Beverly Hills Dermatologist Warns...

My Melanoma, My Cancer” Another life reminder that it is SO important to stay out of the sun unprotected. If you do enjoy the sun, please make sure to get yourself checked regularly by a dermatologist. Excellent read and I am so glad the LA Times published this story. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- As a surgical oncologist, I’m usually the one delivering the bad news. But this time I was the recipient. Nine days earlier, my dermatologist had taken a biopsy from a small pink dot on my back, and now the results were available. It was, he told me, malignant melanoma, the most deadly form of skin cancer. I envisioned the irony of my obituary: “Melanoma surgeon dies of melanoma.” Specializing in the care of melanoma patients makes me all too aware of the facts. I know that melanoma is one of only a few cancers whose incidence is increasing. The chance of developing it during a lifetime is 1 in 50. And while melanoma accounts for less than 5% of skin cancer cases, it causes 75% of skin cancer deaths. This year alone there will be more than 76,000 new cases of melanoma diagnosed in the United States, causing 9,000 deaths. But in the moment of receiving bad news, statistics became meaningless. At age 36, with two young children, I had a potentially deadly cancer, and all I could think was, “Why me?” Soon, the scientist in me took over, and I arrived at “Here’s why.” Like lots of kids, I’d enjoyed family vacations on the beach. Could it have been that? Maybe. But I also spent time in tanning beds before the age of 18. My mother used one to help treat her psoriasis, and I used it because we believed it could give me a “healthy tan,” a base that would prevent me from burning. I also had a family history of melanoma, which increased my odds. Because of that, I had been faithful about being screened every six months. Melanoma that is discovered in its earliest stages — as mine was — is highly treatable. By contrast, the five-year survival rate for melanoma that has traveled to distant organs is only 15%. This summer, the FDA is considering new regulations for tanning beds. Currently they are regulated by the FDA as Class I medical devices, the same designation given Band-Aids and tongue depressors. Under the proposed regulations, tanning beds would have to add labels warning young people not to use them and to encourage those who do to undergo skin cancer screening. In addition, suppliers of tanning bed products would be required to demonstrate to the FDA that the electrical systems are safe, the lamps emit the right amount of energy and timers are working properly. Responses to this proposal are due this month. Those regulations are a start. But people have to understand that there is no such thing as a healthy tan, particularly one that comes from a tanning bed. Research has shown that just one indoor tanning session increases the user’s chances of developing melanoma by 20%, and each additional session during the same year boosts the risk almost another 2%. One study found that when people first used a tanning bed before the age of 35, they increased their risk for melanoma by 75%. It used to be uncommon to see melanoma in patients younger than 40. Now, possibly because of tanning beds, I have removed melanomas from people in their 20s. A week after my diagnosis, I found myself as the patient on an operating table I have often used as a surgeon. A wide ellipse of normal skin was removed from around the tumor to prevent future local recurrences, leaving a 7-inch-long “reminder” of my cancer. The surgery went well, but given the characteristics of my melanoma, my age and gender, there was a 15% chance the malignancy had traveled to the lymph nodes underneath my arm. A lymph node with metastatic melanoma would change my Stage I cancer to Stage III, thus cutting my survival rate by almost half. I waited an agonizing four days for the pathology results before receiving a simple text message from my surgeon: “Nodes are negative, have a margarita for me.” Greatly relieved, I looked up from the phone. “I am going to be OK,” I told my husband. On my first day back at work, I saw four new patients with melanoma who were under the age of 46. My job as a doctor is to do everything possible to cure them. But as a survivor, I also feel a huge responsibility to help prevent new cases. The FDA’s proposed regulations on indoor tanning are an important first step. Warning labels on cigarettes have helped influence children not to start smoking, the leading cause of cancer. The same kind of simple warnings also should apply to tanning beds. We need to get the word out: Tanning kills. Travis Kidner is a surgical oncologist and general surgeon in Beverly Hills. He focuses on breast cancer and melanoma patients.

If You See the Value of Network Marketing (...and MOST Successful People DO!) Tips on HOW to Share Your BIZ is for YOU!

The Psychology Behind Great Recruiting – How to Help Your Prospects Get Excited About Joining Your Team! by Sonia Stringer on March 20, 2012 There you are, sitting across from your prospect and it’s your big moment! So far the conversation is going pretty well. You’ve broken the ice and feel you have some rapport. Your prospect seems open enough, but now the pressure is on! What will you tell her about your business opportunity to get her excited? How do you lead this conversation so your prospect sits up, takes notice and says a resounding YES when you ask her if she’s in? If you’re like most people in network marketing/direct sales, knowing what to say during your big moment is elusive. Many people feel intimidated when talking to prospects, often fumbling around for the best words and feeling completely uncomfortable and ineffective through the process. Imagine this for a moment: What if you knew what was going on in your prospect’s mind when speaking to her? What if you understood how this person was taking in your information? Could that give you an edge? You better believe it! Let me share with you something that can radically change the results you are creating in your business. Get ready to learn some important keys re: the “psychology of human behavior” (or what I like to call “the psychology behind great sponsoring”). By knowing what makes people “tick” – how they make decisions and evaluate information, you’ll have a major advantage in inspiring others to say YES when considering your business opportunity. Logic vs. Emotion – The Driving Forces Behind All Decisions To understand how your prospects evaluate your business opportunity, you need to understand that human behavior is driven by two elements – logic and emotion. We evaluate opportunities using logic (our brains) and also respond to opportunities with emotion (our hearts). For example – when shopping for a new car, you may compare factors such as cost, gas mileage, safety record, standard features and other factual, logical elements across many brands. You may then weigh these factors to decide which car you should buy. But shopping for cars can also be a very emotional experience. If you love the color of one particular car and imagine yourself looking smart and sexy behind the wheel, you’re already half sold! If you sit in the car, love the smell of the leather and feel of the seat, and (God forbid) the salesperson gets you around the block on a test drive, your emotions are now highly involved in your decision making process. You might as well just sign on the dotted line and drive it home! Obviously we make choices and decisions using both logic and emotion. But, of the two, our emotions are the stronger force. Think about it – how often have you purchased something you didn’t really need or couldn’t afford, but just had to have? We’ve all done it (and you can bet it was our emotions that drove our decisions!) We may justify our choices with logic (“it was on sale, so I really saved money” or “it will be a great investment in the long run”) but let’s not fool ourselves – our emotions drove our decisions and then we justified them, after the fact, with logic! The same is true for your prospects. When they’re sitting across from you, listening to your business presentation, you can bet they’re also using logic and emotion to evaluate what you’re offering. They may be looking at it logically – evaluating your products, the demand in the marketplace, the history or performance of your company, the compensation plan or other factors. And I’ll bet they’re also taking it in at an emotional level, FEELING the possibilities of your opportunity. They may ask themselves “what will my family think of this?” or “could starting this business really make my dreams come true?” Many networkers make the mistake of stacking their sponsoring presentations with too much logic! Some will sit for hours, spewing facts, stats and figures, boasting about the science and amazing research behind their products. Trust me, it doesn’t work! (I know, because I made this mistake for years, before shifting to this more elegant, and effective approach!) Although your facts may be impressive, information alone won’t move a prospect to say YES. Remember, people are more influenced by emotion than logic, so all the fancy science in the world is not going to convince them. Influence is about 80% emotion, 20% logic. The more skilled you are at helping people GET EMOTIONAL about your business, to FEEL the big possibilities, the more times prospects will say YES. And yes – in case you are wondering, this approach is true when sponsoring men too. Although many think that men tend to be more “logical” than women - their decisions are ultimately influenced by how they feel. (Anyone who says men aren’t all that emotional has obviously never observed them watching sports….) The Two Main Emotions That Lead People to Yes! There are two emotions that motivate us to take action – pain and pleasure. At a deep, unconscious level, we’re wired to move away from things that are painful, and move toward things that are pleasurable. Think about it. If you put your hand near a hot stove, you instantly and instinctively draw it back. You don’t have to think about it, you just do it! It’s the same with pleasure. How many times have you reached for chocolate or some guilty pleasure and before you could stop yourself, too late! We may logically know certain things are not good for us (certain foods, cigarettes, alcohol, drugs, overspending, etc) but it’s the emotion of pleasure that gets us to act. Human beings take action to avoid things that are painful, and to experience things that are pleasurable. This is important to remember when sponsoring.. Sponsoring new business builders rests on your ability to understand the forces of emotion (pain and pleasure) and how to use these forces to elegantly influence people to say YES! If someone isn’t interested in your business opportunity, at some level she is probably linking pain to it. She may feel your business opportunity will mean having to work too hard, risk too much or go too far out of her comfort zone. She may fear failure or the judgment of family or friends. She is already anticipating the pain of being rejected, or the struggle of building a business, and so she says no! On the other hand, if someone does join your business it’s because she is linking pleasure to it. She may still have some concerns, but if she says yes it’s because she links MORE PLEASURE THAN PAIN to your opportunity. She may see it as a way to experience the pleasure of financial freedom, a great lifestyle, time with her kids, travel, adventure, and more. She feels certain that this business will make her ‘feel good’ on some level, and that is what inspires her to say YES! Your success in sponsoring depends on your ability to help people link pleasure to your business opportunity. The more pleasure or good feelings someone links to your business, the more likely they will say YES! You don’t have to be pushy, dishonest or manipulative to be successful at recruiting new prospects into your team. You don’t have to make big, splashy presentations or dazzle people with fancy statistics. Just by having a better understanding of what influences your prospects’ decisions, you have a huge advantage when you sit down and talk about your business opportunity. Your recruiting success lies in your ability to help others FEEL excited about what your business can do for them, and to link up feelings of pleasure to the idea of joining your team. Do this well, and people will have a much better sense of what your business can truly do for them…and you’ll be hearing “YES” much more often! Questions or comments on this topic? I’d LOVE to hear them – please post below and I’ll do my best to respond promptly. (Click on the buttons below to pass on these tips to your team through Facebook and Twitter…) ________________________________________________________________________ Want to share this article with your team – or use in your own newsletter or website? Please do! Just be sure to include this complete paragraph at the bottom: Sonia Stringer is a professional speaker, coach and popular mentor to women in the network marketing/direct selling profession. Known as “The Women’s Business Coach,” she is fast becoming the “go to expert” for women who want to build a 6-7 figure business from home. Sonia’s unique approach can help you earn a great income AND set up your business so you have more time (to spend with your family or doing what you love). Visit her website to get your free copy of her popular audio CD, “Six Figure Success Secrets for Network Marketing Women”. http://www.SavvyNetworkMarketingWomen.com/freeaudio

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