Sometimes we can have the right intentions, but end up with the wrong result.
When you are building a “side business” in order to help your family, and you end up spending so much time on the side business that your family ends up isolated and lonely, that for sure is the wrong result.
We went through this. We made some mistakes, but the biggest one is that we were following the wrong strategy.
Fortunately, after learning the right strategy, we found our way to both business and family success….
And by the way… that strategy is the perfect one for 2020 and beyond as all of us have been hit with the Corona Virus, and millions of people are losing jobs and incomes, and forced to work from home. Because we learned the key strategy already, we can share with you how you can succeed from home too.
If you are seeking to build a network marketing business, there are some key pitfalls to avoid, but the biggest mistake is using the wrong strategy.
That is certainly true for us. We wasted a lot of time and money, and endangered our family relationship and our son’s needs as well.
When we (James and Grace) started building a team in 2014-15, we were told to do it the traditional way, with coffee shop meet-ups and hotel meetings.
In our case, we had to make long trips from our then-home in Shenzhen, China to Hong Kong every Saturday and Sunday. We would be gone 7-9 hours both days, and our son was feeling abandoned and frustrated. We’d get home late, and our son would tell us he was lonely and missed us…. Ouch! At the time, he was 9-10 years old, and he really needed his parents.
Our dream was to build our side business to become our main business with residual income, so we could work from home and enjoy life with him as a family. But the way we were building was actually doing the opposite — it took away precious family time.
So what was wrong?
Our business building efforts were not fruitful. Those local meetings in Hong Kong did not work at all for us, as everyone kept canceling and quitting.
We were also told to buy lists of networkers, and cold call them from a script. We were told to buy lists of people’s emails, and send them our opportunity link – yes, basically spam the list. All of these failed, but not before we wasted two years and thousands of dollars.
We would like to share with you how we went from failing in 2014-2015, to having personally sponsored more than 3000 people in the past three years.
Along the way, our new strategy helped us to accomplish more in less time, and get real results, so that we ended up with our “side gig” growing to a six-figure income, and we could still have time for our son and our family’s needs.
The photo above, by the way, is our then-12 year old son with us in Nassua, Bahamas on a company-paid Caribbean cruise after we won a company recruiting contest in 2017. No longer unhappy and lonely…. 🙂
So let’s dig into what was wrong about our earlier strategy, and why we now are successful in business and fulfilled as a family.
Whether you recruit and network online or offline, there is always a downside if you don’t know how to approach people the right way. Long-time networkers have been there and beyond. Some examples with us include embarrassing calls or conversations with people we didn’t know, close friends and family members asking us to stick with our jobs, and strangers straight-up asking us if your business is an MLM scam. Perhaps you have felt similar things.
Since networking has gone digital, it is easier and less embarrassing to approach prospects and recruit new people. While everything seems easier because of Social Media, the problem now is that most networkers have been reduced to mere spam bots by their upline. Instead of recruiting, most of them are just taught to spam people.
What they do is copy-paste a message from their upline, and spread it to their online social circle. Needless to say, this method has seen little to no success. It is no different from the traditional way of networking where networkers are tasked to chase down strangers at grocery stores, restaurants, and malls, only to be shunned by busy and uninterested people.
Networkers today should be careful, because there is a fine line between prospecting/recruiting and spamming – especially on Social Media. If you want to be successful at prospecting and recruiting, sending copy and paste messages isn’t the way. Anyone can do that, right? So what makes you think that your recipients will actually stop, listen, and look at your business?
Online prospecting works, but not if you do the following:
The best thing to do is to STOP prospecting.
Yes, online networking and marketing should be more of a strategy focused on people who raise their hand and show interest – and you will be more successful that way. Aside from being successful, people will not lose their respect for you.
Yes, you read that right! You have to STOP PROSPECTING to anyone and everyone….
You will find that it will take a lot of weight off your shoulders. You don’t have to go around thinking of who to recruit. You don’t have to attend events and visit places without thinking about who to network with. You just go there, hang around, and have fun as anyone does!
And when you stop wasting time and you become more efficient, you will end up with more time for your family….
So you might be wondering how you can grow your networking business if you actually stop prospecting. The answer is — learn the skills of Attraction Marketing and the Reverse Invite Method. Using these methods, you won’t be wasting your time chasing around prospects online or offline. The technique here is to let them come to you.
Yes, stop believing your upline when they say that everyone is a prospect. The reality is, not everyone is suited to become a networker! Only the interested ones are.
How do you know if they are interested?
You have provided content. You have made people curious. You spoke to a specific audience and told them that you understand their pains, problems, and fears. You also understand their dreams. And then you show them that you have a solution that takes them from their pains and fears, and into fulfilling their dreams.
It is really just one of the laws of the universe, called sowing and reaping. When you sow value into the marketplace, you will reap value from the marketplace in return. So your responsiblity is to provide value.
That’s when these people reach out to you. They engage in your comment sections, they opt into your funnel after they ask you for info, and even send you a private message to tell you that they want to know more!
However, these people won’t magically come to you just because they see you are networking online. You have to attract them with the expertise and value that you have. Don’t talk about your business – just show them how your business improved your life and helped you realize a lifelong passion or dream. Make them curious.
We started using attraction marketing strategies in 2016, and two years later, we were in a position to resign from our jobs and change our family lifestyle completely.
When we could resign from our previous jobs, and have more time as a family, especially when James could work full time from home and be available for our teenage son, this fulfilled our dream and made people notice how much our family life improved.
Here is what we learned from that — Show them the lifestyle changes you went through, and the dreams and ambitions you have come to realize.
These things are very personal and relatable, and when people resonate with you on that level, they will create a connection with you. You don’t even have to send them a message!
So what are you waiting for? It’s time to stop prospecting. It is time to become a great storyteller now. It’s time to start sowing more value into the marketplace, using proven strategies.
If you want to learn how to PASSIVELY build a business by attracting the prospects you want online, then get access to our free 10 day Online Recruiting Bootcamp.
In that Bootcamp, our friend and mentor Ferny reveals the strategy he has developed in the past decade for online recruiting, and this is what we have learned too. It is SO MUCH BETTER than begging our friends and family to join a business that is not making money, or spending hours on Facebook trying to copy and paste links to strangers.
Which would you prefer?
For us, we prefer making a lot of money first and getting our friends and family asking us to tell them more after they see our success. Getting leads brought to us through systems and automation is so much better than calling strangers…
Our son is now a happy 15 year old, who we welcome home every afternoon. Our family and our business are both so much better. A successful business and being able to enjoy a full family life is amazing.
And with this whole Corona Virus health panic and economic downturn? We feel rock-solid building our business from home, and have no fears of not being able to deal with any economic downturn. And yes, our son loves being home with mom and dad, and we love having financial and time freedom to be with him.
Would you like to feel the same?
Sincerely,
James and Grace
P.S: Be sure to join our Facebook Page and subscribe to our YouTube channel.