For those of you who value your Facebook Friends network, I recommend that you protect it from various marketers out there who may have an interest in friend poaching your valuable list.

It’s a little tricky, but here is how you do it:

1. Go to your Facebook Profile.
2. Scroll to the left sidebar and click the small Pencil Icon in the upper right of your friends box
3. Click “change visibility settings”
4. Scroll to My Friends and click  “Custom – Edit”
5. Click the drop down and select “Only Me”

That should do it!

Happy Facebooking…

PS.. be my friend   :)

http://www.facebook.com/blakemallen.visalus

Everywhere I travel these days, its seems people really gravitate to my tips on using Social Media to promote themselves, their products, or their business ideas. 

I find myself teaching the same basic principles over and over again on how to first establish your brand online, then strategically build a LARGE relevant list. To me everything else is a giant waste of time until you get these first two things right.  Once you have done that, you can then move onto the more fun aspects of posting, socializing, and engaging your list.

I will be recording some webinars at some point to cover all of this (so I can save my voice! haha), but here are some quick tips that you may find useful.

Engaging people online is done through your messaging.  In today’s “Attention Age” where multi tasking and ADD seem to be the status quo, good messaging must be two things: 

1. Simple

2. Intriguing

I used to spend a lot of time teaching people what kinds of posts generate the most interest and results, however to help those just getting started, I now recommend a much simpler approach involving extensive R&D… and by that I mean the more entrepreneurial definition of R&D - “Rip Off & Duplicate!”  LOL 

It’s kind of like Social Media Training Wheels!

Or just like learning how to play a new musical instrument, first you learn by playing the music of others, and after a while you start composing your own!  The simplest way to do this on Facebook & Twitter is to become friends/follow those you  look up to, or have a similar messages or brands that you want to create for yourself.  Then simply create a Facebook Friend/ Twitter List of these people so that you can easily monitor what they are posting.   Feel free to share, or retweet anything you like, and it won’t be long before you get the hang of what works online and start posting your own unique ideas & media.  In general, the more personal and social the post,  the better.  Content that offers real value is good, and humor is always appreciated. And above all, frequency and consistency are critical!

I am compiled the list below of popular Authors/Speakers from the business/marketing/leadership world.

I recommend selecting a few that your desired brand can personally identify with and adding them as FB friends, and following them on Twitter.  Note that not all of them are up to speed on Social Media yet, but most shouldn’t be too hard to find.

Have of course, if you are promoting the Body by Vi Challenge, or building a Home Based Business, I highly recommend adding/following:

Ryan Blair   (@ryan_blair)

Nick Sarnicola (@nick_sarnicola

oh, and of course,  Blake Mallen (@blakemallen)

Hope this list helps, and please comment if you have some other recommendations of people who post create stuff!

Happy Posting,

Blake

Communication is key… in almost everything!

 After all, doesn’t most of the latest rage around social media and new technologies really just boil down to more fun and efficient ways for us to communicate with one another..?

 We as entrepreneurs and marketers are always looking for  new and better ways to reach our audience.

 Simple, effective, efficient, and FREE are usually my first picks, HaHa

With that said, here is a quick useful tip you may not have known:

 You can send SMS Text Messages to unlimited mobile phones for FREE right from your current email client!

 What’s the trick?

 You just need to know the email addresses that each Mobile Service Carrier uses for their SMS messages. Simply add a mobile phone # in front of the correct carrier address and you can send emails from your computer that will arrive as SMS Text messages right to people’s mobile phones.  This helps you get around the cap of 10 recipients per SMS that most cell phones have, and is a FREE way around the fee based subscription SMS services out there.  Really, the only snag is you need to get their mobile  phone provider, but that is easy to overcome.

 Quotes, Tips, Motivation, Call Reminders, Success Stories, Breaking News, New Promotions, Upcoming Events are a few useful ideas that you can apply this to.  I am sure you can come up with some more.

With that being said, here are the email address for some of the larger Mobile Service Carriers:

• Alltel                                 @message.alltel.com
• AT&T                                @txt.att.net
• Nextel                              @messaging.nextel.com
• Sprint-PCS                      @messaging.sprintpcs.com
• T-Mobile                         @tmomail.net
• Verizon                            @vtext.com
• Boost Mobile                 @myboostmobile.com
• Cable & Wireless        @cwmobile.com
• Digicel                            @digitextjm.com
• Helio                               .messaging@sprintpcs.com
• Metro PCS                   @mymetropcs.com
• Virgin Mobile              @vmobl.com

 Gotta love technology.

 Happy Texting… wait, emailing..you know what I mean!

Blake

This Blog entry is a reply to the massive community response from the Facebook status post recapped below:

Blake Mallen: I am going to personally donate 241 meals to the ViSalus Haiti Relief Effort and I NEED A VISALUS DISTRIBUTOR WEBSITE to donate from!? Answer the question below and include your .visalusgiving.com website URL and I will donate through the person with the best reply! 

 QUESTION: If you could only focus on doing, & then helping your team do, 1 THING to build your ViSalus business, what would that 1 THING be…? (Don’t forget to give me your url!)

 (To View Complete Status Post & Comments Visit:  http://www.facebook.com/blakemallen.visalus  & scroll down)

First of all….. WOW!

Not only am I extremely impressed by the amount of participation on this post (I have never seen a status post get over 50 comments!), but even more so, I am inspired by the thought and wisdom put into many of the replies.

 Great work ViSalus! You ROCK!

As Rhonda pointed out in her comment, there really is no wrong answer to this question. If every new Distributor who joins your teams just read and applied the simple insights offered in these comments, I am certain they would all be off to a very successful start with their ViSalus Business.  That is the real power of the ViSalus Community – You are in business for yourself, but never by yourself!

With that being said, the key to my question was, if you could only focus on ONE THING to grow your ViSalus business, what would that ONE THING be..?

You see, the question raises the old priority conversation and causes one to really think about what the CORE DRIVER of your ViSalus Business is.  It’s a question about FOCUS!

“When focused, the energy of a flood light can create a laser that can reach the moon!”  What are you focused on?

As entrepreneurs we don’t get compensated by the time we put in, but rather by the results we generate. Therefore it’s important that we learn to “be the Lazar” (not the floodlight!) and focus on the things that will really move the needle.  This is the difference between someone who invests 10 hours in their ViSalus business this week and earns $27 on Monday, and someone who invests the same 10 hours and cashes a $2,700 check on Monday!   It’s all about your FOCUS!

“Yeah, Yeah, Blake, so what’s the answer..?”

Well I would have to agree with Tony, Heather, Oddie, Lindsey, Jean Paul, Pam, & Dean.  If the goal is to build a successful ViSalus business and my focus was limited to only doing, and helping others do, ONE THING… than that one thing would be achieving the first promotion to the rank of Director within the first 30 days.  Or, in the words of our newest exciting incentive program, the ONE THING would be:

 Becoming a Rising Star!

 Should everyone be a product of the product, get good at telling their own personal story, and refer 3 to get their product for free ever month?  …YES!

 Are being a team player, having a positive mindset, always working on your personal development, & building great relationships with your teams all important?  …ABSOLUTELY!   

 And “running the system”  AKA, Going through a Getting started Training, sampling, and “Pre-Partying” using the 3 Step invitation process (Vi-line, Videos, Challenge Party) are definitely all VERY CRITICAL activities required to propel your business, and are in fact the exact actions that will lead to someone becoming a Rising Star.

However, I believe FOCUS is best served when it’s placed on a specific GOAL!  Once you know what goal you are aiming for, then the strategies/activities to accomplish that goal become more clear. When starting a new ViSalus Business, everyone should put some serious time into uncovering their “reason why” or “end in mind,” but on the journey there it will always be difficult to clearly see all the steps to get from A to Z.  The good news is, we don’t have to!  We just need to FOCUS on getting from A to B. Then B to C. Then C to D; and so on.  And the most important first goal, in my opinion, is becoming a Rising Star.

This helps provide the key ingredient to really making it in this business: BELIEF.  Belief in the Company, & Belief in your own ability to have success within the Company.  When most brand new Distributors start their business, their belief tank is not very high in either area.  In becoming a Rising Star, a few magical things happen…

 A new Distributor will:

 1. Enroll their first Customers & Distributors (“Wow, I can do this!”) 

2. Get their first ViSalus pay check (“Wow, it really works!”)

3. Earn their first promotion and create a success story that they can then turn around and help others do the same (Duplication!).

Think about it.  Once you become a Rising Star, then it becomes possible for you to help others do what you just did!  And by simply helping about 6 others in your team become Rising Stars, you would find yourself at Regional Director, earning a few extra thousand dollars a month (spare time!) and driving a new black BMW that ViSalus pays for!  “6 Rising Stars leads to shiny black cars!!  Then just help 12 people do what you just did (Hit RD!), and you would become a ViSalus Ambassador earning over 6 Figures a year passively and have the time freedom to buy the rest of your life back!

 All these possibilities start when a person makes their first step from A to B.  From enrollment to Rising Star!

 And for those who are more analytical, the reason I am taking the time to emphasize the importance of this FOCUS on Rising Star is because it’s the same exercise my mentors (The Goergen Family) made us do!  And after having some of the smartest minds, from both the ViSalus and Blyth executive teams, analyze every piece of data since the inception of ViSalus looking for patterns that support our core driver, it all off sudden jumped off the page – New Directors!

 So with that all being said, Congratulations to Mr. Tony Belden, Presidential Director from Temecula, CA for being the first to comment with that answer and his .visalusgiving website. I just donated 240 meals from your website (and ill make sure they throw in a Nutra-Cookie for that extra 1! HaHa).  Great work my man!

 Few take home lessons:

1. The key to building your ViSalus Business is by first Becoming a Rising Star yourself in January, and then FOCUSING on helping your team do the same!
2. You have a new website you can use to promote the Feed the Kids Community Challenge:  (yourwebsitename).visalusgiving.com
3. Be sure to follow myself and my partners on FB & Twitter (may want to have Tweets get sent right to your cell phone via text) since you never know what or when we may through something out there!     (Mine is http://twitter.com/blakemallen )

I am anxious to see who applies this knowledge and makes it to the Rising Star list before the end of January!  We have 1 week worth of effort left, for a lifetime of double points. That is not something to miss!

FOCUS…Be the Lazar… Be a Rising Star!

Clarity is POWER…
- Blake