Secret MLM Hacks Radio

10: What Comes BEFORE The Pitch ...


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Hey, what's going on everyone? This is Steve Larsen and you're listening to Secret MLM Hacks Radio.

 

So, here's the real mystery. How do real MLM'ers like us, we didn't cheat and only bug family members and friends, want to grow a profitable home business? How do we recruit A players into our down lines and create extra incomes yet still have plenty of time for the rest of our lives? That's the blaring question and this podcast will give you the answer.

 

My name is Steve Larson and welcome to Secret MLM Hacks Radio.

 

Guys, I always feel like life's too short to be boring or not excited, so hopefully my little cheesy intros are okay with you, but it's just that I don't want to ... you know, life's too short. I just believe in grabbing it by the tail, so ... grabbing it by the horns.

 

Anyways, guys, I hope you're doing fantastic. Lot of stuff's been happening over here. I've been creating my offer. I've been building stuff and putting things together for the actual launch of Secret MLM Hacks, the actual program that will help you to auto recruit people into your down line. I've already been using it. I've actually had several people already been using it and it's been working, which is very exciting. I'm excited for you guys to have it once it leaves beta.

 

Just so that you guys know where I am with the actual launch of it. Like I said, it's in beta. "Steven, why don't you just release it right now? Please give it to me right now." Well, several reasons; number one, anticipation is a great tool. No, but for real. I almost said for serious. Been watching ... I can't remember that movie. Anyway, whatever. Anyway, the reason though is because anytime I go launch any kind of product online, like I said before, my background is in direct response and internet marketing. Anytime I launch something online it's much like a movie. You know, the last movie that I saw with my wife was Wonder Woman. She and I went and we watched Wonder Woman, we go to the movie, but before we ever went to the movie, we heard about it, right? We heard that the movie was happening. How did we hear about it? Well, there were movie previews six months in advance. Huge, huge lead time for everyone to hear about it and hear the buzz, right? It's the same rinse and repeat Hollywood model over and over and over again.

 

So, before my product comes out ever, I always want to create some buzz. I want to make an event out of the launch. I want people to understand, "Hey this is cool," right? Pay attention. What I've been doing over the last little bit is I made a list of the top 100 MLM influencers. Period. Regardless of the MLM, regardless of anything else, regardless of their level in their MLM. I want to know who the top 100 MLM influencers are. What I did is I went and I wrote a letter to them.

 

I decided that I would tell my story; so I went through and I told my story. In fact it would be kind of cool, you know, let me read this to you guys real quick here. It's actually, you guys are probably going to recognize some of this real quick. So, I'm going to read some of this real quick just so you guys know what I sent to them, because what I want to have happen is when I launch this thing, I want to have these huge influencers go out and say, "You know what? Steve Larsen's product's so cool. I want to go ahead and I want to ask my down line to use it also." You know what I mean? But you don't just walk up to some girl and ask them to marry you on the first day, right? It's the same principle, you guys.

 

I want to develop a relationship with these people. I want them to know that I really do care about them. I want to solve legitimate problems for that individual so that they like me; so that they go out and when I launch the product, that they're like, "Hey, I do want my whole down line to see this. I do want everybody to go check this out. I do ..." You you know, and so it's all about creating value. It's all about relationships. It's all about ... but I don't just do it over the phone. I hate talking on the phone. Just is a personal preference of mine. Whenever people are like, "Hey can we talk on the phone and chat about it?" I'm always like, "No, that's why I built my system to auto recruit people." Again, it's not that I'm anti-people. It's not that I'm totally antisocial, it's not that I'm taking the person out of MLM, taking the human element. That's not it at all. It's just that's the ... I've chosen to not take people in that way.

 

I'll do video conferences with tons of people at once, but going one-on-one, that's not why I built the system. That's not the reason I built it, and honestly, you've probably felt the same way, right? Do you wish ... there was a very ... he's a very famous internet marketer, his name is Russel Brunson, I'm friends with him and one day, he said, "The difference between going from six to seven figures is actually not that big of a mind shift. It's not a matter of working more hours." It's not. He said it's actually a mindset shift in focusing on instead of just selling one person at one time, how can I sell a ton of people at once? That's how you do it. You got to reach masses. It's got to go critical mass. It's got to go big.

 

I'm not saying that you got to take your product and just go blast it out all over the place. There's certainly ethical, cool, awesome, value-creating ways to go do it. But that's the reason I built the system that way. It's the reason I don't really do phone calls that much, ever. Phones just freak me out in general. I'm not a good guy on the phone, which is funny because I used to be a telemarketer. Anyway, so, I've been going out to all these Dream 100 people and I've just been trying to create a relationship with them. That's what we call them. I call them the Dream 100. The concept comes from a book called Expert Secrets and another book called Dotcom Secrets, fantastic books. All I do is I go through and I made a list of all the top 100 influencers. I could send an email to them. I could go and send them a tweet, but everybody does that. I get probably 20 a day right now just in Facebook, not including texting and phone calls and Voxers and Skypes and, you know, just on Facebook are now probably 20 a day. I can't handle it, right? It stresses me out, so I don't want to do that to these guys too.

 

What I decided to do is I went and I wrote a letter. It's a series of about five or six letters that I'm going to be sending out to them. I just sent the first one out a little bit ago. Then a few weeks later I sent the second one, then a few weeks later, which is where we are right about now, I'm sending the third one, which is about right now in a few days here, which is awesome. Just we got to finish the packaging part of it.

 

Anyway, this is what the first letter said, it said, "Hey, name," you know and I personalize it a little bit, too. I didn't want to just rinse and repeat for everybody, I wanted to actually create real value for these people. I said, "Hey, I can't believe I'm writing this. I'm Steve. This is totally from left field. I just wanted to pick up the mic," and what I did is I didn't just want to send a letter either, I wanted it to be a bulky package. I wanted it to be something that causes the curiosity, you know? I wanted them to look at the package and go, "Oh, that's different. Who's this? Who sent this to me?" So what I did is I wrote this letter and it said, and there's a little microphone in there; a little toy plastic microphone. It was really kind of funny. It said, "Hey, I just wanted to pick up the mic-" get it? "and say that your success is inspiring. Please know that my thanks is very sincere; so thank you. I hope to shake your hand in person one day, because giants like you got me going four years ago," which is so true.

 

I said, "My first month at MLM four years ago I was a bit of a disaster, but the flip side calls that an education, so, ha! At the start we were in college, newly married, new city, no jobs, dead broke. I couldn't provide for my new bride which greatly challenged my sense of manhood. To top it off my wife started staying in bed all day for weeks. I finally got her to confess to me that she'd only been eating one meal a day, so that I could eat and have energy in my classes. Holy-" insert expletive. "Lost, I clamored for some way just to make sure that we could eat, much less stay in our overpriced apartment. In a flurry of desperation, I found out student loans around the corner but not available for four to six weeks, but I'm going to die in the next week was my dominant thought.

 

Humbled, lost, beaten, I decided to call my dad begging for an advance of money which I'd pay back when the student loans came in. In a locked room I asked him. There was a long pause, 'Son, no. If I give you this, you may not exhaust resources you didn't know you had.' His exact words. Very wise. We both cried, yet the fire in my gut to make this happen was insane and gave me huge edge. I really didn't know how we'd make it through those weeks and I don't know how I actually did make it through those weeks, but like a sprinter grasping at a single breath, I started trying to make money in any way I could think of. In three to six month rotations, I seemed to try everything; stocks, options, residential real estate, commercial real estate, two summers of door-to-door sales, telemarketing, ebooks, freelance website building, diamonds- yup, smartphone insurance, affiliate marketing, internet traffic driving for Paul Mitchell schools, study, try, repeat.

 

The pros, I was learning far more on my own than any of my actual marketing classes. The cons, a little money came in here and there but nothing, crap; nothing really big, crap. Then, one day a buddy called me and said, 'This dude's going to help us make a bunch of money,' and three-wayed me in. You know the MLM pitch. Reluctantly and pushed, I joined the MLM at the pleading of my buddy and then finding out that my wife was pregnant. I was pumped to have a kid, but terrified at how to pay the cost; still broke. Ugh, MLM. If I'm going to do this crap, I'm going to tear after it. That was my honest thought, so I literally went door-to-door on our main street for five weeks. I recruited 13 people/businesses ... and they did nothing. I was constantly distracted in all of life, because all I could think of was, holy crap, how did the big MLM'ers actually do this and really make money? That question became my pure obsession.

 

Again, I hit the books, courses, podcasts." Just like you guys now. "In order to simply live, I joined the army in college but got into trouble for sneaking in finance books and selling a lot and selling other soldiers on my MLM. None of them actually joined after all, though. Six months later, I was back at home. Yet again, it was 2:00 a.m., class in just five hours. I started reading an MLM ebook, as was routine at this point. How do I vet out people who aren't willing to hustle? How do I get people to come to me? How do I change my bait? Then it happened, like a ray of light in a dark room, a single idea hit me between the eyes. It was one concept that changed my life and my family's. A concept that gave me the fuel and ammo to figure out the last piece, the missing link. I barely slept that night. That was three and a half years ago. Anyway, sorry to talk about myself so much. I'm glad my dad said no. I just wanted to say hi and mention how much I truly respect you for what you've accomplished and the real inspiration you probably didn't know you've been. Looking forward to that handshake."

 

Anyways, that's the letter that I sent to them. I sent that letter to them for the sole purpose of introducing myself. That's it. I'm not asking for anything. I'm not sending them to any link. I'm not telling them to go anywhere. I literally am just trying to get that individual to go, "Hey, this Steve Larsen guy is kind of cool." When you go ... and the reason why I'm bringing this up, is because I'm about to launch this product called Secret MLM Hacks and you all know that, but I'm going out creating relationships before I ask people to buy.

 

The problem that I had when I first joined MLM is that I went out and I did exactly what my MLM upline was telling me to do. They literally did not let me leave the room until I wrote a list of 20 of my friends and called them in front of them. It seriously was the most awkward thing in my life. I know I've mentioned this before, but I know that there are damaged relationships because of those phone calls. What was so challenging and what was so hard was I didn't know what else to do. There was nothing else to do, but the problem was that I ... I mean, I hadn't created a relationship with the person strong enough in that area, in the business area; they were my friends, they were my family, so of course there was a relationship, but it was out of context. They weren't wanting to join my MLM. They weren't actually wanting to actually go and be pitched on something, and it got really, really frustrating really fast.

 

So, all I'm trying to say in the purpose of this episode is that when you go and you start to actually try and recruit people into your down lines, if you're doing it the way of calling people up, which is fine, I just don't do that, or if you're doing home meetings, which is fine, I just don't do that, or hotel meetings, again, I just don't do those things. I do it a- I know [inaudible 00:12:33] through the system that I build on my own, that's how I do it and it works great. When you go out and you actually start to try and sell the product, when you're trying to launch your MLM business, don't spam people. Don't go out and try and ... I mean, it makes us feel ... it makes my wife and I feel- we get approached all the time to join MLMs. I don't want to join a MLM. I'm already in one and I love it. You know, that's the reason I don't try and get you to join mine. It's not like a ... it's totally a soft pitch and that's how you got to look at it for how you're approaching your own people as well.

 

When you go out and ... man, make a list of the people that you wish were in your MLM, your actual down line, and start sending them cool packages. Get their address, find it somehow; send them letters, send them cool stuff. Send them things that are pattern interrupts. Don't just start calling them over the phone and blast them all over the place. Don't go and ... ugh, do not go on Facebook and start saying how much you love working from home. You just started most of you, like ... you've [inaudible 00:13:40] that your home office is your living room. Is that because you can't afford something else? Oh, that means that you really don't have any cashflow? You know what I mean? I'm not trying to put salt in the wound, I'm just saying that's how it looks to everybody else. Everyone's calling the bluff on you. Everyone knows, everyone sees.

 

The easiest way to go about doing it, create a list of the top 100 people that you wish were in your down line, then start creating relationships with that individual. Ask yourself the question, "How can I provide value for that individual before they even know that I'm in an MLM?" That way when it comes back around, there's going to be a time where you can bring it up, and you can say, "Hey, look, I just want to tell you about it. It's totally cool if you're not interested, though." Guys, that same strategy is what I'm using on other people who I'm not even trying to get them into my MLM. That's just one of the ways that we used to promote products, because all it takes is a few of those people to say yes. They promote it to their followings, you know, people with their internet followings, and it makes a ton of money. That's the way that we do it. It's exact same thing with MLM. So, that's all I'm saying. Go ... do exactly what [inaudible 00:14:47] write out a huge list of people that you wish were in your down line, but my gosh, understand that most of them aren't going to join, especially right off the bat, if at all, and that's fine. You got to mentally be prepared for that.

 

Second of all, go create the relationships first. Provide real value for the individual. One example real quick then I'll end the podcast real quick. There was a guy who went out and I could tell that I was on his list, like he wanted me to join. Now, I ended up not joining but I was able to help him in some cool products. What he did was insane. He went and he bought one of my online products. When he did it, he did it for the sole purpose of hiring an outside coder, which he did, who went and on his own dollar, went and made all these improvements that I didn't even know you could make to my current product. You know, this is a side product. It's not my main one, it was over on ... you know, and he went and all he did was he just was like, "Hey, I hired this coder and he added these cool extra features in for you. By the way here it is, and also, I made a whole really cool video startup guide to walk people through how to set it up so that you don't have to worry about it with your own support team." He was like, "Here you go, you can set it up. It's all yours totally for free." I was like, "What the heck? Who are you? Are you kidding me?"

 

You guys, that product still makes me a ton of money. Do you know how much value that individual has provided for me? Anytime he reaches out to me, I answer now, amidst all the noise, amidst all the people that are out there trying to get me to do something for them, to promote a product, to join a down line, to buy there [inaudible 00:16:23] to do whatever, get samples, anything, amidst all the people, when that guys says something, I know that he cares about me. I know he cares about my success as well and you need to do that. You got to care about the success of the other person that you're trying to recruit in your down line. It's same exact ... more than you may even be thinking, this is a relationship business. So go create that list. Go create a relationship with them and then, after you have the relationship, and after you've provided value to that individual, then, then talk about your MLM, then talk about the opportunity.

 

Alright guys, that's all I got for you. That's what I'm doing right now as far as the launch. Stay tuned next episode so you can see what's happening. You can follow the launch for this thing. It's pretty sweet. Again, the reason I'm doing this is because I want you to be able to copy me and do it for your own down lines.

 

Alright guys, talk to you later. Bye.

 

Hey, thanks for listening. Please remember to subscribe and leave feedback for me. Do you have a question you want answered live on the show? Go to SecretMLMHacksRadio.com to submit your question and download your free MLM Masters Pack.

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Secret MLM Hacks RadioBy Steve J Larsen: Automated Downline Recruiting

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