would be really great if the majority of people followed the sentiment of “Mayor Mike,” however, what’s even more important is that each of us affirm it for ourselves.
In truth we can only create our own experience, not the experience of others so, regardless of what the masses choose to do we can start seeing this coming year through a lens of optimism and act accordingly.
No one but you can create your life experience. Not the government, not your employer, not even your spouse. What occurs in your life is totally within your control and is a result of your thoughts, feelings and actions.
If you choose to join with me and Mayor Bloomberg and see this year optimistically, as a year of opportunity and positive expectations, you will, in fact, create your best year ever.
While optimism is a great outlook on life and a key ingredient for success, it’s not all there is. You’ll need a vision of what you want your life to become, specific and measurable goals, an action plan to follow and, hopefully, a mentor or coach to keep you on track.
If you have a coach, great. If not, now would be a good time to get one. Or, if you cannot afford a coach right now, “buddy up”with someone and hold each other accountable. Find someone you feel comfortable sharing your dreams and goals with and arrange to meet with them regularly. This is an important component for success. No one does it alone.
With all the change in the air and the general feelings of hope and possibility being expressed by people from all walks of life, it’s looking like 2009 is going to be a banner year.
As with everything else in nature, there’s an ebb and flow to our life. After last year, I think you’ll agree we’re all ready for the flow to begin. Bring it on!
If you really want to make 2009 your best year ever and are ready to play full out, check out my new tele-seminar program “Live Your Destiny 2009.”
Over the course of the next few days, I’ll be posting a series of articles specifically written to help you start your year off right. If you miss any, or if you’re new to personal development, you can always find the entire series in the “Starting Out” category.
By the way, if you are planning on working one-on-one with a coach, I have an opening. You can learn more here
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September 17th, 2008 by Jim Donovan
I’m not easy to impress but . . .
I’ve been around a long time (comes with age:-) and have seen a lot of people come and go, but recently I met an extraordinary woman, at a Ken McArthur Impact event, who not only inspired me but even left me feeling somewhat embarrassed. Yes, embarrassed!
I watch as she told her story of starting her business from scratch and, in a really short time, building it into a solid, respectable venture. And she’s just getting started!
Her name is Carrie Wilkerson and her business is The Barefoot Executive
What left me feeling a little embarrassed was how she, with little experience, just jumped in and acted. She’s fearless, high energy and a great role model for anyone, woman or man, who wants a little inspiration.
If you want to see her short but beautifully created movie, take a look at The Boss Movie
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August 11th, 2008 by Jim Donovan
When she asked, “How do you do that”, I had the opportunity to make my pitch.
You enter the crowded room, looking and feeling great. You’re ready. Dressed to the “nines”, you’re wearing your best suit and have a hundred business cards ready to pass out to anyone you meet. This is what the ‘experts” say you should be doing to promote your business. They call it “networking.”
You’re ready. You begin your journey across the room, eyes scanning the terrain, looking for a friendly face. Half way through the crowd of other prowling business owners, like yourself, you inadvertently bump into a tall blonde woman in a red dress. Clumsily, you excuse yourself. She smiles and says it’s OK. Seizing the opportunity, you whip out your business card and blurt, “Hello, I’m Fred Reinhart.” You proudly add, “I’m in network marketing.” “That’s nice,” she quips, waving across the room to a bearded man in a three piece suit. Shaking your hand she adds, “I’m Kathy Johnson, nice to meet you.” Before you can mutter another word she is off in the direction of the man in the three piece. There you stand, hand out, wondering what went wrong.
What went wrong?
You did everything the books and seminars told you to do. You wore your good suit. You had plenty of cards on hand. You even bought an expensive cologne for the occasion. What happened? Where did you go wrong?
While the above scenario seems amusing, after it has happened to you a few times it loses its humor. Worse yet, people who have had this kind of experience simply conclude they are not cut out for network marketing and tend to drop out of the business. Their income’s suffer and they assume it’s their personality when, in fact, they’ve been taught the wrong techniques.
Care about the other person
There are better ways to network and meet prospective business contacts. For openers, (no pun intended) people are more responsive if you first show some interest in them and what they do. There is an old cliché that says we have one mouth and two ears for a reason. If you listen more than you talk, you will automatically find people more interested in talking with you and being around you.
The well known marketing consultant, Jay Abraham, once said that “Discovery is the fuel of competitive advantage.” Get curious. Become interested in other people and what makes them tick. Really care about the other person. If you take the time to investigate, you will find that even those people who appear quite ordinary have a story to tell. If you show an interest in them and their lives, you will not only increase your chances of doing business with them but you may gain a friend as well. After all, you’re in a people business!
Where’s the pain
One of the keys to gaining new customers and recruits is uncovering the other persons greatest need. What is the source of their pain? If you are speaking to someone whom you just met and, without learning about them, start talking about the opportunity to earn large sums of money with your company, you could easily lose them. Some of you are probably thinking, “Why would a person not be interested in earning more money?” Well, supposing they are in a high income bracket and have lots of money but their real challenge is not having enough time to spend with their families. In this case, had you cared enough to get to know them, you would have uncovered their real need. Knowing this, you would then reposition your company’s benefits to meet their needs. You could have talked about the freedom of not having to work a 9 to 5 schedule and the quality time you get to spend with your family. You have now addressed their needs and wants, not your own and your message will be received with more interest. Always remember that people do things for their own reasons not yours. Because one aspect of the business is attractive to you does not mean that is going to be the part that interests me. Invest the time to find out about my needs first and you will see your business grow more than you could imagine. The truly successful individuals in any profession are the one’s who always try to help the other person. Remember the wisdom of Zig Zigler who said, “You can have whatever you want if you help enough other people get what they want.”
How do you do that?
When the time is right for you to introduce yourself, there is an excellent and simple technique you can use. You can develop a self introduction that will cause the other person to ask, “how do you do that?” For example, if you are in a nutritional MLM, rather than say, “I am Joe, I sell vitamins and I can make you rich” (this actually happened to me at an networking event), you might say, “I work with people just like you, Mary, who need to stay healthy and have enough energy to build their businesses.”
This causes the other person, if they are at all curious, to ask, “How do you do that?” At this point, you have opened the door for a further explanation or “commercial” for your business. You can go on to explain the benefits of your products and services and, presuming you’ve uncovered the other persons needs, you can talk about the benefits of being in this business — in relation to their needs.
As an exercise, devise three or four ways to introduce your business. Let each one focus on a different benefit of your product or service. Test each of them at your next networking event.
Remember: people do not buy products or services, they buy benefits and solutions.
The more you focus on communicating the benefits gained from using your products or services, the more you will benefit from the increase in business.
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Last night, I had the pleasure of sharing my “Best Life Seminar” with the Huntingdon Valley Rotary group. As always, I had a great time, met some terrific people, had a nice meal (always a good thing) and got to share ideas with the group. Here’s what the group had to say:
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