MLM Online
The Step-by-Step
Guide to
Building Your
DOWNline
ONLINE
ByThe Critically Acclaimed Author of
Surviving the ‘90s, Dare to Dream, & Billions Online
and Co-Founder of Solution X
Ken Forrest
&
Rodger Smith
The Co-Founder of
Copyright © 2008 by RoK Lives Publishing. Published by RoK Lives Publishing
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be repro-duced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form, or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recorded, photocopied, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review. 978-0-9822351-0-2
Contents
Introduction ...9
Why You Should Listen to Ken and Rodger ...9
The Order of Things in This Book ...10
An Introduction to Rodger Smith ...11
Meet Ken Forrest ...15
Pay Close Attention to What We’re About To Say ...17
Old School vs. New School ...20
Treat Your Business Like a Business ...22
A Final Word Before We Jump Into It ...23
Chapter 1: Getting Started ...23
A Simple Truth ...24
Get Your Own Story ...25
Never Stop Learning ...25
Being On the Right Team ...27
Your Mindset ...31
Important Enough to Say More Than Once ...32
Are You a Product Person or Opportunity Person? ...33
When You’re Ready to Quit ...35
5 Steps to Success ...38
Chapter 2: Step #1: Get the System & Learn the 5 Steps ...41
Chapter 3: Step #2: Get Business Cards (Marketing Cards) .45 Chapter 4: Step #3: Get Trained ...47
The Importance of Mentors ...48
Two Schools of Thought ...48
Using Mentors ...50
Chapter 5: Step #4: Begin Marketing ...53
Types of Marketing ...53
Effective Marketing ...56
Chapter 6: Step #5: Follow Up and Close...61
But I’m Not a Great Salesperson ...66
Chapter 7: Putting It All Together ...71
Building Trust ...72
Prospecting ...73
Examples of Questions for Prospects ...75
Chapter 8: Persistence Pays Off! ...85
Chapter 9: Learning From the Best ...87
Barry Byrd ...88 Robert Dean ...89 Mark Ewell...90 Ricky Frank ...90 Herschel Gibbs...91 Keith Halls ...91 Mark Hughes ...93
Mitch Huhem ...93
Tommy and Carolyn Johnson ...94
James Robison ...95
Bob Schmidt...95
James Tucker...96
Dell Williams ...97
Gene Yamagata...97
Chapter 10: Dare to Dream Big! ...99
Take Action ...100
The Power of Commitment: ...100
Two Options ...101
Chapter 11: How to Succeed in Business ...105
5 Steps to Success ...106
Chapter 12: Step 1: Dream Big ...109
Start Thinking Like a Frogger ...110
Get Very Clear ...111
Gotta Have a Deadline! ...112
Get Passionate…or Get Out! ...113
Chapter 13: Step 2: Tool ...115
The First Tool ...115
The Second Tool ...116
Find a Mentor ...116
Get Connected ...117
Chapter 14: Step 3: Train ...119
Seizing Opportunity...122
Talk is Cheap. Take Action! ...122
Live Like a Lion ...124
Chapter 16: Step 5: Finish! Focus or Fail ...125
Eliminate the Negative ...125
Visualize Your Victory ...126
Chapter 17: Recapping the 5 Steps to Success ...129
Step 1: Dream BIG! ...129
Step 2: Tool ...129
Step 3: Train ...130
Step 4: Start! ...130
Step 5: Finish! ...130
Take Inventory of Your Past ...130
Succeed in the Future ...131
9
Introduction
W Y S L
K R
Y
OU’RE about read the words of two gentlemen, KenForrest and Rodger Smith, who will share a proven formula for success in multi-level marketing. MLM “gurus” are a dime a dozen—sharing recycled information that may or may not be accu-rate. The bottom line is simply that most of them have never actually
done what they say you can accomplish with your MLM business. Ken
and Rodger have both made millions of dollars using the Internet, and they have both built successful MLM organizations with tens of thousands of people in their downlines. They have both lived the very experiences they will be sharing with you in this book.
Ken and Rodger have both had high levels of success outside the MLM industry as well, giving them well-rounded, rock-solid views of the realities of the business world. Each has traveled his unique path through corporate America and self-employment to arrive as mentors to those who wish to be top-level distribu-tors in their companies. These men have a sincer`e desire to see
you succeed using the wealth of knowledge they have amassed
in their journeys. They’ve boiled it all down into this short book and have created a system you can engage immediately to begin your journey to success as an MLM distributor.
K F R S
T O T
T B
This book will begin by introducing you to Rodger Smith and Ken Forrest and sharing a few details about their back-grounds in building successful MLM businesses and making money online. You’ll then read their five-step success formula, where you’ll be given the specific tools you need to succeed in MLM online. You’ll find a veritable feast of wisdom care-fully crafted into a step-by-step system you can put into action immediately.
After you’ve familiarized yourself with their system, you’ll read about a number of highly successful players in the MLM industry. Their inspiring stories will help you see what is genu-inely possible for you to achieve as you apply the system you’ve discovered in this book.
Finally, you’ll enjoy the digest version of Ken’s book, Dare
to Dream. In these chapters, you’ll discover an approach to
accomplishing meaningful outcomes in everything you do in your personal and business life. Ken’s power-packed story and map to success will become an invaluable tool to you in building your successful MLM business, and will find place in many other areas of your life as well.
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A I
R S
I have made it big in the corporate world. I have made it big in the MLM world. I have turned companies around and I have taken successful companies to new levels. Now it’s my aim to share a few nuggets of wisdom with you. More specifically, I’m going to share a system with you that can create an MLM organization faster, more efficiently, and more effectively than anything else you’ve ever tried. I’m not hesitant or bashful in saying that what you’re going to be exposed to in this book is absolutely life-changing ... if you’ll allow it to be.
I grew up in humble—even poor—circumstances. My father was an alcoholic. When I was just four years old, my mother took my sisters and me and left him to protect us from the abusive environment we had lived in. Because Mom didn’t have the means to give me what I wanted, I had to work for what I got. I worked on a farm in Idaho while I was in school. A typical day began at 4:30 a.m., when I’d go move irrigation lines before school started. I’d move them again during my lunch break, then again after school.
Although there are many experiences I could share to paint a picture for you of the lifestyle we lived, perhaps the image of suicide tells the story best. When I was 16 years old, my older sister attempted suicide for the second time. The image I carry with me as I tied towels around her wrists and rushed her to the hospital will forever be with me. Then, just a few years ago, my other sister succeeded in taking her own life.
Through our struggles I dreamed about creating a different life—a better, happy life—for my family and myself. I dreamed of starting my own business and becoming super-successful. In
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an effort to turn that dream into a reality, I went to college. I was the first person in my family to do this. I worked hard, got a good job, and began climbing the corporate ladder. I had arrived. I was making six figures and had a 401(k) and stock in the company at Ancestry.com. I had a great bonus package and a corner office with a view of the mountains. I reached all the goals the company gave me to accomplish; I hit the revenue numbers I was supposed to. I had beaten the odds. I had gone from rags to riches. I was one of those success stories you hear about that make you feel good about living the American dream. Then, one day, it all went away.
After taking the company from $8 million to $20 million over a two-year period and increasing the subscriber base from 110,000 to over 300,000 (making Ancestry.com number three in the world for Internet subscription sales), I was let go and had to watch someone else take over the team I had built. So much for stability. I realized that the days of working hard for a company until you retire and getting a gold watch and a pension were long gone.
In hindsight I am, of course, grateful for that event in my life. It freed me and allowed me to move on to bigger and better things. I’ve discovered, as I’m sure you have, that this is often the case. Something we perceive as being the worst possible thing that could happen hits us broadside, but in the end it proves to be a gift—a blessing in disguise.
Within a year, I found a company called Floppy Copy. It was a company that needed help being turned around and was eking out a measly $2 million a year. I visited with Shane Argyle, the company’s owner, we discussed a plan, and I became the company’s director of sales and marketing. I led the re-branding of the company to IntegraCore and pushed annual revenues
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from $2 million to $20 million in less than two years. I thor-oughly enjoyed working with Shane. He’s one of the quality people I’ve met along the way. I have great respect for him. We made some extremely powerful and lasting changes in that company that have stood the test of time.
While I was at IntegraCore, a guy who had worked for me at Ancestry.com, Chris Peterson, called. It was the fall of 2002 and Chris had contacted me to tell me his cousin, Aaron Garrity, was starting an MLM company called XanGo. He knew I had some experience with MLM both at the corporate level and as a distributor. He saw me as valuable from the standpoint of what I knew and what I could do for him as a distributor. (Of course, he was trying to sign me up!) He invited me to a meeting, and I went.
The rest, as they say, is history. Together, with a few other colleagues, we developed an online recruiting and training system called MyXanGo.com (MyMangosteen.com). It was one of the first tools ever to leverage technology and the Internet with business, marketing and MLM training. Using this tool, our XanGo business took off and our group became enormously successful. So profitable, in fact, that I was able to quit my job and do XanGo full-time.
Then, after a few years of working together, Chris and I went our separate ways. That’s when I joined Ken at Solution X and we combined our knowledge and experience to reach more people with a new and improved InterNetworking system.
Through all of my MLM business experiences, one thing remains undeniably true. Your financial success in MLM is absolutely, one hundred percent, totally, and completely tied to the success of your downline. You should recruit the best people you possibly can to be on your front line, then coach, praise,
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and help them in any way you can to help them be everything they can be. That’s how MLM works! Surround yourself with the best people you can find. Give them what they need to succeed. Readily give credit to them for everything they do. Make them as successful as possible. This is how truly successful people do it. At the end of the day, it’s all about people.
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M K F
You’re going to read a lot more about me and my back-ground at the end of this book, so let me begin by simply sharing my history with making money using the Internet. I have started multiple successful Internet-based companies since 1996. SportsNuts.com went public for more than $400 million during the dot-com boom and crashed to almost nothing when the bubble burst, but it’s still in business today, 12 years later. Not too many Internet company founders can say that.
In 2004, I founded Solution X (solutionx.com). By 2007, it was a six-million-dollar-a-year company servicing MLM companies and clients worldwide with Internet marketing tools and technology. In 2008, at the time of writing, we could break $20 million in revenues.
I have been an MLM distributor with a half-dozen compa-nies over the past 23 years. I wish I could say I had picked just one and stuck with it, but I haven’t been that lucky or smart. When I was about 23 I was making more than $30,000 a month with a diet-based MLM company where I had about 10,000 people in my downline. At 24, that company was out of business and I was really bummed. At 25, I joined a new MLM company from my home state of Texas—a service company with a technology-based product. I grew to become a national training director with that company and got to over 50,000 distributors and customers in my downline. To be honest, even with that many people my income never exceeded $25,000 a month because of the low commissions paid on their products.
I have made millions of dollars over the Internet and with MLM. I am addicted to both. I love the leverage of MLM and I love the always-on, global reach of the Internet. What we’re
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about to share with you is a way to use BOTH! It’s an actual formula to help you succeed. We are about to teach you how you can build a downline, online. If that sounds good to you, then start paying attention.
All you need to do is pick the right company, apply the steps to success you’ll discover in this book, and stick with it. If you do this, you will wake up as an MLM/Internet millionaire in three to five years—maybe even less. It’s all up to you. It always is!
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P C A W
W’ A T S
We’re going to drive a few points home with you over and over in this book. It’s not because we’ve lost our minds, and it’s not because we don’t remember that we’ve already said it. It’s because by the time you’re finished reading this short book, we want you to really understand and own this simple, yet very powerful approach to building your MLM Internet business.
Your business consists of three basic elements: 1.) your business cards (we also refer to them as marketing cards—same thing), 2.) your website, and 3.) a telephone. That’s it. Really!
When we say “your website” throughout this book, we’re talking about a website that has been prepared for you by your company or by our company, Solution X, that includes some very specific elements that are absolutely mandatory for your success. Your company may already have a system that handles the tasks we’re going to talk about. If that’s your situa-tion, great. Just get to work! If you’re not sure, check out what your company has in the way of online systems, and see if your distributor website meets these five criteria:
1.) It must be identified as personal and specific to you so that only you get credit for all business that comes through it. It must have your name, phone and email address on every page.
2.) It must have a FREE TOUR clearly visible on the home page so that when you start sending people to your site and tell them to take the FREE TOUR they don’t get confused when they get there. This FREE TOUR must clearly and quickly (under 10 minutes, preferably
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using video) share your company, product and oppor-tunity with your potential customers and fellow, future Internet entrepreneurs.
3.) It must be able to collect a lead at the end of the FREE TOUR. Hopefully it can also give or sell a sample of your product right there as well and allow a prospect to actually join on the spot with online application forms.
4.) In what we call your back office (it is called many different things in different companies), your system must have great lead management and notification tools. It must also have the ability to send out autoresponder emails to anyone who visited your site and left their contact information requesting that you contact them. In other words, the system must be able to email your leads a nice message from you even if you are away from your computer. It must also be able to store your leads and allow you to view, forward, email, call, or work these leads in the best ways possible. And it’s really helpful if your web system notifies you every time you get a new lead, make a sale, sign up a new Internet entrepreneur, or have a team member take a training class.
5.) Your system’s back office must have—and we mean MUST HAVE—training modules. These are classes or videos all new Internet business owners like you and your downline can take at their leisure, over and over, 24/7, from anywhere in the world. THIS IS A MUST! These five components are essential to your success with the system we are about to teach you. Many systems have a lot more features and tools than these five. That’s OK. There are other tools that can be helpful, although more doesn’t always
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mean better. But if your system doesn’t have at least these five crucial components you, my friend, are being handicapped, and the system we’re about to share with you will not be nearly as effective for you. A truly great system will, in fact, have many more features and tools like calendars, email tools, Internet marketing training and tools, contact managers, photo albums, FAQs, presentations, recognition elements, conference call libraries, forums for sharing success stories, and more. If you don’t have these and would like them, just contact us at Solution X (SolutionX.com) and we will help you get exactly what you need.
K F R S
O S . N S
The old school of MLM says you need to hold meetings and recruiting parties to build your business. We want to say loud and clear right up front that there is nothing wrong with this. In fact, meetings (at the right time, in the right place, with the right purpose) are a must. They are a necessary venue to share experiences, train, and motivate. But no one wants to go to another meeting as their first introduction to an MLM! There are plenty of multi-millionaire MLMers who have built their businesses this way. We would discredit ourselves and offend many of our good friends in the industry if we were to say these methods don’t work. They do—for those who can successfully get people to come to those events. But there is a HUGE group of people out there who have tried this method of building an MLM downline and have failed miserably. People turn down their invitations. They get rejected. They talk to a few people and give up. They fail!
The system we’re sharing with you is an option for this age of technology that can very legitimately eliminate those fears and thus dramatically improve your chances for success. The key to its success is something we call card marketing. This system has five simple steps.
1.) You need a professional website that does exactly what we just outlined a moment ago.
2.) You need professional-looking business cards with your name and web address on them (but not all your other contact information!).
3.) You need to be properly trained on how your new Internet business operates. (This training is available
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to you completely free 24/7 at our personal websites, www.KenForrest.com or www.RodgerSmith.com, if your company does not have it available.)
4.) You need to be properly trained on how to market your new Internet business using your unique business cards. (This training is also available to you absolutely free at our personal websites if your company does not offer it.)
5.) You need to be properly trained on how to follow up and close the deal with people who have visited your site, taken the FREE TOUR, left their personal infor-mation, and asked you to call them! (Again, this free training is also available at our personal websites.) Once you master these last few steps of marketing and learn to spend your time following up only with willing and wanting prospects, you will see your business reach new levels of success.
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T Y B
L B
“You have to treat this business like a business to be successful!” Everyone says this. It’s true, and we had said the same thing many times ourselves before it struck Rodger one day that maybe his audience didn’t know what that means. After all, most of them probably hadn’t owned their own businesses before. Stopped by this thought, Rodger asked his audience how many of them had owned or currently owned a business. Only about five percent of the group raised their hands.
Employees don’t understand what owners understand. They don’t have the liability of the business on their shoulders. At the close of business each day, they leave with their pay regardless of how the business is doing.
You’re going to be (or already are) a business owner with your MLM business. You need to know what owners know. We’ll share everything you need to know in this book. The good news is, many of the details that most business owners need to deal with in an MLM Internet business will be taken care of by corporate. This, along with the low barrier to entry, makes MLM one of the best business opportunities out there. Better than starting your own business from scratch. Better than buying a franchise. And decidedly better than working for someone else!
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A F W B
W J I I
Practice makes perfect. Read, re-read, and implement the five steps we share with you in this book and you’ll be on your way to the success you’re looking for in your business. Getting the training you need and applying the things you learn in that training are paramount to your success.
In any business, there are key elements you must have in order to succeed. They are all right here for you as you embark on your direct-sales business. You don’t need to reinvent the wheel. Do the steps in order. Don’t skip any steps. And you’ll have a powerful, proven success system available to you and your fellow Internet entrepreneurs.
There are many ways to make money in multi-level or network marketing. You may have already found some of them for yourself. That’s great! But if you are just starting out, or if you want to add the most potent marketing tool available to your marketing arsenal, you’ve found it right here. You’re going to discover how to harness the power of the Internet in a simple, effective way that literally anyone can do.
By implementing the system we have proven over time and are now bringing to you, you will instantly be an Internet business owner with all the support and systems you need to be successful. There are many shallow and unproven systems out there as well. Don’t be fooled by people who are making money on half-baked “systems,” or by people who have never been successful in direct sales who are trying to sell you something to teach you how to succeed when they never have. You’re about to become familiar with a simple-to-follow system that has proven its value repeatedly
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by making many people millionaires in many different direct sales companies providing a variety of services and products.
25
C
Getting Started
A
S you begin, it’s important to realize you don’t needto reinvent the wheel. The “wheel”—the system—has already been invented, tested, and proven for you. Everything you need is right here. There’s no conjecture, no guessing—just the tried and true facts. People are making over $100,000 a month using the very system you’re going to be using as soon as you finish reading this book.
Here are two things that will help you succeed:
1.) Keep it simple. Too many people seem to think that if it’s going to work—if it’s going to make big money—it has to be complicated. Get that notion out of your head right now. It is simple. Don’t try to make it otherwise. 2.) Never give up. From the naysayers who have told you
not to get into this business in the first place, to the moments of frustration or discouragement you will encounter along the way, you must commit now that you are not going to give up. Period. You are an intel-ligent person who has a huge opportunity. Don’t let anyone, including yourself, tell you otherwise. Success
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One of the things you’ll discover in the process of reading this book is information about a website that has been prepared just for you. It’s your website. Along with the other uses for this website you’ll see as you read, this website is also a place for you to get ongoing training and help. Use it regularly. It is a powerful key to your success.
Many people fail in business because they lack the right tools or information to succeed. They may even take time to do their homework and find what they believe to be accurate information. Unfortunately, it’s usually only after they act on that misinformation that they realize they missed the mark. You have a HUGE advantage in that you can move forward with full confidence knowing the information you have is accu-rate. Don’t underestimate the power of the training tools in this book or the back office of your website. Get to know them well. Listen to and read the material repeatedly until it’s part of you.
A S T
Let us share a simple truth with you: Money makes you rich. Doesn’t seem like much of a revelation, does it? But here’s the rest of the simple truth that perhaps someone has forgotten to share with you in the past: Money makes you rich, and prod-ucts drive the business to make that money for you so you can be rich. Still wondering where the revelation is in that? Here it is plain and simple: You must use and believe in the products
you’re representing if you’re going to be successful. This is extremely
important. Tough times are going to hit. Discouragement will set in. If you don’t have a firm belief in what you’re doing and what you’re selling, you won’t last. So here’s what you need to do.
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G Y O S
There’s an old saying that is as true as anything else in this world. It goes like this: Facts tell. Stories sell! You can talk until you’re blue in the face sharing all the facts you’ve learned about the products you have to offer or the compensation plan in your company, but until you have a compelling story, you’re just telling, not selling. Get the product. Use it. Believe in it. Find your story.
If you need to lean on someone else’s story for a while, that can work. It’s not out of the question. But ultimately, it has to be your story. That’s where the real success happens.
Get on auto-ship (or whatever your company calls it) right now. Use your company’s products religiously. This is a must!
As you share your story and help other people get involved and create their own stories, be genuine. Everyone can see through a fake. Maybe not at first, but if you’re not genuine, it will catch up with you and bite you hard! If others know you care about them, they’ll follow you and allow you to help them in molding their own success stories.
Even if you want to build your entire downline online you have to be a believer in your products.
N S L
Even after you’re successfully making the money you want, never stop learning. Know everything you possibly can about your company, its products, the compensation plan, and anything else that will make you an invaluable resource to others in the company. Learn from everyone. You’ll be surprised how much you can learn from people who are new in the company as well as people who aren’t in your company at all. Of course,
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you’ll always be able to glean plenty from those who have more experience than you in your company. Learn from everyone as you go along. Remember that you can learn what not to do as well as what you should do from simply observing others and listening to them. Stay in a mode of learning always.
One of the great ways to learn, especially in the begin-ning, is to click on every link on your website. Discover what is on your website, and study the details of the material. Do this again and again until you know it inside out and back-wards. You’ll benefit from this knowledge directly, and you’ll also become a resource to others in your organization. This is what you want! Be the go-to person who has the answers. This will serve you well in building your organization. After you’re well versed in the details of your MLM Internet business (and even when you’re still on the path to becoming well versed), make sure you keep it simple. This is not a complex system. Don’t make it something it doesn’t have to be or wasn’t meant to be. It’s simple! There’s a lot to learn, but it is simple! Keep it that way for yourself and everyone in your organization.
As you read the five steps in this book, you’ll see that it all boils down to getting people to your website to take your FREE TOUR, letting the tools do the work for you in educating your prospects, and then sorting through them. Then you follow up only with those who are interested. (We call these people the willing and wanting. They are willing to leave their contact information at your website because they are wanting you to call them.) Then you have to learn to close them. Argh! Did we say
close? As in close the sale? Yes, we did. The good news is we expect
you have no idea how to close a prospect, so we have written a training class called “Follow Up and Close” and we will hold your hand and teach you how to do this. If you can’t do it, you
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won’t make any money. So, if you are wondering right this very second if you are capable of ever learning to close someone, you can jump to the back of the book right now and read the chapter entitled “Follow Up and Close,” or just go to one of our personal websites (www.KenForrest.com or www.RodgerSmith. com) and watch the “Follow Up and Close” training class. This isn’t brain surgery or rocket science. It’s simple. But don’t waste any more of your time in this business if, after taking this training course, you still think you can’t close a prospect. YOU MUST LEARN TO DO IT. IT’S NOT AN OPTION.
B O
R T
Just as having the right manager, coach, and teammates is crucial to winning in team sports, it’s important to have the right team to succeed in your business. In the case of a multi-level marketing company, your team consists of the executive team at corporate, other corporate personnel, your sponsor and upline, and your downline. The better each of these team members is, the greater your success will be!
Begin by finding the right company. Study the executive team. Make sure you’re jumping in with a team that has experi-ence and knows what they are doing. Then look for a sponsor/ mentor who supports his or her organization. Get someone who is actively involved in the building of his or her downline and who has a powerful, active upline. Then work to become that same person for your downline. Be everything for your team that you expect your upline to be for you.
Although there are many individuals on your team, there is one player you want to pay particular attention to: the
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company itself. Understand what is unique about the company with which you’ve aligned yourself. Be able to articulate that uniqueness clearly and help others understand why you chose to align yourself with the company you’re with. Following are some pieces of information about MLM companies for you to chew on. We’re not going to recommend any particular MLM company for you to join. That’s your decision. But suffice it to say that the common elements among successful MLM distribu-tors (or, as we call you, MLM/Internet Business Owners) are far too strong to ignore. When choosing the company with which you are going to create your business relationship, consider the following:
t ɨF.BOBHFNFOU5FBN)PXTPMJEJTUIFNBOBHFNFOU team? What is their experience in the MLM industry? Do they understand the needs of you as a distributor and self-employed business owner working with them? t " 3FBM 1SPEVDUɨF QSPEVDU ZPVSF PĊFSJOH IBT UP
be compelling. You can have a great compensation plan and lots of excitement and hype going on in the company, but if you don’t have a real product that real people are really going to use, your business will not be a long-term one. Fads come and go. Bogus products are exposed for what they truly are (or, we might say, what they aren’t), MLM companies without real products close down and go away, and the distributors who have worked to build their businesses are left to start over again somewhere else. You don’t want to find yourself in that boat. Find a company with a real, compelling product.
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the market being served by the MLM company you’re considering working for? Has that need already been met? Is the market saturated? Is the education curve too long? Will the company (and you) lose momentum before the product catches on? There are many great ideas out there, but great ideas don’t necessarily trans-late into great companies or product lines. The market must be ready for what you’re offering. Timing in the marketplace and your specific industry are important for your success.
t 5JNJOH JO UIF $PNQBOZɨFSF BSF WBSJPVT TDIPPMT of thought as to when the best time is to align oneself with an MLM company. Like any other business, you want to strike while the iron is hot. You want to be part of motion and energy. So consider the company you’re looking at hooking up with: is it in a stage of growth, or has it leveled off? You may think this means working with an established company is a bad thing. Not at all. It just needs to be in growth mode.
t 'JOBODFT*TUIFDPNQBOZZPVSFDPOTJEFSJOHmOBODJBMMZ stable? Is it, perhaps, even debt-free? Financial stability means everything to the success of any company in this dog-eat-dog world. You don’t want to see your hard work vaporize because the company you’re working with lacked staying power to get through the barriers every MLM company has to plow through.
t 3FHVMBUPSZ *TTVFT"UUPSOFZT HFOFSBM TFFN UP MPWF making an example of MLM companies. Admittedly, some of them deserve the legal attacks brought upon them, but some do not. Is the company you’re consid-ering currently involved in any regulatory issues? If
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so, look into them and decide whether you think the claims are founded. Remember, perception is reality in each person’s mind, so even if the issues being brought against the company are not legitimate, they may still pose problems for you as an affiliate of that company. t $PNQFOTBUJPO 1MBOɨF RVFTUJPO IFSF JT TJNQMZ
“Can I make money with this company’s compensa-tion plan?” You’re going to spend a given amount of time each week building your business. You’re going to contact a given number of people. You’re going to recruit a certain number of those people. You’re going to move some quantity of product. You want to make the most money you can for those efforts. Over the years we’ve seen compensation plans that have blown our minds with their money-making potential, and we’ve seen compensation plans that, despite peak performance, still pay a relatively small amount to the distributor. Be cautious and find a company with a plan that works for you and your situation.
t ɨF8IPMF1BDLBHF/PXMPPLBUUIFXIPMFQBDLBHF the management team, the product(s), timing in the industry and marketplace, timing in the company, finances, regulatory issues, and the compensation plan. Is the package compelling as a whole? Does it get you excited? Will it excite other people? Can you believe in it and sell it? You have to be able to answer yes to this if you expect to succeed.
Here are just a few final facts for you to think about as you undertake the task of choosing the right company:
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past 50 years. Out of those, only eight have exceeded annual sales of $1 billion and only 27 have exceeded annual sales of $100 million. Of those 27, six have gone out of business despite their previous success. So there are 21 companies with annual revenues of $100 million or more. Add to that the factors of growth stage, new product introduction and diversification, financial stability, management strength, and regulatory factors, and the field becomes very narrow. The bottom line is this: make sure you do the research on the company you’re considering aligning yourself with and choose one you can stick with for the long haul. You’re going to put the same effort into growing your business regardless of which company you’re with. You might as well choose the one that will bring you the maximum financial benefit for your efforts.
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There is a mindset that is necessary to succeed in your new Internet business. Rich people build businesses through networks and by leveraging themselves. They work with other people, not for them. They take responsibility for their own destiny. This is exactly the opportunity you have before you right now.
New fortunes are being made every year by people who used to work for someone else. These people have seen an opportu-nity and seized it. Most of those fortunes are being made with the opportunity that we’re talking about in this book: building a successful MLM business. You have an even greater advantage than most, too, since the majority of those people don’t have the system we’re sharing with you to build their new businesses with. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, let us say this again: The more training you receive, the better your chances of
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huge success. Get into the mindset, get trained using this book and your website, and become one of the next super-success stories out there!
One final element of a winning mindset is that of being a finisher. “Focus and Finish!” This is our mantra. You’ll hear it from us often. You must be able to focus on what you want and push to the finish line if you’re going to succeed. Plant this firmly in your mind, then focus and finish!
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As we take you through the five-step system of achieving success with your new business, you’re going to hear these things again, in more depth, but they are important enough that we want to plant their seeds in your mind right now. We’ve found repetition to be important in our own learning and trust the same is true for you.
As soon as you’re finished reading this book, order 1,000 business cards for yourself through the back office of your website. (This is a feature your system should have built right into it.) When you see you’re getting a little low on cards, order another box. Keep doing this until you are a millionaire. It may sound painfully simple, but it’s integral to your success.
Once you have your cards, hand them out to everyone you meet and invite them to go to your website and take your FREE TOUR. Some of these people will leave their names, numbers, and email addresses asking you to contact them. The auto-responder at your website will send them a message letting them know you’ll be contacting them soon. Your website will also notify you by text message and email that you have a
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new lead—(hopefully) a very hot prospect who has looked at your business and is waiting for a call from you! You will never waste time and energy on people who aren’t interested in the opportunity or product you are offering. Do you understand the beauty of this? It’s huge! You now have proven tools lever-aging the power of technology to maximize your returns while minimizing (or eliminating altogether) the hurdles that keep so many people from succeeding at MLM—and you are going to build it all online.
When you have a new team member, have him read this book and get trained in the back office of his website immedi-ately. Have him order his marketing cards on the spot. He can start his training during the few days it takes for his cards to show up. There’s no need to wait for anything with this system that has been created and perfected for you. You can get going right now, and so can everyone you bring into your organiza-tion. You’re likely already getting a vision of what this book and your MLM Internet business are all about. Good! By the time you’ve read the more detailed information that will follow, you’ll be ready to hit the ground running.
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Knowing who you are in the scheme of your business is important as you talk with people. Are you a product person? In other words, is it the product you’re providing that drew you to your business? Or are you an opportunity person? Is it the business model and compensation plan that have drawn you to enter this business? It doesn’t matter which is your greater focus, but it will help you to identify which person you are.
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If you’re primarily a product person, make sure you also understand the opportunity side of the business since many people you’ll talk to have a specific interest in the business opportunity. If you’re an opportunity person, make sure you don’t overlook the importance of the product side of the busi-ness. Remember our comments about getting your own story? This is true in any case, even if you’re primarily focused on the business opportunity.
Whether you’re a product person or an opportunity person, remember you don’t ultimately have to do the work of educating your prospects on your own. It’s important to know enough to carry on an intelligent conversation, but your site is the real key to sorting through your prospects. It is your prime education tool. Hand out your cards actively with an invitation for people to visit your website and look at your business. Get them to your site as quickly as possible. Tell them as much as they need to know to get their interest level to the point they will take the time to go to your site, but don’t go beyond that point. Let your website do its job!
One of the great benefits you’ll see with our proven approach to building a successful, money-making Internet-based MLM business—using the corporate MLM company to do most of the hard work—is that we’ve taken out the need for you to attend meetings all the time or have your prospects coming to hotel conference rooms or parties. You don’t have to be a great sales-person, either. Just focus on getting people to your website to take the FREE TOUR. Those who are interested will leave their information. Once they’ve done that, they are pre-qualified. They are the willing and wanting! They have a real interest in looking at owning their own MLM Internet business. This makes your
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job much easier and it’s much more effective. Above all, it’s not embarrassing. This is something you can be proud of!
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Have we mentioned quitting yet? Guess what, this won’t be the last time, either. Why? Because it is such a common occur-rence in the business world. People begin with pie-in-the-sky dreams that will never come true without a solid system working for them. When the money doesn’t come easily, they quit.
There will be difficult times. We’re not going to deny that in any way. Every business has its tough times. The average person who gets involved with an MLM company talks to three people, then quits. Three people! Why? Because they invite three people to go to a meeting. These people either decline the invitation or say they will come, then don’t—and “Whamo!,” the new MLMer has quit because of rejection and fear. No one likes it. We’re not getting down on anyone for feeling this way. It’s only natural to get discouraged when you’re rejected!
With the system we’re teaching you in this book, you will NOT experience this type of rejection, so the fear can all go away. No one is going to throw your business card back in your face and exclaim, “I’m not going to your website!” They may not go. They may not have any intention of going in the first place. But one of two things will happen when you hand your card to them and invite them to visit your website: Either they’ll take your card, put it away, and never go to your website, or they’ll take your card and go to your website. Either outcome is quite painless, so there’s nothing to fear! Now you at least have a chance they will go to your site, whereas the person who has
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rejected your invitation to attend a meeting definitely is not going to attend a meeting.
Talk to everyone you can. Remember, you are not limited by your warm market list. Hand your card to everyone and invite them to visit your website and take the FREE TOUR. (If you are getting sick of us telling you to get people to your website to take the FREE TOUR, sorry, ‘cause we’re not even close to done yet!) Some will. Some won’t. So what? Next! It’s all a numbers game. But now it’s a numbers game of inviting people to visit your website and take a FREE TOUR if they are interested in becoming an Internet Business Owner. (A little different from asking people if they want in on the next big ground-floor MLM deal, don’t you think?)
At this point, ask yourself who you want to be: the person who is expected to be a great marketer, a superior salesperson, a seat-filler for opportunity meetings, and many other functions that may or may not fit your style; or the person who simply has conversations, hands out business cards along with an invi-tation to take a look at a website and take a FREE TOUR, and calls the willing and wanting people who have asked to be called because they are interested in your business and products? It’s up to you. We like option “B” best, ourselves.
Next time you feel like quitting, go to Ken’s personal website (www.KenForrest.com) and get the FREE COPY of the e-book version of his book, Dare to Dream. Read it every time you’re feeling distracted, frustrated, or challenged in any way. It’s FREE. Use it!
Some naysayers might even take the statement we just made and tell you, “If you have to keep hyping yourself up over and over, there must be something wrong with what you’re doing!” All we can say about these self-proclaimed experts is they are
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either not personally successful (which is usually the case with these people) or they’ve lost sight of how they achieved their success. Sometimes people become complacent after they have “arrived” and forget all the motivational speeches they gave themselves along the path on those tough days when things looked dismal. Ongoing motivation isn’t a bad thing, it’s a necessary thing! One of our long-time associates, Bryan Waldon Pope, founder of the Marketing Success Institute, has summed up this fact in a way that will make sense to you and the naysayers in your life:
“I often hear people say motivational seminars, inspirational books, and other such materials clearly don’t work because the effects fade so quickly. So do the benefits of eating a good meal. But instead of avoiding eating altogether because of this short-coming, I make sure to eat three times a day!”
You need to motivate yourself every day! Look at the successful people around you. They’re studying, reading, listening, attending, and doing everything they can to stay on top of their game and keep their focus and motivation. You need to do the same.
Visualize your goals and dreams. Be very clear on them. Know right now why you’ll never quit. Be a lion today and every day! (More on that later from Ken.) And above all, Dare
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Beginning in the next chapter, we’re going to share the details to this rock-solid, proven, five-step system that has made millions of dollars for us, our partners, and many of our clients.
You’re going to see that it is very simple. As we’ve already stated, keep it that way! But please, no matter what you do, don’t make the fatal mistake of taking any shortcuts. When people see something that is simple, they often assume it can be manipulated, reworked, or modified. Perhaps the mindset at work in these instances is that if one simple thing works, another simple thing will work as well. This is not the case here. Stick to the proven path. Follow the steps in order and with precision.
You may be one of the people who read this book and say, “What are these guys talking about? There are many roads to success on the Internet and in direct sales. What makes them think they have a corner on that market?” That’s a fair question, and we won’t disagree with you. There are many ways to make money with your own Internet business and in direct sales. If you are lucky enough to have already figured it all out, then God has literally blessed you. For those of you who haven’t reached all your dreams yet, please read on with an open mind. There are many elements to this system and reasons why they work. We’re not going to bore you with the historical details of everything that has gone into creating this system. All you need to know is that it works—every time—when you follow it to the letter.
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A “R” B
One of the benefits of packaging your MLM business as an Internet business is that it will attract people with its legitimacy. You have a great website with world-class tools, and they can have the same thing for themselves…instantly. Internet busi-nesses have a prestige about them that attracts people. You’re seen in a better light than others who are building their busi-nesses without a website or with a website that is nothing more than an electronic brochure. Sixty-nine percent of potential customers do online research before making purchasing deci-sions. It’s just the world we live in today. Your website will add substantially to your credibility and influence, giving you the confidence to go out and build your business without hesitation. Simply stated, most everyone would love to own a successful Internet company, and you’ll be the one ready to show them how.
So let’s get your successful MLM Internet business underway!
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Step #1: Get the System
&
Learn the 5 Steps
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UST as you would need a piece of property, a building,equipment, and other elements to successfully own and operate a fast-food restaurant franchise, you need specific tools and assets to be successful in your MLM Internet business. In this case, if you’re paying attention to what we are saying, your business is Internet-based, so you need an Internet busi-ness. You need a website. You’re already—or soon will be—a distributor with a great company that has world-class products. Now you need your place of business, which, in this case, is a website.
The good news is that you don’t need to go out and create a website for yourself. You don’t need to hire programmers or web designers. In fact, you don’t need to know anything about the web if your company is using a distributor web system that meets the following five criteria:
1.) It is identified as personal and specific to you so that only you get credit for all business that comes through
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it. It must have your name, phone and email address on every page.
2.) It must have a FREE TOUR clearly visible on the home page so when you start sending people to your site and telling them to take the FREE TOUR they don’t get confused when they get there. This FREE TOUR must clearly and quickly (under 10 minutes, preferably using video) share your company, product and oppor-tunity with your potential customers and fellow future Internet entrepreneurs.
3.) It must be able to ask for and collect a lead at the end of the FREE TOUR. Hopefully it can also give or sell a sample of your product right there and allow a pros-pect to actually join on the spot with online application forms.
4.) In what we will call your back office (it is called many different things in different companies), your system must have great lead management and notification tools. It must also have the ability to send out auto-responder emails to anyone who visited your site and left their contact information. In other words, the system must be able to email your leads a nice message from you even if you are away from your computer. It must also be able to store your leads and allow you to view, forward, email, call, or work these leads in the best ways possible. And it’s really helpful if your web system notifies you every time you get a new lead, make a sale, sign up a new Internet Entrepreneur, or have a team member take a training class.
5.) Your system’s back office must have—and we mean MUST HAVE—training modules, classes or videos
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that all new Internet Business Owners like you and your downline can take at their leisure, over and over, 24/7, from anywhere in the world. THIS IS A MUST! Does it seem like you’ve read this before? You have! Remember, we told you we were going to repeat ourselves and plant these key points in your head. You’ll hear it again, too. It’s all very simple, but it must be done in order, and it must be done right!
If your company hasn’t used Solution X, but has copied our system or bought a knock-off of our system, hopefully it still has what you need. (Solution X has patents pending on its automated system of online tours, lead capture, lead response, online sign-up, and training system dating back to 1996 with its founders. Simply put, we were the first and we are the best!) If you find your company doesn’t have the complete system we talk about in this book, contact us at Solution X (SolutionX. com) and we will build a system for you and your downline. Then you just might become the number one distributor at your company like so many of our clients are at theirs!
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Step #2:
Get Business Cards
(Marketing Cards)
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UR approach to business (or marketing) cards is alittle different from anything you’ve seen before— and a lot more effective. Our cards have only three elements on them: the company’s logo, your name, and your URL (web address). Why? Because you don’t want to spend your time having a lot of long conversations with people that don’t really get to the heart of the matter. People want to get into all kinds of discussions about how long you’ve been with the company, how the products work, details of the compensa-tion plan, and many other things that really don’t need to be addressed right now. What you want is for people to see how duplicatable the system that is working for you is, and that it can work for them, too. You want people to get to your website and take the FREE TOUR.
By providing a business card that only contains the three elements mentioned—the company logo, your name, and your web address—the person to whom you have given the card has only one option if he or she wishes to take action. That option:
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go to your website. This is one of the simplest, cheapest, and most effective ways to build your business. Your prospect has all the information he needs to take the next step and look at your business. Being engaged in the website will be far more effec-tive in telling him about your business than a conversation—in which you may or may not maintain control and which might not go the direction you’d like—would be. The system we’re talking about here has been designed and refined through years of experience and is the best way for most people to recruit others for their business. Don’t be fooled by the simplicity of this approach. It works!
Just to show how complete the Solution X web system is, you even order your cards through it in most cases. You enter a couple items of information, click, and your cards are on their way to you in just a few business days. It’s easy for you, and it will be easy for everyone you recruit into your business. Handing out these cards is the simple and effective way you will keep from getting personally rejected, sort through the people you meet, and find very qualified prospects who like what you are doing and want to get involved. Once again, the system is highly duplicatable and, therefore, highly effective. The system even effectively uses the time between when you order your cards and when they arrive. Let’s see how that time is used in the next chapter.
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Step #3: Get Trained
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ETTING trained is extremely important, and wehave everything you need to get trained right. You’re going to go through a minimum of four online training courses. They are:
1. Getting Started 2. Card Marketing 3. Following Up 4. Closing
In these training courses, you will learn all the best prac-tices for using the system we’ve created for you. We’ve made no assumptions about what you know. You’ll get it all from square one. Take these training courses at your website as soon as you’re set up. If you just can’t wait to get into them, you can also take them FREE at either of our personal websites (www. KenForrest.com or www.RodgerSmith.com). The transcripts of these courses are also included at the end of this book for your convenience. You have everything you need to succeed, ready to go for you right now!
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Regardless of what you do in this life, there are others who have gone before you—people who have already traveled the path you’re on. Doesn’t it make sense to benefit from their expe-rience? Absolutely! So look at others who are successful and do what they have done. When these people like you and are willing to help you and share their knowledge and experience with you, they’re called mentors. We’re here to be your mentors, as are many others whose experience and success have gone into this system. Learning under the care of a mentor is the best training you can undergo. And, to make it even simpler, we’ve done the legwork for you and created the systems you’ll need to succeed. When you finish reading this book, go to your website and take all the training classes available for you there. You’ll have a jumpstart on your training that will save you months, or even years, of passing through the learning curve by taking advan-tage of your mentors. So now it’s your job to study and absorb what we’ve put together for you. And don’t think training is a one-time event, either. To be as successful as you possibly can be, your training will be ongoing. The most successful people in the world are those who never quit learning. Discover a thirst for knowledge and training, act on that thirst, and watch your success soar!
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There are two schools of thought you can choose to follow: The School of Hard Knocks or The School of Modeling (and no, we’re not talking about becoming a super-model here). The
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School of Hard Knocks is one that brings success to many. It certainly isn’t a bad school. It’s just a school that takes a lot of time to get through and has a high dropout rate. Although going through this school to reach your goals is certainly a viable option, it’s not the most effective one.
The School of Modeling is one in which the students model their businesses and business lives after those of others who have already succeeded in the same area. Its dropout rate is lower and the success rate of its students is higher. If you’re stuck on wanting to say you forged your own way—you cut your own path through the business jungle—then maybe you need to go to The School of Hard Knocks to feed your ego. But if what you’re looking for is maximum success in the shortest time possible, The School of Modeling is for you. Find your mentors and engage them now!
You’ll read a few success stories later in this book that will inspire you and give you some insights into how others have found success in the direct sales industry, but there are other people right in your organization who can help you as well. Seek those people out, meet them, and ask them questions that will help you understand what they did to succeed. They’re waiting to be your mentors. Don’t be afraid to ask for help. These people want you to tap into their knowledge base and use what they have learned for your benefit.
Along with discovering for yourself what others have done to be successful, you need to practice. With practice, anyone can become good at anything they want to. It’s all about your mindset. And the more you practice, the more ingrained your mindset will become!
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Mentors are one of the most effective training tools you’ll ever find. They are free, easy to get, and will love helping you. Don’t be proud and think you’ve got it all figured out. That wastes time. Here’s a story from Ken that illustrates just how willing successful people are to mentor those in whom they see passion and potential:
“I found one of my early MLM mentors in a man named Mark Hughes. Perhaps you’ve heard of him. He founded a company called Herbalife. In February 1980, Mark began selling his Herbalife weight loss product from the trunk of his car. In 1986 the company went public and began trading on the NASDAQ stock exchange. At the writing of this book, Mark’s dream has spread to over 1,500,000 distributors in 64 countries worldwide and has sold billions!
“As a teenager, Mark decided he wanted to help people change their lives through better nutrition. He had watched his mother try one fad diet after another—ultimately dying from unsafe dieting habits—and knew there were solutions he could offer the world that would be much better than what they had. Mark was a bona fide genius. I say ‘was’ because, very tragically, Mark is no longer with us. He died in 2000 at the young age of 44 with his company still experiencing substantial annual growth and literally millions of people worldwide regarding him as one of the world’s best salesmen and entrepreneurs. Mark had a lot going for him.
“I was a young and impressionable 21-year-old when Mark and I first met, in the late ‘80s, shortly after his company went public. Mark flew me to Los Angeles. His limo took me from the
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airport to his home in Beverly Hills. I was impressed with what Mark had and wanted this same kind of success for myself.
“Mark wowed me for several days with the power of lever-aging the efforts of other people to make more money for everyone. I saw—probably for the first time—the real power of getting a small piece of the efforts of a large group of people. It’s just like J. Paul Getty said: ‘I’d rather have one percent of the efforts of 100 people than 100 percent of my own efforts.’
“Mark showed me that MLM is a great—and sometimes the only—way for someone without a lot of time or money to get into business and succeed.
“I became an Herbalife distributor and learned the ropes of being teachable and teaching others. I also had the opportunity to work with Mark creating marketing and training tools for his company. In fact, Rodger was working with Mountainland/ Clear Image at that time and we worked together producing Herbalife’s ‘Have You Seen My Video?’ campaign. My experi-ence with Mark and Herbalife was pivotal in the success I’ve enjoyed in the MLM industry over the years. Now that I’ve shared this story, let me go back and make my point about mentors.
“By the time I met Mark Hughes, he was already wildly successful. He had a thriving company, beautiful homes, all the vehicles he ever wanted (including a private jet and yachts), and just about everything else anyone might ever want out of this life. What did he need out of a 21-year-old with very little expe-rience in MLM? The simple answer to that question is nothing. But he wanted to help me. True mentors don’t look at what’s in it for them. It’s all about what they can offer others who are following in their path.
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Our working relationship was mutually beneficial, as many mentor-relationships become. But again, a true mentor gives without a view toward what he will receive. Any benefit to the mentor is just gravy.
“I’m very grateful to Mark for seeing whatever it was in me that made him willing to spend his time and money to mentor me. There are people out there right now who can see the same things in you. They’re willing to spend their time, money, and other resources to help you succeed. It seems sort of crazy to someone who hasn’t experienced it before, but it’s true! Mentors enjoy giving back. They honestly want to see you succeed. Mentors are never jealous of their protege’s success. They take great pride in seeing their students succeed, knowing they had a part in getting them there.”
Your MLM mentor should be a person in your company— ideally, but not necessarily, in your upline. Learn from your mentor. Read everything he or she has written. Listen to podcasts, presentations, and other audio products your mentor has created. Go to your mentor’s website and study it. Participate in your mentor’s conference calls and trainings. In short, soak up everything you can from your mentor! Then…and here’s the important part…copy it!
If you can’t find a personal mentor, don’t despair! This book, the system we’re sharing with you, and the two of us (through our websites) can be your mentors for FREE. While we strongly suggest getting a personal mentor as well, you can still achieve success with this virtual mentor approach. Use it. Copy it. Succeed. Become a mentor to others. That’s the cycle that makes MLM work best! Don’t try to reinvent the wheel. Take the word of your mentor and spend your energy succeeding!