As some of you may know, I was a major college athlete many years ago. In my best shape, I was about 260 pounds, with a body fat percentage less than 15%. Prior to my senior season, I suffered a catastrophic injury to my right knee, which effectively ended my football career. I did assist the team with coaching the position I played during the season, but the reason I’m telling this story is to tell you that once I got hurt, I never adjusted my eating habits. I continued to eat as if I was working out 6-8 times per week, even though I was now working out less than half of that. Needless to say, I put on some serious weight over the past 10 years, and just recently decided it was time to get back into game shape, or better. My goal is 225 pounds and 12% body fat, and I’m happy to report that as of this post, I’m down 25 pounds. Still a long way to go, but Thank God I’m not where I started from!

Anyway, in the course of deciding what type of workout plan I wanted to get into, I heard an enormous amount of buzz about P90X. Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore are doing it. Matt Diaz from the Atlanta Braves is doing it, with. David Akers from the Philadelphia Eagles is doing it.

The list of celebrities reporting that P90X has produced excellent results for them goes on and on, but something really struck me once I did some research. This company doesn’t pay ANY of the celebrities who endorse P90X. The average celebrity doesn’t endorse many products for free, so I decided to do some research, which I’m presenting to you now.

P90X is a home exercise system, designed by fitness expert Tony Horton, in partnership with BeachBody. This program is designed for people with a solid base of conditioning, who are looking to take their EXISTING training to another level. That ruled me out (FOR NOW), but I kept on researching, because I knew people would continue to have questions about it. The program is designed around a three pronged approach of strength training, stretching, and cardiovascular work. P90X uses the principle of muscle confusion (more commonly known as cross training) to help its users achieve total body fitness. By switching the order of exercises, and bringing new exercises into the program throughout, the body is unable to adapt to the workouts, which prevents participants from “hitting the wall” in their workouts.

The system consists of twelve workouts, seven that are strength training focused, and five that are cardio centered. The workouts include push ups and pull ups, as well as plyometrics, ken po and yoga. As is implied by the name, the workout plan is meant to run for 90 days, after which time you will have graduated from the course.

One of the most appealing aspects of this workout program is the flexibility built into it. The workout can be modified into the “lean” version, which substitutes most of the strength training with cardio and stretching. The program can also be modified into an even more strenuous “doubles” version, aimed at athletes looking to get back into competitive shape by combining the classic P90X workout plan with a Cardio X session starting in phase two during each strength training day. Whether you are looking to gain weight, lose weight or maintain weight, P90X can be customized to achieve that result.

The P90X program also comes with a nutritional plan, which is divided into three sections, each tailored to the three sections of the workout plan. The first thirty days emphasizes higher protein and lower carbohydrates, with a limited calorie count. The second phase increases the calorie count, with a more balanced plan of proteins and carbohydrates. Phase three uses higher amounts of calories, with more carbohydrates than proteins. This is designed to give the body enough quick energy to keep up with the pace of the phase three workouts.

Additionally, BeachBody recommends a recovery formula after each workout, to help the body more efficiently recover and build muscle. The P90X recovery formula contains 4 parts carbohydrates to 1 part whey protein, which is easily digestible and can reach the muscles immediately after the end of the workout. The recovery drink also includes L-Glutamine, L-Arginine and Creatine supplements. From my experiences as an athlete, what you do to your body externally is only trumped in importance by what you put into it. If I were doing this workout plan, using the recovery drink makes sense to me.

In order to complete the workout, you will need the following equipment, if you don’t already have it:
-Dumbbells-either 15, 20 and 25 pound weights, or resistance bands can be substituted.
-Pull-up bar for strength training exercises
-Yoga mat for the abdominal and yoga portions, unless you don’t mind a cold floor or laying on the carpet.
Also recommended are push-up handles (which increase the range of push-ups and put less stress on the wrists), a heart rate monitor for the cardio workouts, and a sturdy chair which is incorporated into a number of exercises.

Based on my research, I think that P90X is an excellent workout plan, for the right population. I would recommend it for people who are:
- Athletes looking for a greater level of fitness.
- Currently working out regularly, and are looking for something different.
- Knowledgeable enough to modify the workout plan to their level of fitness.
- Consulting with a physician regularly, and have received an approval from that physician to move forward.

If the most strenuous workout you’ve done in the past 6 months is getting off the couch to go to Cinnabon, this is not the workout plan for you, period end of story. However, BeachBody does offer numerous workout plans for varying degrees of fitness, so you don’t have to feel left out. I’m still in the process of selecting one myself-I’ve tried several of them, and can offer my recommendations for you if you would like.

But, if you think P90X is exactly what you need, here’s what I would recommend. BeachBody offers a 30 day, 100% satisfaction guarantee on their products. Commit to doing the plan for 30 days, doing as much as you can of everything. After completing phase one, you should have a pretty good idea of whether phases two and three are going to be worth your time or not. If they are, you know what to do. If not, box it all up and send it back. Don’t spend another second doing a workout you’re not motivated to continue, it will just make you miserable.

The most important thing is this: get up and do SOMETHING!

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- If you’re ready to accomplish the goals and dreams you started out in network marketing with
- If you’re tired of seeing people who joined your company AFTER you did blow right by you to the stage
- If you don’t want to be sitting in the same position in your business at the end of 2010, rationalizing why this just wasn’t your year
- If you’re ready to be coached to squeeze your absolute best from you, then you need to sign up for the newsletter to the right.

TRAINING CAMP 2010 STARTS TODAY

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Since they opened their doors in 2005, I’ve been contacted numerous times about the Monavie business. I get contacted about Network Marketing opportunities about 4-6 times daily, but I guess that’s just a by-product of being such a sharp, successful guy. And modest:) Anyway, between being contacted about the business, and so many people asking me what I knew about it, I decided it was time to do an independent review of the Monavie business opportunity, and figure out whether it is a scam or not.

Let’s make sure that we’re all starting from the same launching pad by defining what a scam is. Oftentimes, I’ve heard people refer to a business as a “scam,” quickly followed by “but not in a derogatory way, you know what I mean, right?” I might, but clearly the dictionary does not. A scam is “a confidence game or other fraudulent scheme, especially for making a quick profit, swindle.” I was unable to find a positive or neutral definition, so I’ll assume there isn’t one. According to their website, “Monavie develops and markets scientifically formulated, premium quality nutritional products, specifically for person-to-person distribution.” Based upon the above definition, plus Monavie’s definition of their business, I feel confident we can answer the scam question with a no, and move on to evaluate the business.

From a business standpoint, Monavie is certainly profitable, topping $1 billion in sales early in 2008. They inked a partnership with the Boston Red Sox last year, and have positioned themselves in a place where they are discussed in the same breath as industry giants such as Amway and Avon. One factor tat you should always evaluate is whether a company is having proven success, which Monavie clearly is.

The Monavie products all contain the Acai berry, which is thought to assist the body with such things as increased performance, endurance and concentration. In addition to their drink products, they’ve recently added an energy drink, Monavie Emv. All of their products are reviewed by the Monavie Scientific Advisory Board, which is made up of some of the brightest minds the US scientific community has to offer. Positioned as a leader in the booming health & wellness industry, the opportunity to make money in Monavie is certainly real. This is evidenced by the fact that they currently have 34 people making more than $1 million per year, with 30-50 additional distributors making a strong 6 figure income from Monavie.

On the other hand, there are more than 90,000 distributors in Monavie currently making less than $170 per month. As with most network marketing companies, Monavie does not provide any type of training to their distributors on marketing or retail sales. They rely upon your upline sponsor to provide you with the training and guidance necessary to grow your business successfully. Most training programs I’ve seen in network marketing focus on changing your mindset from an employee to a business owner mentality, and on the traditional techniques of building a warm list and cold prospecting. While these techniques have been responsible for most of the largest network marketing businesses ever built, they were mostly done before the internet. Before you make the decision to join the team who has contacted you, I would find out what methods they are using to build their business teams, and make sure that they are compatible with how you would like to build your business.

According to the Monavie Income Disclosure Statement, the higher up the compensation plan you make it, the more hours you work weekly in your business. For example, Royal Black Diamond Executives, who are at the top of the comp plan, work 40+ hours per week. While the income that a Black Diamond can make is stellar, many people get into network marketing because of the time freedom it can afford. Again, if there is no business system in place to help grow your business, 100% of the responsibility for your business team falls upon you. This is a possible explanation for why the work hours grow was the team sizes grow in Monavie.

The Monavie opportunity appears to be a good one, and certainly not a scam. But, if you join and do what the 90,000 are doing and not the 3,000, you will end up with a $170 per month business. My recommendation is to find a system that will help you educate yourself about networking and marketing, and provide you with a system to help you grow your business. If you’re interested in learning about what I use in my own business for this, sign up for my newsletter on the right.

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If you are reading this article, you fit into one of two categories. You are a BeachBody Coach already, and you are either not sure how to go about building your business, or the strategy you are using is not producing the results you’d hoped for. Or, you have heard enough information about the BeachBody business to be interested, but are not exactly sure what to do next. Either way, this article is going to lay out specific details for how to build your BeachBody business to the highest possible level, which is Super Star Diamond. Here’s a hint: build your BeachBody business the way a construction crew builds a building, and you will be on the right track.

Upon registering as an Independent Team BeachBody Coach, one of the first goals that you should set for yourself is to qualify as an Emerald Coach. An Emerald Coach is someone who has sponsored one personal Active coach in each of their two legs. Here is why Emerald is important: at the Emerald level, you are now qualified for the BeachBody Customer Lead Program. BeachBody will start referring customers they receive through their 50 million dollar marketing efforts to your business. With 15,000-30,000 new retail customers signing up each week, the opportunity to build a strong retail customer base outside your own retail marketing efforts is a reality.

Once you have reached the Emerald level, your next goal should be to help the two Active coaches who you went Emerald with to go Emerald. It is always easier to teach something that you have done yourself, so you should be able to accomplish this in a relatively quick time period. If each of those two businesses has 3 additional coaches in it, congratulations are in order, because you are now a qualified Diamond Coach! Less than 3% of all BeachBody coaches have achieved this level, so it is definitely an accomplishment. At the Diamond level, not only are you part of the Customer Lead Program, but you are now eligible for the BeachBody Coach Connection Program. BeachBody also receives people interested in the BeachBody coaching opportunity from their marketing efforts, and those new business builders are placed on the teams of qualified Diamond coaches.

At this point, it would be very tempting to shift focus to helping break Diamond coaches, and that is most assuredly the long term goal. But the focus of the new Diamond coach should remain on helping additional coaches on their team to go Emerald. The goal of every building project is a building, but we all realize that buildings are built on foundations. The foundation of a strong BeachBody business is profitable Emerald businesses throughout. A good rule of thumb is that a strong, growing Diamond business should have 5-7 Active Emerald businesses inside of it.

There are three other star levels between Diamond and Super Star Diamond. Reach any level above Diamond, and you have done something less than .4% of all BeachBody coaches have done. However, the basic premise of this article is that if you can go Emerald and break Emeralds, you can reach the pinnacle of the BeachBody compensation plan. If you can help 5-7 businesses on your team go Emerald, 60-75 more Emeralds would ultimately yield a Super Star Diamond business.

The rate of speed at which you break enough Emeralds to be a Super Star Diamond depends solely on the goals you have set for yourself as a Beachbody coach, and the timeframe you’ve given yourself to reach them. But by focusing on the smallest building block of the business, your climb up the Beachbody ladder of success will be a steady one.

Now for the bad news: The average network marketer lasts just over 2 months. If you are unable to get that business tied into the BeachBody Compensation Plan within that timeframe, you will have the makings of a revolving door business. I put together a training video that shows you exactly how to find new Beachbody prospects endlessly, and how to sponsor them at will. You will find it at Super Star Diamond.

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There is a lot of buzz on the internet about whether or not the Leadership Team Development (LTD) business is a scam. In order to figure this out, let’s first gain some insight into what exactly LTD is.

LTD was originally known as Winters Marketing, named after its founder, Larry Winters. Larry is an Independent Business Owner (IBO) in the Amway Global opportunity, who was originally part of the Britt World Wide (BWW) team. Sponsored by Crown Paul Miller, Larry has achieved great success within Amway, having reached the level of Double Diamond in August 2007. Larry and his top leaders formed LTD as a way to provide training and support for the IBO’s on their teams. Amway offers training specific to particular products within the Amway business line for IBOs, but organizations like LTD provide more in depth knowledge, motivational messages and training.

LTD is made up of the 12 diamond businesses that are actually a part of Larry’s Amway business team, as well as 11 additional Diamond businesses that are Amway affiliated, but not part of Larry’s Amway business. PDP’s are not mandatory, and a business team is not required to affiliate their business with any PDP, including that of their upline.

The LTD team provides training to IBO’s in these organizations through several means: books, CD’s, DVD’s, weekly and quarterly training seminars, and special events. In particular, the LTD team puts focus on teaching the Quality Invite (QI) marketing system for building their business, which is used to interview potential prospects, as well as promote attendance at their weekly education seminars throughout the country.

The answer to the question “Is the LTD business a scam” is a resounding no. The LTD business team provides an educational backbone that has resulted in proven success for LTD/Amway Global businesses. They offer training materials and events at a reasonable price, and the information provided typically is of good quality.

Where LTD has a deficiency is in the adoption and teaching of marketing strategies other than the QI to its affiliated members. Members are discouraged from learning techniques and strategies for building a successful network marketing business other than those being taught by their upline. At this time, they have deployed a web presence, but their efforts to drive traffic to their sites through online marketing strategies has been limited.

Typically, an LTD upline teaches their downline to build a list of names of everyone they know, through some type of memory jogger, the names and numbers in their cell phone, their friends on Facebook, etc… This list is where their initial QI prospects come from. Once they have gone through this list, the IBO is then encouraged to talk with everyone they meet as a potential QI candidate-the barista at Starbuck’s, the mailman, the janitor at work, anyone who gets within three feet of the business owner. All 23 of the LTD Diamonds have achieved that level using this technique. However, this is an approach that the larger portion of the population will struggle to execute, due primarily to differing personality types.

To find out what strategies you can use in your business to help the greatest number of people on your team achieve success, fill in your name, e-mail address and phone number on the right of the page.

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