MLM Leads Generation And Life With Brent

Here’s the ugly truth to people who “hop” network marketing/mlm opportunities and then promote it everywhere:

They are only hurting themselves and the dreams of many others!

I was watching a video online for a guy who supposedly was in my network marketing opportunity.  This person spewed lies, rumors, and opinions posed as facts in this video for no other reason than to make himself look like a leader in his company and opportunity.

But after talking with his upline in a previous company (recently previous, mind you), I found out the truth about this guy:  He jumps from opportunity to opportunity, looking for the “next best thing” and dragging his team with him.

And in the midst of talking with my friend, I also learned that many of the people who have been burned by this individual are giving up on their dreams and leaving the industry, opting for the “security” and restrictions of a job.

Well, here’s the ugly truth behind Network Marketing/MLM “hoppers” and “next best thing” chasers:

They are not leaders.  They are hunters and gatherers, wanting to find who they can prey on to make money in whatever they feel inclined to move to next.  They never take the time to develop themselves within a company, nor do they develop leaders within a company.

These people claim that “reps are leaving” companies, as this guy claimed in his against my company, but realize that not everyone who joins a company stays, and not everyone who leaves is that important to the company.  There is a difference between a leader and a rep, and it has nothing to do with income.

No, the difference between a leader and a rep is that a leader sees the vision for themselves AND their team, takes time to grow, and takes more time to develop leaders.

They do not look for opporutnity after opportunity, hoping to make a few more bucks or the newest gizmo/tech/nutritional/whatever.

No, leaders take time to develop leaders.

And if they leave without doing so, they are just another rep in the field.

Network Marketing/MLM is all about developing yourself to a leader by developing other leaders.  How can you develop leaders if you cannot settle into a company and get to work?

Don’t mistake the two, and don’t let these reps move cause you to lose the focus off of your dream.

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Brent Business company hoppers, developing leaders, leadership, mlm, network marketing, reps

Network marketing has plenty of distractions that make people quit due to lack of success.  I’m not going to talk about common roadblocks such as rejection, fear, company blunders, or issues like this.  Instead, I’m going to focus on a few things I have learned and observed from watching both the successful and the not-so-successful.

First Major Roadblock – Focus

You know where most people fail in a home business or network marketing?

They simply do not focus!

I participate on a lot of forums.  I find forums entertaining, informative, as well as a good place to attract people.  There are certain people that I’ve observed for years.  I can guarantee that they will be in no less than 2-3 opportunities each year.

Now, I know better than to believe that they have built decent residual incomes in any of those businesses.  Its hard to establish momentum in 2 months, 3 months, and for most people, 6 to 12 months.

These people have been referred to as jumpers, hoppers, junkies, and various other phrases based on their actions.  But the bottom line is they are simply not focused and do not stay focused long enough to build success.  They might have a quick hit or two, but they cannot establish themselves as long-term leaders in any company because they do not stay with any company long-term.

Some of the most successful people I know in network marketing have stuck with the same company for 2 years, 3 years, 5 years, or 10 years.  These are people who had consistent six and seven figure incomes built from their focus on that one company.

So my advice?  Make your next company (or current company, if you do not plan on making a move) your focus for no less than 1 year, but preferably 2-3 years.

Lack Of Growth

There are two types of “lack of growth” that kill a network marketing business.

Lack of growth in the business itself is not what I’m referring to here (although it definitely kills a business).

No, what I’m referring is the lack of growth of the individual.  When we fail to make ourselves better, we fail at providing the type of leadership it takes to build a successful home business.  And if we fail to strive for more out of our own lives, we might as well hang it up.

The bottom line is, this is a leadership and development business.  We must learn to lead (by first following) and then we must learn to develop ourselves and then others into leaders.

I personally know people, both inside and outside of the industry, that simply do not care to better themselves.  They are good with just being who they are, treading water, and never wanting to make anything of themselves.  They approach improvement with apathy and simply have nothing strive for (or rather, nothing they want to strive for).

So if we learn to first have something we want to achieve, work towards it while bettering ourselves, our success in the industry grows.

If you are sitting there wondering why you do not seem to be making it anywhere in network marketing, take a look in the mirror and see if this applies to you.  Are focusing?  Are you developing?  If not, you are probably not succeeding.

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Brent Uncategorized Add new tag, focus, leadership, leadership development, network marketing, network marketing success

Before Nike, there was Art Williams.

Well, I believe Art said it well before Nike.

What did he say?

“Just do it”.

Now, this probably is a bit confusing to you at this point, so let me give some background as to why I’m comparing Art William’s to Nike.

There are days where things are overwhelming.  There are days when things just don’t click like you would like them to.  Its frustrating, its tough, and it can lead to almost depression-like thoughts and actions.

I was having one of those days.

I made a comment about it on Facebook.  I didn’t do it for attention but I did it to seek help for what I was feeling.  I had no reason to feel this way, but I did.  Yes, I am a bit overwhelmed at times, and as I described to my wife, was almost feeling “stressed out” for an unknown reason.

And I’m glad I did, as a business acquaintence sent me a link to a video by Art Williams.

In case you do not know who Art Williams is, he is the founder of A.L. Williams, one of the great insurance business stories ever created.

In this video, he is addresses a national convention of religious broadcasters (i.e. television evangelist) on what it takes to succeed in business.  He used such a simple phrase to describe what makes the super successful who they are as opposed to the ordinary individual:

They just do it.  They work it a bit harder.

Here I am, around 36 days into my personal 90 day Internet marketing challenge feeling overwhelmed by the task at hand and I get this video.  What a blessing it was!

Williams pointed out several things that I believe apply to both Internet marketers and network marketers and something I am going to improve on:  Being excited about what they do.  As Williams puts it, no one wants to follow someone who is not exciting.  To grow a business, you have to have a following.  To grow a network marketing business, you have to have people who will follow you.

But more than anything, you have to work hard to be a leader and get to where you want to go, you just have to “do it.”

You have to work harder.

You have to push harder.

You have to have, as he calls it, a “unique mental toughness.”

This video was an inspiration to me, and it got me to thinking about something I’m missing from my business and my life:  Personal devleopment time.  No, I’m not talking about learning more marketing techniques, but rather making me a better leader, a better person, and a better communicator.

To sum it up, he said early on in the speech:

“… in order to win, you have to feel good about yourself.”

Just do it.  Feel better about yourself.  Just do it.  Work harder.  Just do it.  Don’t quit!  Just “do it.”

If you want to watch the video, I’ve embedded it below.  I hope you get something out of it.

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Brent Business, Internet Marketing art williams, do it, just do it, leadership, marketing, nike

When passion meets opportunity, you have a recipe for success.

So many people trade off one or the other.  They see a job as an opportunity to provide for their family or their needs, but it is simply not what they are passionate about.

Others find passion about something but there is not a market for it.

However, when the two collide, it creates something very exciting and often something very big.

I’ve learned that I really have very few passions in life, but there is one that I have routinely found the most gratifying:  Being a leader.

Now…being a leader, from my perspective, has nothing to do with power, authority, control, recognition, or any of the typical thoughts that come up with the word.  Instead, I believe the most important things that a leader does are empowerment and encouragement.

I have seen a lot of people want to be a “leader” for all of the wrong reasons.  When I was younger, I was the same way.  In fact, I remember in high school wanting to be the section leader in my band just so others would look up to me.  I see others want to be a leader so that they will be viewed better than others.

But as I have worked on leadership development, I have learned that the recognition is nice (in fact, I have dreams and goals about one aspect of recognition, probably my only selfish thought in this regard) and being respected is nice, but what makes me excited is the ability to see others grow, transform, and become something that they might not have been had someone not taken the time to pour into their lives.

For me personally, my business is exactly what I want to develop a leadership role in.

Why?

Again, I won’t deny the fact that I want one form of recognition from this company.  It has been a dream of mine for some time, but not for the “look at me” reason.

But I do want to be an inspiration to someone.

I want to be an inspiration not so others will talk highly of me, and not so that others will want to put me on a pedastal, but so that maybe my story would lift someone else up to become something more, to work harder, to achieve more, and to be on that stage with a similar goal.

My passion is to lead others.  It is to help others fulfill what they are capable of, to achieve a life-changing success in their own lives, and to have a positive impact in their lives.

I’m fortunate that my passion has found the opportunity to attach itself to.

This opportunity presents not only a chance for people to become financially independent, but also for them to develop themselves, their abilities, their personalities, and more.

To me, that makes my recipe for success that much stronger.

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Brent Business, Miscellaneous leadership, passion

I’ve been thinking on this for some time now, and there is no nice way to say it:

Just because you have a title does not make you a leader.

Brent, what in the world does this mean?

All too often we confuse people in a position or with a certain “badge” on their name with being a leader. A lot of times this could not be further from the truth. Just having a title or a function does not entitle you to being leader. Rather, your attitude and actions are what make you a leader.

I’ve had the privilege and honor to be in leadership on a variety of leaders and over a variety of people and groups. The one thing I always knew was that if I was going to be given a leader’s title, I had to have a leader’s actions. I could not simply take on the designation without taking on the responsibility that comes with it.

A group I used to associate with regularly all have leadership titles or functions within a common organization. To the common person, they are in leadership and therefore are “leaders.” Yet when I look at how these individuals treat others and the attitudes they carry with themselves, I realize they are nothing more than someone with the title. I would not consider any of these leaders in the sense that this article is referring to.

A leader has to accomplish two things to be a leader, and these two things must be in their daily lives and not just in the function they perform.

First, a leader must be willing to serve those who follow them. I knew when I was elected president of my fraternity in college that I had more responsibility than just leading meetings and making decisions. I had to be the one that helped the most, that served the most, and the one who set the example of what it meant to be in the frat. The same goes for various other positions of leadership I have been in. I had to work harder to serve those around me than I had to make decisions or pat myself on the back. What I see from a lot of people is a self serving attitude in leadership instead of a serving others attitude. If you are not willing to serve, you are not ready to lead. The best leaders I have served under motivated me to do my best by watching them do their best.

A leader must also possess an attitude. This term often comes across negatively, but in this case it is meant to be positive. The attitude the leader must have is one of caring, one of compassion, one of servant hood (as discussed above), and then one of authority. People do not respect leaders who show authority before compassion. People might obey, but respect is often missing. This is not always an easy task to accomplish but must be done to be a fully effective leader.

If you are sitting here doing some soul searching, as I often did in my development of my leadership thoughts, than there are probably some points in there that apply to you. How do you treat others? How do you serve? Do you set the example or do you tell others about the example?

Remember that even after you are gone, your character and integrity stick with people. As a leader, make sure what sticks is an example of what leadership should be and not what the title affords you.

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Brent Business, Miscellaneous character, home business leadership, integrity, job leadership, leadership, leading