I knew of successful working mothers in the network marketing industry and I knew of successful single dads, too. They had triple the obstacles I had. So why was I having such a hard time?

Well, I thought about that and I remembered something from my high school days (the "Glory Days", a buddy of mine called them during a recent reunion) that got me to thinking.

In high school, I was on the track team and my best race was the mile. I also ran the half-mile and the mile relay occasionally. (I'm dating myself now because everything's in meters nowadays!!)

During my senior year, I set a goal for myself of running a 4:10 mile. My previous best was a 4:27 in which I placed second at State Championships the previous year. Our school record was 4:24 and the All-time Nevada State High School mile record was 4:19 set in 1965—so my goal was pretty "out there". (What's the point of a setting a goal you know you can reach anyway, right?)

I even had a t-shirt printed up with "4:10" in big numbers across the front. I would wear it during warm-ups at each track meet. Some of my teammates thought I was nuts and I would hear guys from other schools crack jokes as I jogged by.

(Sound familiar?)

Anyway, I worked my tail off that season. I put in 50 to 70 miles a week. I trained everyday after school from 2:30 to 5:30pm with races on Saturdays and a long run on Sundays. 4 days a week I jogged 3 miles in morning before school.

I would even run through the halls from one class to the next during school, I put off staying out late at night with friends and I didn't have a drop of alcohol the entire season.

My coach taught me the importance of having a good attitude and supporting my teammates during workouts—cheering them on, etc. (I had no clue how important that was! When I supported my teammates, it came back to me ten-fold.)

I learned about meditation and the art of visualization and I experienced myself winning the State Championship in the record-shattering time of 4:10, over and over again. I was on a mission!

Three weeks before the State meet, I broke our school record by one second with a time of 4:23.

Before I tell you what happened next, let me just tell you why this story is so significant....

When I started my network marketing career, I failed miserably for years. I had a sponsor and upline that was extremely well-versed in the traditional marketing methods of MLM. (And you know what that means...)

Well, I would put some time in here and there. Buy leads. Make calls. Put out flyers. Hand out samples. Buy more samples. Hand out CDs. You know the drill...a part-time effort.

The thing is, I wasn't comfortable with old school, traditional network marketing. So uncomfortable in fact, that I was always trying to reinvent the wheel instead by designing my own flyers or other marketing pieces.

Consequently, procrastination became enemy number one. I would spend my time getting ready to get ready to work on my business.

And inconsistency become enemy number two. I would get on phone and call leads for two hours one day and forget about it the next. (Calling cold leads was painful—almost as bad as going to weekly opportunity meetings!)

I just didn't feel good about the type of marketing methods my sponsor and upline advocated. I felt like a fish out of water. Awkward. It was hard for me to put in the necessary work consistently over time to produce the results I desired.

It just wasn't working. I wasn't making any progress and I felt bad about myself for it.

This was the exact opposite of how I felt in high school track where I was in alignment with my coach, team support, training and my goals. I had confidence in myself and in my abilities. Putting in the work was natural. I was in the flow.

When I look back at my accomplishments during that high school track season and break down exactly why I was able to do what I did, I see the recipe for success:

1. A worthy goal
2. Good coaching
3. An excellent plan I felt good about executing
4. A great attitude, helping others
5. Dedication, ambition, determination
6. Good diet and plenty of rest
7. Consistent action
8. Belief and confidence through meditation, visualization and results

It's clear to me I needed to apply these same principles to my network marketing career. If I could do that then success would naturally follow!

Today, I continue to learn from excellent coaching. I feel comfortable with executing my plan in Attraction Marketing. I'm in the flow. I'm taking consistent action, and I'm seeing results, which increases my confidence.

It's apparent to me that if you're lacking in any one of above ingredients, you'll have a tough time reaching your goal. So make sure you're involved with the right company, following the advice of an excellent coach and feel good about your plan of action or you could be in for some misery.

So, back to what happened....

Well, a week after I broke the school record, I came down with a cold. Not good. We had a State Qualifying meet that weekend where I needed to place in the top 4 to qualify.

It was a cold windy day and I wasn't feeling that good but somehow still managed to win with a slow 4:29. Whew! Now I had to recover and get ready for the State finals the following weekend.

In the back of my mind, I wasn't very confident about my ability to reach 4:10 or to even break 4:20 after that last race, but I kept up with my routine anyway.

I never lost my vision or focus on my goal and kept up the intensity of my training. I worked. I prepared. I visualized. I pushed away doubts. I kept wearing my 4:10 t-shirt.

Two weeks later in Las Vegas, I became the State Champion and All-time Nevada State High School record holder in the mile run with a time of 4:15.

Not quite 4:10, however, it was 8 seconds faster than my personal best and 4 seconds faster than the All-time High School State record!

I was beyond thrilled. It CAN be done!

Your Partner in Success,

Steve Lauri

This is advertising and marketing 101. Network marketing, direct sales or multilevel marketing should be no different. Just because you’re not a big New York advertising agency or a slick Chicago marketing firm doesn’t mean you can’t do what they do.

Before the pros begin a project, they do their homework. The first thing they do is define the product and the target audience. What are they selling and who exactly are they going to talk to? The answers will affect the ad or marketing communications piece they develop.

For instance, let’s say the product is a set of golf clubs. The pros will get very specific but basically, they’ll target people who play golf, are interested in golf and have purchased golf clubs before.

They’ll talk to them in their language. The advertising and marketing pieces they create will talk to them about their golf swing or their golf score. About how to get more birdies and pars, and less hooks and slices, because golfers relate to that. The more they can identify with them the more they gain trust. Pretty straight forward, huh?

Next, the professional ad agencies and marketing firms will then choose specific media in which to run their ads. Golf magazines, The Golf Channel, commercials during televised golf tournaments and point-of-purchase displays in golf course pro shops among others.

They won’t waste money running ads in Better Housekeeping, because although there may be some housekeepers who play golf, more likely than not, there won’t be.

How does this relate to network marketing? How can we apply what the pros do to our MLM business? And, why will it make a difference? Great questions…let’s talk about them.

Let’s start at the beginning by defining our product and target market just like the pros.

Now, unlike a golf club company, in network marketing we also sell a business opportunity. So really, there are two products being sold: the product or service being offered and the business opportunity.

With regards to the product or service, it’s pretty straight forward. If you have a weight loss product, for example, you’re goal is to target people who want to lose weight and have purchased weight-loss products before. Some people are overweight and just don’t care.

If you have a health product, you’ll want to target health-conscious people or people facing a health challenge. You get the idea.

Where it gets confusing, though, is when we talk about selling the business opportunity. The problem is, most of us in network marketing were taught by our well-meaning upline that our target market was EVERYONE. And we took it at face value, without really thinking about it or even questioning it. It seemed to make sense, afterall, everyone wants to make more money, right?

So instead, let’s apply the big city ad agency method to promoting our MLM business opportunity.

Our product therefore, is our network marketing opportunity, which offers people a way to make extra income or become financially free, and everything in between.

So, is our target audience people who need extra income?

No.

Yes, there are people who need extra income but don’t necessarily desire it. If they did, they’d be looking for ways to get it, right? Some are content with poverty just like some are content with being overweight.

Some would rather watch their favorite sitcoms than look for ways to earn more money or go for a 30-minute walk.

What about people looking for ways to make extra income or looking for a business of some kind?

I would say yes, but on they’re on the fringe. I personally wouldn’t include them. I don’t know if they are open to the MLM concept or not. It’s a coin toss. These people would be considered ‘opportunity seekers’.

Remember what I said earlier with the golf clubs example?:

“…they'll target people who play golf, are interested in golf and have purchased golf clubs before.”

And if we’re selling golf clubs, that’s who we want to reach. Not bowlers. Not tennis players. Not arts and crafts enthusiasts. We want to go straight to the people who want to buy what we are selling.

Now, here’s the same statement using network marketing as the product:

“…they'll target people who do network marketing, are interested in network marketing and have purchased network marketing before.”

That’s it! That’s our target audience.

What’s great about talking to our target audience is that they already know what network marketing is and have bought into the concept. You don’t have to educate them or convince them that it’s “legal”.

You won’t get rejected, shamed or ridiculed. Your target audience is on the same page with you. They identify with you. They relate to what you have to say. How refreshing.

I don’t know a fellow golfer who doesn’t like talking about golf and about how he can lower his score or what course he’s playing next!

Now that you’ve defined your target audience, you can zero in on your marketing efforts to attract like-minded people for greater success in far less time.

Once you start bringing network marketers into your business you’ll cut down on training time, hand-holding and trouble shooting. Teach them what you’ve learned about whom to target and soon you’ll be building a downline of business builders who don’t waste time and money approaching the wrong people.

It’s a beautiful thing.

Happy marketing,

P.S. – Here’s a great little ebook that goes over all the fallacies in traditional network marketing recruiting methodologies. If you’ve been struggling to build your MLM business, this is a must read. And it’s free… Download it here

“Oh no, here he comes…quick, hide.”
–John Doe, friend of a network marketer.

If you’re at all like me, at some point you’ve asked yourself if there’s a better way than making a list of everyone you know and pitching them on your new MLM, right? I mean, when your sister-in-law’s attorney boyfriend asks you, “so, who’s at the top of the pyramid?” at a family gathering, you’ve got to wonder.

Or, spending 4 hours in the blazing sun putting “sizzle” cards on car windows at the shopping mall only to get one call from someone who couldn’t speak clearly enough to even understand.

Or, attending dozens of hotel meetings, with samples in hand, checking your watch, looking back toward the door only to realize your guest wasn’t going to show…again.

Or, spending hours on the phone, “dialing for dollars” as one guru puts it, trying to sift thru all the wrong number, disconnected, just filed bankruptcy, on disability, unemployed, belligerent, you name it…super-mega-quality phone leads.

How about putting flyers at apartment complexes and laundry mats? It’s humiliating all ready! At what point do you say enough?

Well, I reached that point. Let me tell you about the straw that broke the camel’s back.

I invited a friend of mine to one of my company’s opportunity meetings held at a hotel. The meeting featured a “special guest”, who I promptly edified to my friend. “Sell the guest not the meeting”, I was taught.

And not risking another no-show, I made sure to pick him up on the way to the meeting.

When we arrived, I introduced him to a few ‘key people in the company’ and we found our seats. After the presentation, the first words out of my friend’s mouth were, “if I knew I was going to have to listen to an hour and a half of pyramid scheme…blah, blah, blah…” I could go on, but I think you get the idea.

He couldn’t get out of there fast enough. Oh man, that was the longest drive back, let me tell you! That, my friends, was the straw that broke the camel’s back. That’s when I decided to start looking for a better way.

Now don’t get me wrong, some people do very well with the above methods. They’re good at them. I’m not. And, most people aren’t, either. That’s why 97% of the people who get into network marketing fail. These types of methods are not easily duplicated.

I knew there had to be a better way and that’s when I came across the concept of Attraction Marketing. (And it doesn’t involve the “3-foot rule”!)

This was truly a breakthrough for me. Instead of the usual MLM marketing techniques of chasing down prospects and trying to convince them of how great your product or opportunity is, you only market to your target audience and attract people to you and your business.

Target audience? Now we’re getting somewhere! That’s what the pros do. They only market to people who want what they have to offer. Contrary to what you’ve been taught, anyone who can fog a mirror IS NOT a prospect.

So, instead of spending your time bugging your warm market and chasing the cold, you become educated on attraction marketing techniques and begin to draw people to you and generate your own high quality leads—and get paid to do it.

The true top earners in the industry build their network marketing businesses entirely different than the other 97%. They ‘think outside the box’ and become independent experts in their chosen field, while everyone else just follows the advice of everyone else and becomes an MLM clone.

It’s not about your ‘why’ or your company’s DVD or your desire to become best friends with a total stranger at the mall only to later pitch your biz.

It’s about thinking for yourself and learning a better way to effectively get the results you desire.

You don’t have to leave your success in network marketing to hope and chance.
Achieve the success you deserve by educating yourself and taking persistent action.

When you do, you’ll then start to build a solid business by attracting your target audience and achieving success every month with predictability.

Now, as a result, your friends, family and associates begin to come to YOU to find out what you’re doing! Plus, they now see you as a true expert in your field and not their annoying MLM schemer friend.

To your freedom,