Pitfalls, Potholes, Opportunities & Silver Linings
Hello there. So today I wanna talk about something I think actually is extremely important. It is called SWOT analysis. So SWOT analysis in business, if you know what it is, it's a exercise companies and businesses do of all sizes. You can even do it as a self employed person.
Kenneth Holden:The idea is is a SWOT is basically s is strengths, w is weaknesses, o is opportunities, and of course t is threats. And so every company does this because all businesses, including your self employed business, if you are a direct seller, you can do SWOT analysis because you have strengths, you have weaknesses, you have opportunities, and you have threats or risks or things that can affect your business. So all businesses can do this whether you're a sole proprietor, a business like mine, which is more of a structured business with lots of people working in it. And so we have strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, and then large companies, of course, have the same thing. And so this is a common tool that businesses use to identify their strengths and weaknesses, opportunities, and of course, very importantly, their threats because you need to know what is a risk.
Kenneth Holden:Very often when you're in business especially with direct sellers because they're not necessarily accustomed to operate in large businesses. Sometimes we can have the sky is falling mindset when a threat shows up. But the whole purpose of doing SWOT analysis is to identify these threats long before they occur so that you are mentally, emotionally and otherwise prepared for them because they are inevitable. And so the my point here is though is that all businesses have strengths and weaknesses, opportunities, and of course stress or risks. And so every single business on earth has that and it's really important to know your strengths because you can build on your strengths and build around your strengths.
Kenneth Holden:It's important to know your weaknesses. Why? Because weaknesses are your greatest opportunity for growth. This is what people fail to understand I think sometimes about weaknesses. They don't wanna acknowledge that they even have a weakness.
Kenneth Holden:Weaknesses are your biggest opportunity for growth. It's the area that's hurting you the most, that if you fix it will help you the most and you shouldn't be afraid to confront weaknesses. Opportunities are things that you are not currently exploiting. So you may already be exploiting an opportunity that you have built and but a new opportunity is something that might exist that you're not even aware of and you have to try to identify those. And of course, threats or risks are things that could potentially hurt your business.
Kenneth Holden:And every business has is made up of different elements and structure and architecture, so it could be different for most businesses or all businesses. But I wanna do is focus in on a much smaller microcosm using an example here around positivity and negativity. And so there's basically 5 types of direct sellers, and I know that seems like a lot, but I'm gonna give you the 5. You need to locate where you are, and if you don't like where you are, you have to move in a different direction. And you have what I call the neutral rep, this is the person who's in the middle.
Kenneth Holden:They can bend positive if they're with positive people, they can bend negative if they're with negative people. They can seesaw back and forth between those two places. That's not the best place to be because when you are neutral, I call it Switzerland, you might be a very nice person, people like you, and when you're with the positive people, you're positive. When you're with the negative people, you're negative. You don't want that.
Kenneth Holden:That's not a good place to be if you're a sole proprietor, a or direct seller in business. You wanna get away from being in the neutral position. So, the first one here is neutral. You swing in both directions and you gotta be careful with that because you tilt right or left depending on who you're with. Then to the right of the neutral people are the positive people.
Kenneth Holden:Now the positive people are not the ultimate positive high energy people. They're in between the neutral and the very positive people there, but they're positive. So these are the people who see the opportunities that they have and they see the silver linings that they have and they are focused on exploiting them. But they're too much aware of pot pot holes and pitfalls, things that could take them down, and that kinda pulls them back a little bit. It it they're positive.
Kenneth Holden:They're focusing on their opportunities, and they're silver linings, but they can be pulled back by negative people, they can be dragged back and disturbed, they're disturbable or potentially disturbable. So neutral people are very disturbable. Positive people could be disturbed, but not necessarily. They're mostly positive focused around their opportunities. Then you have the very positive people.
Kenneth Holden:They are the direct sellers or signature sellers who know that there's potholes and pitfalls, but they are 100% silver linings, and they will not allow potholes and pitfalls to take them down. They cannot be pulled back by negative people. They just rush them away and move because they know they are a distraction away from what they need to do. Whereas the neutral people and the so the positive people, these very negative people that come come along, they can get inside your head and take you away from your opportunities. So you had to be on guard against that.
Kenneth Holden:So now on the other side of the neutral people, you have your negative people. Now not your very negative people, just negative people. They have a bent towards seeing the potholes and pitfalls more than they see the opportunities the silver linings, they're still working on their opportunities, but they have this bent towards what could hurt them, the pot holes, and the pitfalls. They are easily disturbed and the very negative people can take them down in a hurry. So if you're in the neutral position or the slightly negative position, you wanna change, you wanna move yourself over to the positive or to the very positive being a go getter, someone is not gonna be denied, someone is gonna make it happen, someone who's gonna move forward, someone who's not gonna allow setbacks, disappointments, or negative people take them down.
Kenneth Holden:You wanna be over there, so you have to decide where you are. Now you have the very negative people. Now they can be low performers, mid performers, or high performers. So, yes, even high performers. And so sometimes negative people drag themselves forward, and it's just the way that it is.
Kenneth Holden:But they do a lot of complaining and whining on their way to wherever they're going. So these are people who see the opportunities, and they see that opportunities, and they see that the silver linings, and if they're high performers, they're obviously out trying to take that in. But what a battle they have on their hands because they are so keenly aware of the pitfalls and potholes that they are easily negative people and and they're almost never capable of seeing, what they have. Even if they're doing well, sometimes they feel that they're not. And so these are the ultimate very negative people.
Kenneth Holden:Idealistically, you always wanna be at least 1 of 2 camps. You either wanna be a positive person, even if you have a slight bend towards being negative, or you wanna be that very positive person because all businesses have weaknesses. All businesses have pot holes, all businesses have pitfalls, and if you focus on them and camp on them and spend too much time on them, then that's a problem. You'd have to focus more on the opportunities and you had to focus on silver linings. And by silver linings, it's very clear.
Kenneth Holden:Sometimes, setbacks come your way in direct selling. No matter what it is, a bad week, a bad month, or whatever it might be, something comes your way. The key is there a silver lining here, and you have to search for it. When you find it, you focus on it, and then you exploit that silver lining. So it's better to be that ultimate positive person.
Kenneth Holden:Sure. You might have a little bit of negative noise in the background, but you are not taken down by it. You are not disturbable. You are rock solid in your performance, and you're moving forward. So, again, be positive or very positive if you're neutral.
Kenneth Holden:There's some risk for you because you could easily be dragged right or left towards positive or negative if you're slightly negative. You can still succeed, but you're gonna have all that negative noise. But then if you're very negative, at some point, I think that's gonna do a person in. It's gonna be self sabotage because they will beat themselves to pieces with the negativity, and it's not a healthy place to be. Now when you think about this, think about new direct sellers.
Kenneth Holden:When you have a business like mine and new people come in, it's new attitude, new charisma, new energy, no negativity. They are completely unaware that there's even a pitfall or a pothole and they just run to the battle. They go out there. They do what they have to do. And very often, new direct sellers will sometimes outpace even veterans because they're not carrying any baggage with them.
Kenneth Holden:They're just running without baggage until someone tells them that there's pitfalls and potholes. They go, oh, and then they start to maybe become negative. So you gotta be really on guard against this. The nature of life is that people tend to be more negative. It's why people like the news because it's almost all negative.
Kenneth Holden:It's why people like gossip because it's negative, and people have a negative bent. It's so wonderful to be around positive people who see the opportunities and the silver linings and try to find a way to exploit it. I'm a Christian and one of the things for me is always trying to redeem people no matter what I do is constantly looking for a way to redeem people, looking for a way to spite of their behavior, in spite of what I might be hearing or seeing. I realize that's a human being and ultimately they would like to succeed, but for whatever reason, some program is running in their head that is preventing them from getting ahead. It's really important that we find our ways into positivity and help people to become positive.
Kenneth Holden:My business, we have potholes and pitfalls, but we have tons of opportunities and silver linings about different things that come our way. Our decision is do we focus on the opportunities and do we keep the negativity out or do we allow the negativity? And so many good careers have been destroyed, many good opportunities, many good relationships have been destroyed purely because people become extraordinarily negative. The other reason why a lot of new people do well in any direct selling business is because they have no negative reference points. They don't have any experience, so they can't say it used to be like this or the business used to be better.
Kenneth Holden:I liked it when it was this way. They don't have any reference points. And so one of the ways people become negative is when businesses change and all businesses change, period. End of story, and especially today, more than any time in history, change is the new constant. So the notion of will we ever get to a place where there will never be change?
Kenneth Holden:There's no industry anywhere like that. In fact, I'm pretty techie and I can tell you in fact without question that AI, machine learning and these things over the next 5 to 10 years is gonna change the job market. So being in sales and direct selling, so protecting your opportunity has never actually been more important. If you're a direct seller, I would suggest from what I know that AI machine learning is most likely not going to replace you. So while we're going to see a lot of the job disappearing or changing or morphing, without question, it's gonna be it's gonna be a historical massive impact.
Kenneth Holden:It's artificial intelligence machine learning. But I believe sales is one of those things like psychologists, etcetera. There's gonna be certain fields that are gonna be AI proof or machine learning proof, and I believe direct selling is one of those. So if you're in a direct selling opportunity and you have a good opportunity and it's a viable opportunity, you wanna hold on to that. You don't wanna let that go, especially with what's coming in the future.
Kenneth Holden:So you are uniquely positioned to survive the wave of change coming in the future with AI and machine learning. So whatever is going on in your direct selling world, if you are encircled in negativity, it's important to find your way out and sometimes it can be difficult to do, but you need to One of the first things you can do is look in your world to see who's extremely negative. And I'm not suggesting that you not hang out with them or be around them, but you should be on guard around them because their negativity can easily get inside your brain and rattle your brains. You gotta be super careful. One of the ways to get out of a really bad negative mindset is to find positive people to hang out with with the decision to let go of your negativity.
Kenneth Holden:So don't go to the positive people and bring the negativity. You wanna go to the positive people because you know you need change. And so by finding more positive people who see the opportunities, it will help you over a course of several months to become much more positive. Relationships are huge and who you hang out with, you are heavily influenced by. You gotta run to the ballot.
Kenneth Holden:So decide which person you are. Are you number 1, that neutral person that can swing right or left? You're easily disturbable. Are you, number 2, that positive person that's got some slight negativity and worry that you could be dragged down, but you're mostly focused on what you should do. Then you got the ultra positive person who's taking advantage and exploiting their opportunities and their silver linings.
Kenneth Holden:Or are you the slightly negative person who's still working hard at trying to become successful, but you really allow too much negativity around pit pitfalls and potholes to get inside your head and the negative people, the very negative people, they can easily get inside your head and rattle your brain. Don't let people do that. It's your brain. Don't be someone's receptacle. That's the best way that I can say it.
Kenneth Holden:Don't let other people dump their negativity inside your trash can, so to speak. And so your brain is not a garbage overwhelmed by the pitfalls and potholes that they have a hard time finding their way forward. So at the end of the day, you've heard a message about being positive a 1000000 times, but it's very important. The reason why certain people do well long term is they find a way to focus on the good. They find a way to focus on the opportunities.
Kenneth Holden:They a way to focus on silver linings. They've learned how to deal with adversity and rather than being defined by it, they define themselves in the middle of adversity and they make better choices. So whatever you're facing today, whether you're a sole proprietor or how ever you are, whatever you are, whatever business, car sales, retail sales, RESP, life insurance, whatever it is that you're in, multilevel marketing, you have to make a decision about what kind of a person you're gonna be. I heard a statistic recently over 5 years, you will be like the average of the top people you hang out with. So ask yourself the question, who am I hanging out with?
Kenneth Holden:Positive, energetic people, people who are grateful, people who are doing that or am I hanging out with people because you will become the average of those 5 people. Next week, I'm going to be giving you some really practical information about how to make adjustments when change occurs, when you have a setback, how to find the silver lining, things you can do. Also how to interpret what you're experiencing and feeling at that moment to help you make better decisions to move forward. Hope you enjoyed it today. Take care.
