I’ve been spending the weekend doing some research on our industry and I tell you what; it just seems to get more and more confusing here!! Talk about confused.com (An annoying advert in the UK)

Everyone and his brother is claiming to be an ‘expert’ and whichever internet route I meandered through to learn more about attraction marketing I just kept coming up against ‘conspiracy theories.’ We have the ‘The 7 great lies of network marketing‘ and all of those ominous sounding google ad words adverts that go with these endless conspiracies. You know the ones.. all about your nasty upline and what he or she doesn’t want to tell you. Golly and those upline guys seemed so genuine in every other way…. Is it possible these people are living a wicked double MLM life?

I absolutely love the principles of attraction marketing but all of this hype saddens me and confuses the socks off all the newbies. Not to leave it there though as the plot thickens. For those who can’t implement the ideas in Ann Sieg’s Renegade Marketer e book right off the bat, there is a next step… (Of course) Mike Klingler who seems like a pretty genuine and good guy to me, has come up with something called the ‘Renegade University’ which helps one learn how to implement the geeky stuff discussed in her book. It all looks pretty cool but of course what everyone seems to forget to mention is just how looooooooooooooooooooooong this stuff takes to implement. I was reading one of the mentor’s blogs and she wrote that it took her 6 weeks to set her site up. 6 weeks!!

We have people in our industry whom reach the top level of the pay plan in 3 months. (Okay not so many!)  Does the geek route sound like a recipe for showing someone how to get out of the rat race?  On paper, or on the screen, these systems of course always look really impressive with testimonials of guys sponsoring 10-50 reps a month. I’m not sure about you, but personally (i.e. personal enrolees…) I don’t think I could handle 50 reps signing up whom I have attracted to me because of my amazing IT and teaching skills. Of course I would always have to be on call as well. I have declared myself to be their saviour and superhero for all things they can’t understand or work out on their blog. (Lord help me – please don’t let it be a Word press or I’m stuffed! It’s all I can do to run my own.) So that kind of messes with my 4 Hour Work Week mentality!! Sorry Tim. In this industry if we build it once and build it right, we’re promised walk away income and freedom to travel the world with 24/7 residual cheques while we sleep. I don’t recall signing up to be an IT support engineer do you? Or perhaps a Virtual Assistant would be more on the money. I would certainly need to get outsourcing ASAP!! (I didn’t want the hassle of employees though did I?)

I have ranted slightly on my blog about this before because it irritates me that these guys use negatives to draw people into their own names’ list. They use standard adverts and really have no idea what each company or sponsorship line is teaching, but lump them all together in one ‘old school’ pile. I hear now that some are under fire from the DSA for exactly this reason. If only they would go about implementing these new principles with more finesse that wouldn’t be necessary, but they seem to live and die by the philosophy that they are single-handedly saving the MLM world from the upline demons who don’t want to work on the internet all day, and insist on actually talking to people they know and trust about their business. Honestly whatever next?

The irony is that there are great principles and systems contained within both styles of marketing. To cut out the basics is like throwing out the baby with the bathwater. Likewise to say attraction marketing doesn’t work is just plain silly. The guys who moan they ‘don’t know anyone’ when they do their warm list will be the equivalent of the guys who moan ‘I don’t know how to do all this techie stuff.’ The point being this is a challenging industry where we need to talk to people in one way or another. What concerns me is that many of the timid ‘I don’t know anyone’ people are hiding behind their computers, building websites and have been in the business with their new company (whilst their wicked sponsor calls them repeatedly, trying to work out why they haven’t exposed their exciting business to even one person yet) for months without getting into action. Meanwhile they are spending money faffing about learning social book marking and watching more gurus’ videos. By the time these poor folk work out how to generate a lead they’ll have lost heart and talked themselves out of their opportunity.

So what’s the secret? As one of my very successful and surprisingly truthful (!!) upline said, ‘there are no secrets when there is a pay plan this good as there is no benefit to stopping your people doing well.’ That’s very true but of course there are always new and better ways to do things.

If you’re still sharpening your pencil, picking up that heavy phone and putting it down again (after giving it a quick polish) and in confused.com land… I recommend not reading every conspiracy report that comes your way. It is a basic principle of this industry that mindset is a key element to your success, and so therefore dwelling on what you don’t have cannot be a positive thing. The sensible and sane thing to do is to follow the basic plan from your successful sponsorship line which is active in the field today and (most companies don’t have one so don’t be confused by those glossy brochures) Your warm list may be of great value to you and the people on it need to be told what you’re doing and given an opportunity to review a 3rd party tool. (Note 3rd party tools deliver the business message instead of you begging, pleading and whining!) Then you can focus on meeting new people as you go about your life, and learning the very complex strategies needed for online attraction marketing. The point being that you are already in action, whilst you learn. If you’re not excited enough to whiz over a video link to a friend to let them know what you’re doing then maybe you should rethink your career path!

The 3 foot rule does not exist anymore except for MLM psychopaths… this is a relationship business and if you focus on expanding your network both on and offline you will be moving in the right direction to becoming a Professional Network Marketer. Social Networking has opened up a whole new world for those who want to build online but also to keep it simple.

If you want to advance beyond the basics then I favour Mike Dillard’s attraction materials because in a confusing world they are simple to obtain and easy to absorb. They are also very good value for money, and Mike spreads a positive message. Click here for more info on Magnetic Sponsoring and how you can apply it to the business of your choice.

Note added as of 2 February 2009. I confess to having misjudged some of the resources I reviewed in this post. As Social Media has become more and more accessible to the masses and I have achieved some fabulous results generating leads and cash with the ‘geek’ route I have since researched the Renegade University and have been blown away by the training that Mike Klinger gives. It really is ‘click by click’ even for those in your team who are very non technical.

If you are not one of the fortunate golden ones that makes it in 3 months (not many are!) then I recommend you take a serious look at establishing your own web of content and cash machine online.  You can learn how to do it here

by Rachel Henke, (c) 2008 If you’d like to use this article for quality content on your website or blog please do so with our blessing but ensure the author’s link remains intact. 

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