If The Wheel Is A Jerk Reinvent It!

Friday, May 25th, 2012 at 12:52 pm

You’ve heard it… your mom scolding you for wanting to do something … just because “Everyone else is doing it”.

“Just because everyone else is doing it, doesn’t make it right.”

We (sort of ) understood that as kids, or maybe no one really understands this until they get the hidden mom manual that we all know is out there somewhere. (Seriously, if someone has it…can you send me a copy?)

We’re taught to think about our actions before we do them and not to just blindly follow what everyone else is doing.

But you know what?

We don’t follow that advice, and when it comes to businesses and starting up an internet or network marketing business that advice is treated like the plague or something.

I can’t tell you how many times I heard upline leaders say “Don’t re-invent the wheel“. And, you only have to “follow the leader“.

Hearing people I respected say this to me over and over, made me think they must be on to something. That I should “follow the leader” and not try to do anything differently, because they were successful.

So what if I thought they were being a**holes, so what if I thought they didn’t treat their downline well, so what if I felt like their way of doing things seemed just plain mean? They were making the money and I wasn’t, so I guess I would have to copy them.

This was a big mistake.

I have no idea why we as people doubt ourselves so much, why we feel like other people are better than us because they have accomplished something we haven’t, why we feel we have to emulate or channel someone else’s attitude so we can have their life.

Really, I didn’t want their life or their team, I wanted their results.

So I held myself back, I tried to make myself speak and act like they did, and I tried to follow them 100% to the letter.

I had a few successes, but could never really get off the ground. Because I was pretending to be someone else. I would hang up the phone from talking to someone and take off my “leader persona” and put away my sheet of phrases I’d heard “leaders” say and sigh a big huge sigh of relief that I could just be myself again.

I remember hanging up the phone from a team member and Mike asking me who I was talking to, I said it was a team member, and he said “Niamh, you’re not supposed to be spending time on the phone with them, remember”…. and that was true, an upline had said not to waste time helping people on the phone; just get people in and the real “leaders” will show themselves by figuring everything out on their own.

I was trying to hard to emulate this, that I forgot to stop and think.

Did I think that was right??

Did I think that way of treating people was neccessary?

Did I think this was the kind of leader I should be?

When I finally examined the sick feeling I had in my stomache in relation to my business I realized I didn’t want anyone to join me. Because I didn’t want to treat them like crap and have to feel torn and guilty. I didn’t want to accept their money and then leave them to struggle as much as I had.

I would rather have no team members, FAIL in my business, and feel good about who I am…. than take someone else’s money and watch them struggle and fail.

And I nearly gave up.

I nearly threw in the towel.

But I had one child and another on the way, and I knew that more than anything I wanted to be a stay at home mom for them. I wanted to give them everything in life and be an example to them of the type of people I wanted them to be.

I didn’t want them to think they had to be job slaves, but I equally didn’t want them to become jerks who would see no problem with succeeding by stepping on others on the way up!

I could see no way around this, I knew I couldn’t take responsibility for the results of others and I would never be able to handhold a large team to success, I would have no time for my kids. I had to find a way to be myself AND truly help others.

Once I knew what I was able to make decisions based not on how much money I wanted to make…. but more on the kind of leader I wanted to be… and this is what I’ve accomplished so far on my mission…

Leading Without Being An A**Hole

If The Wheel Is Broken - Reinvent It!

1. I started to market A TOOL instead of just information

(information is vital, but it leads to overload…. I began to sell something that people could use to turn around and do exactly what I do to make money)

2. I made sure that ANYONE could get in.

Rather than marketing a product that people would have to go into debt to make money with, I began to market a product that just costs $25. I knew that everyone could afford this, no matter how hard off they are, so I could feel good about selling it!

2. I came up with a simple strategy that other’s could follow daily no matter what situation they are in

I gave everyone in my team 6 daily action steps. They didn’t have to invest more, or learn complicated strategies… they just had to have the consistency and drive to actually DO IT!

3. I started focusing on being myself and having fun instead of making money.

Seriously, this is one of those things that no one ever believes is possible, but I genuinely stopped trying to make money. I gave people every opportunity to learn more about my business, and then I focused on just saying what I felt, talking to people I liked, and being who I am. This has resulted in a team that understands my philosophy and vision, and enjoy working with me!

4. I made my tools available to my team

Where every other leader was getting extra commissions from selling their team members more and more tools to help them succeed…. I have allowed my team to use mine for free. See all that happens when you squeeze yet more money out of your team is de-motivated, resentful, frustrated team members. Sure, the true leaders will push through any adversity to success. But what about the people who are barely getting by, what about the people that don’t even know how to use these tools because this is completely new to them

Get this marketers: Just because struggle was part of your story, and your journey… doesn’t mean your team members have to go through that to deserve success.

I suffered HUGE loss in confidence, build up of debt, and failures before I finally learned what I needed to learn and success started to become easy. Why would I wish that on anyone?

This is not some form of hazing… if I can use my lessons and tools as a shortcut to save my team members from struggle, pain, and difficulty… why the heck wouldn’t I???

5. I put my money where my mouth is

Or I am in the process of doing this! I knew that one thing I reeeeally wanted to do was hand my team leads and sales without crippling my business by having to spend loads of time on this. I finally found a way to do it, and we are going to run our first team campaign next Tuesday.

Instead of just talking about helping my team I am going to start paying for massive campaigns that lead to team capture pages.

(We still have a couple of beta tester spots available, and you can learn what our team campaign is by reading our Big News article).

6. I’ve made myself available.

Through Facebook groups, email, and even the occassional phone call I’ve helped my team. I never felt like this was a burden, but rather something I could do to help others. As the team gets bigger we will have to rely more and more on the leaders in the team to help support each other, but the sense of team and community support will have been there from the start!

What’s the result of all this?

I’m not the highest income earner in my opportunity. However, we’ve managed as a family to be able to stay home together and not have to work outside the home which was our first goal and are now working on the goal of moving back to California to enjoy the sunshine .

I have money being dumped into my account while I sleep!

There are many ways I could have moved this business more quickly by using sneaky and manipulative marketing tactics. But I would have somehow sabotaged myself if I had used tactics I thought were dishonest.

I get to work with people I really enjoy, I get to be a true leader, and I get to be proud of the team I am creating. And I absolutely could not wish for any more from life or a business.