To become successful in the Network Marketing Profession, you have to, well, get started! This often means you must have a willingness to do things before you are good at them and act like a leader before you feel like one.
One of the best things you can do is put yourself in an uncomfortable situation and just deal with it. For instance, do a presentation even if you know you have no clue what you’re going to say. Put a smile on your face and just do it. Be willing to put yourself in potentially humiliating situations because there’s just no way to be totally prepared when you are starting out.
Deciding to “just start” changed my whole life. When I joined the Network Marketing Profession we had an actual physical meeting structure. Every Tuesday night we would do a 45-minute opportunity presentation in a hotel followed by a little meet-and-greet. On Tuesday night we would invite those people to come back on Thursday night, and we would do it again, and then we would invite those people to come back on Saturday morning, and we would do it again, followed by a quick start training. That was our whole business.
I got pretty good at inviting people to come to those events. I learned through experience. Sometimes I had to actually pick people up to make sure they attended. Through repeating this process, I learned how to be persuasive and how to overcome objections and I was known in my city as a person who always had at least one guest at the events.
The person who ran these meetings, Michael Nelson, was my mentor. He did such a great job with these events. The displays were awesome, the air conditioning was at the perfect temperature, everyone had a name badge, there were just enough chairs in the room (we added chairs one at a time to make sure we always had a sold-out room) and the music before the meeting was amazing.
But then, Michael went to another city for 90 days to build a new team. When he left, the meetings went right into the garbage. They went from 45 minutes to two hours long, instead of being 60 seconds the testimonials were 15 minutes each, there was no more music, the air conditioning was too hot or too cold, there were way too many chairs for the number of people and there were no name badges.
The whole thing basically fell apart and I was scared out of my mind because this was the only way I was making any money. I was desperate, so I decided to do something that scared me even more. I went to the Embassy Suites by the airport and asked to look at their meeting room. This little meeting room could hold maybe 80 people. It cost $200 for one night.
It was the 20th of the month, and I knew that if I paid for that meeting room I wouldn’t be able to pay my rent, but I felt like I needed to do something. I asked if we could work out a payment plan and the woman smiled and said no.
So I went to the bank and I got ten $20 bills and reserved the room for 10 days from that day. My hands physically shook when I handed over the money. I signed the contract and I went to work. I had ten days to get everything ready for the meeting room, invite people and practice what I was going to say during the event.
I got everything ready for the room – the display, the chairs, the name tags, the temperature. I called every single person I knew and told them that if they loved me, they would be there. I would tell them I didn’t even care if they joined, they just had to show up for me. I recorded what I was going to say on a cassette tape and listened to it about 500 times.
And what do you know? 48 people showed up and I personally sponsored 18 people that day.
All because I started somewhere.
Isn’t it about time that you started somewhere?
