Today we’re gonna cover why network marketing!
I’m gonna share the top four reasons to do network marketing and top four reasons to not do network marketing.
Now, full disclosure, I have made millions of dollars inside of network marketing but that does not mean I think everyone should be doing it.
First, I’m gonna share with you my take on network marketing, the good and the bad. Then, I’m going to share the four reasons that you may consider doing network marketing. The impact in my life, the good that I see and lastly I’m going to share four reasons not to. Quite frankly, some people do get started in network marketing that really shouldn’t. So, let me help you.
Here’s my take on network marketing. This is for many a very misunderstood profession and I do see it as a profession. My definition of it is, it’s the lowest risk, lowest overhead way for the average ordinary person to start a business.
If you compare it to podcasting, to blogging, to even being a realtor, the skills, the costs and the amount of work you need to do to make money in those endeavors….I actually think (because of the systems of network marketing), it’s easier. I really do.
Look at the number of people that start a podcast that never make much money or any money, the number of people that start a blog that don’t make any money, the number of people who buy the exam materials to become a realtor that also don’t make any money, it’s pretty astounding. I mean there’s a lot.
What I like about network marketing is you literally have one job.
You’re not figuring out the supply chain management, the currency conversion. You’re not figuring out the human resources, the patents, the copyrights, the idea, you’re not mixing it in your basement. Your job is to ask people hey, are you open to taking a look at what I got and then point people to something that was already created for you. It gets shipped out for you, the compensation is handled for you, so you really have one job and that is to fill the pipeline.
With that being said, there’s a lot of people that don’t understand network marketing at this level. They come in and they stretch the truth or they lie. They say oh, you don’t ever have to sell anything, right? Well okay, how do you get compensated?
You got to get someone to buy something, and that’s selling. A lot of people shy away from the reality of network marketing, that it is pay for performance. With anything that’s paid for performance, you’re going to have a lot of people that don’t perform. They don’t do the work.
If you get a job as and don’t do the work, they fire you. In network marketing, you don’t get fired. You just don’t make any money, just like a realtor. The realtor that puts their signs in the garage and doesn’t talk to anybody, doesn’t make any money either.
That’s my take on network marketing.
Now, let’s dive into why you may consider it and why you may not.
What are my four reasons to do network marketing?
Number one…..time freedom.
Time freedom means that it carries. Most network marketing companies at least carries, a residual income effect. When I was the number one income earner of a network marketing company, I would have people ask me, “how much did you make your first month” and my answer was “you know what? I’m not sure, because there are people that I brought in as a customer in the first month that are still ordering five years later.
I can’t actually equate, I did that activity five years ago in my first month but I’ve been paid on it every month since. So how much did I actually make? It’s hard to calculate. I don’t know.
This is something that most people have absolutely no way to do. They don’t have a way to make residual income. Why? Because how can you make it? Well I know one way, (didn’t work out for me), but that’s rental income.
When I first got started in real estate, me and a partner bought 37 rental units. We had duplexes, triplexes and single family homes. If it made more than a hundred dollars a door over the principal interest, taxes, insurance, then we would buy it. We had 37 rental units and that was tough to deal with tenants. We had to kick out some drug dealers, do repairs when someone took a sledgehammer to a toilet, repair a wall when someone jabbed holes in it with a broomstick and shoved peanut butter inside, which attracted all the roaches.
So, it’s got its own issues, right? But that is one way. If you get enough rental properties and you’re making money over the principal interest, taxes, insurance, then that’s a way to create cash flow or passive income, residual income. Now, it wasn’t passive, for me. I had to go and manage the properties and do all those different things.
Another way is for you to just have so much money that you earn off the interest. You need millions and millions of dollars to really have anything meaningful in that regard.
The average ordinary person has zero way to make residual income, meaning they do something one time but they’re paid for it over and over and over.
So for me, that is the number one reason to do network marketing.
Number two….you can do this part-time.
This does not have to be your your full-time focus. Most people do this part-time. Now that can be difficult to do if you’re trying to make a lot of extra money. That can be tough to do on a part-time basis, but network marketing is designed in a way that is very scalable. You can do it as small/part time as you want or you can do it as big/ full time as you want.
I coach a client right now that brings home over a million dollars a month as a network marketing rep in her company. So you can take it as big as you want or you can work it as part time as you want.
Number three…you will meet new people.
I’ve made some of my best friends through network marketing. Some of the greatest people have gravitated toward network marketing, because they love being an entrepreneur, they love being around cool people, they love learning things and they love going to events.
And lastly, number four…personal development.
Now, this is really special because the more you develop yourself, the better you’ll do whatever you do.
A lot of times network marketing is actually the gateway drug.
A lot of people they start network marketing (whether it’s a fit for them or not) and they learn some things that has them go off and do another type of business. Nothing wrong with that. I’m not here to say it’s the end-all be-all and you got to do it, but it’s a great way for people that would maybe never have launched a restaurant or launch any other kind of business for them to start and get those business wheels going.
All right, what are the four reasons not to do network marketing.
Number one…if you are overly obsessed with the opinions of others.
You’re going to struggle with network marketing, especially in this country. Now, in Asia there is no bad stigma about network marketing. In Asia, network marketing is actually larger than this country. There are more business run in network marketing in Asia than in the United States, believe it or not.
Over there you’re like a borderline celebrity if you get good at network marketing, but in the United States, it has a stigma. It has a stigma from people that you know got in, made promises…promised the moon, or said you didn’t have to sell and just made up nonsense. Maybe they just used the exceptional story as that’s the normal. “Yeah, one guy made 10,000 in his first month” and that’s being hyped as the the normal story which it is not at all, that’s not normal at all.
If you’re someone that’s overly obsessed with the opinions of others, then you’re going to struggle with going out there and being a network marketer. Knowing you’re going to get hate in your comments, you’re going to have people tell you that it’s a pyramid, and that it doesn’t work.
It’s not that they understand network marketing, they do not, it’s that they hate network marketers because they’ve been approached poorly, they’ve been hyped, they’ve been lied to, they’ve been suckered into something or you know buying too much of something. So, If you got the trait of “I have to have everyone agree with what I’m doing”, you’re going to struggle with network marketing.
Number two….if you want something for nothing.
If you’re like “hey I’m going to join this thing, I won’t do anything, I won’t talk to anybody and I’ll get paid. Right?
That’s not how anything works.
Literally nothing works that way, nothing.
Real estate, car sales…..nothing on the planet works that way. I don’t do anything and now I make money, right? No, that’s not how it works.
It never works that way.
Your results are going to be dictated by by a couple things, okay? First one being, who you are when you join.
You’re either going to be punished or rewarded for the life you led before network marketing.
If you’re someone that has been a great friend to everybody. You’ve shown up at the birthday party with a nice gift, helped people move, been there to support them when they’re going through tough times, then you’re probably going to be rewarded. If you’ve surrounded yourself with people that are motivated, inspired and are open-minded then you’re probably going to be rewarded.
If you’ve surrounded yourself with people that complain. Complain about the government and media and they’re negative all the time and think everything’s a scam, or hates everyone that’s a millionaire because they clearly rip people off, then you’re gonna have a tougher time. Doesn’t mean you can’t make it happen but you are gonna have a tougher time.
Number three….if you’re looking for a guarantee.
There is no guarantee.
The guarantee is if you do the work, (reaching out to people, see if they’re open, set appointments, follow up, get them on presentations) some of them will say yes. What percentage? Don’t know. Depends on how you approach, depends on how they view you, there’s a lot of different factors that that go into that but there is no guarantee.
I remember I was doing a presentation and we had an income disclosure statement. The income disclosure statement is what the government makes network marketing companies have and show. Side note, they don’t make any other sales job have it but they make network marketing companies have it. It gives a percentage of who makes money and so you’ll notice, like any pay for performance, a very large percentage of people don’t make much or any money. I never hid from that. I never hid from that at all because I want people to understand that you either do the work of reaching out to people and asking them or you don’t do the work and you don’t make money.
I wanted that to be very, very clear and I had a guy say “well, it looks to me most people don’t make any money” and then he said “looks like only a small percentage of people make the big money.” And I said “you know what? You’re right.” and I picked up the income disclosure statement, I said “you know what’s cool about it though, at my last job, this wasn’t even possible.”
This is about possibility, not probability.
If you’re looking for a guarantee, then go get a job with a salary, no hate. Some people love their jobs, right? I didn’t like my job so I left it but some people love their job and that’s awesome. Nothing wrong with a job, right, but there is reality of what’s possible and what’s not.
Most jobs, it’s just not possible for you to make a million dollars a year or more, it’s just not possible. I wanted possibility, not probability. If you’re wanting probability then we’re going to lead into my last point here but it means there’s something you don’t understand.
The last point, Number four….you don’t understand the difference between a job and a business.
If you’re looking for guaranteed pay, that is not a business.
I have a friend (that will remain nameless) because he’s a good friend, I love him but he has a company that does a hundred million dollars a year and this year, he’ll make two million profit. Now, if you don’t understand business, that’s a very lean, lean profit margin, that’s a lot of money out there, a lot of risk without a big return.
I know people that make a million dollars a month (one of my clients), a million dollars a month in her network marketing company. She brings home more than his 100 million dollar business, kind of crazy. She spends about a $100 a month, that’s her expenses. His is 98 million a year. So job guaranteed pay, you show up, you do the work, you get this. There’s usually not a whole lot of possibility of doubling your income or tripling or gaining time freedom but it’s a guarantee.
If you’re looking for a guarantee, business, not just network marketing, is not a fit for you. There’s a lot of people that struggle with whatever kind of business, not just network marketing.
If you’re considering doing network marketing or starting some other kind of home business, you may want to grab a copy of our book called Time, Money, Freedom.
Time, Money, Freedom is published by Hay House. It is a best-selling book that Jess (my wife) and I wrote and it’s the 10 rules to radically reshape your life.
Full disclosure, it is not a network marketing book, I do edify network marketing in one of the chapters. It is about how Jess was able to leave the makeup counter, how I got out of foreclosure and how you can radically reshape your life. Feel free to grab it on Amazon, (we have it on audible, kindle and of course hardback) I think it’ll really help you.
Ray Higdon
Play Bigger. Make An Impact.
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