15 years ago, I wrote an article that was published in
a Network Marketing magazine that was published for
company owners and executives. The title
of the Article was

“Cater to Mediocrity or Inspire Greatness; that
is the Question”

You can read it here if you would like:

http://web.archive.org/web/20030210043819/www.mlmhelp.com/executive.asp

The basic idea behind this article was as an industry we have
to quit catering to the mediocrity of people and not leave the
culture of personal development and personal accountability
that the industry was built upon. At the time, you were seeing
companies lowering their monthly qualification levels to what
we see today which ultimately lowered everyone’s check.

I never have understood why people don’t seem to understand
that if you have a $40 monthly volume level to qualify for your
check instead of $200, you will need 5 times more downline
members to make the same income!

That is why I always believed in having a hot product that
people could retail and not just order to qualify for a check.
The bottom line is people will do what THEY HAVE TO DO, and
very little more. Anyway at the time, companies were Catering
to mediocrity.

That message is still alive and well with Attraction Marketers
constantly telling distributors, their upline doesn’t know what
they are doing and the proven lead generation methods of
the past for some reason no longer work today so buy my
magic bullet.

Oh……don’t get me started!

In my opinion this trend has been very detrimental to the
industry. Over the past 15 years we have seen a ton of
distributors that cannot distinguish the difference between
affiliate marketing, internet marketing and a true career
network marketing opportunity.

Anyway virtually every new internet marketing product
launched today is telling everyone the same story.

• Other courses and ebooks you have purchased
have been a rip off
• The gurus don’t want you to succeed
• Everything you have learned is nothing more
than rehashed, unworkable information
• I am the only honest marketer online
• Look at all the money I have made, and
my software, course, ebook is the answer.

I could go on and on, but you get the idea.

HERE IS WHAT I WANT YOU TO UNDERSTAND, REGARDLESS
OF WHAT EVERY SALES PAGE YOU VISIT SAYS ……….

Every nickel you spend on Self-Education is worth it,
as long as you persist.

“Formal education makes you a living, if you become
self educated you make a fortune”
Jim Rohn http://www.3BasicLaws.com

Have I personally invested in courses, ebooks and software
that I felt over promised big time and under delivered? Yes,
absolutely, dozens of times. Have I ever requested a refund?

Only once in the last 10 years that I can recall. I can’t
even tell you what the product was but I did feel like it
was a BLATENT rip off and fulfilled zero of what was
promised.

My philosophy has always been if I can get one good idea,
concept, method or philosophy, it is worth it, if it helps me
add to my personal education and base of knowledge.

Yes, I have ordered multiple products were GEEK Types
have talked way over my head, but I don’t necessarily
feel that is their fault.

I truly believe that most entrepreneurs are sincere and
want to help others. There are few rip off artist out there.
Understand that you learn and move forward, don’t become
cynical, negative and develop a victim mentality! If that
happens you are guaranteed to fail.

My first 30 years I have invested hundreds of thousands
of dollars in books, courses, DVD’s, CD’s and other
educational material. I plan to the next 30 years also.

SIDENOTE: If you are involved in network marketing and
you are not spending at least 5% of your income on
training RIGHT NOW…You need to go to
http://www.MLMEgo.com RIGHT NOW and log in to
the pre-registration list. If your making 5K a month
or more right now, and not investing at least 5% of
your income your monthly income is 1/2 of what it
should be, and I will reveal why when this report is
released in the near future.

Sorry, I am back on point now. When you are Green
you Grow, when you ripe you rot.

Knowledge is what you learn, AFTER you know it all!

By all means if you are marketing anything online, don’t
tell people that everybody they have ever bought from
in the past has ripped them off. I understand this is
the trend right now, and for people with a victim mentality
this works, but ultimately this message will come back
and bite all marketers in the rump.

Sometimes we have to tell people what they need to
hear instead of what they want to hear. Making a sale
is never more important than telling the truth, and why
I am thinking about it if you tell them the website is
coming down, or there is a limited number of your
widget available, you better be telling the truth, or people
like me and others will never buy from you again.

I understand that all the copy writing courses tell you
to add scarcity to your message. I also understand that
fear of loss is the most powerful motivator on the planet.

If you lose trust, you have lost. Tell people the truth and
whatever you do STAY GREEN!

Below is an email I sent to some of our top customers
and clients this week regarding 2 awesome programs.

I have some more comments I want to share with you
after you have read this:

START OF EMAIL:

Hi,

Thanks for opening this email, you will
not be disappointed!

There are more good marketing ideas right
now than ever before. If you are like me
your email box is jammed daily with different
offers and ideas. Some junk, some good,
some great.

I almost missed a couple of great ideas lately
because I simply didn’t take the time to get
the whole story.

I don’t want you to make the same mistake with
these 2 ideas.

Here are a couple of awesome marketing ideas
that can create additional income streams for
you!

#1 This is probably the Best Free content I
have ever seen online. It is a little advanced
but if you understand words like Aweber and CPA
you simply must see this video. If you don’t
then just skip this and go to #2.

Here is the Video Link:

http://tinyurl.com/3×7d2mr

#2 Is a simple way to make an additional income
stream GIVING AWAY a valuable piece of software
that will save people money. Let’s face it, if
you can’t give this away, you should forget making
money online. I am serious!

Here is the link:

http://www.MyMarketingGenie.com/syb

I value your time, and I appreciate you opening my
emails when I send them to you.

Yes I am a marketer, Yes I want to make
money. However, I really do understand
that my success is in direct proportion
to the number of people I help.

I never want to take advantage of our relationship
& your trust in me and my recommendations. I know
that sometimes I send out emails
that are not applicable to everyone. That is
why I pre-qualify the best I can.

I don’t have just 1 Giant email list. My list are
segmented into over 100 sub-list.

If you are reading this there is a good chance that
you have an interest in online marketing, affiliate
marketing and creating additional streams of income.

I KNOW the above 2 programs can do that for you.

Have an awesome Wednesday.

To your Success,

Dale

MY COMMENTS

It appears to me that the gap between
marketers in a rythm and marketers that
are confused and frustrated is growing.

Today I have listened in on 2 recorded webinars
and visted a website that all 3 had products I
invested in. Yes, I buy everything because I
believe strongly in the concept of “Personal Education”.

I believe that we should all try to develop a BASE
of Knowlege as it relates to marketing online and off.

If you do this with out understanding the “Pardox of
Knowlege” you will go crazy. The Paradox of Knowlege
simply put is the MORE WE LEARN the more we realize
WHAT WE DON’T KNOW.

Don’t let this truth stop you from learning all you
can learn.

There truly are more opportunities right now than ever
before, the sad thing is many people who call themselves
marketers don’t have the BASE KNOWLEDGE to recognize
opportunity when they see it.

There is more of a victim mentality right now than at
anytime because people have invested in products and
courses that haven’t instantly MADE THEM Successful.
Don’t fall into this trap, keep learning, growing and developing
your base of knowledge.

Here is a frightning example. I am shocked at the number of
people who have been online for several years and never
developed a list. THIS IS STEP 1 to online marketing success.

How can you miss STEP 1 ??

Before you ask, my primary list are with:

www.shoppingcart.tip4success.com.

If I could do things over I would have started with them for
multiple reasons, but that is another topic for another time.

You have to do the basics if you ever expect to
create long term success online, and that ALWAYS
HAS BEEN AND ALWAYS WILL start with a building
a list!

Do you want free “targeted” leads for life?

You have got to check out the VIDEO on this website
it absolutely blew me away. Your mind will immediately
see an unbelievable amount of possibilities.

http://www.easy1up.com/?id=CalvertMarketing

Peter Wolfing spent months designing a new leads software
called Scraper Pro. It’s a great “tool” in your marketing arsenal
that will help you big time in your primary business.

It finds targeted leads with one push of a button.

My friend Justin used it the other day and typed in MLM
Pro and went to sleep. Then when he woke up in the
morning he had over 9OO leads.

Just type in a keyword or company name and press start.
That is as easy as it gets. The software then starts hunting
the net for targeted leads for you to contact about your business.

People are joining in droves and making a ton of money.

Check out the 5 minute video on the site.

http://www.easy1up.com/?id=CalvertMarketing

It’s a one time start up. Peter also built it so you can
make a ton of money.

Anyone that has a home based business needs this product.

This can be used for anything you may be doing.

If the video doesn’t tweak your brain, and get you fired
up then you should probably pass, but you must see the
video!

Here is the link:

http://www.easy1up.com/?id=CalvertMarketing

UPDATE ON FREE MLM LEADS FOR LIFE.

This program is brand new and between myself
and the site admin people, there were some
challenges with a finicky webiste.

The above link should be working fine
now. This program is Red Hot and small
busienss people have been crashing the servers
all weekend.

The bottom line, is everything seems to be
working properly now. At the time of this
writing I am leaving for the airport & will
give you an update when I return from speaking
on the Guru Cruise.

——-

‘Wise men talk because they have something
to say; fools, because they have to say
something” ~Plato

“It is better to be thought of as a fool than
to open ones mouth and remove all doubt”
~Shakespeare

For some reason I find the term fool very offensive, but
find it interesting that both Plato and Shakespeare used
that term in their quotes.

It is nearly impossible for me to visit an online forum on
any subject and not be reminded of the two quotes above.

I am constantly researching various niches and have found
forums to be a great place to get the pulse of the public
on virtually any subject.

You will observe the same crowd or personality types in
every forum, regardless of the subject matter. After reading
a page or two of post you can immediately tell who knows
what they are talking about based upon experience and
who just likes to hear themselves talk.

I can’t spell very well, have dyslexia and in general have
a very short fuse and no patience as it relates to forums.

I am smart, on 90% of the forums I visit, I am
smart enough to know I am ignorant. I am there to
learn from people with successful experience, I am
not there to listen to the opinions of those that have
nothing better to do than try to act like they know what
they are talking about.

I know, I know ……. it is politically correct to embrace the
exchange of ideas with people with different levels of success
and experience. The truth is some of us simply don’t have
the time or patience to be politically correct.

Please do me a favor and let your inexperience, ignorance,
and total lack of awareness oooose out of you in a chat
room somewhere, but not in the forums.

A general rule is successful people in any market don’t
hang out in chat rooms unless they are being paid to do
so.

The only forums that I take the time to express my
opinion (based upon 25 years of experience and millions
of dollars in income) are marketing related.

Quite frankly with everyone drinking the “Attraction Marketing”
cool aide these are probably the worst, when it comes to a
waste of time. It is amazing how many network marketers
have all the answers but no downline team.

For attraction marketing to work, you should be
attractive. I try to tell my new coaching clients, DO IT
then Talk About it. The Internet is full of people trying
to teach you how to do that which they have never done.

It is amazing how many network marketers who think
they are being clever are really just revealing their shallow
thinking and self centeredness. They have not had the
“leadership paradigm shift” yet.

They have not figured out it is not about them, it is
about what can be duplicated with a team of people.

Forums and Chat Rooms can be compared to Saturday
morning “How to” radio and radio call in shows. Radio
call in shows are notorious for having people call in with
their opinion that have no background or experience on
the subject matter, but love to hear themselves talk.

Contrastly every major radio market
run “How to” call in shows on Saturday mornings with a
recognized expert. How to grow flowers, How to
fix your car, How to invest your money and the list
goes on and on.

When listening to these shows you know you are getting
advice from a proven expert, not someone who’s life revolves
around calling in to radio talk shows to hear themselves
rant.

I love a good debate when it is between experienced
people with proven track records of success. There is
nothing more annoying than when a naive beginner attempts
to challenge those with a proven track record. If they would
shut up and think, they just might learn something.

‘Wise men talk because they have something
to say; fools, because they have to say something”
~Plato

From time to time I may ask for clarification or for someone
to expand and take their concept or thought deeper. The last
thing I would do is to disagree with an expert in a subject
where I am trying to learn and grow. Forums are great tools
for newbie’s to learn when they can identify who is worth
listening to and who isn’t.

About once a week I will log on to MLM or Marketing Forums
with one goal. To see if there is anyone I can help. That’s it,
I really get disgusted with all of the terrible advice I see
being dished out as gospel truth by people that simply
THINK they know what they are talking about.

I try to give theses people the benefit of the doubt. I know
that most really are trying to help and over all the number
of “agenda driven” responses are minimal.

However when answers and advice go directly
against common sense, the numbers, and human
nature it drives me crazy!

There is nothing worse than ignorance. Ignorant advice
being given when everyone except the person giving
it knows it is ignorant or agenda driven.

“It is better to be thought of as a fool than
to open ones mouth and remove all doubt”
~Shakespeare

The first MLM Forum I was ever on was with the old
ISP Prodigy. Prodigy owned the market before AOL.

They had a very active MLM Board.

There was a guy who hung out on the board, his last
Name was Mayo. His mission in life was to discourage
every network marketer he possibly could.

I met several good people on that board that over
time became good friends. So it was like us against
Mayo.

He would discourage every new distributor who found
the board and then the rest of us would let the new
person know to ignore the fool.

Oh for the good ole days!

Back then the newbies were there to learn and the
older, more successful distributors were there to
support and help.

If a person considering the industry found that board
they would find it comforting to be able to hang out
with such a supportive group of friends.

Compare that to any MLM or Marketing Fourm today
and it is like night and day.

Dog eat Dog
Mine is Better than Yours
Self-Proclaimed Gurus
Big Ego, no Success

Well you get the idea. If most prospects found a MLM
Forum today all we would do is discourage them from
ever getting involved in the industry.

We have become the Mayo’s and it is sad, very sad.

Even worse are the “fools” giving advice.

Nobody cares about your opinion. What is your track
record? If you don’t have a track record then do
everyone a favor and keep your opinion to yourself
or go hang out in a chat room somewhere.

There are plenty of knowledgeable people on every
forum that people like me want to hear from and
learn from, shut up and let them speak!

If I go to a Tax Lien Investing Forum, I want to learn
from successful tax lien investors. Nobody wants to waste
time reading the opinions of a bunch of wanna be’s who
are attempting to pick apart a successful
investing system.

Before you post on a Forum really think. What is your
motivation for doing so and more importantly why
should anyone care what you have to say?

Are you sharing from experience or your opinion?

Always share from experience and honestly try to
help people and over time people will see that and
respect you for it.

There is no question that over my career I have lost
more money by not jumping on a particular business
model or opportunity than I have by taking action.

Don’t get me wrong, off of the top of my head I can recall losing
well over 1/2 a million dollars from various business ventures
that haven’t worked out.

It has been said that all new ideas go through 3 stages:

* Violently Opposed

* Ridicule

* Obvious to the Masses

By the time an opportunity or business model becomes
“Obvious to the Masses” the Big Money has already
been made.

We could all name dozens of opportunities over the
years that we let pass us by.

As this applies to the Internet I have two conflicting
thoughts.

Internet Marketing Strategies are constantly evolving
and have a very short “BIG MONEY” life span.

How many times have you read about the BIG
MONEY a Guru is making with a particular strategy
with what appears to be documentation
to back up their claim and thought

“If they are making this kind of money, why
are they willing to teach everything to me in a
$97 E-book and create their own competition?”

If the guru is willing to share their BIG MONEY
strategy then the “BIG MONEY” life span of that
strategy has ended.

Just because they were able to make $94,000 a month with a
particular Internet Marketing Business Model does not mean
you will be able to duplicate that kind of income.

Please don’t miss understand me, I am not saying that their
product or business model is worthless.  I buy everything &
believe in the power of becoming “self educated”.

I am always willing to invest money to learn new marketing
and business models from SOMEONE WHO HAS DONE IT.

In doing so I understand that the “BIG MONEY LIFE SPAN”
is probably over.

I am talking about INTERNET MARKETING STRATEGIES, not
Network Marketing.

Years ago I got inside information from a gentleman that had
made over $250K as an affiliate for a calendar company the
last 1/4 of the year using some strategy called Google Adwords.

This was before anyone knew what Google Adwords was.
I meant to check it out, but didn’t get around to it until
a few years later when marketing with “google adwords”
was well on it’s way to becoming “OBVIOUS TO THE MASSES”.

I jumped on Twitter early, but not near as aggressively as
I should have.  While some may claim to be earning
$94,000 a month with Twitter, for the most part those days
are over.  Yes, you still should be using Twitter daily and there
are Twitter business models that will make you $$$ but the
“BIG MONEY LIFE SPAN” with Twitter is probably over.

I could give you example after example as it relates to proven
Internet marketing strategies.

Now my 2nd thought is regarding network marketing.
People miss the big money in network marketing not
because the opportunity passes them by, but because
they don’t seriously evaluate opportunities with Big
Money potential and end up buying into the
hype of companies guaranteed to be short lived.

The “Trump Network”  & The Verge Phone deal
immediately comes to mind, and I have already
shared by thoughts regarding the hype
around the Trump roll out in another post.

I could spend a lot more time on this subject but I
won’t for now.  Just understand that just because
you have HEARD ABOUT A COMPANY or READ ABOUT
IT does not mean you have EVALUATED IT.

In a recent MLM Minute training I talked about how to
start the evaluation of any company. These should be
your first 4 questions.

Does the product or services appeal to the masses?

Can I recoup my monthly investment with a team of not
more than 5 people?

What do I have to do to earn a $1,000 a month?

Who are the principals behind the company and what is
their track record within the industry?

Be honest with yourself when answering these questions
and you will be well on your way to finding a company with
strong upside potential.

The people who get involved with network marketing
companies within the first 3 years are the one’s that
take advantage of the Big Money Life span and end up
becoming 7 figure earners, IF those companies continue
to grow.  Again, understand what I am saying, yes there
will still be a few people who will join Amway in 2010 who
end up earning six figures, but I certainly don’t expect
any 7 figure earners to be sponsored.

In general “the more credible the company, the less
of a Big Money Opportunity exist with that company”

So why do some Big Money Internet marketing business models
only last a few months and Network Marketing opportunities
3 years or so?

Internet Marketing is usually developed around new
technologies or applications of the technology.

Network Marketing is based upon the development
of people. The attitudes and desires of people
(or lack there of) is basically the same now as it was
50 years or so ago when MLM started.

Conversely, in the time it has taken me to write this post
in some way or fashion Internet Technology has changed,
we just don’t know about it yet.