MAKE YOUR MLM BUSINESS LIGHTER TO MAKE YOUR PAYCHECK HEAVIER

Here's another video that really inspired me.

It's not directly about MLM or network marketing or any home-based business.

... and yet it can definitely help you in your business.

I've found too many people (finger pointing at me) take their MLM opportunity so seriously. We work hard and are very intense to make it work.

But there's a strange natural law, that sometimes the more you go after something, the more it alludes you.

From a very practical viewpoint, what I found is that if you're trying too hard, you're blocking your own creative energy.

And more than that - you come across as too serious to other people, and that's just not attractive.

To succeed at network marketing, or anything else, you must have a balance of having a good work ethic, BUT also having a light-hearted attitude.

It's the light spirit that will attract others.

Anyway, this video is not about business. It's about life. And love. And community. And giving back. And everything. Actually it's beyond words. Watch it for yourself and get out of it what you need.

Please leave me a comment below and let you know what you thought of the video.

Yes, You Can Have MLM Success Now!

Haven't posted for a long time because been busy with some pretty huge projects. They're working out incredibly well.

I came across this video and just had to share it because it inspired me so much.

When talking to prospects it's amazing how many excuses they can come up with. Your downline too.

... and we have to be careful of falling into that same ditch.

YOU CAN SUCCEED! It takes a decision. It takes determination.

But yes, you can do it.

Watch this video and you'll see what I mean.

Please leave me a comment below and let you know what you thought of it.

Don't Be an MLM Tool

Hey all, I just returned from a trip to the amazing and beautiful country of Japan.

That's a picture of me, my wife and 2 daughters attempting to "blend" into Japanese culture. I don't think we were successful!

It was an incredible adventure and I highly recommend it for everyone.

There are many cultural differences between the US and Japan (though those differences continue to narrow).

One difference is that in Japan there is no tipping ... and yet they provide the best and most courteous service you'll ever experience anywhere. Where I come from you tip everyone for everything. But not in Japan. Still, they rush here and there to meet your every need ... with excellence.

In the cities we joined some group tours. But we also wanted to spend some time in the countryside and get a feel for how people live there. So during that part of our trip we hired a personal guide and also a private driver.

That was a very smart (but expensive) decision.

While I loved Tokyo, my favorite experience was in the beautiful countryside of Japan.

At one of our stops, which happened to be a tourist spot, I was looking all around for a place to deposit a napkin after eating my ice cream cone. But I couldn't find a trash can.

So I went to the men's room to find one. No trash can there either (no towels or hand dryers in them either by the way).

My guide noticed me searching around while holding the used napkin and she took it from me.

I asked her, "I haven't seen a public trash can anywhere since we left the airport. What's up with that?"

She informed me that they don't have public trash cans in Japan.

"How do they get rid of their trash?" I asked.

She told me they take it home to dispose of.

Amazing.

But you know what's even more amazing?

There is hardly any litter in Japan!

I told her of the contrast I had noted:

In Japan they have no public trash cans, not even in the restrooms, yet they have no litter!

Here in America, we have public trash cans everywhere you look, but the streets are still filled with litter!

In typical Japanese fashion she didn't say anything but just smiled humbly.

So why this ironic situation?

In the US we have the tools to dispose of the trash readily available, yet people don't make use of them as often as they should. The tools do not solve the problem.

In Japan, the tools for keeping the streets clean are not readily available, and yet despite that, the people keep their country clean as a whistle.

There's a parallel with MLM home businesses here.

Many people say the key to success is having the right tools.

I agree that tools are indeed very important. They make your job easier. However, there are still plenty of people in network marketing who have great tools provided by their upline or their company ... yet they don't make use of them.

So having the right tool is important, but there's something more important...

YOUR CHARACTER

When I refer to your "character," I mean your work ethic, taking action and following through on your business.

I see so many people join a new MLM company, be handed excellent training and fantastic marketing tools. They read a bit of the training ... but they never get around to actually following through on building their business.

And even the ones who do some work at first, rarely allow themselves the time to go through the normal learning curve of starting a new business. So you don't see them still working hard 6 months later. In fact they normally only take action for a month or two at most.

Sad.

And then they blame their upline .. or their company ... or anyone but themselves. And their life continues to be littered with failed opportunities.

The answer is simple. It lies in doing exactly the opposite.

The answer is to take individual responsibility, commit to your business for the long term, make a decision that you are going through the learning curve and that you will continue to make adjustments in your business and your behavior until you succeed.

So many people tell me, "network marketing is harder now than it used to be."

Bull cookies!

It's easier than it's ever been in the history of the world!

The truth on mlm is that there are many people who succeeded in multi-level marketing before we had the great technology available to us today. They're like the Japanese who keep their country clean without the convenience of the tools. They do it because it is a commitment they made and they are willing to go out of their way to make it happen.

With the incredible marketing tools we have access to now, success in MLM is much, much easier because these tools give us more leverage than we've ever had before.

... but you have to use them.

Here's one of my best MLM tips:

When it comes to marketing tools, I've found that the Internet is the greatest marketing tool I've ever used. There is a bit of a learning curve to it. If you're new to it, you can't use it to start sponsoring people your first week in the business.

But it's worth making a commitment to learn Internet marketing. An online mlm business will pay off for you big time!

What Your MLM Prospects Are Thinking

Let's try an experiment ...

A few months ago I created a poll asking people what they thought would help them in building their MLM or network marketing home-based business.

The response was excellent for 2 reasons (according to the feedback you gave me):

1. People enjoyed being able to give their input and express themselves.
2. People found that looking at the results of the survey gave them insight into the minds of their potential prospects and what they are looking for ... thus helping them to target their marketing efforts more effectively.

So let's try another survey, and here's the question for today:

Traditional MLM has taught for decades that we should build our business through our "warm list" and the "3-foot rule." Some argue that it's still the best way to build a downline because MLM is all about relationships.

Others contend that the world has changed. We now live in the Internet age and must adapt with the times. Marketing online allows us to reach more people and is more fun.

What's your opinion? Is Internet marketing for MLM superior to the traditional warm market approach or is it all hype?

This time instead of using Squidoo to create a poll, I think it would be more interesting to see people's actual comments.

So I invite you to click the "Comments" link immediately below this article, and a window will pop up where you can type in your opinion on this question. You can also read other people's comments there.

Feel free to write as much or as little as you want, and even ask questions.

Thanks for participating. This could be a provide some great insights for all of us!

Shiny Happy MLM Distributors

Thank you all for the extremely kind response I received from so many after my last post about my near death experience.

I received pages and pages of emails, and even flowers and gifts in the mail! Way beyond what I expected.

I'm humbled and grateful to have so many people caring for me.

Then there were a couple of letters that said something similar to this:

"Gosh, Barry, I can't believe you admitted that you had a health problem. Aren't you concerned that this will make people think your MLM company's products don't work?"

It's an honest question, so I don't want to be too harsh on those who asked it. But it really does point to something that has been, and continues to periodically raise it's head as a problem in our industry:

HYPE!

Do you really think that there is any nutritional network marketing company where EVERYONE who takes their super miracle juice has been able to avoid having a heart condition, or cancer or diabetes or a stroke or ...?

Obviously the truth is quite the opposite: Every nutrition company has people taking their products who have those conditions.

There's a reason that nutrition company's have to put disclaimers on their products, and it's a good reason: Nutrition is not medicine.

Distributors sometimes treat those disclaimers as annoying big-brother controls imposed by an evil coalition of the government, the AMA and the "money-hungry" drug companies.

It's convenient to have such an enemy, and it makes for a great story. And there may be just enough of a partial truth to it to make it believable. I acknowledge that.

But there have been times when our industry brought some of this on ourselves by making inappropriate claims for the products we market.

The best way to keep the government from over-regulating our industry is for us to self-regulate and stop making outlandish medical claims.

Look at the history of network marketing. There have been some exciting new product launches promoted with tremendous enthusiasm as an incredible product that was going to change the world.

Where are those products now?

They're still on the market. But the initial excitement isn't there any more for any of them.

Why?

Perhaps after people took them for awhile they found that they still got sick, had some health problems, and they weren't the "cure-all" promised.

This doesn't mean they weren't good products with excellent benefits that could be promoted with enthusiasm. It just means that they were sometimes hyped beyond reason.

In fact, if you look at some of the companies that hyped those "sizzle" products, you'll find that most of them have sizzled out. They're out of business, have shrunk dramatically in size, or have switched their product focus.

Why?

Because you can't sustain a business on hype. It's a self-defeating business model.

I'm of the opinion that most legitimate MLM companies have good products. We can share the legitimate benefits of them without having to make medical claims, and without having to pretend that they are cure-alls.

By promoting our products enthusiastically, but without hype, we can build long-term businesses without fear of government intervention or dramatic customer attrition.

The power to give our industry a bad name, or to repair it's reputation, is largely in our hands.