Why on earth would the spell check function at BlogHarbor not recognize the words blog, blogging, or blogger?

For the latter, Blog Harbor's spell check recommends logger, flogger, and booger.  And BlogHarbor suggests blabber, bugaboo, Bulgaria, and bologna as replacements for its own name.

Another reason people are still smarter than technology!

Someone referred to me yesterday as a “known blogger.”  It kind of felt like I was being called a “known felon”  – it didn’t feel quite right.

Now there are some things I am known for.  I sing in the car.  Out loud.  OK, very loud.  And I don’t pay attention to whether other people are noticing that I’m singing in the car, as some of my colleagues here at Quixtar can attest. (Since I saw Walk the Line a few weeks ago I’ve been listening to and singing along with Johnny Cash…especially ”Ring of Fire” and “Walk the Line.”  This phase is about to end as I just found the new Death Cab for Cutie CD I bought and then misplaced.)

I’m also a “known bubble wrap popper.”  To one of the Quixtar IT team members, I’m a “known Killers fan.”  As a fellow “known Killers fan” he recently sent me a link to their new CD.  I’m also “known to just eat the frosting and throw the cake away.”  Luckily I work with someone “known to just eat the cake and throw the frosting away.”

But calling me a “known blogger” seems a bit audacious, and I’m more comfortable with the title “novice blogger.”  Blogging is something I’m doing and hope to do more of — not something that I am.  Now I know there are “known bloggers” who devote many of their waking hours to blogging, talking about blogging, or talking to other bloggers.

By blogging, I’m hoping to shed a little light on what Quixtar is, what we do here, how we support our Independent Business Owners, and what this business is all about.  But ultimately, I’m here to add another voice to the discussion about our business.  For a long time we weren’t part of the many conversations about our business, but we’re going to start talking — here and elsewhere — and join the discussion.

We’ve been like kids at a grade school dance — sitting on the bleachers while the real action is happening on the gym floor.  So instead of ”sitting another one out” and regretting it in the back of the station wagon on the way home (OK, that’s my sixth grade flashback), we’re going to get out on the floor.

In June Quixtar began offering a version of Success from Home devoted to Quixtar IBOs, products, and the business opportunity we support.  I posted here about this at the time, and fully disclosed that this was a "managed editorial" opportunity — we chose who and what would be featured and Success from Home wrote the features for us.  Our issue was available on newsstands during June but now is available only through Quixtar.

We're now trying to determine whether to do it again and are looking for feedback from IBOs and others who may have seen the magazine.  Please comment here if you have thoughts.

But other than that, get outside and enjoy the summer.  It's passing way too fast and will be gone before we know it.  Did anyone else notice all the back to school ads in the Sunday paper?  They struck fear into the hearts of elementary and secondary school children everywhere!

This week "Comedy Central" started running the old "PeeWee's Playhouse" show, which was a wildly inventive and fun children's program that was on CBS Saturday mornings during the 1980s.  Not only was it the first network gig for Phil Hartman, Lawrence Fishbourne, and other actors who went on to greater things, it also featured a series of running gags and bits.

Like, “I know you are but what am I?”  This is the same playground retort your Mom suggested you use when you were called a name, but on PeeWee's playhouse, it took on a different context — it was a way to acknowledge and reciprocate a compliment.  For example, if the King of Cartoons was complimented on his ensemble by Cowboy Carl with a comment like, "You're really a snappy dresser," the King might respond "I know you are, but what am I?"

For most of us, “I know you are but what am I?” was a way to either blunt a slam or deflect a label. 

Quixtar, and before Quixtar launched in 1999, Amway, has at times used a similar tactic – different terms to describe its business model.

When the image of multilevel marketing began to get tarnished in the 1990s, new terms for the industry started popping up.  Network marketing.  Interactive marketing.  Person-to-person marketing.   Someone recently suggested we start using word-of-mouth marketing, because that’s a really cool and buzzy term.

I used to start new jobs and ventures by trying to get others to use my given name – Elizabeth – rather than Beth.  I thought Elizabeth sounded coolly professional, and it would be a way to separate my work and personal lives. But try as I might, I couldn’t get people to call me Elizabeth, as people would inevitably shorten my name to Beth, Liz, or the particularly bothersome Libby.  A Beth is what I was destined to be, since it appears to be what I truly am.

When Quixtar launched it called its business model Tri-Digital Commerce (it never caught on because no one could figure out what it meant) and later I-Commerce (the convergence of the individual, the Internet, the infrastructure of Quixtar, and the IBO Compensation Plan.)  I-Commerce was a little catchier and the alliteration of the Is made it a bit easier to absorb and understand.  Still, it had modest acceptance.

The reality is and always has been that Quixtar offers a business opportunity that is based on a multilevel compensation plan.  So what are we?  We’re a business opportunity company that offers a way for people to earn income through the Quixtar Independent Business Ownership Plan, a multilevel plan.  It’s that plan that means an IBO starting their Quixtar business today can be more successful than any other IBO before him or her.  It’s a plan that offers lots of flexibility to earn as little or as much as you want.  And that’s only possible through the multilevel structure of the plan.  

It is what it is, and what that is, is an MLM compensation plan.