Balance Social Media w/Parkinson’s Law …..or Fail

I just love the action ……good or bad…..as soon as there is a new buzz word on the internet, networking or direct sales…….there are experts popping up everywhere.

And, these experts, [wink-wink] will kill your network’s production if we do not adhere to sound business principles….or am I so old school that I am the only one who ‘gets’ ….in the end, this is a business?

Would it be OK if I told you why we are setting our teams up to fail if we start chasing social media, branding etc.?

If you are inexperienced in networking or working at home then this concept will require rigorous honesty….the more experienced folks, well, if we’re not in complete denial, we get it faster and easily.

KEY: The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.

More calls, more contacts…..more contacts…..more quality prospects…more sales.

Moe, Larry and Curley are in your organization.  They are seeing these ‘self-appointed’ experts

• talking about
• writing about……
• selling about [gee, what a shocker], branding and social media
• You gotta have this!!
• Everyone says so!
• The world is about to pass you by!
• Fortunes will be made & lost …YIKES…..how did we ever get oceanfront without it??  [sorry, anger here, not ego ;)]

So, they buy the idea they need to do this.  And they start reading, going to webcasts, clicking on all this stuff about it…..learning how to do it, brand themselves, get leads etc.

And, your production goes down.

Why?

Parkinson’s Law.

They don’t know it, we don’t teach it….a pair that will kill business…..it’s a business right?  Just checking.

OK, let’s get blunt.

There is a proverb…..says…..’The slothful man will say there is a lion in the streets who will destroy me’

What does that mean?  In this context, in the Old Testament, the lion represents a fear we can see……

So what it really says is …..lazy people will say they are afraid……we’re being blunt, remember?

Good……..but Moe, Larry and Curley don’t want to say they are afraid [ego] …..so they ‘get busy’ on the “next ‘sexy’ MUST HAVE thing.”

And, they get off the phone….phew……can report back how much they are doing and learning about branding [another crock of bullshit] …..

All because we don’t know or teach Parkinson’s Law.

Made millions for people, did Parkinson….here it is in a nutshell

The average American worker will use the allotted time to complete the task.

GIve the same task to Moe, Larry and Curley…..

but give Moe 2 hours to do it …..Larry 4 hours and Curley 8 hours……

Guess what?

Moe will get it done in 2 ~ Larry will get it done in 4 and, you guessed it, Curley will get it done in 8.

Parkinson [a real expert BTW 🙂 ], goes on to point out that

The demand upon a resource tends to expand to match the supply of the resource.

An extension is often added to this, stating that:

the reverse is not true.

What does that mean?

It means if they finish reading ‘how to brand’ themselves a little sooner, they will not take initiative and use the extra time effectively.

So what does the Book of Proverbs, Parkinson, this particular blog plus Moe, Larry and Curley have to do with social media, branding and our business?

It means that because people are either afraid or lazy [Proverbs] ….that they will migrate to non-challenging parts of the business like researching Social Media or Branding…..instead of picking up the phone

……AND……in their heads they are convinced they are doing something to build their business.  So, Parkinson comes in here as whatever Moe, Larry and Curley said they were going to put into their business that day…..2 – 4 – 8 hours…..they will put it into this nonsense instead of doing the ONE THING that will drive income.

Know a great kid……got his 3rd FB open, close to 15,000 peeps……enrolling some of those peeps…..in free sign up deals [don’t get me started on that stuff 🙂 ], and while he is very good at it……his primary program is, well, not being worked.

Let’s compare him to Henry V…….Henry is all over FB….started some groups……but Henry knows Parkinson’s Law and does all that stuff AFTER he takes care of the primary reason he is in his home-office FIRST.

He knows how eazzzzzzzzzzy it is to get ‘distracted’ and feel like he put in 2 hours that night, hell, we all know how to do that.

What Henry and a lot of folks we work with do is an OATS.  This leverages Parkinson’s Law in  Henry’s favor……

It keeps the main thing the main thing…..after all, contacting new people is the main thing.

Here is the more interesting part…..Henry is better at cultivating leads on FB than the other chap.

Why?

He feels better about himself, is productive and does not need to do all kinds of crap to try and ignite ‘attraction marketing’…..Henry’s success is attractive.

Said he’ll worry about getting to 100,000 a month……seems easier than ‘pretending’ you care about other people so they will be ‘attracted to me.’

He is correct….by keeping first things first he is building an AUTHENTIC brand……and he doesn’t have to write stuff so people will think he cares…..he does.

Half these ‘experts’ are experts in teaching you how to ‘bend’ the truth about yourself ….and say the things that make people care.  Sorry folks, that is just the way it is.  You buy the idea you need to be branded?  Great.  That brand should be who you are and writing all the baloney about how we care about helping others to sell yourself….is BS…..

Henry knows the goals of his personals, and their personals.  He reads them all the time.

Look, social media is here…..no doubt about that ……but…..now it’s FB…….remember myspace?

I remember a waitress who told me she was going to build through myspace…….4 years ago.  Still a waitress.

Do we need to learn a few things about it?  Social media?  Yup.

But we need to make sure we are not using it, like 95% are, to avoid doing what they need to do.

We need to do 2 things to make a lot of money.

1. Learn what to say so that 90%++ say ‘Yes’ to looking
2. Get on the phone
3. OK, 3 things…..don’t give Moe, Larry or Curley anything to do besides 1 & 2

95%?  Yup.  That is about the size of the group from the Think and Grow Rich Study and about the size of the group today that will do whatever they can to avoid doing what needs to be done.

SOLUTION:

Agree with Moe, Larry and Curley to make 90 minutes of calls to NEW prospects 5 days a week for 90 days.

Do this BEFORE FB. Twitter etc…….and see what happens…..

QUICK QUIZ:

1. Since social media how much has your volume/check gone up?
2. Do you make calls first?
3. Are you building relationships or avoiding work?
4. If you are honest, brutally honest…..what to do next is pretty clear.

It’s your business and 15 years ago….it was auto-responders…..you’d perish without them…..then caputre pages……..squeeze pages……conference calls……gotomeeting webcasts………FB……..Twitter…..

Each of these must have, crucial to our business……..ate up one career after another…..where people keep looking for the next new thing……but never really talked to many, if any people…..lazy, pretending to be cutting edge…..

In the meantime…..we’ve been blessed to make our decisions, all the time, with Parkinson’s Law running interference for us…….and helping us grow and learn and not con ourselves with ‘pretend’ work……

Anti Social Media?  Nope.

We just know enough to know that the day of the ‘psuedo-guru’ is here.

As a leader, we need keep people on track and the best way to do that is to stay on track ourselves.

The cultivation of ‘image’ and ‘brand’ …..in a microwave world requires strong principles around business fundamentals first, experimentation second.

Funny, when you think about it, how this push for Social Media managers, Branding etc……to help you with your networking business is coming in waves from….drum roll…..people who have not built MLM businesses.  Huh?

Wonder what A.L. Williams, Rich DeVos would do?  They saw plenty of these ‘magic-must-have-or-perish’ things in their day…..

I bet they got on the phone…..let it shake out…..and kept building while the 95% who never pick up the phone…..kept talking about how this ….

• newspaper ad
• flyer
• drop card
• drop card that looked like a $20
• answering machine
• flip chart

Would make them rich…..yeah, my feeling is they did their job first, made lots of money and were patient about what changes to make.

One thing for sure, they kept the main thing the main thing themselves and set an example for Moe, Larry and Curley.

New stuff is great…..we need change to make progress but not all change is progress [Wooden] …..and leader’s don’t let it become a distraction.

believe

mark januszewski

world’s laziest networker