I’ve been an entrepreneur my whole life and was first introduced to an MLM at 18 years old. I was told to just hold “makeovers” for your friends and then the rest will take care of itself.
Invite people to your live events, bring them to meetings, and get them on the phone and the team would take care of the rest. I ran a few of them and even made some decent money, but even at a young age, I was frustrated in how many hours I worked for the bit of money I made.
I spent countless hours making posters(yes posters) to market my events and then even longer hosting them to possibly get a few girlfriends that perhaps wanted a lipstick or mascara. I spent money to keep a full closet stocked full of makeup that I didn’t even wear. Yikes! I quickly quit to finish my degree so I could “get a real job”.
What fascinated me was that while it was much easier to share videos, products, and presentations using technology, very little had changed in using the internet or social media. Home parties, vendor booths, meetings, presentations, prospecting everywhere, and three-way calls were STILL very much at the core for many companies.
Since technology, the internet, and social media do not appear to be going anywhere, it would seem logical to learn and then teach teams how to properly use the newer tools to build their business.
What I have noticed instead is many many distributors out there are attempting to use social media and doing it all wrong. They are using their personal facebook profiles to pitch their product and opportunity all wrong and turned many people off in the process, thus making it all the more difficult to get people to even listen to your opportunity.
I am not stating that the “old school” methods of building a network marketing business are ineffective in fact, they still working well for many. They just didn’t work well for me.
People have gotten used to the older methods but I found them to be less and less effective. However, there are many that desire and recognize that building online is where we are headed and many are jumping aboard. In fact, I recently ran an ad where a hater(yes you will get those) posted “oh no! Another talking head” and it got me thinking.
Many influential leaders in the industry have been concerned that it is more difficult to make true connections with people if you are taking away the conversation of meeting face to face. Those of us that have been building online for some time have learned the opposite to be true.
When I started, I had to work extremely hard to find people to even talk to about my product and opportunity. I was constantly “building relationships” but it was with an agenda in mind of talking to them at some point about what I had to offer. Relationships suffer here because not everyone will be interested, but you are constantly talking about it. What if this were not the case?
What if people were leaving you messages ASKING to speak with you directly because they are already interested in what you have to offer?
Does this not make your conversations already more meaningful and time effective? You are still connecting with people but are avoiding always prospecting relationships. It not only made sense to me, but it immediately worked.
Unless you are an established doctor, business owner, or influencer with many people that follow and listen to you then how can you build a professional and big business with those around you? Network marketing does have the word network in it. Many people know this already and so they compare others success with their own blaming the fact they don’t know enough people.
While this may be partially true they are forgetting one key piece and that is the marketing. The other word of the profession they are in.
This is where social media and attraction marketing come in. Instead of throwing motivating posts out there into the world what if you had a content strategy that broke down the skillset and brought the right or perfect prospect to you?
There is a formula or system that makes it easier to have meaningful conversations with people. You attract the right people who are anxiously awaiting what you have and you are spending your time connecting with them instead.
You plug into a system that teaches you how to expand your circle of influence and put value out into the world instead of pedaling your products to your poor friends and family every month.
If you are looking to take most of your business online, you must learn the skills. What is it worth to you to not have to chase your friends and family around to make sales? Would it be awesome to wake up to an inbox of people reaching out to you first to ask about what you offer? Are you interested in personal branding but don’t know where to start?
I decided I wanted to build online and yet I lacked the skills that I needed to effectively produce an income and also be a true professional. You can master the skills no matter your age or background and I’d love to help you in some small way get started on your journey. So if you are in business for the long haul it just makes sense to learn to build and thrive online. So what are waiting for? “Someday” will never just happen, but you can make the choice to follow your dreams. Let’s get to work!
You got this,
Emily
