W
E talked about mentors earlier. In this chapter are some specific stories of people you can look to as mentors in building your direct sales business.These are personal friends and clients of ours that we can endorse whole-heartedly as people with whom you can’t go wrong if you follow their examples. You may or may not have the chance to be mentored by these people personally. Even if you can’t, you can learn more about them and use them as mental mentors—
people from whom you learn without personal interaction.
Choose a few of these stories that stand out to you and do some research on these people. They are all heavy hitters in the MLM world. Most have succeeded using their own systems and we in no way mean to imply that we have had anything to do with their success. These people are simply superstars. But they all developed a system of one kind or another and stuck with it until they succeeded. They were not just lucky. Some of them do use the very system we’ve shared with you in this book and are our clients. Others have used our consulting services to help
K F R S
build their businesses with the dawn of the Internet revolution.
All of them are extremely successful.
Collectively, these leaders have made over one billion dollars (that’s $1,000,000,000!) in MLM commissions. They have each made at least $2 million just to be on our list. Several of them make in excess of $4 million per year, and one of them makes over $4 million each month. So pay very close attention!
Yes, these people make a lot of money, but beyond that they are also the type of people we talked about earlier when discussing mentors. They know the power of mentorship. They found their own mentors when they were starting out, and now they have mentored thousands to achieve huge success. Study them. Follow them. Succeed with them!
B B
Barry Byrd was a systems engineer with Lockheed who had a dream of being a commercial pilot. But when he was diag-nosed with lupus, that dream was dashed.
Barry was approached by one of his friends, Bill Kirtley, who asked him to try some Tahitian Noni juice. Barry was blown away with the product and saw a great opportunity. (Note that Barry found his own story and testimony of the product. This is important!)
Barry is a co-founder (with Robert Dean and Herschel Gibbs) of an organization within the Noni family called T.O.P.G.U.N.®. This group has a system that helps people over-come the poverty mindset and find success.
Barry is also a great example of using the benefits offered by MLM to build a solid business while raising a family. He has always worked to make his business conform to the needs of his family—something he points out isn’t possible in most careers.
MLM O
R D
Robert is one of the top earners in Tahitian Noni. Robert is a phenomenal recruiter and networker. He makes six digits a month (and is coming up on seven as we write this book) recruiting, motivating, and training his very successful team.
He understands that real success comes from helping others succeed.
Robert’s story is a perfect example of what is available to anyone who sees the vision of what MLM can do and uses the tools we’ve been talking about in this book to make it happen.
Sure, Robert is a very intelligent man. He graduated fourth in his high school class. He received a four-year scholarship to Clark University and Atlanta University, where he majored in engineering and maintained his honor student status. He even owned several businesses before finding the network marketing world. When he saw it, he knew it was the vehicle that would carry him to even greater success. One of the most appealing factors of MLM to Robert is that anyone can get into business with very little overhead.
Robert is a client and great friend who exemplifies what we’re talking about in this book. He’s no techno wizard, but he uses the Internet very effectively in building his business.
He understands that keeping it simple is what it’s all about. He tells other people how he has built his business. If they want to do the same, he mentors them. No matter what company you’re looking at being involved with in the direct sales world, find someone like Robert Dean before you join and get in that person’s organization. Period.
M E
K F R S
Mark is a Black Diamond Executive distributor with MonaVie. He understands that his success comes in tandem with the success of his team members. To this end, he has worked not only to help his people build their businesses, but in the bigger picture helping all MLM distributors maintain their rights and incomes as an executive committee member of the Distributors Rights Association.
Do a little searching on the web for Mark and you’ll find he’s among the most savvy of MLM industry players. He promotes mentorship and systems to grow your business. Working with Mark as our client has been truly rewarding and enlightening.
R F
Ricky Frank is an absolute fireball! He has more energy than any human ought to be allowed to have. He is insanely successful and has helped many others travel the path that has been so good to him.
Ricky was one of the top distributors in Equinox in the 1980s. Unfortunately, the company got itself into some hot water and fell apart, destroying the businesses of many distributors like Ricky who had worked so hard to build their independent distributorships. But that’s part of what makes Ricky so amazing. He bounced back and is more successful than ever.
We use Ricky to motivate and train some of our clients. His story exemplifies the true American dream. Ricky is a down-to-earth guy from New Jersey who played football in college and was selling pagers before he got into the world of network marketing. Not only did Ricky succeed, he helps other everyday people like himself excel. That’s what we like best about Ricky.
MLM O
H G
Herschel Gibbs was working hard and getting nowhere in the network marketing company he was with when he found Tahitian Noni International in 1997. He struggled with the idea of jumping ship and going to another company, but ultimately decided that sometimes being a leader means doing things that may not be what they appear on the surface. He wasn’t quitting, but rather leading the people who trusted him to a place where he believed his efforts—and those of his organization—would flourish. He was right!
Herschel has been very successful in his pursuits over the past decade and has created the lifestyle he always wanted for his wife and two boys. He’s also been able to help many others arrive at their dreams through his efforts—something he’s very thankful for. Herschel knows everyone has the right to choose to stay in their current situation or work to make it better. These words of wisdom from Herschel say it best: “Many of us miss our blessings because we hold on to the past. Trust me, I have a healthy respect for the past, but I only give it power if it can positively affect my future.”
K H
Keith Halls is an example of a true winner to everyone who is fortunate enough to know him. He attributes much of his success to having been raised by good parents who taught him to look after the needs of others.
Keith says, “I can remember that my mother would talk to each of us kids as we worked. She would say, ‘Keith, find some-thing you can do with your life where you can teach people how to dream and teach them how to make their dreams come
K F R S
true. Teach people that if they mix hard work, dedication and a firm conviction to never quit, their dreams can become reality.’
She also said, ‘Find something to do with your life where you can help other people. Happiness, in all its forms, comes from helping others.’”
Keith has certainly followed his mother’s direction and has helped many thousands of people enjoy a better life through his hard work and dedication. After graduating from college, he worked as a CPA. One of his friends approached him about being the accountant for a new company he was starting, and Keith became one of the seven original founders and senior vice-president of NuSkin. Keith served on the board of direc-tors for many years and also helped found Pharmanex. That makes two separate billion-dollar companies Keith has been part of founding and building.
As any good entrepreneur does, Keith continued to pursue his dreams. He founded a successful company in the formal fashion industry when he saw a niche that was not being filled.
He also saw another MLM company that he felt offered a phenomenal opportunity for its distributors, so he became a key distributor in Synergy Worldwide for four years, doing over
$100 million in organizational sales.
Keith is currently a free agent, looking for the right company and opportunity to apply his knowledge and success in helping the next group of people in his life. Keith is a gentleman, a busi-ness wizard, and the epitome of the perfect mentor.
M H
Mark was the founder of Herbalife International and a genuine pioneer, visionary, and genius in the industry.
Tragically, Mark is deceased. After beginning his company in
MLM O
an old wig factory in Beverly Hills and building it over a span of 20-plus years into a billion-dollar business with over one million distributors in more than 50 countries, Mark fell victim to a drug overdose.
Ken shared his story earlier in this book of meeting Mark and being mentored by him. Through Mark’s mentorship, Ken saw clearly that MLM offered the most level playing field possible for the average Joe to make a go at building his own business. He saw that it is much better than a franchise because the barrier to entry is much lower and the opportunities for success are even greater.
Mark was a great personal friend to Ken and world-class mentor. If you’re willing to wade through all the press surrounding his drug problems and death, Mark is one whom you ought to research and learn from. Regardless of the company you’re with, Mark’s wisdom is applicable and timeless.
M H
Mitch Huhem is a super-successful salesman and world-class motivator. Most importantly, Mitch is a model mentor.
Mitch successfully launched and built one of the largest network marketing organizations in the world with Rexall Showcase International. Mitch is passionate about everything he does, and it shows not only in his own success, but in the success of his organization and with those people who use him as a mental mentor. Mitch is a networking superstar. He has created motivational and training materials that have helped thousands achieve greater success in the direct sales industry.
Search out Mitch’s materials and see what this guy is all about.
You’ll be better for the effort.
K F R S
T J
C J
Tommy Johnson and his mother Carolyn each spent many years in Corporate America before looking at the network marketing industry. They ended up being recruited into XanGo by Carolyn’s cousin Bob Schmidt.
As leaders in that company, Rodger and Tommy got to know each other by hanging out on the beaches of the world, which is one of the great benefits of being a successful network marketer. Distributors get to a point in MLM when work means traveling to Hawaii and hanging out for a few days with your peers and learning from each other, mentoring each other, and training each other.
Both Tommy and Carolyn are true students of Network Marketing. Each has a long list of mentors they know personally as well as those they study. They had the unique opportunity of working very closely with the great Bob Schmidt and are perfect examples of learning from and getting everything they can out of those around them. While Bob has passed on, they carry on his legacy with their team and the industry.
MLM O
J R
James Robison is a great example of choosing an MLM company and sticking with it. We mentioned earlier in this book that this is a strong path to success. This approach has served James very well.
James was with Rexall Showcase International virtually from the beginning. He was a key player in building their success. When Rexall was sold to another organization (which kept the Rexall name), James stuck with the company and continued to be an important part of their success. Ultimately, Rexall Showcase International was part of a merger which was given the name Unicity. James pushed on and became one of the top six distributors in North America for this company. He’s still with Unicity at the writing of this book.
We asked James to what he attributes his success and ability to stick with his distributorship through all these changes. He says it’s all about focusing on the right things. “If you focus on what isn’t going your way, you’ll fail,” James says, “but if you focus on your distributors and treat them right, your own success comes naturally.”
B S
For more than 35 years Bob Schmidt helped to coach and mentor those in the Network Marketing industry while sharing
“The Key to the Vault” training with thousands of distributors around the world. He found top-level success in Amway, New Vision and, most recently, XanGo. But he didn’t find success at the expense of others. He succeeded because he could bring out the best in people.
Rodger first got to hear Bob speak live at a training he
K F R S
did for XanGo in New York City. Rodger filled up an entire notepad and still couldn’t write fast enough because everything that came out of Bob’s mouth seemed like gospel to him.
Bob taught Rodger two major lessons. First, be coachable.
We should be willing to learn from mentors, people who know the business and who have been there and done it. Take notes, give yourself action plans, set goals, emulate those things that you like in your mentors.
The second thing is that Bob was tireless in his dedication to his team members: doing training, doing three-way calls, speaking at meetings. He spent his days truly trying to help and mentor his people. Rodger always appreciated Bob for wanting to share his experience and knowledge and expertise with him.
Anyone involved in the MLM business would benefit from the CDs and presentations that Bob published. His words, espe-cially those in “Key to the Vault,” are certainly worth listening to and following.
J T
James Tucker is a hard-working man who saw all his efforts and rental properties go down the drain when his mortgage and real estate pursuits went bust and he had to file for bankruptcy.
After getting into network marketing with Tahitian Noni International, James realized the reason his previous business ventures hadn’t panned out was a lack of mentoring. He found that mentoring at TNI.
Now that James’ life is at the other end of the financial spectrum from where it was just five years ago, he says he forgets how he was living back then. James has a piece of wisdom we’d all do well to heed: “People without vision perish. You have to see yourself [as being] successful…” James has vision. He’s
MLM O
living that vision and helping others do the same—having become, himself, the mentor he so desperately needed just five years ago. Catch James’ vision by searching him out online and discovering more of what he has to say.
D W
Dell is one of the founding distributors of Tahitian Noni.
We’ve worked closely with Dell in creating his marketing system—just like the one we’ve shared with you in this book. It’s now in five languages, with more on the way! Dell has dozens of millionaires in his organization, many of whom came from non-MLM backgrounds just like Dell.
Dell was an airline pilot with Delta Airlines for years. He was over 50 years old when he left that career and got into the network marketing world. This is what we like most about Dell’s story. He doesn’t come from MLM royalty, and he wasn’t a career MLMer. He was just a guy like so many others out there who caught the vision of the possibilities offered by direct sales, went to work, and persevered. Dell has had Ken train his people all over the world. He knows very well that his success is a direct result of the success he helps create for others. Dell is a man to watch and learn from.
G Y
Gene is one of the bona fide pioneers of networking and the proud owner of Las Vegas’ most expensive and high-tech home. He is considered by many to be the wealthiest and most successful network marketer in the world. He is the top-earning distributor with Forever Living Products, a line of aloe-vera-based products.
Gene got into the MLM game a few decades ago while teaching school in Japan. He is widely credited with intro-ducing network marketing to the Asian region. Interestingly, while Gene is of Japanese descent, he actually grew up on a potato farm in Idaho. He learned early on how to work hard, and employs his drive, determination, and willpower in every-thing he does. His success reaches into realms beyond MLM, including real estate. He even owned the land on which the McCarran airport in Las Vegas—the eleventh busiest airport in the world—sits before he sold it a couple of years ago. This man is sharp!
Although he’s not a computer guy, Gene saw the oppor-tunities held by the Internet for the MLM industry and began to investigate the possibilities. That’s where Gene and Ken connected. In 2005, they got together and spent several days at Gene’s home in Las Vegas consulting on an Internet-based marketing initiative. Gene is living proof of the abundance mentality and the power of networking. Gene gets it. And because he gets it, the lives of thousands of others have been blessed.
We could go on talking about other super-successful friends and clients who understand the real power of networking, but you get the idea. Use these mentors along with the ones you work with personally in your organization to give yourself every
We could go on talking about other super-successful friends and clients who understand the real power of networking, but you get the idea. Use these mentors along with the ones you work with personally in your organization to give yourself every