The online spiritual supermarket has aisles and aisles of goodies - many of them are free (sort of) and can be delivered to your email address daily, weekly, monthly - or even hourly. The choice is yours. But how to choose? That is the exact dilemma I faced when wondering what to put in this blog entry. I don't know enough to wax eloquent on any one of them...but I have had enough "experience" to talk about what I've learned.
I'm going to talk about "The Secret". If you were to go online to search for "The Secret" you would find yourself overwhelmed by choices. If you remember the early publicity about this theory you will no doubt recall the Oprah factor. She talked about it - and we all ran out and bought the book or the DVD or both. Wow! Here was the answer to everything and it wasn't even new - it had been here all along. (In hindsight, repackaging this old theory was one of the greatest Marketing coups of the century).We, it seems, have always had the power to manifest whatever we wanted. We just needed to know how. So we thought happy thoughts, put together vision boards, imagined ourselves having already achieved what we wanted or needed and voila! nothing happened. At least not for me or for the many friends I have who also thought the happiest of thoughts and envisioned the best outcomes for their desires.
But fear not - more websites and theories appeared to help us understand why we failed to manifest our desires! Of course, the problem was within us. We had failed to find the one little thing that would make this all work for us. We needed to eliminate our fears, squash those negative thoughts that lay just underneath all those phony positive ones we'd been repeating. We needed to let go of all the beliefs and thought that weighed us down. We needed to believe for real!
Now this is hard to do. If you are a skeptic, like I am, those little skeptical worms wiggle around inside our brains all day. It's hard to catch or even control them. They've been with us for so long. But, if we are to believe the gurus of The Secret (and there are legions of them), we can prevail and our new life - a happier and more rewarding ($$$) one- is just around the bend. But we have a lot of work to do. (And we all though this was going to be simple)
I am going to focus on one of the many threads that lead to and from the Secret. It is the one with which I have had the most experience. And, it is the one that helped me formulate my theory about the Secret and the Keepers of the Secret on the Web.
His name is Bob Doyle. His main website is called "Wealth Beyond Reason". This is where one of my journeys began. Mr. Doyle is one of the individuals featured in the DVD "The Secret". He is a nice looking, sincere sounding man who is extremely generous. He sends out lots of free stuff. Titillating stuff. And the stuff he sells is almost always reasonable, although oddly priced. $19, $27, $86.... Sometimes he even has a sale and offers access to older materials (that others have paid a higher odd price for). I can find nothing negative about him on the web. He appears to be an honest, well-intentioned man who has made BIG bucks helping others try to make the principles of the Secret work for them. He likes to share the secrets of his success with others.
One of my purchases from Mr. D was reduced price access to all of the secrets of creating multiple streams of wealth online. (ahem). He provided, in this limited-time offer, some really useful advice as well as access to some great websites that would help us new entrepreneurs find online payment help, online accounting help, sites for creating DVDs, podcasts, etc. In addition, for my $29, I was able to listen to a long audio tape of how to put all this together and make it work. Now, prior to being given access to all of this information (and it is good information - overwhelming, but good) I had to sign up for the Six Figure Streams Mentoring Program. Being part of this mentoring program was not a requirement, but signing up for it was. So I did.
Initially I threw myself into learning as much as I could about the information I had purchased. For awhile I even believed I could do this. Start an online business, offer ebooks, podcasts, written stuff, link to other online businesses, create a community where we scratched each other's backs (a little more to the left please, ahhh thanks). This sounded so doable!! At the same time, it was odd. You didn't need a product, or an idea, or much of anything. Everything you might need to "sell" or "offer" was probably already out there, created by someone else - and you could use it, sometimes for free. If you wanted to create your own stuff - that was okay too. There were so many places you could go online to do this. I think it was around here that I began to snap out of my reverie. I could start an online business (or many online businesses) with nothing to offer...or I could take things that were already available elsewhere and legally offer them...or I could figure out what it was I knew (information) and package and sell it through my site(s) and by linking to related sites. Confused? Yes.
BUT WAIT - that is where the Six Figure Streams Mentoring Program came in. (Remember, the one I was not obligated to use) I received an email from "Nick" at the Six Streams Mentoring Program. He was inviting me to call him so we could talk about the service. I called him. It was a very pleasant conversation. We talked about me (note: everyone likes to talk about themselves...it's a great way to have a conversation). Each time I mentioned something I was interested in he would say "I see an E-book!" or "That would be a great thing to share." The problem was - and he acknowledged it - there was so much to do and consider that the overall process appeared overwhelming - especially to someone like me with adult ADD). BUT, I could do everything if I had some help, someone to coach me, someone to nudge me along, answer my questions and hold my hand. We get by with a little help from our friends.
This brought us to the Six Figure Streams Mentoring Program. He explained all the ways that this program could be of assistance. Was I willing to make the commitment? I explained, very clearly that while I was able to emotionally make the commitment, financially the commitment was not happening. There was no way I could go back to the well (aka My Husband) and ask for $6000 for something that wasn't a sure thing. My husband had already financed two sure things that didn't happen. I could not come up with any evidence that this sure thing would be the one sure thing that would have a payback. He listened, said the proper empathetic things and then asked me if I would be willing to put it on a credit card (let's see, $6000 at 21% - I don't think so). How about a personal loan? (Uh, no). It was not a hard sell in the classic way - it was more emotional, more geared towards how I deserved to do this for myself etc. In the end, I declined the opportunity. He felt bad for me, of course. The conversation was over. I felt bad that I didn't believe enough in myself to take this step. (I think that's how I was supposed to feel)
Our conversation was followed by a long email that outlined in detail what the Mentoring Program consisted of. Once again I was reminded that I would derive the following benefits:
(this is excerpted directly from the email sent to me)
Leverage the experience, skills, and support of your Mentor and Mentor Team
Save time by avoiding common mistakes of trial & error marketing
Understand and immediately utilize innovative ideas and information
Learn directly from an experienced Mentor
Learn to effectively utilize the Law of Attraction to manifest success
Increase your knowledge and competency in the focus areas
Go beyond your limiting beliefs of the past
Hold yourself accountable to your commitment for your business
Reduce "inner resistence" and impact your vibration level
Avoid having to reinvent the wheel
Gain from the business experience and specific coaching skills of your Mentor
In addition, you have the opportunity to take advantage of extensive resources; including our Proprietary Instructional Documents and one-on-one conversations on a regular basis with your Mentor and Mentor Team Resource Professionals
WOW! I suppose if I had $6000 lying around I might take a chance. But, basically, no matter how much mentoring you get you have to have a fire burning inside to do all the work. My fire wasn't that hot.
I believe that some of this stuff actually works - but it works best for the legion of Internet LOA Masters. Each of them uses the same approach. First the tantalizing emails, the great giveaways (ebooks, online interviews, videos,seminars, webinars), the hard to resist opportunities to participate in a particular program, the high prices of the premiere programs and the bargain basement prices of the materials used to attract you to the site. All of these websites link to each other in some way. This is a form of cross-selling that benefits each website owner. If Bob Doyle mentions a great book by Joe Vitale (another guru and prolific author) and you click on it, Joe pays Bob a tiny bit of money and vice versa.
There are about fifteen "big names" in the Laws of Attraction Universe. The rest are on their way to being big or just starting. They are all basically selling the same thing - even though it is periodically repackaged. Sometimes, if you read closely enough, you will find conflicting advice. (For example, you should have a vision board and live as if you already have what you want BUT you should also live in the moment recognizing that the past is gone, there is no future,there is only now )Okay...that's confusing. If you download an ebook..you will read page after page of lead-in and when you actually get to the meat you will feel cheated (even though you didn't pay for the book) because the whole "book" could have been summed up in a paragraph. Every free video is a lead in to having you participate in something else which leads you to eventually spend money.
There's nothing wrong with this. People have to earn a living and these men (and women) have found a really great way to do just that. More power to them. Why didn't I think to do this???
So here is what I know and feel comfortable passing on: There is a lot of material out there for everyone to read. Take advantage of it. Much of it is free. Some of it is helpful and may provide the impetus you need to shift your thinking or change your life. Start with the older theories like the Silva Mind Control and the Sedona Method. They've been around for a long time. Don't rush to buy. Take it slow. What's your hurry?
POST SCRIPT My husband recently discovered that Boundless Living (a Bob Doyle site) is charging me $19.95 a month - and has been since November- for a "subscription" to Boundless Living. To the best of my knowledge I never signed up for anything that would require a monthly fee. The only way they could have my email and Master Card is through the "bargain" I bought from them in November. Emails to the site are returned. I left a phone message...we'll see what happens.
This puts a whole new spin on how you develop "SIX STREAMS" of income
Post Post Script: Well after three emails and a phone call I got a refund. They acknowledged that "some people" have trouble understanding exactly what they are signing up for...Then Fix it!!!
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