Network Marketing (MLM) Home Business – Life Skills and Lessons Learned
I got involved with Multi-Level Marketing (MLM) or Network Marketing (NM) after subscribing to Robert Allen’s landing page.That was around in the first quarter of 2008 and it was my first time ever to be involved in a network marketing industry. I learned about Robert Allen after attending KC See’s You Can Create Wealth Seminar of Money Mastery way back 2007. They recommended reading the book on Multiple Streams of Income and I must say it’s a must read book about different money making machines. My curiosity to learn more about the author lead me to opting-in from his website’s squeeze page.
I got a call from an American speaking guy from Taiwan and I thought it was Robert Allen. I was super pessimistic when he told me it was network marketing. I got a very bad impression about the MLM from the media and friends when I was still staying and working from my country, the Philippines. I was impressed how he was able to handle my objections by throwing with another question after question. So in short he became my upline sponsor after spending sometime studying the online videos that he sent me. I did my own research and found the credibility of the company, products and the leaders as the best in the industry.
Here are some of the lessons that I learned:
1. Communication – this is the foundation of the training. We have complete set of materials like audio books from most of the top sales and mlm gurus. The lessons that I learned was very invaluable such that I never had the chance to learn them in my formal schooling. Say for example, we should treat sales as a form of communication. Everyone of us are in some sort of selling whether we like it or not or we just simply didn’t realize it. You sell yourself to an employer so that you will get that coveted job. Before you got married, you sell yourself to your partner. You sell yourself when you performed your best in a basketball or any sports tryout .
2. Mental Attitude – I did learn how to handle and accept multiple rejections both from face to face and mostly cold calls. I can’t remember how many rejections I received and no answer from my follow-up calls. You must be able to deal with different personalities. There were some who were super skeptical about the industry.No matter how you would want to ask them in a polite and appreciative manner, they will just say unpleasant things about you. Having this mindset is very important since the business is a numbers game or a law of averages.
3. Healthy lifestyle – this is the most important lesson that I will carry with me even when I grow older. At present, I’m still taking the supplements to keep me going with my daily activities. This was further reinforced after attending Tony Robbins Unleashed the Power Within Seminar last 2009. What you eat is very crucial about what you become. As much as possible though I’m not that consistent yet, I eat vegetables and fruits with watermelon and grass jelly drink as my favorite. Though I seldom play basketball, I make sure to jog if not do some exercises or a bit of dancing every time I came home from work.
Lastly, I want to share with you some very valuable lessons that I learned from a great leader. Whenever you talk to prospects you need to ask these 3 questions:
1. Is this for Real?
2. Can I trust You?
3. Will You help me?
All objections are based and rooted on these questions. If the prospective client or customer answers all of them with YES then he/she just bought YOU. Yes, You need to sell Yourself even in other business in general.
Personal Development Blog – Top 3 Reasons Why It Is The Best Decision?
It has been a while since my last article and many things had happened. So I’m back here what I’ve learned to love doing and that is writing. It has been also more than a year since I started this site after attending an Internet Marketing Boot camp by Fabian Lim. I actually started my personal development blog just after 2 months from the course since we did an exercise on creating a landing page.
Why create a blog in the first place? It was a great start for me to start on my journey about internet marketing and learn how to use wordpress at the same time. Now, why blog about personal development and not about internet marketing or make money online? During those times I was actually doing network marketing and I’ve immersed myself a lot about self improvement materials. So I made a commitment after learning it from Tony Robbins Unlimited Power about this word ‘CANI’ which means Constant And Never-ending Improvement. This inspired him to create an English version of Japanese term kaizen that means improvement or change for the better. The closer meaning is continuous improvement since I’ve worked with Japanese manufacturing company for several years. That’s how I came also about my never-ending personal development story. Oh by the way, I’ve ranked number 2 on google for the keywords – personal development story.
I believe that personal growth is the best decision that I made. Here are some top 3 reasons why.
1. The person I become – tremendous changes have happened to me ever since I took this path. If you can ask my mother, before I think I have a very negative attitude among the 4 siblings even I was the eldest. Now, it’s the other way around, I have a positive mental attitude as the most dominant. I see my environment as a reflection of myself. I am more open and expanding my view to the world of unlimited possibilities.
2. Attract and inspire – If I developed myself ten times more imagine how much I can affect my family and friends. Just recently, I gave lots of personal advice and some inspirations to my brother who was at his crossroad after failing an exam for 3 times. After sometime he was very thankful to me for introducing him to Jim Rohn and other inspiring references. A friend of mine was also inspired and started his own blog after reading some of my posts. I must say that the law of attraction really works. Here’s a great attraction, someone from Michael E. Gerber Company (He is the best selling author of the E-Myth books series just for your information) contacted me to do a joint venture in one of his projects. How cool was that?
3. Time Value – time is the most important and precious resource that we have. I have a television in my room but I seldom turn it on. I spend most of my time on reading books but more often listening to audio books from my iPod. It has been a habit every time I travelled on a bus or MRT (Mass Rapid Transit here in Singapore) to listen to my audio books, even in my workplace. Also I love to spend my time in the public library every time I have run out of audio books to listen.
Reminiscing Unleash the Power Within (UPW 2009) by Anthony Robbins
Jerome Castaneda -the firewalker
I’ve immersed myself recently most of the time listening to Tony Robbins audio books like Personal Power II, Get the Edge, Conquering Overwhelming Loss: Rediscovering a Compelling Future and Negotiating Conflict: Leadership in Times of Crisis. With this immersion, I wanted to share my live experience with Anthony Robbins last year.
I attended UPW at Singapore, Expo last September 4-7, 2009. On that night, I managed to conquer my fears by firewalking. Oh I still have the blister mark on my foot that I got during that event. I must say that it was the biggest event for that year for me and perhaps the other years as well. UPW did not change myself but rather taught me to become the person that I deserved to be. It taught me about who I am, what I love, what I hate, what excites me, and what drives me. The more I become the person that I wanted to be the easier for me to achieve what I want and to be fulfilled.
I’m just going to pick some principles from the 4 day event that I have applied from my journey.
The 3 Pillars of an Extraordinary Life
- Get laser-focused, make it clear and compelling. This first step is to clarify the results that I desire in life. What is your definition of an extraordinary quality of life? What do you need to take your life to the next level? Without a clear and compelling vision of what you want today, you won’t be able to find the target of lasting happiness. If you have the courage to face the truth of where you are, you will discover the path to where you want to be. In other words, you have to know your Why? What? Because clarity is power. Your Energy flows where your focus goes.
- Get the Best Tools/Map/Strategy/Coaching for Results. Once you’ve defined your target, you need an effective and efficient game plan to hit it. In order to close the “gap” between where you are and where you want to be, you need a proven map, an effective mentor, and training to drive you to take action. You must know somebody who is in the game because success leaves clues. Remember ignorance is poverty and pain.
- Get into Action! Unlock and Unleash, Alignment and Integration = Power. Sometimes tools are not enough, we need to unlock what’s blocking us and unleash the power. Why is it sometimes we know what to do, we have great motives for change, and yet we fail to follow through? Why we do what we do and how to change it. By understanding our personal blueprint, how we create meaning and emotion and what causes us to think, feel, and behave the way we do, we can not only gain the answers to these questions, but learn how to create lasting change and fulfilment. We have to destroy limiting beliefs. We have to do massive action to achieve success, to contribute and to celebrate.
There are 2 skills to master for an extraordinary quality of life.
1. Science of Achievement or your ability to produce results; to take anything you envision and make it real.
2. Art of Fulfillment or your ability to feel happiness and joy in the process; to delight in the experience of life.
The secret to wealth and happiness is to become a team player. Happiness comes from progress. Progress shows in the form of growth and in the sense of contribution. Power moves to those who are truly committed to serve because life is more than you. Find a team of people that you love to work with.
Another area of philosophy that made impact to my life is through the 12 Master Principles of a Vital Life: The Power of Pure Energy. This topic was discussed entirely during the last whole day.
The first 8 are called The Gifts;
- The Power of Vital Breathing & Lymphasizing – to breathe deeply and to rebound vertically to cleanse your cells.
- The Power of Living Water and Live Foods –
- The Power of Essential Oils –
- The Power of Alkalinity – Go Green! – I already started to enjoy this process.
- The Power of Aerobic Energy –
- The Power of Maximum Nourishment –
- The Power of Structural Alignment and Maximum Strength –
- The Power of a Directed Mind and Heart –
The last 4 are called the Poisons;
- The Poison of Processed Fats
- The Poison of Animal Flesh
- The Poison of Dairy Products
- The Poison of Acid Addictions
Here are some inspiring UPW Songs (playlist)
To catch more and to experience Tony Robbins live this April 2010 in Bali, Indonesia check him in Date with Destiny 2010.
Now I am the Voice.
I will lead, not follow.
I will believe, not doubt.
I will create, not destroy.
I am a Force for Good.
I am a Leader.
Defy the odds!
Set a new standard!
Step Up ! Step Up ! Step Up !
Thank You 2009 and An Exciting 2010 Goals!
WOW! 2009 will be my most memorable year! It was the year where I learned to develop my skills in internet marketing. My objective at that time was to learn how I can generate more leads to my network marketing business through pay per click. I learned more than what I expected and the thought of passive residual income while you sleep is such an inevitable and powerful tool. Internet marketing is such a lonely business if you do it by yourself so I highly recommend that you find a mentor just like when you enroll to get a college degree. I developed my skills in the field of search engine marketing – both in search engine optimization and Google adwords. It was my first time to buy a domain name for jeromecastaneda.com and learned to use this powerful blog resource of WordPress. Actually, I managed to rank on the first page for some keywords about my blog. Woohoo! I was able to dominate almost all the sites on the first page for my name Jerome Castaneda and hope to totally dominate it next year 2010. Indeed, wordpress is the king!
I had the chance to attend Tony Robbins Unleashed the Power Within 4 day’s seminar at the Singapore Expo. In those 4 days I had the chance to shape my destiny in my thoughts and managed to do a firewalker on burning coals. It was also in this event that I truly take care about my health especially the food that I ate. I just developed the love for green stuffs, vegetables and fruits. Wow, it was truly an awesome time to remember.
It was the year where I regularly attended a Personal Excellence and Growth Meetup with great life coaches, Mr. Patrick Lim and Ms. Jessica See. I’ve met like minded people and exchanged life experiences and philosophies to grow and become the person that I want to be. There were 2 things that I learned if you want to succeed or grow in life, 1. the people you know or associate with and 2. the books that you’ve read.
2009 was the year I started to grow my spiritual relationship with the Lord God through CFC-FFL Singapore (Couples for Christ – Foundation for Family and Life) as a member for the Servants of the Lord (SOLD) group. Here I got the chance to meet God filled spirited people where there’s no inhibitions about telling your personal challenges in life. Here we prayed for each one’s personal success, family and health miracles. I highly suggest to any individual to join a spiritual or religious group especially if you’re working away from your family just like me.
Now, some people (especially with hardcore employee mindsets) may ask me why on earth should I spend much time learning stuffs that is outside of my job skills as a Mechanical Engineer. My answer is very simple my friend, I have Big Dreams. I am taking Jim Rohn’s advise to work hard on myself than what I do on my job. Personal development builds up my character and my attitude at work. I have the power of concentration and the focus to become a very productive engineer not only at work but with my relationship and communication with my colleagues.
As I looked forward about my 2010 goals, I am very excited about the potential person I can become. Year 2010 will be the start of my 10 year master plan. I’ll continue the commitment of my never ending personal development blog, to become the best father to my son and a loving husband to my wife. I’ll continue to read or listen to books or audiobooks, to meet like minded individuals in personal development and internet marketing fields. I’ll continue to work and apply my skills in internet marketing, to help local businesses generate more sales to their business. I’ll continue to take care of my health by having a regular exercise and watch out on the food that I take. Most of all, I’ll continue to praise and worship God for all the blessings and for the person I become.
