Connected Hearts: I'm a Pooh, How About You? - Convention Team Meeting & Studio J Challenge

Greetings! I hope you all had a wonderful Memorial Day weekend! My message this week is a bit tongue-in-cheek, I guess I'm thinking ahead towards the Convention in Disney Land! I hope it will make you smile like I did :o)

I'm a Pooh, How About You?

by Annette Yen

I'm a Pooh - how 'bout you?
When my girls were growing up we absolutely loved reading the Winnie the Pooh books together. In fact, now that they are 16 and 17, we actually still enjoy the original series (not the Disney remake books) and often will just pick them up for fun and read a chapter or two.

There is benefit, however, to reading Pooh as a direct seller too. Hang with me here, I'm very serious. Pooh and his friends from the Hundred Acre Wood provide a metaphor for the people in our lives in general and more specifically to our direct sales teams.

So let's have some fun and explore a bit more about Winnie the Pooh and his friends and see if you have someone on your team or a potential recruit that looks like:

Pooh himself: Pooh is pretty much the eternal optimist. He looks at every opportunity of life as a chance to get more honey and won't be shy about asking for honey when he sees it nearby and if his tummy is a little rumbly. He cares about his friends, sings while he's walking and basically is fun to be around. Though not always the brightest bulb in the lamp, what Pooh lacks in street smarts he makes up in caring and optimism.

Direct Sales Poohs - Poohs make great team members because they are pretty teachable. It might take a little bit longer for a Pooh to catch on to the system, but overall they're so fun to work with because of their cheerfulness and their willingness to try, that you enjoy the interaction and long for more. Poohs will usually see problem issues as bumps in the road and rarely make much of a fuss beyond "oh bother!" :-)

Piglet: Nervous little piggy Piglet thinks he's smaller than he really is. He has his moments of being brave, but for the most part, prefers to have Pooh hold his hand and lead the way. Though faithful to the core, anything new makes him nervous and he'll make a point of letting everyone know that he's a "very small animal."
Direct Sales Piglets: You can't miss the Piglets in our business because they're very needy. Even though they know the answer they don't trust themselves enough to go with it so they'll call, email or IM you every time a situation comes up when they're working the business. Some direct sales Piglets will be too tentative to ever really give the business enough of a chance and will quit, but others could turn out to be your shining stars. They'll be the ones whose life will be so amazingly altered because of their involvement in direct sales that they'll be featured in company publications.
Rabbit: Mr. Type A personality through and through, Rabbit is organized and can get things done. Though slightly lacking in the warm and fuzzy department, he's the go to guy when they need to come up with a plan and actually implement it. Rabbit's strong personality sometimes scares the other hundred acre wood animals, but they depend on him nonetheless.

Direct Sales Rabbits: Though teeming with potential, direct sales Rabbits sometimes are so focused on being organized, planning and vision that they don't ever really get their business going, because once they've finished organizing their desk or their schedule, there's not enough time to actually sell the product or the opportunity. Once you can help a Rabbit focus, however, they could well be your powerhouse sellers and recruiters.

Owl: Wise old owl has an answer and a story for everything. He can talk his way out of any situation - either by confusing or boring them to death. Unfortunately many of Owl's stories are a bit exaggerated - or completely made up. Owl thinks it's important to look smarter and act like he knows more than he really does.

Direct Sales Owls: The Owls on your team want to be superstars so much that they'll actually craft stories or embellish what happens in their business appear like the person they hope to be in the future. Owls, too, can turn into superstars if you capture the enthusiasm that drives them to be storytellers and help them to use that skill to share the business with others in an honest and straightforward way.

Eeyore: If Pooh is the eternal optimist, Eeyore is the eternal pessimist. To him, everything that can go wrong will go wrong. And so, unfortunately, Eeyore rarely will even try to do anything at all because there is no hope of it succeeding. If something does happen to go right for him, he'll somehow dwell on the fact that it'll probably go wrong somewhere else down the road.
Direct Sales Eeyores: If you've made it this far in this article you've probably got several names in mind that qualify for Eeyore. Every time this team member calls you it's to complain about something that probably doesn't even affect her because she's not even had a party or placed an order yet and is determined not to until your company makes the situations better. The problem is this person will then have found another problem to complain about. Direct Sales Eeyores are pretty tough to turn around and can often drain your energy. Don't let them. Encourage them in their positive steps, coach them to action and if nothing helps, be strong and walk away.

This was all in fun, but just like other "personality type" tests and assessments, the Winnie the Pooh list can be helpful in realizing your own Direct Sales style as well as the personality types of your team. Once you can identify certain characteristics of team members you'll know how to coach and encourage them to success.

Annette Yen loves direct sales. With 22 years experience under her belt she's met many a Pooh, Eeyore, Rabbit and more.

SHOUT- OUTS:

Wowzer! You have done an AMAZING job growing your teams!!! We have added over 350 new Connected Hearts 1-5th Downline as of 9:00 PM Pacific Time - the notifications are still coming in as I type. I'd like to recognize my first downline recruiters who have collectively recruited 57

Adina Godin, Angela Noya, Beda Stoner, Carol Thompson, Chris Green, Christina Eisenhour,

Connie Wine, Darinda Fitzgerald, Emma Hernandez, Gina Zucker, Ginni Candelaria, Jill Annis

Kathy Markloff, Linda Sturdivant, Lisa Combs, Lisa Sargent, Michele Rowley, Sue Ashman, Tina Lovell, and Tracey Raczkowski

A VERY special CONGRATULATIONS to Chris Green who recruited 11 new team members and earned her promotion back to DIRECTOR!!!!

If any of you need assistance with your new recruits, please let me know, I'm happy to assist!

TEAM NEWS:

CTMH National Convention Anaheim, CA July 13-16 (Leadership Day is the 13^th)

I will be doing my team gathering along with my upline, Karen Morris - leader of The Dream Team

Our color group is Jasmine – Purple – Backup color since Jasmine is full is Ariel - Green

There WILL BE team meeting fun and celebrations at Convention!! Here's the basic outline: Magic Kingdom Ballroom 1 & 4 are reserved for us from 7:00 to 9:50 on Wednesday, July 13, 2011.

7:00 - 7:30 KAREN MORRIS - MY UPLINE, MEETS WITH HER FIRST DOWNLINE
7:35 - 8:55 DREAM TEAM "MEET & GREET" this includes all of Karen’s 1-5^th Downline – All of Naomi’s Connected Hearts team - I will have a gift for each of you too! All Team Members are invited and encouraged to attend during this period.... There will be photo ops, a gift to all team members, and lots of fun NOT TO BE MISSED.
9:00 - 9:30 INDIVIDUAL TEAM MEETINGS for Karen’s first line Leaders Teams (Directors): specifically, Naomi Smith, Julie Reynolds, Kimberly Williams Wiltse)
Bring your cameras and business cards! More details to come in the weeks ahead watch your email as well as my blog

The first day of convention – let’s all show our team spirit by wearing our team color group color – PURPLE!

Team Challenge:

At Studio J Bootcamp, we asked for even more features to be added such as photo cards, rub-on type embellishments, 6x6 or other size prints etc. Brian Holman told us in order for CTMH to be able to allocate more capital to do these types of enhancements, we need to have at least 15-20% of our sales coming from Studio J. He told us that consultants need to embrace it so they can grow it. We need to use Studio J and share with everyone via our Facebook pages, Blogs and Twitter. SO for my part, I'm issuing a personal challenge for my 1st Downline.

Create and submit 4 Studio J Layouts during each of the next 4 months June-September (total of 16 layouts). With a Studio J 12 month membership, you will have free shipping and page protectors along with the rest of the membership benefits. For each 8 people who complete the challenge, I will draw for 1 Studio J 5 pack. Drawing will take place and announced on my October 4th blog post.

Don't forget to let everyone know about the Studio J^® Free-for-All!

June 2011 Constant Campaign

During our Studio J^® Free-for-All in June, we're giving everyone a FREE Studio J^® JPG file—no purchase required! Simply log on to Studio J, create a layout, then order one JPG file of your layout during the checkout process. It's as easy as that! We're offering one free JPG file per customer account during June, so customers who already have a Studio J or a MyCTMH^® account are ready to log on and start creating. If a customer doesn't have an account, no worries—they can log on and create an account and then order their free JPG file with no strings attached. Make June the month you introduce all of your customers to Studio J with our FREE JPG promotion. They'll love it and return for more!

Dates: Offer valid June 1, 12:01 am (MDT) – June 30, 11:59 pm (MDT)

CREATIVE CORNER:

More swaps from the team meeting featuring Kraft Borders