This excellent post is taken from our OBC, the heart and soul of OBA.

It is in incredible insight into the OBA online business.

Nat starts off thus:

Hi OBA Friends and Partners,

I started writing a “side note” to a post about a splash page that brought about a question of “OBA terminology”, but it turned into more than just a note, so I am posting it here.

Here’s the “terminology” I was talking about:

Quote:

Not “membership”, but an “ebook purchase”… not “members”, but “customers” (when they just purchase an ebook) and “Affiliates” (when they decide to sell the ebook), and perhaps “partners” when they go further and lease the AdSpaces from you… (if they don’t, they remain independent Affiliates simply reselling Dave’s ebook).

It appears that this is the aspect that most of us (coming to OBA with the experience of memberships in various online “income opportunities”) seem to be a bit unaccustomed to. We are used to joining a “program” and expecting to get a complete “service” with it. How many programs have you joined that said, “Just sit back and relax! We’ll do all the work for you!”? That statement is always followed by a pay button to join the program, so you pay your money and then expect the “full service”. Some less friendly people even demand all sorts of things from the program owner and from their sponsor or upline and get very impatient when things don’t work out the way they thought they would.

OBA is different. When you purchase an ebook, you are just a customer – no one “owes” you anything that you didn’t already get. When you decide to start reselling this ebook you become an independent reseller, or an independent Affiliate, reselling Dave Gray’s informational products. You are an INDEPENDENT reseller! YOU are in CHARGE of YOUR own reselling business! So you better be doing something if you want to earn something! Again, no one “owes” you anything! EVERYTHING that you find in our Back Office and here in the OBC is pure generosity and good will on the part of Dave and each of our fellow Affiliates who share their own resources, time, money, effort, talents! What you get when you simply purchase one ebook is mind-boggling… BUT no one is going to “do all the work for you” while you sit back and relax! This is not how OBA is designed to work.

Another thing is that although structurally we have “downlines” with “levels” and “sponsors” and “referrals”, but that’s just the structure. The nature of our business relationships in OBA is – equal independent Affiliates and Partners working together to achieve a common goal. No one has to lose any sleep over any “inactive downline members” as we normally found ourselves doing in the old business or perhaps other online programs. Our OBA partners are NOT “downline members” dependent on their sponsor in ANY way, they are ALL INDEPENDENT Affiliates and grown-ups who have decided to start an online business of their own!

No one needs to beat themselves up if someone in their “downline” has become “inactive” or turned into a “sleeper” – there are NO “sleepers” in this business! WRONG concept, WRONG terminology, DIFFERENT business!! If someone is not reselling the ebook he bought – SO WHAT?! Are YOU going to beat yourself up about it?? Following Cindy’s great comparison, if you own a McDonalds franchise and someone buys a lunch from you but does not necessarily get inspired to start his own McDonalds restaurant – what’s that to YOU?! You are minding YOUR business! So… if someone has purchased an ebook from you but does not go on to lease the AdSpace – so what? He is an independent person, a customer who purchased an ebook. “Thank you for your purchase, if I can be of any help please don’t hesitate to let me know”, and on you go to work YOUR business and sell more ebooks without pulling out your hair trying to convince that person about anything!

If someone does show interest in taking their business a step further and start reselling ebooks or lease AdSpace, that’s great! Of course, as a wise and forward-looking business owner you realize that the success of your business is inter-connected with the success of your business partners, and you would do whatever you possibly can to help them in any way you can as much as you can as often as you can. That’s how independent like-minded partners work together, and that also suggests an equal desire of your partners to help YOU! That’s true TEAMWORK!

We need to change our “passive downline mentality” into a “TEAM of Active Independent Partners” mentality! “Downine mentality” often results in thinking that there is this “sponsor dude” (or dudette ) who is supposed to provide you with this and that and another thing and somehow move your business for you, and if you are not getting the results you imagined you would get, that means you have a “bad sponsor”. If you could just exchange your “bad” sponsor for a different, “good” one, then your business would somehow improve on its own. Won’t happen! It’s YOU who need to improve your business, not anybody else!

On the other hand, “sponsors” themselves need to switch to the same “TEAM of Independent Partners” mentality and stop expecting from their “downline members” (not!) what they shouldn’t be expecting from independent people running their own businesses. I wouldn’t be expecing to have to “spoon-feed” an independent partner and business owner or try to “wake him up” and “shake” him into doing his own business! As a business partner and a friend I would certainly inquire if he needs any help and offer my assistance – that’s what friends and partners do – but with all partnership and friendship combined, each person is still supposed to actually work his or her own business!

A while back I came across a network marketing term “posture”, meaning your own inner attitude to your business and to what you are doing. Just like in the everyday sense of the word, bad or incorrect “posture” creates an unfavorable impression and can be harmful for your business. This does not mean that we should turn our noses up and look down on anyone or refuse to help anyone – not at all!! But we need to let go of other – wrong – “postures” like an almost “begging” one (that we may have acquired from our old business): “please, please, become my friend and partner, I’d do anything for you if you do, I’ll even pay for your lifetime membership and waive you all your fees for as long as you live!” (and then after we did all that, and the person still became a “sleeper”, we would keep emailing them forever trying to “wake them up” or hoping to receive as much as just a simple email back saying “hi”, so we may start helping them with anything we possibly can again)… Or an “apologetic” one: “I’m sorry I have to ask you to spend money for this ebook, let me refund you your purchase so you can have the ebook for free, I just want you as a friend and partner…” (All of this is “said” inside our heads and not to real customers! It’s just how we feel about what we’re doing here.) If we feel weak and apologetic about our business, this will be almost equally matched by our getting the “downline members” who would be expecting to be “serviced”.

We need to realize the enormous VALUE of our business and our products, the correct category and SCALE of our business and all its elements, and this will determine our own inner attitude to what we are doing with this business. As soon as we set our inner “posture” correctly, the visitors and potential customers will sense this and will realize that there is “something” about OBA that they haven’t sensed about any other “program” out there. The attraction is not in flashy graphics or the amount of exclamation marks in an ad, the attraction should come from within you, be it genuine excitement or gratitude or pride in your business, or just a calm confidence that OBA will change so many lives through you just like it has changed yours!

I wonder if any of the above actually made any sense!

Your friend and partner,
Nat

Thank you Nat, it made a lot of sense to me. I am on a permanent mission to find OBA friends and partners. Those interested should go here and read some more, after all it is a life-changing decision.

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