Jamberry University

Over the past month, I've been going through the newest consultant training - Jamberry University. I used the information in conjunction with an event that gave me a whole lot of leads, and I have to say it's incredibly beneficial. I told Deanna that I wanted to explain the reasons you should be going through Jamberry University, and we agreed on how I should do it.
I'm going to explain to those of you who haven't gone through the "coursework" what is involved and why you should be going through it. However, I won't be giving enough specifics that, if you don't have access to the University, you'll be able to skip the courses and benefit. If you're currently a hobbyist, the courses involved will more than make up for the $12 you spend for one month of a website, if you follow through with them.
However, that last phrase is really the key. The University is only what you make of it. If you go through the coursework as quickly as possible then never actually follow what it says, you're not going to get anything. Just like a "real" university, you're actually going to have to do the coursework like a student would. I took about 2 pages of notes for each section and really thought about the questions that were asked and the answers that I gave. That's the only way you're going to have success through the University.
There are currently 10 classes in Jamberry University. Each one of them is a little more difficult than the previous. You should expect each lesson to take an average of an hour. A couple took me half an hour, the last one took me 2 hours. That means, if you took one course every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday of April, you'd be done before May. It also means you'd only have to find 3 hours a week, and you can work on it in small bits at a time. There were days I'd watch the video then go do some chores then come back and do one of the sections and repeat. Breaking the courses into the 15 minute intervals I talked about in Time Pockets really helped.
Each course is broken into 4 sections and they are as follows:

• A pre-test that asks questions you may not have ever thought of. Answer honestly, and you'll see where you need to improve. Jamberry doesn't care if you don't already know the things they're about to teach you.
• A video that is broken down into the subheadings of the lesson. In this video, Jamberry leaders explain their understanding of the mini-concept. I took tons of notes in these videos as their advice is not generally repeated in the actual lessons.
• The actual lesson. This is the reading portion of the course, and it is generally broken into 3-4 subheadings. You have the ability to highlight important phrases within these sections; however, I took tons of notes so I can reference them outside the internet. That's how I learn best.
• Each of the sub-sections will have an open answer section that will ask you to really think about what you've just learned and make a plan accordingly.
• A post-test that asks exactly the same questions the pre-test did. If you took the lesson seriously, and answered all of the open ended questions, you should score perfectly on this. If you still didn't understand something, go back and re-read.

Finally, I wanted to give you the run down of what you'll learn in the University. I realize some people might not want to sign up for their website because they don't know what's in the University. The concept of taking an online course for something when you don't know the content is a little scary. I will say, most of these concepts will be able to be found on outside websites, but I can't find a single site that will provide all these topics without a cost. Even if I could, they wouldn't be tailored specifically to the products that you sell. From what I've seen on other training websites, $10/$12 per month is incredibly inexpensive, especially for what you get from the University. Here is the current list of courses available through Jamberry University.

• Lesson 1: Cultivating an attitude of success
• Learn about persistence, passion, values, and taking time off from your business.
• Lesson 2: Earning Income with Jamberry
• Learn about the Jamberry Compensation plan, Retail commissions, level overrides, Fast Start rewards, and advancement bonuses.
• Lesson 3: Planning and managing your time
• Learn about clarifying your "Why", understanding your business expectations, setting attainable goals, and how to break down those goals into daily tasks & activities. 
• Lesson 4: Telling your story effectively
• Learn about promoting by wearing product, creating elevator speeches for products and business opportunities, and how to have make a presentation "short & sweet" when you need.
• Lesson 5: Business is Everywhere
• Learn about expanding your network, developing social media marketing strategy, creatin g a daily contact schedule, and following up and closing after vendor events.
• Lesson 6: Coaching your Host for Success
• The title is pretty self-explanatory, but this also includes how to turn a hostess into a recruit and follow-up time lines.
• Lesson 7: Successful Parties and follow-up
• Again, self explanatory. Learn about how to hold a party, full-service checkout, and following up.
• Lesson 8: Positive scripts and self talk
• Learn about anticipating objection, overcoming fear, and creating a positive mind-set and attitude for yourself.
• Lesson 9: Come from a place of service
• Learn about exceeding expectations, maintaining excellent service, and giving back to your community.
• Lesson 10: Developing and building your team
• Learn about leading by example, personal development, training new consultants, and building and effective team.

Email Ettiquette

A couple weeks ago, I attended a wedding expo and literally entered every drawing I could. I did this for two reasons - a) I wanted to win and b) I wanted to see how the sales people drafted their email to maximize their after-expo business.
I noticed something very concerning that could have been altogether avoided - almost half of the direct saleswomen who emailed me let me see every other email address they used. That means, if I were someone who wanted to phish information, I now have hundreds of people's email addresses - and they have mine.
This is such an easy thing to avoid that I wanted to take a second and explain how to do it, as well as some other finer points of email usage that are easy to miss when we're in a hurry.

BCC

When you compose an email, there are three potential fields in which you can put your email addresses they are as follows:

• To (or C)
• CC
• BCC

These are remnants of the old way we used to send mail. C stands for Copy - or the original addressee. CC stands for Carbon Copy. Back in the old days (can you imagine that in an old lady's voice?) we used to make a copy of the original with carbon paper to send to those whom the letter was not addressed to. Each person knew who the original addressee was and everyone else to whom a copy had been sent. BCC stands for Blank Carbon Copy. These were carbon copies sent to third parties as well, but these parties did not know who the original addressee was or who else had gotten a copy.
Email works in a similar way. When you use the C or CC fields, every single person you include in said field will see every other person you include. Alternatively, when you use the BCC field, every person only gets an email addressed to her and no one else. This serves 2 purposes:

• You eliminate the possibility of people stealing others email addresses.
• Each person feels like you took the time to email her specifically.

On a side note, if you use a mailing list service, it automatically does it for you.

Reply All

FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS GOOD AND HOLY, DO NOT USE THE REPLY ALL FUNCTION ON EMAILS!!!!
I'm really sorry about that, but I had to get it out of my system.  Please forgive my fervour on this one. I am going to try to remain calm, but you should know that I am currently fighting this battle with my daughter's gymnastics parent association.
Let's say, for example, that you get an email from someone (we'll call him Bob) who doesn't know how to use the BCC field  on his email and they sent that email to 100 people. Let's again say you need to tell Bob how to use the BCC field (or anything else equally important) so you hit the reply button.
Did you check to see if you hit Reply or Reply All?
Here's what's about to happen if you hit Reply All. Every single other person that Bob sent the original email to will now receive a copy of your email and your information, if you have an auto-completing signature. This continues until people lose interest in the email. I get emails constantly like this and it sets off my "new email" buzzer constantly.
Of course, if Bob had known how to use the BCC field, none of this would have happened in the first place.

Hope this helps!

Creating a Google Form

I was on the Jamberry Consultants page the other day when someone mentioned using Google Docs to ease the sample request process on "Try it Tuesday"s. This peaked my interest, so I followed the thread until someone mentioned that they were using Google Forms to achieve this goal, and another linked her form. I used this example as a springboard for my own, and made a tutorial on the way.
First, if you don't have a Gmail account, you're going to have to have a Google Drive account. Sign up for that first.
1. Log into your Google Drive account and click the "Create" button.

2. Select "Form" from the drop-down list.

3. You will be taken to another page where you can choose the theme of your form (to make it pretty). Choose whichever suits you most and name your form. Mine is "Forbes' Fabulous Fingers - Sample Request."

4. The next screen will ask you to title your first question. Mine is "First Name."

5. After you name your question, you're going to want to change it. Because we're asking for someone's name, you'll need to change the question type to "Text."

6. You can make a field required by checking the box at the bottom. All address sections are required on mine.

7. Add a new field with the "Add Item" menu.

8. Continue this process until you have all the fields that you need. Mine has "First Name," "Last Name," "Address," "City," "State/Province," and "Zip/Postal Code."
9. Click the "Image" option in the Add Item menu.

10. Add an item of the samples you have to offer. Here's a suggestion.

11. Give your guests the option to choose one or two samples. I require them to pick one and give the option of a second. I used "Choose from list," but you could use "Multiple choice" or "Checkboxes," whatever you want.

Here's a link to my completed form. Once someone submits your form to you, you should get an email with the request and all of the requests should go into a spreadsheet for easy access.