network marketing success

If you are struggling to make it in network marketing, this will help.

Here I share how to embrace the gift of desperation and build a network marketing legacy.

Network Marketing Success: The Gift of Desperation

There was a phrase said at the ANMP conference called the gift of desperation.

It’s hard to witness the gift of desperation at the time of desperation.

It’s easy for some people to look back and see the desperation as a gift.

I look back at my foreclosure days, I look back at being chased by the bill collectors, I look back at crying, looking at my bills stack up and feeling like a loser. I look back at that, and they’re all gifts. They’re all wonderful, amazing, packaged gifts that I’m so very grateful for.

Of course, when it’s happening it’s a little bit tougher. But I’m gonna make a suggestion for you… that is don’t cheat the gift of desperation.

[mashtweet tweet=”Don’t cheat the gift of desperation.” quote=”Don’t cheat the gift of desperation.”]

El Paso Story

Those of you who attended the ANMP event or watched on live stream, you heard about Larry Thompson’s story when he was in El Paso.

Larry tells it way better than I do, but I’m gonna give you a little bit of the highlights.

So, he’s only 90 days in the business, they ship him out to El Paso, where in his network marketing company there were zero reps in the state of Texas. Zero. This was 1968, I believe.

He goes out to Texas, where there is zero reps. It’s him. It’s a one man band. One man army. They tell him, “For every 10 people you approach, you should get one to a meeting.”

By the way, there was no Facebook Live, there was no Facebook, there was no webinar, there was no Zoom call. You could barely talk on the phone because it was so expensive. It was so expensive to talk on the phone, so you really didn’t talk to reps on the phone. It was all face to face. There were no credit cards, just cash. That’s it. There were so many things that we take for granted that wasn’t there.

So he goes out there, he’s a one man band. He was staying in a hotel room, renting out a conference room, and running meetings.

They told him. They said, “You know what, Larry, for every 10 people you talk to, you should be able to get one to a meeting, and for every 10 people in a meeting, one of them should join.”

He’s like, “Ok. Let’s do it.”

He starts doing it and he prospects 10 people. None of them agree to the meeting. Prospects another 10 people, none of them agree to the meeting. And, another 10, another 10, another 10, another 10. He starts getting some people there. Keep in mind, for every 10, they said you’ll average one that comes to a meeting.

Long story short, he’s had 52 people come to a meeting. ZERO sign ups.

That means he’s talked to over 500 people face to face and NO sign ups.

I’m not talking about rinky dink Facebook messages. No, “Hey, are you open to my product service opportunity?” I’m talking about face to face.

“Hey, would you be able to come to my presentation. Hey, would you be able to come …” 

He went out to talk to human beings. He was out there getting the business, because that’s all he could do. And he couldn’t take a credit card, he couldn’t phone anybody. He’s out there inviting people to a presentation.

He prospects over 500 people, gets 50 plus people to a presentation, zero sign ups. ZERO sign ups.

At this point he should have at least five, right?

Because they told him, they said, “Hey, for every 10 you get to a presentation, you should get one to two people.”

So, he should at this point have five to 10 people on his team. But he’s got zero.

Fifty people get to a presentation. And by the way, where was his support staff when he ran the meeting? Who was helping him do the registration at the door, do the name tags, who was helping him set up the presentation, who was helping him pass out paperwork, who was helping him give out pens so someone would hopefully fill it out? He was.

He shared a story about how every night for months after months after months after months after months after months after months after month, no friends, no one he knew, had never been Texas, he talks about his experience of every night he would listen to a record – some of you don’t know what that is – but he’d listen to a record, and he would cry himself to sleep.

Because you know one of the things that he really was terrified of is he was terrified of going back to California with his tail between his legs saying he couldn’t make it happen, and having to go back and get that job.

So over 50 people had come to the presentation. Larry’s about to pack it up. He’s about to pack it up and head back with his tail between his legs to California, crying himself to sleep every single night listening to Bobby Depew, Jim Rohn records and ready to go back to that construction job that he had boldly quit maybe a little too early.

But he was creating that gift of desperation story to impact people all over the world.

He was ready to cash it in. And the 53rd person he invited to a meeting signed up.

Number 53 signed up. Kept him in the game, started helping him at meetings.

Had prospected over 500 people face to face.

Have you prospected 500 people face to face? I’m not talking about 500 Facebook messages where you get keyboard fatigue, carpal tunnel. Right?

Number 53 signs up. First rep. Gave him some hope. Kept him in the game.

You could absolutely argue, that there’s a chain of events that if he didn’t stay in until number 53, we might not have our profession.

Don’t Rob Yourself Of The Gift Of Desperation

So, don’t rob yourself of the gift of desperation.

What would be robbing yourself? Robbing yourself would be to cheapen the experience.

Imagine if you’re going through a tough time, and you’re going through this gift of desperation, and you’re like, “You know what? I’m gonna see who I can borrow money from. That’s what I’ll do.” So instead of ponying up and putting your big girl/boy pants on, you just go to a bunch of people and ask for money. You just go to a bunch of people and ask to borrow some money.

The worst thing that could happen to you, the worst thing that could happen to you in your gift of desperation is it gets cheapened. Is if you go to a bunch of people and borrow money, and all of a sudden you’re like, “Oh, man. Whew. That really took a load off there.”

Well now good luck telling your damn story. You ruined your story.

“You know guys, I was really struggling, and you know what, I just went to a bunch of people and borrowed money, and that really helped me keep afloat.”

Imagine you’re all enthralled listening to this Larry story, and you’re like, “Whoa, man.” And then all of a sudden Larry comes to where he was really struggling and then he goes, “And then I realized that I had a rich uncle, and I phoned up my uncle and he floated me some money, and boy that really helped me stay in the game, then I was able to make it happen.”

You’d be like, “Oh. Bummer. Hmm. Damn, you didn’t work through it, huh? You didn’t have the cojones to work through that tough stuff, huh? You had to call rich uncle? Well, I guess I need to find rich uncle. I guess I need to find some people to borrow money from.”

See, you’re creating your story. The gift of desperation is your legacy.

Where To Start Your Story

That’s what you gotta do. You gotta dig within. And, you gotta find the chutzpah, find the cojones, find the fire, the lion, the caged tiger. You gotta find what’s inside of you to get past all the circumstances that are outside of you.

I’ll tell you where it starts. It starts in gratitude.

It starts in saying thank goodness that this exists. Thank goodness that this profession is here. Thank goodness someone invited me to a meeting, thank goodness someone told me about this deal, thank goodness you found your company.

It starts with that.

Network Marketing Is The Lowest Overhead

Because let me tell you. If you were super desperate, dead broke, try running a gas station. Try running other businesses, where the overhead is way more. Try running a restaurant when you’re dead broke, and you gotta get the food. You gotta pay the staff. You gotta cover the commercial square footage of the lease. Right? Try it. Give it a shot.

That doesn’t mean what we do is easy. It doesn’t mean if you’re in the midst of the gift of desperation that it’s easy. I’m not saying that. I’m just saying it’s probably not possible in other professions.

Here you have the opportunity to create financial freedom, and you can do it on a shoestring budget. It’s not no cost, but it certainly is low cost. $250 a month for auto ship is a whole lot cheaper than running a restaurant. Whole lot cheaper than running any other kind of business.

Be Grateful

Start to step into gratitude. What are you grateful for?

Are you grateful that you got ears to hear this training, or eyeballs to see this video? Are you grateful that you found this profession?

You gotta start thinking like that. Stop trying to cheapen the gift of desperation and ruin your story that could be a legend story for 50 years.

Did you find that helpful?

Let me know what you think in the comments below. And, feel free to share this with your teammates.

More Resources For You:

How To Attract The Right People To Build Your Network Marketing Team

Why People Will Join You If You Are Brand New

29 Sources of Leads so you never run out of people to talk to again.

Did This Help You? If so, I would greatly appreciate it if you commented below and shared on Facebook

mlm blog

Ray Higdon’s Network Marketing Blog
Email: [email protected]
Facebook – Facebook.com/rayhigdonpage

Considering Coaching? Check out my Work with Me tab and Survey where we Help People Everyday.

If you enjoyed this post about Network Marketing Success: The Gift of Desperation, retweet and comment please