For our younger readers; Baby boomer is a term used to describe a person who was born during the Post- World War II. The baby boom happened between 1946 and 1964.

I know that this article is going to ruffle some feathers, but please understand.  I was born in 1960 so I am talking about my generation.  I have been watching this trend towards extinction for 20 years, and at this point it is at critical levels.

It is sad to me that over the next 10 minutes I could easily make a list of 200 network marketers from my generation that at one time were making a strong six figure income that today, are totally out of the industry or barely earning enough income to pay their bills.

Those of you that know me, know that I have been preaching that our lack of understanding how to systematically develop our distributor organization would some day catch up with us.

Our generation is made up of hard working, personality leaders with guts of steal that built their business by throwing enough mud on the wall and some of it stuck.
We can handle rejection, we believe in personal growth and development and we understand it is a numbers game. 

The challenge is the numbers have changed!  Since the majority of our “leaders” from my generation never had to perfect their marketing, recruiting and training methods ….they didn’t.   Even though they wanted to support their teams they just never grasped what it really took to support and develop the next wave of leadership on their teams.

The answer for them was always, work harder, and get through more numbers.  The problem is 97% of their downline were followers, and simply didn’t have the drive, determination, personality and work ethic that they had.  They couldn’t handle the rejection and numbers.

For the most part, my generation of network marketers has never really comprehended how to “franchise” their business and build upon systems that are duplicatable instead of finding a few people a year who posses the same drive, determination and work ethic that they have.

As I have mentioned earlier, the numbers have changed, and most one time leaders from my generation are still trying to make the ratios from the 90’s work and they don’t.  Even worse, others are trying to just hold on to small number of followers they have left.  I have written about this numerous times over the past 10 years and won’t rehash how cable TV infomercials, internet marketing, ebay, and many other factors have removed a large chunk of potential prospects from the mlm market place.

With the evolution of some very smart, young, web 2.0 and attraction marketers growing their business with the internet if Baby Boomer network marketers are not scared …… THEY SHOULD BE!

Network marketing as you have known it is over Baby Boomers!  You simply cannot go through the number of prospects you did in the 90’s and achieve the same results, especially when you have not developed strong directional leadership training systems for your team to plug into and create predictable success IF they are willing to do their part.

Here is what you need to understand,  at one time, this new wave of Internet work marketers, were in your downline and they would still be there if you had provided them with duplictable, unified training systems.  I tried to warn you this was coming back in the mid nineties when I wrote “Why the Masses of Network Marketers are Frustrated, Confused, and Don’t Have a Clue What They are Doing”

However at that time, the majority thought they had made it.  They became tired of slinging mud, they were playing golf or participating in other recreational activities daily and traveling around the country conducting training meetings in hotels on Saturdays and playing Elvis.

Over time, the masses started to understand, that just because you have a title doesn’t necessarily mean you are leader. 

Now here comes the Internet and all heck broke lose.  Droves of burnt out network marketers who had not received the upline training and support they needed turned to online marketing.  As a result, according to the direct sales industry, mlm sales within the US declined for the first time in 1997 and 1998.

Panic set in, as Baby Boomers incomes started to see there incomes decline. The realization that the numbers had changed started to become more and more evident as they attempted to return to the market to try to rebuild their incomes.

This lead to an attitude of fear throughout the industry as leaders started to jump from company to company based upon the deal they could cut and not what was best for their team.  With each move their number of followers decreased.  Unable to make the numbers work in the new market environment, many Baby Boomer leaders have become immobilized over the past several years. 

In the mean time, a small group of young marketers started focusing on using the internet to develop their business and the entire “attraction marketing” / “funded proposal” system was born.   This entire trend has been propelled by the entire Web 2.0, Social Marketing explosion. 

Unfortunately this trend has developed an entire group of new network marketers who ultimately will experience a downfall worse than the baby boomers. Why? 

Because their message is wrong.  They are sincere in their belief, but what they believe and what they are teaching “THE INTERNET IS THE ONLY WAY” will ultimately fail for the masses.

I could really get go off on this, but another time. For now, just consider this:

47% of the American population does not use email.

The average American checks their email every 8 days, and I could go on and on.

Ok, I will end it here, but look for an article in our next newsletter titled:

Why Attraction Marketing does not work for most marketers

Back to Baby boomers, how can you prevent yourself from joining the large number of extinct network marketers that have gone before you?

I could talk about this for hours.  I think it starts with you realizing that your training systems must change.  My experience tells me if you think you get this but you don’t.  

If you want to be totally blown away check out my training Confessions of a Network Marketing Millionaire this month we are also including our book WHY THE MASSES OF NETWORK MARKETERS ARE FRUSTRATED, CONFUSED AND DON’T HAVE A CLUE WHAT THEY ARE DOING, free for everyone who invest in this program.

1) Decide if you want to build again, if you don’t that is your decision but you are  going to have to change the way you have always done things.
2) Put your ego aside, and decide to become a learner.  I realize how difficult this is  for you.  But let’s face it, the way you initially built your team, with personality  & work ethic is not duplicatable only systems are.
3) These are the minimum systems that need to be developed based upon your company and  opportunity and they need to be designed for the
 average person not the top producers.

*  Game plan to start new distributors right
    (www.StartRightMLM.com)

*   System to Market Your Product or Service

*   Two Step System to Recruit New Distributors

*    Local Market Recruiting
     (www.LocalMLMLeads.com)

*     Creating Leads on the Internet
       (www.NonGeekInternetMareting.com)
       (www.CreateOnlineMLMLeads.com)
This is bare bones minimum, but this will get you started in the right direction.  What you should really do, and I have learned this the hard way, is hire me to consult and guide your through the process.

My consulting rate is $500 and hour.  This will take about 6 hour sessions, but quite frankly I have a waiting list, and no time slots available right now.

Here is the good news, the industry despartely needs your experience & wisdom.  The industry has a ton of new leaders that have never heard  about the Amway court case, that saved us all.  Don’t know who Mark Hughes was,  or Glen Turner is, and of course I could go on and on.

I respect you for paving the way, for proving the potential of the industry for the next generation.  I just despartely want to see  the people that built this industry to ultimately reap the rewards throughout their lifetime.

We are getting ready to head into 2009, is it a time to make a change?

Think about it!