Until recently we’ve only been able to speculate about a story’s persuasive effects. But over the last several decades psychology has begun a serious study of how story affects the human mind. Results repeatedly show that our attitudes, fears, hopes, and values are strongly influenced by story. In fact, fiction seems to be more effective at changing beliefs than writing that is specifically designed to persuade through argument and evidence.

What is going on here? Why are we putty in a storyteller’s hands? The psychologists Melanie Green and Tim Brock argue that entering fictional worlds “radically alters the way information is processed.” Green and Brock’s studies shows that the more absorbed readers are in a story, the more the story changes them.

And, in this, there is an important lesson about the molding power of story. When we read dry, factual arguments, we read with our dukes up. We are critical and skeptical. But when we are absorbed in a story we drop our intellectual guard. We are moved emotionally and this seems to leave us defenseless.

Guber tells us that stories can also function as Trojan Horses. The audience accepts the story because, for a human, a good story always seems like a gift. But the story is actually just a delivery system for the teller’s agenda. A story is a trick for sneaking a message into the fortified citadel of the human mind.

Most Nu Skin distributors are taught to persuade with a dispassionate presentation of facts. But we are beasts of emotion more than logic. We are creatures of story, and the process of changing one mind or the whole world must begin with “Once upon a time.”

It is good to remind ourselves we are building a “real” business that requires a business plan. A great place to start is to use the statistics from Nu Skin. Here are some from Nu Skin President Scott Schwerdt.

Over 28 years we have gathered a ton of data, and this is what we have learned. Too often we measure ourselves against others that bring other assets and skill sets to the table.

The magic of 3′s is found in all of our numbers. In 2011 it took the average Ruby 14 months to go from distributor to Ruby Executive. The average they recruited to products or business was 45. That was 3 per month.

It took the average Blue Diamond to go from distributor to Blue Diamond was 39 months. The average they recruited to products or business was 84 people. That was 3 per month. These numbers are not based on LOI’s, it is based on anyone that you introduced to the business from preferred customer to LOI.

Are you willing to sponsor 45 prefered customers or distributors in the next 14 months to create $3000 per month passive residual income?

Is it salesmanship? Is it social media savvy, or product knowledge?

Or is it tech stuff, like the ability to set up and manage Nu Skin’s new online prospecting website, capture leads, manage an email list, and so on?

If you answered any of these, important as they might be, sorry, you’re wrong.

You don’t need to possess any of those skills, because you can outsource them, or you can go out and learn them anytime you want.

You can learn anything nowadays, usually for free. Want to learn how to field-strip an obscure Russian firearm that hasn’t been manufactured since 1927? I’ll bet someone has made a YouTube video showing you how.

All the knowledge in the world is literally at our fingertips. Yet only a handful of people break through from wanna-be-successes to true successes. So what’s missing?

What distributors need most isn’t knowledge. What they need is the ability to evolve.

You must analyze and adapt.

There’s a lot of talk in Nu Skin circles about how if you don’t keep doing what your upline has come to expect from you, you’re just confusing your downline.  If you do something odd and out of character, or not within the current  ”duplication model”, your business won’t grow….blah, blah, blah.

What terrible advice.

Even big companies that become dogmatic get slaughtered nowadays. Look at the music and film industries, and the crap they tried to hand us to protect themselves while their inflexible models drowned.

Now, look at the success stories.

While Borders bookstores were dying, Amazon led the e-book revolution with Kindle. They also went from selling books to selling everything under the sun, and started providing tech services like Amazon S3 media hosting.Google entered a market that already had dominant search engines, like Yahoo and Lycos, but then branched from search into apps, smartphone operating systems, voice communications, mapping and navigation, co mmerce services, and just about everything else. And now who’s the household name?

Teamelites.com started as a blog about network marketing. Then it became more about social media, online communities. Then we began innovating with training, now we are developing new concepts and systems that leverage the latest technology for Nu Skin distributors.

At no point did Traci and I think, “Woah, wait a minute… a website that promotes new ideas and business models? That’ll confuse everyone” and ditch the whole thing to go back to only writing blog posts.

Mindlessly sticking to what used to work is overrated especially in network marketing. In North America some of our leaders have both feet in the past trying to recapture long lost glory. You know the definition of insanity right?

Nobody knows how to describe us. This includes myself. People ask us what we do, and I never know what exactly what to tell them and I love that. It is always progressing and changing. And that freaks out some in Nu Skin as well.

In the next few months, we are going to focus exclusively on weight management, get deep into mobile computing, work on a new book, write more of those epic blog posts, expand into digital publishing, and host more unique and amazing Nu Skin and R90 Challenge events.

That’s a lot of change coming for us, but I can tell you one thing for certain: if at any point I’d stuck to my guns and said, “I’m a network marketer,” or “I’m a tech guy” or “I’m a blogger” and refused to evolve, I’d be out of business today.

And I see numerous Nu Skin distributors on their way out the door because they think their business should not evolve.

Change your mind. Right now.

Sometimes people ask me why I talk so much about stuff that’s intangible, stuff that you might describe as “upping your mental game.” The reason is because it’s the only thing that will make a difference Nu Skin business.

Meaning: You don’t need more knowledge, because you have access to more knowledge than you can handle.

What you need is the mindset to actually go out and use what you know.

You don’t need skills. You need meta-skills.

You’ve got to learn to be uncertain and take risks. If you stay within what’s known and safe, you will never be truly successful in Nu Skin. Doing what’s uncertain and risky isn’t easy, and that’s why the people who dare to do it are rewarded.

I of course have all the admiration in the world for leaders in North America that have had big successes in the past but what they did should not necessarily be what you should be doing. This includes myself.

You’ve got to learn to lead, which simply means going out and doing things. If you do things instead of always thinking and talking about doing things, then congratulations, you’re a leader. Others will follow.

You’ve got to learn to solve problems. I unschool my kids because I believe that children don’t need to memorize facts — especially in a world that changes this rapidly. They need to learn how to look at a situation, determine which resources they need, and then go find those resources in order to solve the problem. We must all learn to fish instead of relying on others giving us fish.

You’ve got to start believing you can do it. That sounds rah-rah, but it’s very important. We train ourselves into believing that we can do some things and can’t do others. Think you can’t do calculus? Wrong. You can’t levitate on Earth without assistance or superpowers. There’s a huge difference between those “can’ts.” (Other manifestations of this: “I’m not that kind of person,” “I wasn’t raised that way,” and “What will my parents/friends/neighbors/Twilight fan club think?”)

You’ve been a little bit brainwashed by the circumstances you’ve lived through. It’s okay, because we all have. But what you need to understand is that that cultural brainwashing puts you at a disadvantage as an entrepreneur and Nu Skin distributor.

It may sound trite to talk about upping your mental game … but if you don’t do exactly that, you’ll be stuck forever.

Can’t make yourself do what needs to be done in your Nu Skin business? Are you afraid? Are you uncertain? Do you get stuck? Do you know everything you need to know — and know exactly what you need to do — but just … can’t … seem to … do it?

That happens because you’re believing lies that you’ve been told or have learned, and have internalized those lies as rules and limitations. But they’re not true.

They are not true.

How are you struggling in your mental game? Let me know in the comments …

1. Always be accountable. There is no one else who is responsible for you losing weight. You have to be accountable for what you eat and how often you work out.

2. Break the cycle of excuses. We all make excuses to try to justify our behavior, but these kinds of excuses aren’t doing you any favors when it comes to weight loss. Force yourself to accept your failures and work to improve them.

3. Deal with your emotions. For many people, food is an emotional thing and a coping mechanism for other things that aren’t right in their lives. If you want to change your mindset about your body, you’ll first have to deal with these powerful emotions.

4. Make the decision to be thinner. Sometimes all it takes is a firm resolution to make a change in your life. If you want to lose weight, make the choice to do so and let your actions follow suit.

5. Take responsibility. No one is forcing food down your throat or keeping you from the gym. Once you realize that and can take responsibility for your own actions regarding your health and fitness, you’ll be one step closer to meeting your goals.

6. Think clearly. Weight loss, body image and personal health can be emotionally charged issues. When you think about these things it it important to separate them as best you can from your emotions and make logical, thoughtful decisions about what is best. For instance, our emotions might tell us we need a piece of cake after a hard day, but our logical thinking would tell us it will only make you feel worse about yourself.

7. Change your programming. Many of us have programmed our brains to think we are fat, unhealthy and will never look or feel like we want to. Thinking this way is often a self-fulfilling prophecy, but by changing your mental programming, you’ll change what you’re capable of in weight loss.

8. Stay positive. There is no upside to negative thinking when it comes to losing weight. Staying positive will help you feel better about yourself, keep you motivated and reduce stress — all of which will help you lose more weight.

9. Train your mind to think in your best interest. If you want to lose weight, focus on replacing your unhealthy thoughts with healthy ones. After a while, you will think less unhealthy thoughts and be a step ahead in reaching your goals.

Become accountable join our Facebook R90 Challenge Community.

CLICK HERE

A significant part of the answer comes from the Weiss-McGrath Retention study. If you have not heard about its important that you become familiar with it as it will change the way in which you do business.

The study says that using video and audio together increases message retention (after 72 hours) by more than 600% over verbal or auditory communication and more than 300% over written or visual communication alone.

The study goes on to indicate that your downline or prospect will forget 90% of what you said or told them within 72 hours. Which means that after 3 days, they only recall 10% of what you said to them!

No wonder they don’t seem to “get it”.

Video dramatically improves communication because they will remember 65% of what you “show and tell” them.

Audio only conference calls have been a relic of the past for some time now. Unfortunately it’s human nature to cling to the things that we understand and hesitate to progress forward even when science proves what we are doing is for the most part no longer effective.

If you really want to start changing the effectiveness of your communication with your downline or prospects you need to use video, webinars or Skype.

Here are a few.

First. The average Nu Skin Ruby Executive took 14 months to acheive that position. They sponsored 45 distributors. 45 divided by 14 is 3.

Second. In 2011 the average Blue Diamond did so in 29 months and sponsored 84 distrbutors. 84 divided by 29 is 3.

Third. Executives who maintain at least $3,000 in group volume increase their earnings more than 3x over those that do not.

Our Teamelites.com duplication model is based on 3 simple steps that you repeat over and over again. If you do more, great, your business will grow that much faster.

- Sponsor 3 new distributors or customers each month.

- Use a minimum of $100 in Nu Skin products each month. (The average is actually a bit higher).

- Teach others to do the same.

It’s important to consider just a few more Nu Skin facts that will help you decide where your focus should be as you grow your Nu Skin business.

- New Distributors that get on an ADR in their first month have improved retention of 35% over those that do not.

- LOI’s that have less than a 20% PV to GV ratio in their LOI month are 4.5 times more likely to become an Executive than those that have a 100% PV to GV ratio. (this is VERY IMPORTANT) It says if you rely on doing all the volume yourself in your LOI month you are most likely going to fail. Focus on a model that duplicates the creation of distributors not just Business Builders.

- Distributors that do not sponsor in their LOI or Q1 months have a 95% failure rate. Don’t fall into the trap of trying to do it all yourself. You will fail. This issue came to light last year in North America with the introduction of a model called “System 7″. That model emphazied a focus only on “Business Builders” or those that invested more than $1000 to start their business…it was a huge failure. It’s always a plus to have a few solid Business Builders but for the most part your successful Nu Skin business will be composed of lots of Distributors doing just a little instead of a few doing a lot.

So there you are…the facts. What you do with them is up to you. See you at the finish line.

Here is the link for the Teamelites.com Duplication model for North America. Teamelites.com Duplication Model

Watch this EXCLUSIVE Teamelites.com interview with Dr. Joe Chang, Chief Scirntific Officer of Nu Skin Enterprises as he discusses the products in the R90 Challenge.

Some things should be protected. Protect family and reputation but let go of past success. Clinging to success makes you fail.

Things to hold to:

Cling to dreams let go of successes. Past success is a great platform but a horrible resort.

Cling to serving people let go of things. Dreams about cars, homes, vacations, and wealth won’t satisfy if you aren’t already satisfied; they only make you more of who you currently are.

Great dreams have little to do with buildings, accomplishment, or reputation. Those things are, at best, tools to make dreams about serving people possible.

Great dreamers dream of how to improve the world more than acquiring new things. When Martin Luther King said, “I have a dream,” it was about others.

Dreams that center on things foster fear of losing things, but dreams focused on serving people set us fre

Creating obligations:

Serving people while expecting they will serve you in return creates bondage. Serve freely. This point has nothing to do with compensation. You deserve what you earn. Give more than what you earn.

One more thing:

Serving others begins by serving your gift. Honor your best self by giving it to others. Express who you are don’t squander it.

Final word:

Don’t wait till you have everything you want before serving others.

Furthermore, most people who do join network marketing companies will never experience a huge payday. Nu Skin Enterprises has billions of dollars to thousands of distributors around the world, but that was truly exceptional. Even most moderately successful network marketing companies will only make a small group of people rich. And if all you care about is money, I doubt that joining a network marketing company is the right way to go. You’ll probably make a lot more at a hedge fund, or by becoming a lawyer, or something like that.

Maybe it now seems like I’m defending the boring 9-5 job, but it’s actually just the opposite. Those 8 hours/day are a huge chunk of your waking life, and don’t forget that you’ll probably also spend a few hours preparing, commuting, and “unwinding”. Even worse, bad or boring jobs can sap our energy, so that at the end of the day all we feel like doing is sitting in front of the TV. That’s no way to live, if you can help it. Why surrender such a huge chunk of your life just to get some money? For some people, that’s the only option, but for those fortunate enough to be smart and educated, there’s a better way. Instead of throwing away your “working hours”, why not make every minute count? Why not find work that you can actually enjoy, work that’s fun and meaningful? Of course that’s easier said than done, but it’s not impossible.

For reasons that will have to be left for another post, the structure and systems in traditional companies tend to make work meaningless and life unpleasant. Of course smaller companies can be awful too, but they have a greater potential to be good. If your job isn’t working for you, if it isn’t making you happy and energized, then why are you still there? I can’t guarantee that you’ll find something better with us, but perhaps you should at least try something new. Don’t just give up on life. I truly enjoy network marketing. I love selling new products. I like seeing users get great results and finding ways to solve their financial problems. I like this game. I like helping people.

Of course there is always some amount of unpleasant work that must be done, but that can be contained (my rule is that work should be no more than 10% awful). That’s why, even though I don’t financially need to work, I choose to work (and end up staying up until 4 am communicating with distributors around the world). Of course I’d also like to earn a few million more dollars. And I plan to make all of our distributors very successful, but that’s more like a bonus.

There’s more to life than money.