MLM or Multi-Level Marketing companies are a joke. But if that’s true, why are there 30-million Americans (1/10th of the country) involved in a Network Marketing Company?

Direct Sales companies don’t make you any money. But if that’s true how do you explain the checks I’ve been receiving for the two months I’ve been representing AdvoCare? Or the $20,000 per month a friend and his wife earn through Advocare in only three years representing this great company? And how do you explain the $153-billion spent on products and services provided by network marketing companies?

Like anything in life, its all what you put into it. AdvoCare or any MLM with a good product pays well to those who work and represent the products. To those who don’t, it doesn’t.

I’m a living example of getting out of work exactly what you put into work. In 1992 I began working in a sales job in my chosen industry of radio. I did OK for a couple of years and was pleased with myself. But others within my own office were doing better. I looked at most of them and said “What have they got that I don’t? Why can’t I sell as much and earn as much as them?”

So began my investment in myself. I spent thousands of dollars of my own money over the next few years on all kinds of seminars, books, videos and audio tapes with the goal of improving my sales ability and my income and my family’s lifestyle. Sales trainers like Brian Tracy, Tom Hopkins, Dr. Kerry Johnson and motivational speakers like Zig Ziglar

Zig Ziglar

became my mentors. It worked. In only 2-3 years I went from being an OK sales representative and among the top ten in my company to number one in my company. I regularly broke sales records for a 25 year old company that regularly employed around 40 sales reps. My sales were consistently 15-20% ahead of whoever was in second place. My income tripled. My family bought a 3000-square foot home in one of the more expensive suburbs in the country. And, after 13 years at that company I left it and started my own business, Total Broadcasting Service, and have been successful with it for 8 years (in spite of one of the worst economic downturns in U.S. history). I couldn’t have achieved any of this had I not put in the time to train myself and bring my sales from OK to OUTSTANDING.

The other day I posted a link on Facebook to my AdvoCare website, something I do periodically. A bold former “friend” made a particularly nasty, negative comment about MLM’s and me posting about my involvement with them and posting on FB about a direct sales company he clearly had no knowledge of. Given I really didn’t know the guy and only connected on FB because of a single mutual connection, he made it real easy for me to unfriend him. Who needs that kind of negativity?

But in making his Comment he also did me a favor. He reminded me of an attitude that exists in the eyes of many about direct sales companies like AdvoCare. He reminded me of how I felt about MLM’s. And if you are skeptical and even cynical toward AdvoCare and other multi-level marketing companies its OK to admit it. I was the same way. But if you can admit your cynism perhaps you can also admit you really don’t know much about the subject of MLM’s in general, or AdvoCare specifically. I didn’t.

I grew up watching my Mom chase the pot of gold under every rainbow that ever appeared. She was part of all kinds of MLM’s over many years, including the BIG one, Amway. Her failure to devote time and stay dedicated to any of these businesses ultimately guaranteed that she would never be successful with them. Her failures became my reality. Perhaps you are like me…I knew someone once who tried something like that and it didn’t work. Perhaps you can be fair and admit that “someone” didn’t tell you much. “Someone” didn’t stay with “it” long. “Someone” didn’t put in a lot of time toward their business during the short time they “tried” it. And “someone” got exactly out of their business everything that they put into it.

My wife and I became AdvoCare distributors because we tried their products and each lost 30 pounds of fat in 3 months. We became distributors because we saw our friend and his wife leave the “regular” work world and begin raising their kids with a healthy income and a freedom we could only envy. We became distributors to find three other families who wanted to join us in earning $5000-$10,000 per month while working less than 20 hours per week.

Let me educate you about a few things you may not know about network marketing companies. They’ve been highly successful in this country for at least 150-years. One of the early successes was the California Perfume Company which began in New York in 1890 with 10,000 sales representatives and later changed their name to Avon. 

The Fuller Brush Company began selling their products in 1905 and by 1919 had made over $1-million in sales. Fuller Brush and its business model spurred the creation of other companies you may have heard of including Stanley Home Products and Mary Kay Cosmetics which began operations in 1963 and was already selling $2-BILLION in products by 1996.

Tupperware became a world-wide billion dollar company through the direct sales method, and in so doing they became a name synonymous with all plastic air tight food and beverage containers.

And Amway grew out of the Nutrilite vitamin supplement company in 1949. By 1973 Amway had over-taken Nutrilite, and bought the company. Amway’s bad name, in the eyes of many, began when the Federal Trade Commission filed suite in 1975 against the company accusing them of being a pyramid scheme. By 1979 a Federal judge had ruled in favor of Amway. But unfortunately the “pyramid” tag stuck (as do so many false accusations but not exonerations). Still it didn’t prevent Amway from growing into a company with $11-BILLION in sales in 2011.

So with all these success stories I gotta ask just how do you mean “They don’t work”? Are you afraid of success? Certainly some people are, and that comes down to self-esteem issues we won’t get into in this blog.

But, again, with huge, immensely successful company’s like AdvoCare helping people achieve financial freedom all over this great country why not ask yourself to re-examine your own prejudices, like I had to do. I’m a successful businessman with a growing company, happily married for more than 25 years, a nice home and a lifestyle that many would be happy with. And I’m no dumby. And I enthusiastically became an AdvoCare Distributor and Advisor. I plunged into the world of MLM and so far the water’s fine.

Is AdvoCare and specifically direct-selling for you? Well, I would ask that you look at the recent Rookie Bonus earners in AdvoCare and see what a diverse bunch it is, from Orthopedic Surgeons, to stay-at-home moms. Anyone and everyone does this and education or previous high income (or low) have little to do with one’s success with AdvoCare.

Don’t be afraid. Learn for yourself.

Thanks for visiting. Comments are welcome.

November 12, 2012
Categories: Business . Tags: Advocare, Amway, Business, Federal Trade Commission, Fuller Brush Company, kerry johnson, marketing, Mary Kay, MLM, multi level marketing companies, Multi-level marketing, network marketing companies, network marketing company, Zig Ziglar . Author: Michael Schuett . Comments: 2 Comments