Hope for a Better Future

Everybody knows that the cost of living is rising fast. Having just one single family income may not be the best way to make sure that the kids will be getting the best education in future. In Australia, the cost of attending university is expensive.  Many university students needed to work part time to fund their own education.

Some stay-at-home mums, however, got educated about how to create an extra pay cheque by taking on a part-time business that does not require huge start-up capital.  Some can make more money working part time than their husbands working full time!

Most stay-at-home mums would love to be able to contribute financially to the family’s income.

Many would love be to be able to able to pay for their kids’ education without worries or stress.

Others would love to have the peace of mind, knowing that the extra pay cheque would help significantly with the lifestyle after retirement.

Honestly, most people have something they would like more in life. 

Why Network Marketing ?

For many stay-at-home mums who want more out of life, they need a plan.

Many choose to earn an active income by finding a part time job or running a small business.

Typically, these mums can earn some extra money but trades the time to be with their family in order to go to work or run the business.

Now compare a career based on earning passive income.  What I mean is that you are getting paid on the loyalties of the products or services that you promote.  Over time, you earn money, have more quality time to do the things you love to do in life and have security. By working hard consistently and doing the right steps once, you get paid over and over again as loyal customers re-order. This is the wonder of passive income that no jobs or traditional businesses can provide.

What is extra attractive about Network Marketing is that it does not require a huge start-up capital . There is virtually no risk as there are no stocking up of products.  I place my monthly order of nutritional supplements and personal care products because I genuinely love using them!

There is no headache associated with large rental bills and other overheads. Nor do I have to worry about paying for employees’ wages. No-one in my whole organization is employed by me. We all work as a team, helping to promote the same products. Each of us get our loyalty kind of payment directly from the company. 

The size of the pay cheque depends on the amount of businesses that each of us have helped to promote. Simple and fair.

I have found out that Network Marketing is perhaps the best kept secrets from stay-at-home mums!

Can Hope Alone Give You a Better Future?

Definitely not! Hope, however, can set you onto a totally different path than the one that you are heading by default. Once decided to go for this career path, hope is not enough. You do not hope to bump into the right leader. You have to learn the specific skills, skills that can assist others to see that there is a better way.

Questions to Ask Yourself

These are some of the questions that might help you to get your mind clearer:

Lifestyle - Are you living the lifestyle you really want?

Income - Are you satisfied with your current income?

Career - Are you happy with your career prospects (if any)?

Retirement - Are you planning for your retirement?

Financial Independence - Are you going to become financially independent in the next few years (or any time) in your current position?

What is Next?

If you feel that you need to understand more about Network Marketing and how it might help you with improving your life, feel free to download my eBook “Navigating The Network Marketing Maze” by simply filling in your name and email address.

Alternatively, you may want to read some of my previous blog posts to gain a more through insight into this most misunderstood profession. Connect with me on social media platforms and we can talk.

You may also want to leave a comment below for more discussion.  If you have found value in this post, please share generously. All stay-at-home mums deserve to know that there is another way for them to ‘play a bigger game’ in life.

My Blogging Schedule

Early this year, I started to blog about Network Marketing for stay-at-home mums using the A-Z approach.  I wrote about G for Gift in February.  I then introduced my mini- video series for sharing some knowledge and insights that I have gained during my years in Network Marketing. I was supposed to continue blogging about H for Hope in April. 

Due to my mum’s sudden passed away in mid-April, I went back to Hong Kong and my blogging schedule was interrupted. I apologize for the late reply to some of your comments made in May.

After a two months’ break, I am back!

Upcoming Blog Contents

I would do my best to keep to blogging at least three times a week so that more stay-at-home mums can gain some insights into Network Marketing.

Could Network Marketing be done professionally?

Could I handle the home duties as well as a part-time Network Marketing business?

Do I need to attend hotel meetings in order to be successful?

Do I need to chase my friends and relatives?

Why should I try again while I have failed in Network Marketing before?

Why I should consider doing Network Marketing when my daily schedule is already quite full?

I love educating stay-at-home mums about this wonderful industry.

The decision whether or not to do more research (and possibly to get involved in this industry) is each individual’s own personal choice.

Until my next post (H for Hope) that would be published by 17 June (Monday), take care!

Poor Image

In many people’s mind, network marketing is about chasing their friends and relatives.  ”Oh, I don’t want to do that!” The thought of being in this Network Marketing chasing gang can be daunting for a stay-at-home mum!

Professional Image

What if you can do network marketing professionally? You don’t have to chase your friends and relatives.

How are we going to promote products, services or business opportunity if we are not chasing them? Simple,  we just help them!

One of my favourite trainers Tom ‘Big Al’ Schreiter joked about that the mission of all professional network marketers is to promote World Peace.

When people are keen to know what you have to offer, you share. That’s it. And if people are not open to new ideas, not open to checking out what you have to offer, leave them alone.

Where to Find People to Talk To?

This is a common question for  serious network marketers. If I’m not chasing my friends and relatives, where can I find people to talk to? 

A lot of people do network marketing by initially talking to their friends and relatives. This is mainly they know that the products and services can help them. Or, they believe that by promoting great products or services, they can bless their friends or relatives with an additional source of income. However, network marketing is not for everyone. Most people can only enrol just a few of their friends. 

Asking for referrals is a very effective way of getting the network marketing business going. Yet, some people are actually loving the product so much that they would like to promote it. That is, they themselves goes into the business.  They are to build their own business. They are not going to refer people to you. In that case,  you will have to continue networking.  This is what most mums can do well.

When done professionally, you continue to enrol others or get referrals from others who may know some other people who need the products or opportunity.

Attraction Marketing?

There is also one other newer breed of network marketing called “attraction marketing”. Marketing is primarily done online. The whole online community knows what you are doing. If people are looking for opportunities or looking for products and services, they will resonate with what you have to offer. They will contact you. This is a whole new different dynamic. You definitely do not need to chase your friends and relatives if you decide to do network marketing that way!

If you  would like to explore a little bit about this online attraction marketing, send me an email or leave a comment below.  I’ll be more than happy to help you along this journey. 

PS: While online attraction marketing is making a lot of buzz, attraction marketing can also be practised offline. How? Simply by doing network marketing professionally. Others will be attracted to you because of your professionalism. 

No Chasing Any More!

You can probably appreciate that chasing friends and relatives may not be the smartest move. I hope my blog post can be the wake up call for network marketers who are still chasing others like crazy!

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this topic! Do leave a comment. Thanks!

Welcome for another post focusing on dispelling some of the myths about Network Marketing. Today, I would like to cover the issue about seriousness in doing the business. That is, can people succeed using only part time efforts?

A Lot of Time & Effort?

A lot of people believe that they have to be serious enough to devote a lot of time and effort in order to make network marketing work. The reality is this doesn’t has to be the case.  If you want to work really hard and are able to commit to a lot of hours per week (say, over 30 hours),  you can certainly do that. However, this business model can also benefit part-timers.  Many network marketing companies have great compensation plan to reward part time network marketers too.

Part Timer Success Story

I’m going to give you a real-life example about a stay at home mum. When she first started, she worked part time when her children were at school. She shared the benefits of the products or the brilliant Network Marketing business as a way of earning extra income.  Over time, she gradually had a team of people in her organization who were continuing to share the products or the business. Her focus was in helping her team members do Network Marketing well. So, instead of she herself doing all the recruiting, she teamed up with her key leaders to promote either the product or business. 

Some people want to build a big organization. Some would like to have an extra five hundred or a thousand a month. By helping the leaders to realize their individual goal, her team grew.

Did she have to do a lot of work? A lot of time and energy and effort? Yes! But not necessarily full time.  She was focused and effective working part time!

Now, she has developed many great leaders. Her role shifted much from direct enrolling to team building and mentoring. She has created a legacy and a fine example for others to follow.

Next Topic – Chasing Friends and relatives? 

Next time, I’m going to talk about a much talked about challenge. This is about the having to chase friends and relatives into the business.

Until then, see you!

Your Comment

Did you also build your team by focusing on helping a few key leaders at a time?

I’d love to hear more inspiring success stories!

As always, I appreciate your leaving a comment or share in other social media.

Hi, over these few weeks I’m going to cover some of the ideas that I’d say are wrong ideas that people believe in Network Marketing.

Where Goes The Big Money?

Here is the Number 1 misconception – all the big money is being earned by the people who enrolled early. And I think this is the most ridiculous and discouraging one. I am with a company that has been around for over 25 years. I’ve seen so many people earning way more than their sponsor.

Network Marketing has a brilliant structure there. Anyone who joins the company owns their own business. They are much like independent franchisees. The success of their business is based on a proven system that works! Work hard, do the right thing, get the good results. No work. No results. Do the wrong things. Poor results. As simple as that.

Let me tell you the story of a truck driver who has been earning so much more than his sponsor because he shares his products and services like crazy, with a lot of people. At the early days, he had to sell the lower priced products in order to get some instant cash in.  He is now one of the top income earners with a huge organization. Many of his team leaders became successful and continued to share the company’s mission and/or products.

Let’s look at his sponsor. He was quite happy having a more relaxed lifestyle. He did not choose to go for another leadership level.  His monthly pay cheque would still be handsome one because he is receiving over-riding  commission that comes in every month through this ex-truck driver leader’s huge organization.

What about the bonus received by this ex-truck driver leader? HUGE cheque. Shouldn’t it be the case? He has been working hard consistently.

More Real Life Stories

There was this housewife who kept on improving and later earned enough to retire her husband. This couple has been continuing their empowering team training program to create ripple effects. This is another example of ‘ordinary’ people out-performing their sponsor.

In another case, this nurse ‘brought home’ this creating freedom idea, worked her way up the organization and eventually impressed her MBA husband to check out what was possible with building a successful distributorship business from home. This couple has now won awards from the ‘Most Improved Distributor’ to ‘International Distributors of the Year’.  They have been blessed with the stay-at-home option whilst their children are growing up!

Another key leader’s sponsor has even left the company BEFORE this key leader became hugely successful. If the sponsor were to stay, the cheque would probably be a much smaller one!

Conclusion

The point is, a lot of people think that they have to join at the top when the company first starts. The mindset is “Go in early, get a good position and then get paid by other’s effort”. The reality is the same compensation structure is there for everyone. Everyone is their own boss. In Network Marketing result counts. Not the position.

Next time I’m going to cover a point about “only serious players can earn big money in network marketing”. I hope you stay tuned for that. See you!

Welcome back to the last blog in this Network Marketing Challenges Mini Series. My purpose is to help those who are on this Networking Marketing Success Journey for an additional income stream or even financial freedom (which I like to call ‘repeat income’ or ‘monthly pay cheque’). I trust that my tips can assist you in saving  a lot of time, energy and effort.  

The Common Leadership Challenge

This time I’m going to talk about a very interesting challenge. This is about not being able to recognize the greatness in others. For some leaders, because they are so preoccupied with what they are doing, they fail to recognize that each and everyone have the potential to be great leaders. 

For example, when leaders fall into a management mode, they may be so focused on team training that they place less effort in providing individual attention and mentoring to potential team leaders. Very often,  in Network Marketing, we have people who initially do not believe they can achieve great heights. Those potential leaders are where they are because they have not yet met true leaders who can see their greatness and encourage them along the way. Let’s face it, we all have weaknesses. Leaders challenge potential leaders to step up. Step up, step up and up skill until they reach a level where they themselves realize that they have the ability to turn their dream into reality.

True Leaders Challenge Others

Here is one key element that leaders need to understand. For new network marketers, they might be a little bit challenged by the very idea of becoming a leaders themselves.  How are they going to help their team leaders?  This is a legitimate concern for most new team members. The leading journey involves ‘leading by example’. To the new team member, it is  ajourney of grodaul transformation. Yet, not all team members will choose to BECOME a leader.

‘Leading by example’ is a great way to inspire others. You can inspire some potential leaders by your own action – forward action. For those who are not inspired, it takes courage to ‘confront’ them in a nice manner. With your own sincere desire to help them as the foundation, leaders use skillfully structured questions to lead them back to their goals and dreams.  

We are ALL good enough to perform if we choose to step up. True leaders are here to help others see their own greatness. The choice to live out our greatness is always the individual team member’s own.

To summarize, A good leader is able to recognize people’s greatness even though that person doesn’t believe at all that they can do it.  When someone in your team have a strong enough reason why they will step up. It is their own internal desire that is motivating them to step up and reveal their greatness along the success journey.

In the next few weeks, I’m going to cover some of the wrong ideas about Network Marketing. I would really like to cover this because many people have those misconception that is actually stopping them from exploring further. No exploring. No possible future action. Talk soon!

PS: If you have not requested for a copy of my eBook yet, you can simply put in your name and email address on the right of this blog to get one!

We’ve been talking quite a number of challenges along the network marketing journey. And this time, I’m going to talk about going into management mode.

This might not apply to you if you are very new. This often happens when you have a few of the key leaders and you believe that these leaders would continue to develop other leaders. At this stage, the mistake is stop recruiting. You might be spending most of the reinventing the wheel, designing or refining the training systems, writing up new scripts and holding regular team training or mentoring sessions.  At one stage I was doing the above but not actively recruiting. My team members needed to be inspired to take action.  By me going into the management mode, the team went stagnant.

Continue What Worked

Instead of going into Management Mode, true leaders need to continue what worked and focus on teaching new members the skills. This way, new team members can taste their first success. 

How to do that? By teaching new member what to do and what not to do! By you yourself continuing enrolling new team members into the team. This ‘leading by example’ way of team building cannot be underestimated. Over time, new team members can see themselves improving. 

Inspiring Key Leaders

As you yourself developed into a key leader, you should be able to identify who are the  genuine players in your team. For some ‘leaders’, no matter how much you inspire or mentor them,  they are not producing results. My friend, that is when you know that he or she is not a true business builder. Save the time and energy to do more recruiting and get more serious people in. When there are about 20 personally enrolled team members,  there should be about 3-4 leaders. Start building the team with those leaders who are willing and happy to repeat what you have done. You recruit. They recruit. Build momentum from there!

You must be able to identify leaders, inspire them by action and continue the cycle.

What’s Next?

My next video would be about how to recognize people’s greatness.  Once you have identified those leaders who have a strong desire to succeed, you are there to help them and support them to go their success journey. 

Your Contribution

Have you ever gone into management mode and suffered?

Ultimate successful network marketing business is to have a few of the key leaders becoming hugely successful. When you are doing the right steps at the beginning, new team members learn the right steps and succeed.  Have you got any success stories to share?

I have been covering a few of the key challenges along the network marketing journey in the past few weeks.

Self-Discipline

Today, I’m going to cover another very important challenge that a lot of people can relate to. It’s about self discipline. A lot of people are lacking discipline in doing the things that they know they need to do in network marketing.

Let’s have a brief check list here. First, you are embracing the brilliant Network Marketing business model. Second, you have done your due diligence and found a great company with great products or services. Third, your are in the RIGHT team – with proven training and marketing systems AND responsible and capable mentor. What is the defining ingredient for your own success? The YOU Factor, of course!

The Most Important Task

So, what is the most important thing that you need to do in network marketing? Talking to people of course!

This is what we call “prospecting”. If we don’t talk to people, we don’t have any result. Talk to a few people, just a little bit of result. Talk to a lot of people, a lot of results. Building momentum takes time and consistent effort. 

Inappropriate Tasks & ‘Why’

Many people actually spend a lot of time on what we call “preparing to do the work”. They learn and learn and learn but never go into the game. They role-play, they just fiddle with the papers to get the script well typed out or even practise with team mates, etc. They do everything but not doing a thing relating to actually DOING network marketing.

Not talking to people is a sign, a symptom. It is a reflection that maybe the desire level is not strong enough. This is where having a mentor is very important. A mentor can look into your situation and help you re-focus on your goals and desires. Apart from the mindset issue, the mentor may help you with improving your communication skills, time management skills or other identified challenges. 

For someone who is determined to succeed, there is no other option but succeeding because of the appropriate consistent action.

Success is a journey! 

What is Next?

Next time I’m going to  talk about another very common challenge that’s facing network marketers. This is when the network marketer has already got a group of business builders and is going into what I call “A Management Mode”. So until then, see you!

Network Without Marketing? 

In the past videos, I’ve been talking about the key challenges along the way when doing network marketing professionally. This time, I’m going to cover another key points. I’m going to talk about the network marketing profession.  It is Network AND Marketing.

In my early years, I did a lot of networking but had not developed the skill to ask for the sale. I got ZERO results in my first year! The point is, we are in a business that is rewarding us by results (the sales volumes that we have created for the network marketing company because of our marketing efforts). If you are going to do a lot of networking, making a lot of friends but never share how the products and services might be able to help others, you’re never going to get paid because you have not introduced any customers or business partners into your team.

Marketing Without First Done Networking Well?

Some people, on the other hand, very much focused on marketing to such an extent that and they forget about that network marketing is a people business. Do you just market… and market… and market without actually going into why others want your services? Do people REALLY want your services? Are there emotional reasons for people wanting your services? You’re going to face challenges if you have not found out the deeper reason(s)!

To be successful in network marketing, you need to be very good at people skill. That means that you get good at really connecting with people, really listening, asking great questions and asking for the sale when it is appropriate. And, you really have to learn how to market. By this I mean, you really need to learn ways to expose your products or business opportunity to more people. This can be done by referral, can be done online, can be done by going day-to-day networking.

Network + Marketing = The Way To Go

Whatever the situation is, you got to be networking (online or offline) AND marketing. You can’t do network marketing well by just networking OR marketing. It has to be both.

Simply networking? No or little results.

Simply marketing? Not effective if marketing is not based on established relationship first.

What is Next?

Stay tuned for my next post. I will be talking about one very common challenge – lacking discipline.

Meanwhile, I would appreciate your generous sharing.

Been in a position when you market without first establishing great relationship?

What about having challenges coming up with asking others to sign up (as customer or business partner)?

Do leave a comment and share if you find the information valuable.

What I’m talking about in this series of my videos are the challenges that you will be facing along the network marketing journey. If you don’t know the challenges and fail into the common traps, you will be be frustrated. If you know the challenges up front and you know the way to avoid  it, there is a greater chance that you will stay happy and relaxed. You create small successes from the start!

Professional Network Marketing

I believe some of you have been chased by network marketers to join their business or use the products that they love. Some persistent friends can be chasing you for years! I did that to my friends too.  This is because I was not taught how to do network marketing in a professional manner. By professional manner, I mean, we do listen and respect others’ personal choice. If people are not ready to make a change or not ready to listen to anything, we leave them alone.

Network marketing can be a very enjoyable journey as we explore other people’s circumstances and see if there is a way that our products and services might be a match to help them. If we know that whatever we have in hand can help our prospects, say, something that can relieve their medical condition, we could share, couldn’t we?

If people keep on doing the things that they are doing, they may stay in their predicament for life!

Be a Genuine Giver

Doing network marketing professionally means that our motive is right. It is not about the money or other rewards.  It is about how we can make others’ lives better. It is through our care and skillful questioning that others feel our love and concern for them. When we have this caring mentality in mind, prospecting is easy and full of fun. We are connecting with another human being to see whether our services can help them. Simple as that.

Respecting Others’ Decision

Being professional can be tough as we really need to respect others’ choices in life. Letting go of the outcome of prospecting is one of the skills that we must master.  As much as we would love others to embrace the products or business opportunity, there is no way that we could ‘impose’ our choice for them. 

Be professional and move on to help others who needed our help AND are ready to be helped.

What is Next?

So next time, I will be talking another challenge which is a very interesting one. Network marketing is called ‘network marketing’ for a reason. We have to create ‘network’ AND to do ‘marketing’. We cannot just network or just do marketing.

Until then. See you!