When I entered into the world of direct sales, or Multi-level marketing, by becoming an Advisor for AdvoCare a few short months ago my friend and up-line (MLM term referring to the person who signed you up) said something totally out of their character. He said not to be surprised if your closest friends and family do not go along with your offering. He said in most cases this would prove to be true. I thought how strange to hear this coming from a guy who is one of the happiest most-positive individuals you will ever come across. And…I thought him wrong.
Turns out he was right. My friend and his lovely wife have built a business with AdvoCare that pays them $20,000 per month on average. And their business is growing. They expect to be making $40,000 per month within a year. And they’ve done all this in only three years, on their own. He points out that his Best Friend from 3 years ago STILL hasn’t come on board as a distributor. To my understanding (I could be wrong) neither have his closest family members including his sister, who I also know and have worked with. My up-line has over 1200 people signed-up as AdvoCare Distributors or Advisors. Remarkable!

A simple binary tree diagram illustrating the hierarchical structure of a multi-level marketing compensation plan.
And yet here’s what I found. MY BEST FRIEND, who could stand to greatly benefit from the weight loss and nutrition AdvoCare products provide, not only hasn’t joined me. He won’t even listen. He hasn’t a clue what AdvoCare is or provides. And I’m his best friend, and he’s mine. Remarkable. The list of those close to me who won’t listen to anything my wife and I have to say about this company that has us so excited doesn’t stop with my best friend. My immediate neighbors and business partner in my video production company, Total Broadcasting Service, likewise will not only not sign up as our customers or distributors…they won’t even hear a presentation. Remarkable!
And yet it turns out…not so remarkable. In a blog entitled “Why Friends and Family Members Won’t Support the New You” business coach Ray Higdon spells out some of his ideas why this phenomena is so common. He says , in so many words, that those closest to you won’t support you because they’re used to who you “used to be” and can’t fathom you being different, in the mode of a marketer or successful person. He also intimates jealousy plays a part. They don’t want you to be successful because it will reflect poorly on them. I’m not sure about all of Higdon’s assertions. Direct-Sales companies face skepticism from everyone already, not just friends and family. It’s my job, and yours, to find people who you can help either with your products and service or with the income opportunity from the MLM, or both. There really are people who want to be their own boss and are disciplined enough to work a business as a business, and grow it, slowly at times, but grow it nonetheless. If you’re looking for a get-rich quick scheme most of the time you’ll be disappointed. In this rather poor quality video Russ Howe, a network marketer with GDI, Global Domains International, actually says approaching friends and family about your business is actually a BAD IDEA:
Higdon correctly points out that your success can and will be determined by you going out and meeting and selling to new people. Which has proven to be true with me. In the approximately 3 months that I have actively represented AdvoCare 35% of the folks I’ve gotten involved with AdvoCare on a retail customer or distributor level I had virtually no previous or extremely limited contact with. Another 53% I only had tangent contact with; which is to say periodic and infrequent. And the remaining 12% I was relatively close to and contacted with some frequency. And all this while working AdvoCare as a business very seldom. While only putting in 5-10 hours per week training myself, email corresponding, meeting in-person, and making phone calls I’ve managed a small income that has already proven valuable to my family. And since this has been done over a mere three months and with little actual time devoted I have every reason to believe the actual amount of return from this business will grow.
I find it remarkable that those who know you best are least likely to support you and your new business. You would think just the opposite were true. But facts are facts. Don’t let your friends or family drag you down. And realize it’s not personal and its not unusual and lots of folks, like my friend and sponsor, move past the disappointment of friends and family not participating in your new exciting business and go get those new friends who really do want to live well and independent.
I’m really curious to hear from other MLM representatives and tell me what your experience has been on this subject.
Private side note to any friend or family of mine: Yes, you not helping me and my wife build our business and enjoying what we have clearly benefited from DOES disappoint me. But it is what it is. Own it. It’s your decision. Meanwhile, I still love you. Period.
Thanks for visiting. Comments are welcome.
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Conservatives look in the Mirror
Americans have re-elected a President presiding over 7.9% unemployment and GDP growth below 2%. These are by far the worst economic numbers overcome by a President winning re-election since Franklin Roosevelt in 1936.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 1933.
It’s not too difficult to figure how this happened.
There are currently 47-million Americans on food stamps. Just how many of them voted for Mitt Romney? Seriously…can you really expect a dog to bite the hand that feeds it? President Obama received a total of 58-million votes. And if 95% of food stamp recipients voted for him then all he would have needed was 12-million non-food stamp recipients to vote his way to overcome Romney’s total. Obama has created this dependency. It’s not likely they’ll vote against the person who keeps giving them their candy.
In spite of the Federal Government-gives-candy-advantage Obama held; Romney still could have won this election had Conservatives not self-destructed. The most obvious failing comes from the selfish, masturbatory Libertarian voters who sent nearly 1.2-million votes to Gary Johnson.
Gary Johnson
Add in the 0.1-1.4% (depending on the state) of “voters” who wasted their vote on the Constitution Party candidate and you have just enough Conservative voters to match Obama in the popular vote. There’s no doubt in my mind that had this 1-2% of voters not bashed Romney as equally and vociferously as they did Obama over the course of the past year we’d be celebrating a Romney victory this morning. Florida is still too close to call and Virginia, Ohio and Colorado went to Obama by less than 2%. That’s the whole ball game.
What troubles me now and did so throughout the campaign is the foolish, bigoted, and hateful comments about Obama and his supporters that continuously poured from Conservative corners. The “birther” issue was and remains idiotic. And it was clearly racist. What I never understood was the point of it. Obama could have been born on Mars. Because his Mom was an American citizen so was he. The end result was the extreme side of Conservative politics continually gave Liberals all the ammunition they needed to once again paint those with our point of view as angry, mean, and bigoted.
Since the 1930s more Americans have identified themselves as Democrats than Republicans. And over the past 20 years more and more Americans are identifying themselves as independent. Overall, it’s roughly 1/3 Democrats, Republicans and independents. Polls show Romney won independents. But he didn’t win Democrats, not enough of them anyway. If scary, angry, bigoted Conservatives (what few of them there are) scare-off even a small percentage of independents and all Democrats, Republicans don’t have a chance…not in 2012, and certainly not going forward as our country increasingly becomes less white and more brown.
Karl Rove correctly points out that there is no reason Republicans shouldn’t enjoy more support from this countries Hispanics. Generally speaking they are more religious and focused on family values than the overall populous. With such values they should vote for the GOP. But they don’t. Yesterday and in 2008 they vote close to 70% for Democrats. Why is that? Only one reason: too many Republicans allow hateful xenophobic attitudes to exist within our own political discourse without justly shouting them down. And I for one am sick of it.
It makes me mad as hell to have Liberals who don’t know me constantly assume I’m a bigot. It happens all the time. And it diminishes me in the eyes of my kids, my black kids. It’s important that my values are passed on to my kids so that they may pass them on to their kids, etc etc. But like all young people my kids are influenced not only by me but by what they see and hear in society. And if I’m less trusted and less understood simply because I’m associated with people who espouse bigotry I’m naturally going to be hurt in my efforts to stand as a good example to my children. I worry about this constantly.
Republicans have to bring people to the party and not repel them. With a country that is increasingly made up of people of color we’re going to have to see to it that we not only attract them but repel and reject the angry bigots. They don’t make-up a large percentage of Conservatives or Republicans. But they don’t need to in order to chase away any chance the party has of winning in the future.
God Bless America.
Thanks for visiting. Comments are welcome.
November 7, 2012
Categories: National Politics . Tags: Barack Obama, bigots, Conservative, constitution party candidate, Democrat, food stamp recipients, franklin delano roosevelt, hateful comments, Mitt Romney, Obama, politics, President of the United States, racists, Republican, Romney, United States, Xenophobia . Author: Michael Schuett . Comments: 24 Comments