Tell Us Your Story

Thursday, April 05, 2007  by Beth Dornan
Category: Announcements, Transparency

There are hundreds of thousands of Quixtar IBOs out there in the U.S. and Canada...each with their own story.

 

A story about the circumstances or goal that led them to this business. A story about what they hope their business will bring them.  A story about how many "no’s" they may have heard before getting a "yes."  A funny story.  A sad story.    A true story.

 

We've created a new forum for these stories, a blog launching soon in the Opportunity Zone.  True IBO Stories will allow IBOs to tell their own stories, in their own words.   Nick Katsarelas, who's the editor of Achieve and other IBO communications, wants to hear from IBOs about their businesses -- why they started, why they stick with it, what they've learned along the way.  The  blog will launch in a month or so once Nick has collected stories from IBOs willing to share their experiences here.  Some posts might provide insights into an individual IBO's story.  Others might take a roundup approach and share several IBOs' experiences on a particular topic like approaching people, rejection, or goal-setting.

 

Check out the link and share your story with Nick today.

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Comments

ibofightback said:
April 6, 2007 12:11 PM | #

On the True IBO Stories website it says - "Flip through Achieve, and you’ll read about these and other IBO leaders"

Well, herein lies part of the problem and makes me feel like you folk are still a little out of touch with what's happening "on the ground". Prospects *can't* flip through their copy of achieve.  They're googling the internet and mostly only finding the experiences of those who quit.

The True IBO Stories site is a great initiative towards solving this, but wouldn't it make sense to put all the success stories you already have publicly online as well? Why isn't Achieve online and publicly available?

Beth Dornan said:
April 7, 2007 1:17 PM | #

We used to do what we called iAchieve at Quixtar.com...a virtual Achieve magazine.  It included features and profiles and we eventually added a video component.

But it was another case where we built something that got little traffic or attention.

We're in the process of overhauling Achieve in several significant ways, including making it more business oriented with real, practical information to help IBOs make money; more product and training information; and most importantly, to make it monthly and free to all active IBOs.  We hadn't discussed the online component but will certainly consider making this content not only available online but searchable as well.

A short-term option you're familiar with, of course, is ThisBizNow.com, which has the stories of dozens of IBOs and others about their experiences with Quixtar.

ibofightback said:
April 8, 2007 10:47 PM | #

I may be wrong, but iAchieve was never available publicly either was it?

Ask any active IBO pretty much anywhere in the world and they will tell you they've "lost" many many prospects (both as IBOs and customers) because folk google the internet and find a bunch of negative stories and very few positive stories. Now, those negative stories are a tiny tiny number compared to the number of people who have been involved with Amway and Quixtar over the years, they're even a small number compared to the number of IBOs who qualify as new platinums every year in Quixtar alone. But, until thisbiznow, they were virtually the *only* stories people got online. Throw in we humans' preference to put more weight in the negative than the positive, and many a smart person instantly goes "woahhhh ... don't think I want anything to do with this!". What's more, many new IBOs get discouraged by these type of encounters and become inactive themselves. I've had new IBOs show the plan to a friend, who then went googling, found the negative, and then emailed it to ALL of their mutual friends, "warning" them. This kind of thing happens over and over again. I pretty much decided to stop actively building the business and start being an internet activist because I just got sick of this happening to me and the IBOs I was signing up and decided to do something about it.

Now, while one focus for Quixtar is tools and training  for IBOs, that should help long-term reputation, but just today I read a blogpost from someone who had been approached about Amway (in Australia I think) and they started citing stories from people who were IBOs *decades* ago. Stories they found online. The internet doesn't forgot.

Training and initiatives like QuixtarU and Quixtar Accreditation are going to help prevent *new* negative stories appear on the internet, but people being people there will always be things go wrong - and the internet doesn't forget.

The only way to address this problem is to have positive "true ibo stories" drowning out the negative "true ibo stories", and if possible these kind of stories need to be out there from third parties. Buy the rights to books like "Empire of Freedom" and publish it online. Get Shad Helmstetter to put his "American Victory" letters back up. Every time a journalist says something dumb about Amway or Quixtar, get an Emerald or a Diamond to call them, take them to lunch and do an interview, educate them, and show them another side of the story.

Anything the Corp does directly regarding reputation and branding needs to be focused on the public, not IBOs. Achieve is something that is produced now and would be relatively simple to put online and publicly available. Backdate it, make sure it's internet search engine indexable, and voila - all of a sudden you have a MASSIVE amount of positive information about the business and products online. If there's any worry about information becoming available to non-IBOs or competitors that the corp would prefer wouldn't - well, pretty much anyone who wants it can just sign up as an IBO and get it anyway. You might want to check out http://www.amagram.co.za, where Amway South Africa has apparently decided to take this path.

Overall, the true story about Amway and Quixtar is a way more positive story then the internet currently tells. I'm more than delighted that the corp is *finally* doing something positive about this.

Joecool said:
April 10, 2007 2:23 PM | #

Why not also list who is currently diamond?  I always hear about so and so diamond who is making gazillions of dollars, yet nobody knows if:

1.  That person is actually a diamond or a former diamond.

2.  Whether that "diamond" is actually making their fortunes from quixtar or from selling BSMs.

Editor's Note from Anna Bryce:  Thanks for the suggestion but this is technically off topic for True IBO Stories, as that blog is designed to focus on individual IBOs and what they have to say.

rara said:
April 10, 2007 10:12 PM | #

Joecool,

You should probably post your question on the Diamond Club post.  Hopefully you'll get an answer there.

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About Beth Dornan