What's going on everyone, this is Steve Larsen and you are listening to Secret MLM Hacks radio. Here's the real mystery: how do real MLMers like us who didn't cheat and only bug family members and friends, who 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 glaring question and this podcast will give you the answer. My name is Steve Larsen and welcome to Secret MLM Hacks radio.
All right. How's it going everyone? I grew up in Denver Colorado, if you guys didn't know that about me, I love Colorado, I love the outdoors, I love anything- it's funny, I didn't really play that many sports in high school or college or anything like that but I did a lot of individual sports, I guess you'd call them. I did a lot of backpacking, did a ton of skiing and I love it a lot.
I remember there was this time where we were backpacking, we actually went on this three week backpacking trip. Three weeks, I mean, that's a long time. Three days is a long time, we went for three weeks. I don't know how many miles we went, I don't know the elevation change we went, we were all over the place so everywhere from across the continental divide, beautiful beautiful high high altitude backpacking, way above tree line, way above 11000 feet, and we'd take our food with us and we'd find water along the way at pre-planned water points and we saw some really cool stuff while we were doing that. As a youth it was very shaping for me to go through those experiences, it was really really awesome. I remember we would go super super high above these, we'd start really low but we'd climb every single step along the way.
What was funny is, before the trip there was always this huge moment of, or period I should say, of excitement. We're like, oh my gosh, I get to go do this really cool thing, and I get to go and I wonder what it's going to be like. There's all this anticipation, and there's all these awesome feelings of you know, you're getting all the gear together, you're getting all these things prepared, looking at the maps and making sure you got, you know, you're safe about it at the same time. It's exciting, it's really exciting. You go and you start getting on this trip and it's so funny, about a mile in, the same thing always happened every single time. Same thing always happened every time. You start walking, you're like, woo, hey, this is going to be awesome. Usually your up at 3 or 4 in the morning, starting to walking, sometimes we would put headlamps on and walk in the dark because we'd get started for an early part of the day. The same thing always happened, though. About a mile in, there was always this feeling of, crap. Why did I start this? What did I get myself into? I'm going to be doing this for the next while and if we're all sucking wind and we're all trying to breathe, I'm just going to be left to me and my thoughts. This is the activity for a while.
It was so funny because for about a mile in, that would start, and the legs would burn and your lungs would start burning and you start playing the mind games, you know, you can do this, you got this, this is going to be great. I always enjoyed that, though, and after I had done it enough times, we backpacked a lot, after I'd done it enough times I actually looked forward to that moment because I knew as soon as I got through it my legs, more blood was going to go into the muscles. My red blood cell count was going to go up through the roof and I was going to be able to capture more oxygen per breath, literally, especially as we go really really high up I'd be breathing hard but I wouldn't be in any more pain. It's very very interesting.
I remember there was this particular hike that I was on. This totally relates, okay, just follow with me to your MLM. I remember there was this particular hike we were on, it was a three week backpacking trip, three weeks long and technically it was three and a half but we went and it was, I think it was the last two days of the last week. I mean, we'd been going a long way. We'd go for several days, we would resupply somewhere and immediately just keep going and resupply several days later and keep going. Food is heavy. Water is heavy, so you know, we couldn't carry three weeks obviously on our backs in one shot. We'd go resupply and we'd just keep going. Resupply and keep going at strategic little mountain places throughout in the Rocky Mountains. It was so fun, oh my gosh, but there was this horrifying thing that happened one day. We were resupplying on water as we went. Well, one day two or three days prior to being done for the whole trip, we actually get to this creek that we were supposed to get more water from. You're working really hard, you're working out hard, obviously the whole day for extended periods of time, you drink a lot of water. There's nothing quite so fresh and crisp, delicious as mountain water that you just filtered. Oh my gosh, it is so good. I'm craving it right now just remembering it.
What was so funny, it's funny now but then it actually kind of serious. We got to this creek we were supposed to resupply at and the creek was completely dried up. It was completely dried up and we had no way to get water. All we had was the water that was remaining in our canteens, in our Nalgene bottles, just the ones we had on us. We were like, oh my gosh, without water, you don't eat because you need water to digest it so okay, now we can't eat for the last little bit here. All right, now we can't do this and we can't do this, we can't take little baths or whatever. Play in the water, whatever it was. Without water it gets pretty serious pretty quick, especially at high elevation there's altitude sickness that starts to set in under certain conditions, especially if you're not being hydrated enough, weird things can start to happen in your brain because there's a lot less oxygen you're bringing in as well.
It got kind of serious pretty fast, and so we took all of our water that we did have and we put it all in this big pile and we were like, okay, and we just started rationing out our water. It actually, I'm not going to lie, it was actually pretty freaky, in the middle of the night, I remember waking up and it was actually painful the kind of dehydration pain is so much worse than hunger pain and I remember being in physical pain, I mean, it was- anyway, it wasn't a very good experience for that last little bit but we were trying to stay in high spirits, okay, we're only 36 hours away but I mean, we don't have that much water left, like, you know, in those types of scenarios it can get pretty serious, right?
I remember a lot of the leaders that we were with, because I was a youth at the time, right, they started going through different options. You know, like, okay, what are we going to do? Should we call some emergency line? should we stop this and go figure out what's going to, you know what I mean, and we figured out that literally the shortest way for us to be safe was to complete what we were already doing. There was no other way. We were at really high altitude, there was no other way for us to go get water, there was nothing. We had to keep going and guys were kind of freaking out just a little bit but silently, we were all trying to keep our cool a little bit, we'd been going for weeks and only to come at the very end and like, have no water left.
Now, there's a huge lesson with this, guys, oh my gosh, that taught me so many things. So many things. Recently, I don't know what the deal has been but I've got this other MLM product, I haven't really told you guys that much about it yet, I'd love to but you know, just figure you guys will find out about it if you want to but it sells like hotcakes. It helps people automate their down lines and their recruiting process. It's really really cool. The last several days, people have been just buying it like crazy. It's already sold a ton. I think something like over 250 people have already bought it in the last little bit here. Tons of Facebook messages and questions going on and they're loving and they're like, hey, does it work in this scenario, does it do this here? I'm like, yeah, it works there, there, there, there, there, beware of this, whatever it is.
Some of the comments that come back are hilarious to me. They'll go, get excited before the journey. They're like, oh, this journey's going to be so cool, right? Same thing I did with the backpacking trip. They'll go get excited about it and they'll buy it or they'll get into, you know, this is probably a better example, they'll go get into their network marketing opportunity, right, their MLM. They'll go join an MLM and they're excited, they're full of anticipation, they're ready to rock and they start to feel a little bit of improvement immediately as the excitement kind of carries them through that but then all of a sudden reality sets in, right? That's like the mile mark for me. Reality sets in and oh my gosh, this is going to be cool in hindsight, but wow, this is going to be some work, you know, and wow, oh my gosh, people are already quitting. There's already huge fallout from all the other people who are trying to be successful inside their MLM. It's the exact the same thing with the backpacking, exact same thing with anything in life.
I believe a Seth [Godon 00:09:31], in the book The Dip, The Dip, that's a great book, but the book The Dip, he talks about how we always go through these cycles and as soon as we start anything brand new, there's excitement. "Oh my gosh, we get to go do this cool thing, it's going to be awesome!", you know, and we get ourselves excited on what the future will be like but oftentimes we'll be like, wow, we neglect the middle part, the actual journey part, the actual work, right? Lately there's been a lot of these people who've been messaging me. I remember there was this lady who messaged me, she's like, "I've been working so hard," like, why isn't anything in my MLM working in general? I've been working so so hard. I always laugh at that. I have to laugh at that. There's no, you guys, working hard means nothing. Okay, one of the biggest dangers I see over and over and over is people start to confuse being in motion and taking action, they confuse that with achievement. They confuse it with accomplishment. Movement does not mean accomplishment. If I'd stopped two days from being over, I still wouldn't have accomplished my three day or my three week backpacking trip, would I?
It's the exact same thing with business. You go join this MLM, right, exact same thing that my upline is telling me to do, I went and I wrote down this huge list of all my friends and family and I'm starting to call them and nobody's joining it but I'm feeling good because I'm taking action. All right, action is good you have to get it to get the achievement, but don't confuse it with achievement. Don't, or you're going to start to think, oh my gosh, look at all these great things I'm doing. Great, but what are you finishing? Does that make sense? That's the whole reason why I brought this up. The whole reason. I'm sure you guys have heard of the book Magnetic Sponsoring, by Mike Dillard. Fantastic book. Here, this is probably one of the most referenced books on MLM. This is on page 40, he says, "you and the other distributors are your up line's marketing arm and you have one single task: sell. That's it."
I want to ask you a question. My role here in this podcast, I want to be friends with you, I want to get to know you guys, I want to know who you are, I want to know what MLM you're in, I'm excited for you. I'm never going to try and dissuade you out of whatever you're doing. If you love it? Great! That's awesome, but at the same time you have to ask yourself where are your revenue generating activities and are you doing them? If you're confusing yourself with activities that are not revenue generating, I.e., you go make a logo, or you go put together a dang business card. I don't have a business card, are you kidding me? Unless there's an actual marketing campaign behind it. I've made business cards one time for my dad's business and we put together a business card and it's because there was this cool little free thing on there that would bring someone over to a website so they could opt in and get going on his marketing automation. That was it. Are you kidding, I don't have a business card.
It's so easy to get distracted by the crap fluffy stuff of business. I have a marketing degree. Do you know how much fluffy stuff there was with that? "Go write out your business plan." "Go contact five people and ask them to be your mentors." It was like, what? No no no. It's exactly what Mike Dillard said. Your only, only responsibility in your MLM is to sell. That's it. You need to ask yourself, if time is money, that's a common phrase, time is money, time is money, if time is money, what are you spending your time on? Is it on revenue generating activities or are you distracting yourself by writing another list of people that could possibly join and writing a list of what could happen if their friends joined and what would that look like on the compensation plan? I know we've all done that, of course we've done that before. Our MLM, our up lines all teach us to do that, right, that's like the standard thing to do most of the time, stereotypically.
What I wanted to do and what I wanted to tell, like, you have to get results. Right? If you don't have results you are not achieving and if you are just running around and you're like, "How come this MLM isn't working? How come this opportunity's not working?" And you're not actually focusing on sales, well, there's your problem. Focus on sales. That's the only thing that matters inside your MLM. That's it. Inside of your opportunity, that's it. Sell. Whether you're selling the opportunity or you're selling the product, that's it. Do not go start making big lists of people and doing nothing. You have got to take ridiculous [inaudible 00:14:01] action. There is nothing that's ever come to me in my life without me being 100% obsessed. I mean, a monomaniac. To others, to my mom, to other people, to anyone else even in my own network marketing opportunity, even in my own MLM that I'm in right now, my level of obsession is ridiculous to them. But then they ask, like, "How can we be so successful at this?" Well, it's because I'm obsessing. Right?
Some guy told me once, you have to have life balance and everything. I think that's complete utter bull crap. That's not true at all. It's more like, you guys ever see those circus people and they've got all those plates spinning? They've got like 10 plates spinning on top of sticks but they only got two hands. Well how do they know which one to go for? Well, they wait and they wait and the one that starts to wobble they go give attention to that one until it's good. Then they wait, oh, that one's wobbling, and then they go over to that one. Right? Exact same thing with this. What I am begging you to do is, anything that is not a revenue generating activity, please do not get distracted by it. You have to, don't confuse the action. Don't confuse how far you've come with thinking that you've actually made it. You know what I mean? I if had only gone two weeks and four days, or five days, and not actually finished those last few days, I wouldn't have made it. I couldn't have that little emotional badge on my chest, yeah, I did that, it was a three week backpacking trip, right, I mean, it was hard. It's the exact same thing.
Anyways, I think I made the point, I'm beating a dead horse probably, but I want you to know that that topic for me, I'm very passionate about it because most people will still go and just say, well, I've done this today. Well, I made a list of these people today, and they feel good about themselves. That's great, if you've never done anything ever, that's great. Yeah, you're right, pat yourself on the back, but tomorrow don't get distracted. You can't do it or you're just not going to be successful in it. You're not, and it's hard for me to say that and it's probably hard for some to hear it but I'm okay if that offends you a little bit. Right? It's a harsh reality, it's a harsh wake up call, sales drives the world. Sales drives the economy. Sales drives your business. If you think this is going to retire you, if you think it's going to be something that pays for those extra vacations or an extra car or helps you just pay some bills, it's from a sale so what else is there to focus on? Nothing. Does that make sense? That's how I treat my business and that's how you should treat yours.
Most of the time I'm, I'm very opinionated but I'm like, hey, everyone can have their own opinions. On that, I feel like I'm 100% right on that. There's no contest. You have got to sell. Whether it's the opportunity or it is the product, sell. Sell something every day. Just make that the goal. Today I am going to sell one thing to somebody. You gotta know what your number is. When I was doing telemarketing, I was a telemarketer for a little while and I was a good one and I knew that if I called 100 people that day I would get at least one sale. Same thing when I did a lot of direct response marketing, I sent mailers out and I did all that kind of stuff too. It was great. I knew if I sent out 100 mailers on average I would have one person respond to me.
I was like, cool I want to get 10 new people this week, I gotta send out 1000 flyers. I literally would go door to door and I put on people's doors. You know what? There's more effective ways to do it but I just tried to make the sale, and it worked. I did. It was awesome. I got a good team together really quickly. There are other ways to do that and I use the internet and it's way more automated and far less time costly on me but anyway, that's what I'm saying. Come up with a way that you just rinse and repeat without thinking about it. It's just part of your daily ritual.
That doesn't mean you go barf over people at the store. I hate that, I hate, my friends and family don't even know what MLM I'm in and I set my systems up that way on purpose. If that kind of thing is interesting to you check out secretmlmhacks.com, but anyway. I will never continue to promote over and over on this podcast, that's not the point of this and I hope that that's okay I just said that, but anyways, that's the main point. This podcast gone long enough so far but I just want you to know, please, this is like the main, I have this written on my wall even. Don't confuse action and movement with accomplishment and achievement. They're not the same thing, and thinking that you're just moving does not mean you are being successful.
All right, thanks guys so much, and if you have not got it yet please go to secretmlmhacksradio.com and get your MLM Master's Pack. It's basically it's five videos and you can show it to anyone, I don't pitch an MLM, I don't talk about anything else. You wont even know what MLM I'm in, I'm never going to tell you guys, and it's for the reason that you guys know that I'm a third party, I'm not pressuring you in any way at all. Anyways, it's five videos of me training you and your down line on different ways you can recruit and even set up auto recruiting systems. It's really awesome. Anyways guys, I will talk to you later. Bye.
Hey, thanks for listening. Please remember to subscribe and leave feedback. Would you like me to teach your own down line five simple MLM recruiting tips for free? If so, go download your free MLM Master's Pack by subscribing to this podcast at secretmlmhacksradio.com.