5 Things To Avoid To Keep From Being The Next New MLM Crusader

I love the vision of network marketers.  The drive, determination, sense of purpose, entrepreneurship, and everything that goes along with self-improvement in the process.  People can seriously go from rags to riches with their own MLM business.

But, seriously, I have seen crusaders made out of new believers whether it be in the products, the compensation plan, or the culture of the MLM company.  As much as you want people to believe as you do, it's not going to happen.

People have a variety of reasons why they won't believe.  However, you as the distributor can definitely be the absolute worst reason to join a company and that's because of your new "crusade" to bring over as many people on your side as possible.

Here are five ways you can avoid being the "crusader" for your new business.

1. Ask for referrals. Say you call your Aunt May after 10 years and tell her about the new business.  If you want Aunt May to stay you can ask her if she knows somebody that would be interested in your products or opportunity instead of asking her outright.  She may very well be happy not knowing what you know now and it's not our place to convert.  She may then return the favor and recommend a few people to buy from you.  The worst is that she can say no and there is no love lost.
2. When you do tell people don't pressure them.  Instead say that it may or not be for them.  This way it takes the pressure off them and they are going to at least be a little more open to listening to you.
3. Ask for permission. Easy enough, right?  Ask the following question, "Would it be okay if I told you about it?" If they say no then you haven't lost anything.
4. Don't puke on people. Giving every bit of information about what you are doing is a sure fire way to let people know you are in a cult.
5. Don't post everything about your company on your Facebook or Twitter pages.  That's a surefire way to get reported for spam, get blocked, or get your account shut down.

I wish you the best of luck on your ventures.

Her Child Called The Nanny "Mom"

Ouch!

Check out the Reddit post before reading the rest of this blog... click here.

I seriously don't have any words for this post but I know if I had children and they called some other man "dada" I might get a little upset or, at the very least, bothered by it.  A good friend of mine had this actually happen to her and it became part of her "why" to start her own business.  That is the point I am going to make.  What is the reason "why" you want to move up in life and become financially free?

Is it money?

Of course it's all about money.  Money is essential to live these days.  It ranks right up there with oxygen when it comes to what you should not be living without.  Getting the money is only part of the equation.  The other part is what your heart desires to do with it.  What will you do with the money that will satisfy your soul?

Has this ever happened to you?

Would having an extra $500 a month be able to make a car payment, pay utilities or prevent a divorce?  Recently I was told that $500 extra could prevent a divorce. That's a small price to pay to keep the love of your life. If money is a problem in your life then maybe making an extra $500 could keep some marital bliss.

Do you want to contribute more to retirement or college fund?  Ask yourself if an extra $500 to invest could make the difference in retiring a millionaire or eating ramen for dinner when you're old, or if an extra $500 could make the difference in sending junior to community college or Harvard. Quality of life means a lot to everyone and even a little bit can change a lot.

Do you work so much your nanny is raising your children for you?  What if you could make enough money to fire the babysitter permanently, or at least reduce her to part-time? (Because with your newly found free time you might want to enjoy a romantic evening with your significant other.)  Do you want to attend games, concerts, recitals, etc.?  The ultimate goal is to have you time and money freedom.

Have your cried because you had to disappoint your children because you couldn't take them to Disneyworld?  Maybe you've cried because you can't go.

If you've ever had your utilities shut off then you know the struggle.  Enough said.

What can I do about it?

Are you motivated and coachable?  Can you sacrifice short-term to benefit long-term? Can you find a few hours in a week to work for a little extra?  I'll let you ponder all this but in the meantime, don't let your kids call your nanny "Mom."

The Makings of a Pyramid Scheme

I think this says it all right here...

Any questions?

You Can't Handle the Truth... A Real Network Marketers Journey

Is this all I'm worth?

You've expressed interest in making an additional income from home. Okay. Now comes the time I have to make a presentation to you.  I decide to show you a DVD on what my company offers.  You look at everything very carefully and you tell me, "I have to think about it."

"No problem," I say. "Take all the time you need but can you do me a favor?"

"Sure," you say enthusiastically.

"When you get paid on Friday can you look at you paycheck hold it up to the light and ask yourself, 'Is this all I am worth?'"

Ouch!

Five Fridays go by and you do the same thing with your paystub.  You're starting to really contemplate how much you are really worth and you begin to wonder if this job is really worth it. You ask your coworkers if they get paid what they are worth and they say it'll never happen working here.

Is this the car of my dreams?

I follow up with you later and I notice a little white smoke coming from your 1995 Honda Civic and I ask you if you've given consideration to what we talked about and you say you are still thinking about it. Fair enough, I did tell you to take all the time you need however I ask you is that 1995 Civic the car of your dreams.

As you are "thinking it over" and "evaluating the risks" your 1995 Honda Civic blows a head gasket and you're stranded on the side of the highway.  Now this is going to make you so late for work and maybe you are going to be out of a job soon.  You pray the boss has mercy on you and he does this time.  As the wrecker driver hauls your car away you think to yourself, "This really isn't the car of my dreams. It never was."

Is this the home of my dreams?

Let's fast forward to a year later.  The Civic is running well but you're still paying off the credit card you paid the mechanic with. When you tell me about it and you're complaining about making ends meet I ask you if you'd like to do something about it. You then proceed to tell me that your wife is pregnant again and you need a bigger house but can't quite afford to and that you'd like more time to think about making an additional income from home.  I turn around and say when you go home tonight and you put your key in the door ask yourself, "Is that the home of your dreams?"

While at work you receive a call that the furnace in you home went out.  It's the middle of winter. You knew it would be a matter of time because the inspector last year said it would be a matter of time before it goes and sure enough you are staring down the barrel of a $5,000 bill for a new furnace and that's a bargain! Your wife says it's necessary because she wants to have a furnace that will be safe for the new baby.  Not to mention that she is also implying that you have to do something about that Civic because she doesn't think it's safe enough for the family anymore.

Now cursing yourself you yell out loud, "I don't get paid enough to take this crap at work, I am not driving a good enough car and my house is falling apart!!! HOW MUCH MORE CAN I TAKE?!!"

And so you call me back...

We're excited and you're ready to get started and you sign up with the last bit of cash you have in savings.  I set you up with training videos and weekly business meetings.  You're excited and I'm excited and then it really hits the fan because you tell your wife what you have done and how it's going to change your life and how she's going to have the big safe SUV and a bigger kitchen and a bigger house with more bedrooms for the kids and that you no longer have to worry about money because you will have all this residual income from the new business you signed up for.

And then she yells at you, "YOUR A ^&^$#@$ IDIOT!!!" Then she goes on a rant about how she should have married Lester in college because he was a doctor now and his parents put him through medical school and how he's living in a gated community driving a Mercedes and making more than enough to take care of his wife and children and that she is starting to regret marrying a loser like you.

It's the pregnancy hormones. She loves you and will apologize later.

Doubts are creeping in...

You retreat to your bedroom and call me back and say, "I can't believe she shot down the idea. I mean I am so excited about recurring income and leveraging my effort to build a team.  I think... No, I KNOW I can do this but all she wants is security right now and doesn't believe network marketing works."

"You know, nobody is going to get rich right away and you can't expect people to get on board just because you're excited.  Let's work on some skills and I will help you get started.  This is a people business and you need to learn the skills to help you with people."

And so we practice lines, questions and scripts.  We go over product materials and the compensation plan to the point you can talk about it in your sleep.  You are getting better at 'breaking the ice" with your friends and family and some have signed on as customers.  You're even talking to strangers. Your confidence is building and you are taking it to the next level with your team members.  Recruiting is getting easier and easier and we start to train those folks.

Pretty soon you are getting into a groove and then your first bonus check arrives and it's only $100.

You're excited and you show it to your wife and she says, "After all the effort you've put into this God-forsaken home business thing this is all you have to show for it? This won't even pay for diapers!"

So you hang your head in shame...

Now you're upset.  You've done all you can do to make it and your team is set up pretty well and all you are think about doing is quitting.  So you do and take a part-time job delivering pizzas at night until you pay off the credit card and furnace.  You go back to your thankless job and beg for a raise. You struggle to pay for a new minivan because the SUV wasn't quite in reach.  The minivan will do for now because it's safe.  You're right back where you started all because you quit.

You should have hung in there because your next bonus check was slated to be $1,000.  That would have made a difference because it would have paid off the credit card.  Five more months of $1,000 checks and your furnace would have been paid for.  The whole time you could have been growing your business with customers and distributors under you.  Pretty soon you'll see those $1,000 checks turn into $5,000 checks.  And your situation could have been a whole lot better for you and your family but you quit because you couldn't handle what your wife said to you.

Is this where you want to be or would you like to do something about it?

There is a better way... Consider this...

The naysayers, the ones who say it doesn't work are the ones who don't know how to make it work for themselves. And, so, they're giving you an opinion and I tell people, "Don't confuse people's opinions with expertise because opinions are free. And son't confuse sincerity with the truth because people could be sincerely wrong." - John Assaraf as quoted from Rise of the Entrepreneur, The Search for a Better Way

Where would you be if you didn't give into the naysayers?

If you knew you couldn't fail how far would you go?

If money wasn't an issue for you what would you be doing right now?

I Hate My Job...

Working for a family-owned propane business was a blast, right? (Pun intended, propane = blast)

While I bear no ill will towards my former employer (and while missing my former customers) I realized that the only favor I was doing for the company was adding to their bottom line.  The realization came when I was unloading tile at the company owner's other home in West Texas.  This wasn't what I signed up for and ethically I have a problem using people on payroll for personal favors.  Sometimes wealthy business owners exploit their staff in that manor.  I used to see it with my dad and his employer.  That solidified my decision to leave the propane company along with other things like making more money. I make almost twice what they used to pay me now.

My beautiful and intelligent redhead wife has no desire to "put up with stupid people."  What she means is that in her world she wants to be her own boss free from the interactions with intellectually inferior people.  Although she has received a formal college education, finding a meaningful job where her intelligence isn't insulted every day has become a challenge.  Her last W-2 worthy endeavor was at a national restaurant chain where whining crybabies get all the attention and management is fearful of litigious, sue-happy, soon-to-be-former employees. In slave-labor conditions that subject you to third-world wages (two-something an hour) you are expected to serve others with a smile on your face and sharing the drink menu with people who probably have no business going out to eat because they can't afford to tip.  She finds more satisfaction with Uber moving people from place to place and venturing out into the online world of eBay and Etsy.  It pays more than your run-of-the-mill corporate restaurant chain.

Truck drivers have it worst of all and after fifteen years in the business there are some things that will logically allude me.  Why do some dispatchers find it necessary to verbally abuse a driver and lie over and over to get a driver to work when most drivers actually want to work and want to be told the truth?  Why is it everybody hates truck drivers until they have something on a truck that is needed by someone?  Why do people assume that truck drivers intentionally want to create tumult and chaos when in actually that's the last thing any driver wants to do?  It is such a thankless job. When everything goes smoothly it's business as usual.  When something goes wrong, even if it is not the driver's fault, everyone wants to blame the driver.  Should I even mention ambulance chasing attorneys who like to see dollar signs when a driver gets in an accident?

Who do I really feel sorry for?  I feel sorry for the 9-to-5 corporate types who commute long hours to work 8 more hours to commute even more hours just in time to make it to their suburban homes to barely have dinner with the family fifteen minutes before the kids have to go to bed.  Truck drivers don't even have it that rough.  I feel sorry for the man or woman for whatever reason that has to work two (or more) jobs to pay the rent and utilities while barely being able to put food on the table.  I feel sorry for the small town people whose local factory is the best it's going to get provided they can get a job there at all.  I feel sorry for anyone who works in food service of any type because you are a wage slave to that particular industry.  I feel sorry for those who fell for the 40/40 plan, work 40 hours a week for 40 or more years and get a gold watch at retirement.  I feel sorry for the people who do what they have to do in a place they hate and dread because everyone is counting on them and if something happened to them the results could be disastrous.

What about the educated among us? I value education but colleges are really nothing more than places to teach people how to be good employees when it used to be that you went to college to learn how to think.  Now it's expected of you to know what to think and anything outside of that could be considered politically incorrect.  I'm glad college didn't work out for me because my self-education has enabled me to see things in a different light.  For those who drank the Kool-Aid, I hope you get a taste of real refreshing life soon.  Please don't tell me that you feel justified in $100,000 of student loan debt while waiting tables in a major city hoping that after 7 years Corporate America will be calling.  They won't.

If you are not following your own dreams, someone will hire you to build theirs.  Let's start dreaming and visualizing again.

Check out this funny page on Facebook that pokes humor at hating your job.  It's run by a friend of mine.

Giving Up Is Easy

One of the things I like to buy for myself is the Mary Kay Men's Facial Bar.  It works and does what it says.  One bar will last three months assuming you are using it once or twice a day a day on your face and neck.  It's a fabulous product to have especially when clean skin can mean the difference between life and death for you face. (There's a story behind that which I will tell at some other time.)

The hardest thing to find at times is to find a reputable Mary Kay representative that will stay in business long enough to have  repeat order from the same person.  I am lucky now as I have found someone in my area that has and plans to be around for a while. More often than not I have found that many give up the business after a few weeks or months.  It's sad but true.  Not many can handle direct sales.  Whatever the reason, whether it be losing all you friends or being disappointed with your sales numbers, it is easy to give up.

Lord knows I have.

I am no stranger to giving up.  It's hard to have staying power in network marketing when you're being taunted and teased. You give up quickly when people run away form you because you are trying to "sell" them your products or opportunity.  You give up when you're met with the pyramid objection.  You give up when your family calls you a loser behind your back to everyone else. You give up when people say that they have never heard of your products and probably never use them.  You give up when they tell you that they need to check with their doctor and never do that.  You give up when people give you the ultimate question, "If you're product is so great then why can't I find it in stores?"

If all the great MLM products were in stores, by the way, would that really give them a competitive edge?  I'm not sure about that.

Once I tried to sell vacuum cleaners in 1997.  The distributorship had marketing 'system' that involved getting leads door-to-door instead of trying to get you foot in the door and spill dirt on someones carpet.  Getting the leads worked and when I would do the carpet shampoo demo it worked.  However, only two or three out of ten to twelve appointments would buy.  Most of those told me to get out before I could finish my pitch. It sucked. To make matters worse they had me make a list of friends and family to 'practice' on first.

When it came time to practice with Aunt Gracie and Uncle Walter they almost bought.  The lack of funds stopped them from buying.  This came back to haunt me though.  In 2002 shortly before her death I went to visit her in the nursing home.  Alzheimer's had taken her brain to the point where she did not recognize her children and grandchildren.  Long time memories were lost and gone forever. When it came to me she did not hesitate.  She recognized me right away and proceeded to say, "I can't believe you tried to sell me a Kirby, you son of a b****!" Even though it has been five years, my sales presentation stuck in her mind well past the Alzheimer's that was slowly disintegrating her brain.

I left feeling about an inch tall.  The next time I saw her she was in a casket for her funeral. Honestly, I am glad that her thoughts about me were buried with her.

What do we do in the meantime though?  We obviously know that our products work.  Our uplines and crosslines are making money.  There are people who believe in the products as customers and consistently use them. You know there are people out there who want to make an additional income from home.

Outside of listening to your upline my suggestion is to read and study any and all material related to network marketing.  Understand and know not every is going to get it right away, if at all, and your job is to find the ones who do.  I take a lot of comfort in Tom "Big Al" Schreiter's books and CDs especially his stuff on first sentences and ice breakers. (Go to www.bigalbooks.com. I promise I get nothing for this and they are all an easy read.)

Most of all, don't give up.  You are only a breakthrough away form living your dreams.

But I Don't Know How To 'Millionaire'

Big money and I mean REALLY BIG money can be had in the network marketing industry.  One of the reasons I dropped out so many times is that I often times was broke long before I could make those millions.  Seriously, I was the butt of many jokes after I first joined the NFL (NO FRIENDS LEFT) Club in 1997.

"HEY, BILL!!! ARE YOU RICH YET?!!!" they would say taunting and teasing me.

Not like I care.  Real friends wouldn't taunt you like that.  Their loss.

While those same detractors were teasing and taunting me behind my back at least I was trying while they are trudging away at the same boring jobs most of them will be at 40 years from now.

But even in my great defiance of the cultural norms, I have to admit that I really didn't know anything about what I was doing and I was doomed for failure simply because I had no respect for whatever potential money that could come in.  In 1997 I was 21 only cared about getting drunk and getting a fast car and had I made 10,000 a month I would spend 15,000.  I just would have gotten drunk faster and my car and I would have went down in flames.

Now that I am older and have a grasp on how money works I understand that I should have looked at the baby steps before I decide on what color I want my new Bentley to be. 

What I am talking about is looking at realistic goals and having a measurable benchmark that can be achieved through reasonable means and without breaking the bank in the process.  Start small in other words.  $10,000 a month might not be a right-out-the-gate reality in the beginning.

Most prospects don't have a grasp of money beyond their own situation.  They will talk in terms of car payment, mortgage, utility bills, cable, insurance payments and having too much month at the end of the money.  As much as you would like to tell them about the millionaire potential they have they simply cannot appreciate it as they are so wrapped up in their own situation and have never been exposed to anything else.  How can you explain that they can earn more money in one week that they can earn in one month if they have never seen it for themselves?

These days when making a presentation I am very conscious of what figures that can be realistically earned at first.  Unless you are a sales and recruiting rockstar with pre-sold prospects following you around like an entourage then your won't make a million in your first month, however,  having an extra $200-$300 helps you sleep better at night.

Your first step to being a network marketing superstar is paying your basic business expenses: autoship, website, business cards, marketing materials, etc. When you reach this step you will ahve breathing room and more energy to scale up the business.  It's funny how momentum works.  An avalanche starts off as a snowflake.

From that point you can start re-investing your profits into your company.  Whatever worked for you to make the first dollar, keep doing it and keep pressing forward.  Once that first check is in hand then you can have more checks coming in the future.  Take a part of your profits and put back into the business.

When you are finally getting ahead, invest your remaining dollars or start paying off debt.  I personally suggest paying off personal debt first then start investing. Once you get debt out of the way you will really have breathing room.  How would it feel if your income from your business helped pay off your car loan, mortgage or credit cards?

It's not going to happen right away.  First you have to manage hundreds and be a hundred-aire.  Then you can make thousands and be a thousand-aire.  With all the hard work and investment you'll eventually become the MILLIONAIRE you deserve to be.