Re-Inventing Yourself

Humm…. Had a birthday the other day, well lets be more precise, August 31^st and yes that’s right I am a Virgo but of course if you have listened to any of my trainings you probably could already guess that … task oriented, highly organized, thinker, problem solver, yada, yada, yada. Not sure I believe any of that stuff anyway, I believe we are who we choose to be. Having a birthday always forces me into a period of reflection as I think back on what I tried to accomplish in the past year and what I actually did. For many people I guess the big event that triggers the reflection is Jan 1^st . That of course is when the proverbial time door slams shut on the old year and we realize in a panic that we are supposed to set goals and plans for the new one. My year closes out usually right around my birthday since I set a business plan in motion over 20 years ago that pretty much forced me into a period of planning every September. It actually coincides with my journey into the world of MLM about 22 years ago. If you have read My Story on my blog then you probably know that I had been a real estate entrepreneur for years and then crashed and burned in the early 80’s. However I have been very fortunate in life for I have found that whenever one door closes another one opens for me. Now sometimes it takes a while to recognize it as a door, because in the beginning it generally looks more like a hole in the floor with a 3000 foot drop into a chasm. However that financial disaster lead me to the world of MLM, and I had the opportunity to re-invent myself in a totally different way. Once I get on a track I am pretty much an obsessive worker and not that I neglected my family, but I always wished there could be a way to spend more time with them and be more involved in their lives as my kids were growing up. Well I guess you have to be careful what you ask for, or at least maybe be more specific. Sometimes our gifts come in ways we never would have conceived (at the time I really would have preferred not have my business destroyed just to implement a better master plan, but the universe never asked my opinion). Well I’m rambling, but anyway when I had to re invent myself and setup a business plan for this new world of MLM I decided that I would create my perfect reality and then live in it. So I decided rather than trying to make myself less obsessive about work, it was much easier to simply set a schedule that would force me into compliance with my goals. So I decided to take every summer off and spend it with my family and kids and then work obsessively the rest of the time. Not a bad plan really, and that’s what I did for over 20 years. The network marketing business gives you the ability to generate huge leverage, and because of that you are free to structure it any way you want. We had great times during those summers, taking months off and traveling in a motor home to Alaska or to other parts unknown, or sometimes traveling to the South Pacific and Australia, Japan, and others. My reflection over the last several days caused me to think about and be grateful for how far I’ve come and how much I have learned: The trials and frustrations of building a successful Network Marketing business and the incredible rewards that came later. The challenging journey into the world of online marketing, and the frustration of being flooded with huge amounts of information and then the rewards of finally watching that business model gel into 25 and then over 50 leads a day like a finely tuned machine. Was it hard, of course it was. Was it frustrating, you betcha! Did I ever want to quit? Every day! Was it worth it…. Oh Baby was it! However even as I bask in those feelings of accomplishment there is a gnawing uncertainty as I realize this coming year will probably be filled with even more challenges as I take this new craft of internet marketing to the next level, maybe even re-inventing myself again, Marc Version 4a? Wow, when does it stop? The challenge is that nothing is ever static and the more we try to keep it so, the more frustrated we get. Learn instead to embrace change and just love the ride. It’s just like the famous quote by Mark Victor Hansen “Sooner or later, we must realize that there is no station, no one place to arrive at once and for all. The true joy of life is the trip.” Now probably the biggest barrier to re-inventing yourself that we all face is letting go of the business self image we have created for ourselves, but that has to die before we can move on. I know how hard this can be because I struggled with it, I mean I was the “Real Estate Entrepreneur” the “Deal Maker”, who could package and spin a project better than anyone. Who would I be if I let go of that, and what about all the years of skills that went into creating it. I mean I was invested in that self image big time. I mean it’s hard to do some people just can’t let it go, they just keep slamming their head against the same wall over and over. You know we all face challenges in life that at times force us to re-invent ourselves and we have a choice to either go into the closet and hide, or to stretch and in the process become more than we are. Stretch with me… There’s nothing interesting in the closet

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Is Network Marketing Dead?

Has The Network Marketing Industry Changed? An Analysis

Well the internet is a very big place but I guess it had to happen sooner or later. I finally stumbled across the infamous “Coffeehouse Letter”. It was purportedly written by industry giant Mike Dillard in 2007. Wow! Interesting read. While I scrolled through it hitting the highlights all I could do was roll my eyes and shake my head in amusement but then bam! Some very insightful truths about the Network Marketing industry started to roll off the page and then they had me, I devoured every word and at the end I was pissed off. So why was I mad? It’s that thing we all hate, being slapped in the face with a truth we don’t want to accept. We know its truth because once you are exposed to it, you kind of realize that you have known it all along. It brings that level of doubt that you have been trying to keep out of your consciousness to the surface where you finally have to look at it, and deal with it. Just so I don’t leave you too mystified, let me summarize. The coffeehouse Letter is a treatise or a rant depending on how you want to look at it about the validity of the Network Marketing model as a success vehicle in today’s marketplace. It basically says:

“Network Marketing is dead, and the internet killed it”

Now the letter is not a condemnation of network marketing by some outsider but a carefully crafted argument by an insider that points out something we all already know and proposes an alternative business model called GPT or Get Paid Today. Now it’s pretty obvious to anyone that has been around MLM for a few years, that network Marketing today is a very different animal than it was 15, or even 10 years ago. The letter points out that the Network Marketing business model is a victim of its own success and of the internet age. Look if you are in the industry, you probably already know what the flaws are. Building an all volunteer sales force and then growing that team into an organization of 10,000 or more is hard. The recruiting is hard, the drop out ratio disappointing, the duplication difficult. Hey look, let’s be realistic here, any business is hard. However the rewards if you hit a home run are well known. If you can get that organization up and off the ground and you have a hot company with a hot product, the sky’s the limit and the rewards are legendary as I pointed out in my company review of Mona Vie, where top earner Brig Hart reportedly earns about $980,000 per month. Yes that’s not a misprint, I said per month! Now as you probably already know I am a big believer in MLM and the network marketing industry. It changed my life financially in a huge way and no other business even comes close to the reward you can achieve in a network marketing business. It is a world of challenge, personal development, achievement, friendship, mentorship, and incredible reward. It is a true win-win business model where you can only achieve if you help others to excel. Then what is it about today’s market that makes it different. Well in a word the internet. Now in a way the internet has made recruiting so much easier than it ever was before. Good grief, years ago to recruit someone long distance, I would have to mail a video tape to a prospect and wait 3 days until they got it. Today, I shoot them an e mail and they have the presentation in a heartbeat! As the title of Bill Gates recent book said: “Business at the Speed of Thought” But did the internet age also open a Pandora’s box of hurt for the Network marketing industry? Well in a word, yes. Today, network marketing companies can be started in the blink of an eye, competition for your downline can be as close as the next e-mail blast and leaders routinely jump from deal to deal today like a game of musical chairs.

But is Network Marketing really Dead?

And if so, what are the alternatives? Does the GPT model really work as a viable alternative and is it really the answer to all the problems of Network Marketing in the 21st century, or is it simply a business model with a different set of problems? I have to say that after studying the concept of GPT also known as “Top Tier MLM”, it is an attractive, powerful alternative, and I can see why it speaks to a lot of people, but I also believe MLM is far from dead, you just have to play the game differently today than you did in the past. You need to embrace the changes in the market, adjust your marketing approach but most of all learn how to build quickly. Now I guess in the final analysis, you pay your money and you make your choice. Which model you are attracted to depends on your overall financial goals and how long you are willing to work to achieve them. GPT offers a way to achieve very substantial money much quicker, a few months as opposed to a few years but realistically probably tops out at 7 figures a year. MLM takes longer but you are leveraging through a much larger group so the top end can be much bigger.

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For the full text of the Coffeehouse Letter go to http://www.coffeehouse-letter.info (opt in to get the letter)

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