And now for rest of story …

When I sent my newfound competitor, John Stanley my clients contact information, I never knew if I would her back from him or not. And I did not know that he would want to reach out instantly and help me back. At time I was just helping a client in need. But, John returned with an email to me within 24 hours. John thanked me for referral and mentioned that he would be in Arizona, just 20 minutes from my home in two weeks. He said he would give me a call when he arrived. Now what are chances of this happening with someone I just met via Internet from other side of world?

A couple of weeks went by and phone call came. John was in town and wanted me to stop by where he was presenting to meet and chat up a bit.

We chatted up a bit all right – two hours later of not stop chatting we had discovered more and more ways to refer one another. During our conversation, John told me he had to confess to something that he could not tell me via email or by phone.

“Just two days before I got your email, I did a search on Yahoo and found Debbie Allen. I thought, who is this Debbie Allen and why am I not coming up first on search engines under retail speaker? So I went onto your site and discovered your expertise. I thought, this lady is some tough competition on other side of world. They I printed out a couple pages from your Web site. Those pages were sitting on my desk when I got your email!”

Wow! Makes hair on your arms stand up, doesn’t it? What are chances? The chances my friends, for this type of opportunity to happen to you, are endless now with World Wide Web. Oh yes, and if that is not enough to convince you to do more marketing via email and passing on referrals to your competitors, let me share with you what happened with those referral leads.

John and I have shared many contacts and created business opportunities in many countries including US, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Singapore, UK and Africa. We have even presented together on same platform in England and were dubbed “The Ginger Rogers & Fred Astaire Of The Speaking Business”. In addition, John has become one of my most successful distributors and resellers of my books in his part of world.

DON’T EVER THROW BUSINESS AWAY AGAIN! Seek out, connect and refer your clients to another expert if you can’t take business for some reason. Become resource for referrals and connections – Internet Rolodex. When passing business along make sure that you keep yourself in referral loop. Send an email introduction to your client with a copy to person you are referring so that they can see contact was made. Pass on all contact information for referral. Then wait for it to come back around to you with TONS of personalized referrals and increased business.

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Debbie Allen is one of world’s top sales and marketing experts. As an international speaker she has presented to thousands of people in nine countries around world. She is author of best seller, Confessions of Shameless Self Promoters. Download a free chapter and sign up for her free newsletters on shameless marketing at http://www.DebbieAllen.com Contact Debbie directly to learn more about her dynamic keynote presentations at 800-359-4544.

I believe it’s because what we feel and how we see ourselves on inside is direct reflection on how we feel and see world around us.

Someone once said to me, “we can’t control our circumstances all time, but we can control our attitude toward them.” A true statement I know, but come on - I was stuck in a tight spot here.

So, there I was - with a BIG decision to make and decided to take on this challenge as just that.

A challenge.

I figured, if I could overcome this situation that seemed so grave at time, and not only make it through it, but actually grew from it, perhaps, maybe - just maybe my business partner didn’t fail me after all.

Here’s what I did.

I moved on and buried past. I went into office next day, changed locks on door, rolled up my sleeves and never looked back.

It’s amazing what a new coat of paint can do to a dreary old room, and that’s what I did for my business and attitude toward it. Out with old, and in with new.

When I called all my customers and explained what had happened, you wouldn’t believe response. It was like a brotherhood of business people. Each person I spoke with having more advice that last. It was strange how I felt all-alone, and ashamed for letting someone take advantage of me, while others saw me as a new start up, and simply green behind ears. Remember, we all make mistakes.

There were many lessons learned that month, and I took advice given to me by these people, by hiring best accounting person I could find, and then one of best of Tax firms to oversee their numbers as well.

By doing so, guess what happened?

My business rose to highest of dimensions, allowing me to set my sights on growth rather than setbacks, and on future rather than past.

That was many, many years ago. The company became a corporation, and eventually corporation was sold to another.

Now I find myself here, writing this story as if it were yesterday, remembering one of greatest lessons I’ve learned.

In life - things will happen, both for good and bad. It’s way we handle these situations that make us who we are.

It’s all right to feel anger; it’s OK to sense pain, but in end, when story is written, which path will you have chosen?

Live in past, or live FOR future.

Best wishes, and what ever you do….

Keep Smilin'