When I first started in network marketing I assumed that much like other professions I had worked in that there would be training and a learning curve. Well, as some have found out the hard way that there are many so called ‘gurus’ that cast in the light of integrity would smoke and shrink away hissing like a vampire. Most people who have worked for a traditional company, even fully qualified for the position, expect that their employer has an interest in making sure that any information or training you might be lacking is provided. Not the case here in this crazy business of network marketing.

I’ve heard it termed that it is like trying to herd cats, that is, trying to get distributors to work together and share what is working today. I mean, one of the most respected authors in the industry isn’t even a network marketer! Nice. How’s that for a selling point for building your down-line? Especially, if you take the advice of the majority of companies that chant the mantra “make a list of your friends and family.” My friends and family don’t have an interest in network marketing and if they did they would have no trouble finding an ‘opportunity’ by sifting through their spam folder. So where does integrity come into play in all of this?

Integrity has its first and most important task in looking at the track record of the company owners and the up-line leaders in the organization. I’ll give you an example, I have worked in the construction field for many years and know many contractors and company owners in my home city. There are those that have a reputation for not paying their employees on time-or sometimes not at all. And why is that? Too much overhead? Haven’t been faced with strong enough consequences? For instance, some owners of network marketing companies are serial offenders when it comes to starting a company, riding the profit wave, and then changing the compensation plan after the company is built by guess who? You. And do they do it just once? Not a chance, start, rinse, repeat-as it were.

So if the top ‘experts’ in the field are not even ‘in the field’ and the ‘gurus’ are out to sell their own down-line useless programs to supposedly replicate their success on ‘auto-pilot’ how can one know who has integrity? I myself resorted to prayer, and as funny as that sounds it is the truth! I asked for a mentor and a company with integrity-I mean if you’re going to pray you might as well go all out, right? I was almost frightened by how quickly God answered that prayer, and have found the company that is right for me. I have met two of the three owners as well as the master distributor and every other leader in the company, which is really nice to know that they aren’t afraid to mingle with anyone and everyone in the company. I also know that I am with the right company because for 5 out of the last 6 years they have been in business the have added money back into the compensation plan-I haven’t met any other network marketer that can say that!

So, for integrity the first thing that I would watch for is the selling of tools used to build your down-line. Next, I would suggest making it a point to do your due diligence by finding the names of the owners of the company and researching their former business associations-can’t stress this one enough. And finally, meet them face to face and find out what their philosophies of business are and how they run the operations of the company. If you are just starting out in the industry and need the nuts and bolts of building your team, download the free e-book Success in 10 Steps

This got me to thinking about how this plays out in leadership development and continuing to educate oneself in your industry.  For example, I went to a workshop by Tom ‘Big Al’ Schreiter in Houston, TX. July 7th, 2009 to further educate myself.  Needless to say it was a life changing experience.  But it occurred to me today that being on a personal path of leadership drives a certain kind of behavior as well.  I believe that Jeff Olsen said it best in his book, ‘The Slight Edge,” when he said that successful people do what others are not willing to do.  Could it really be this simple?  Is it really as simple as going to a workshop instead of watching TV on a given evening?  Is it as simple as following through on a decision to stop at just one more convenient store to ask if it would be okay to speak with a manager or the owner to see if they might be interested in what you could offer?

This leads me to my next question, what does it take to be a leader?  I mean really, is it something you are born with or is it the natural behavior, by-product if you will, of a person’s desire to achieve success?  If the truth be told I didn’t wake up one morning and say, “I want to be a leader!”  But I have been drawn to people who seem to fill a room with their presence sort of like a moth to a flame.  And being able to admit certain traits of my dominant personality type I found that I tend to ask a lot of questions-did I say a lot of questions?  Just knowing about my personality type through education has answered many questions and has taken my interactions with everyone I meet to a new level.  For example, I was speaking with Art Jonak and Don Standard about leadership and I shared with them about an experience I had with a family member.  And it dawned on me that things that I might feel are necessary to say in a difficult situation might not ever feel comfortable to someone else with a different personality type.

All of this leads me back to one very simple concept which is the dominating filter by which I view the world and that is gratitude.  I adopted a practice a few years ago that upon waking in the morning I would wriggle my fingers and toes, then my arms and legs, and then walk a few steps to drink clean water.  The ‘limb check’ that I have come to call it was inspired by a dear friend who has Multiple Sclerosis.  And every single morning I am almost in tears of gratitude, for many things but especially, for my health and for the great fortune of being one of a small percentage of humans on this planet that have the luxury of clean water on demand.  It doesn’t take very long to take notice of all the things that one could be grateful for if any effort is afforded at all.  I still have some friends that have a hard time understanding how a person can be grateful every single day, but the challenges I have overcome in my life leave me little choice. And I say that sincerely and in all honesty.  And I guess it all fell in line when I finally accepted the fact that I didn’t have an average experience growing up and I will not settle for average success in my life. Besides, I am committed to creating a life that most people can only dream of having.

It turns out the so called ‘leads’ are just people who might have signed up for an mlm, internet marketing, or information product launch that may or may not have ever existed.  But the people who signed up giving their information in the hopes of following their dreams of working from home now get passed around the internet being sold and re-sold.  The horrifying part of all of this is the questionable companies who allow their affiliates to make money selling these leads to their downline.

That is where Mentoring for Free came to my rescue by educating me to become a professional network marketer.  I learned how to study the details of a company’s policies and procedures, compensation plans, and of greatest value learned about the different personality types.  The cost for all of this priceless information?  Free.  All I had to bring the table was the ambition and the willingness to succeed.  Well, that’s not completely true I had to find out if I am coach-able and if I can focus by clearing the chatter and negative programming from my mind by the mental cleanse.

So if you are currently in a company and you’re being told to buy leads get out as fast as you can.  Because much like approaching friends and family with your mlm opportunity it just doesn’t work.  Like they say in the boxing ring, “that’s leading with the chin.”  And every time you do that you are bound to get hit in the face.  Mentoring for Free is designend to train you to target your market by finding people who already believe in this amazing industry called Network Marketing.  I would like to say it one more time so stand back BUYING LEADS IS A SCAM! Take it from some who found out the hard way, I am so grateful for being in association with the amazing leaders who shared their experiences with buying leads on the above call.

So this leads me to the obvious question of someone, like myself, who was being dragged under the bus by a company whose management doesn’t even know how to spell M-L-M.  For example, here’s how the training went…

1. Make a list of friends and family

2. Make a list of the most successful people you know

3. Make a list of the people you are afraid to speak to about the business

Now, I know-I’ll wait for the side splitting laughter to die down before I continue.  What, that wasn’t funny?  You mean you heard something similar to this in your training?  Guess what?  That’s not training, that’s what they call ‘leading with the chin.’  That’s definitely a way to alienate yourself from friends and family and while that may be a good thing, usually it is not.  So, did I succeed in my first MLM opportunity? No.  That was way back in August of 2008, I am so very fortunate that I saved myself years of failure and frustration in this wonderful industry by finding what I call My Loving Family.

Now that first company cost me some time, money, and loads of frustration but it also served as a valuable experience.  It helped me understand how valuable a team of professional network marketers can be to someone like me who wants a lifetime of residual income.  Not only do I not want to struggle and alienate myself from family, I don’t want to be drug under the bus by every ‘Heavy Hitter’ in the industry.  You know that I’ve called almost every single person in my upline genealogy and they actually call back and help me to succeed right where I’m at in the process.  My team cares enough about the relationship they have with me that they will tell me the truth as well as point me in the right direction to become a professional in the industry.

Our industry is amazing and many traditional companies are investigating how to restructure to lower costs in these exciting times.  What they will have to keep in mind is that the quality of the relationship with their distributors will ultimately determine their success. I say these are exciting times because as Jim Rhon once said, “After recession comes expansion-not to think so is naive.”  I have been naive about network marketing in the past but I know now that with My Loving Family, I have all the tools necessary to succeed.  Day by day, in every way, I awaken to a new world of limitless possibilities for service and inspiration; sharing this energy with all the wonderful people I meet.  It is a pleasure to say, when asked what I do for a living, that I help people.  I mean, how cool is that?  I have been helped over the years by some of the very best people I’ve ever even heard about.  And they did it without an agenda, they helped me because they had been under that same bus.  There was a time I just needed someone to give me the right words like, “please stop the bus,” and “help people with the right agenda.”  What time is it for you?

How does self-improvement create opportunity you might ask?  Well, in network marketing it’s not wholly about the products, just about every network marketing company has excellent products, it’s about the relationships you build with people.  A personal friend and upline sponsor of mine makes the qualification for sponsoring someone into your organization, “would you want to spend a month with them on a cruise?”  So how would you know if this is something you would consider if you haven’t taken the time to build a relationship with them?  How cool is it to pick the people you want to work with?  I personally think this is greatest thing about the network marketing industry.  So if I’m not in a daily habit of self-improvement who will I be attracting into my business?  Everyone knows the answer to this question, if you don’t then click here for more information on the subject.

One of my favorite sayings and the motto I live by is, “I want to be a little bit better today than yesterday, and even better if I get to experience tomorrow.”  Day by day, every little self-improvement increases the possibility of achieving one of my personal goals: creating a wildly successful, highly prosperous, fun loving-and having, network marketing organization.

“A leader is not measured by how many followers they have, but how many followers they have inspired to lead.”

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And when dealing with people it is not possible to form a lasting, quality relationship with them by ‘getting them in’ and moving on to the next 350, 000.  Some will need mentoring, some will need technical training, some will need personal development, and all of them will need to have a relationship with YOU, the leader of your organization.  So how is this possible if you have hundreds maybe thousands of leads in a short period of time?  It’s not, and so many people miss the opportunity to follow their dreams in this amazing industry because of this very failing.  They become jaded, they get burned, used up, and cynical.  It happens for two main reasons: greed and ego.

So, it would stand to reason that there should be a checklist when looking for a network marketing organization.  The most important is, almost always, buried deep within a lengthy document written by lawyers-it’s called the policies and procedures.  Here is the first time the upline relationship needs to be solid, accommodating, and accurate.  Second, is the compensation plan.  Sometimes this one can be harder to decipher than Egyptian hieroglyphs so having a sponsor to explain exactly what it’s going to take to make the kind of income you want is vital.  There should be no stuttering or evasion when asking questions about the compensation plan, and it should be easily found along with the policies and procedures BEFORE you sign up for anything!  Why?  Because how can you expect to be successful without ALL the information?

There are several other things to consider about any MLM company or opportunity but for me the relationship and support from your upline and your team are crucial ingredients.  I like to think of success like baking a cake.  Mmmmm….cake.  What happens to a cake if you use salt instead of sugar?  You might get a cake that looks good but tastes like, well you know what.  And if there’s not a supportive upline relationship then you might end up like thousands of people who wander from one MLM scam to another like a junkie wondering what’s wrong with me that I can’t succeed?  Like the casinos in Las Vegas the ‘House’ has an edge and the cards are stacked in their favor.  And without a team working together to help each other to reach success and good upline relationships the cards will continue to be stacked against your possibility of achieving your dreams.

I’m a Motivational Speaker, Network Marketer, Writer, and Mentor for MLM Relationships.

Nothing is as exciting as becoming a professional in a field that offers the many opportunities found in this great industry.

My Loving Family and I provide generic training for success in any online business.  We have 10 training calls a week and by helping others we are able to give back to the industry.

To find out more click here.