MAY/JUNE 2014
Facts Tell Stories Sell Big Al Tells All
Exclusive interview with
Tom Schreiter Life Lessons from a Cowboy South Africa May/June 2014
Gateway to the African Continent
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CONTENTS
PERSPECTIVES 5 LEADOFF
Once Upon a Time…
Rita Davenport Success often starts with a good story that paints a picture which results in modifying behavior.
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SPECIAL SECTION Networking University Faculty Recommends
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WORDS OF WISDOM About Storytelling in Business Memorable quotes by Arianna Huffington, Dan Pink, Seth Godin, and others.
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OUR TIMES – PART 1 How did you become a master storyteller? • Marissa McDonough, Use Stories to Handle Objections • Frank Keefer, Stick to the Truth, Come from the Heart • Stephanie Davis, The Richer Your Stories, the Bigger Your Wallet • Jackie Ulmer, Share Your Stories to Build Your Online Brand • Wes Linden, Bring People Together with Relatable Stories
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DEPARTMENT 20 18
PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT Discover Your Unmet Needs Sonia Stringer Why knowing your personal needs can dramatically accelerate your success and make life balance easier to come by.
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CONTENTS
FEATURES 22
LEAD INTERVIEW Big Al Tells All Tom “Big Al” Schreiter is one of the most skillful and revered educators in the network marketing space. An engineer by training and a natural marketing genius, Tom has meticulously tested every strategy he teaches—from icebreakers to building rapport, from how to get distributors started fast to more advanced marketing lessons. His most recent book is titled How to Prospect, Sell, and Build Your Network Marketing Business with Stories.
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MASTER NETWORKER Believe You Can Achieve Shelley Ke is an Australian citizen from Chinese descent who got started in network marketing in 2009. Three years later he became her company’s first Royal Black Diamond in the Southern hemisphere and today she leads an international organization with over 70,000 distributors. Based in Sydney, Shelley built her business all over Australia and the Pacific Rim, and can’t wait for her company to open mainland China by the end of 2014.
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MASTER NETWORKER Family First Based in Arkansas, Randy Hedge was a single dad and a former insurance broker when he got involved in his current network marketing company. Today he is a top earner leading a growing team of over 35,000. Randy’s gift for storytelling, as well as his knack for mixing humor with hard-hitting business training, make him one of the most sought-after speakers in his company.
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RISING STAR Setbacks Make Us Stronger Manu Rekola is a network marketing leader from Finland whose business spans Scandinavia, the Baltic States, and the U.S. The first nine years of his networking career was a grueling journey of ups and downs. Today he feels relaxed knowing he no longer has to fight for every penny.
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RISING STAR Step by Step We Arrive… Kestutis Matulionis is a network marketing professional from Lithuania who leads a growing international team in Europe and the U.S. Kesh had multiple careers and experienced numerous financial and emotional crises before he found freedom and prosperity through network marketing. Networking Times
CONTENTS
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OUR TIMES – PART 2 How did you become a master storyteller? (Continued) • Presley Swagerty, Facts Tell, Stories Sell • Margie Aliprandi, Connecting Mind to Heart • Susan Sly, The Greatest Storyteller in the Room • Sarah Robbins, How to Share Your Story on Social Media • Jordan Adler, Nine Traits for a Memorable Story • Richard Brooke, Expect Them to Win
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COUNTRY OVERVIEW South Africa: Gateway to the African Continent Richard Clarke High unemployment, a thirsty entrepreneurial spirit, and favorable legislation make South Africa a fertile foundation for direct selling.
RESOURCES 68
JUST FOR FUN Word Puzzle
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LIFETIME MEMBERS Description of Lifetime Loyalty Leaders program and members list.
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DEPARTMENT SUMMARIES Overview of articles in this issue.
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THE CLOSE Tell Your Story Ana Gabriel Mann Network marketing is often misunderstood. Real stories, your stories, help people to understand it better.
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Cofounders Dr. Josephine Gross Chris Gross Publisher Bob Proctor Publisher Emeritus Frank J. Keefer Founding Editor John Milton Fogg Consulting Editor John David Mann Editor in Chief Dr. Josephine Gross Design Editor Yan Z. Hughes Contributing Writers Jordan Adler, Margie Aliprandi, Richard Brooke, Corey Citron, Richard Clarke, Rita Davenport, Stephanie Davis, Frank Keefer, Wes Linden, Ana Gabriel Mann, Marissa McDonough, Sarah Robbins, Susan Sly, Sonia Stringer, Presley Swagerty, Jackie Ulmer Web Services Lyman Benton, Yan Z. Hughes Customer Service Matt Holsonback
Global Prosperity through a Philanthropic Economy® Gabriel Media Group, Inc. Chief Executive Officer Chris Gross Chief Operating Officer Reed Bilbray Chief Technology Officer Brad Morrison Project Manager James Nitze Controller Yan Teng Board of Directors Michael Cunningham, Chris Gross (Chairman), Dr. Josephine Gross, Glenn Head, Don Karn, Bob Proctor, George Shaw Networking Times is published six times a year by Gabriel Media Group, Inc. Copyright © 2014 Gabriel Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
www.networkingtimes.com Toll Free: 866-343-4005 Int’l: 818-727-2000 editors@networkingtimes.com 4
Networking Times
LEAD INTERVIEW
Big Al Tells All
A Conversation with
Tom Schreiter By Dr. Josephine Gross
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Networking Times
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om “Big Al” Schreiter is one of the most skillful and revered educators in the network marketing space. Unless you’re brand new to the business, you’ve probably read some of the Big Al books or his free newsletter at BigAlReport.com—and if you haven’t, we highly recommend you do so. You may have seen Tom speak at the ANMP convention, at Art Jonak’s Mastermind event, at a Big Al live workshop, or at one of the numerous other events he speaks at every year. A living legend in the profession, Tom built large distributor organizations and also founded two network marketing companies. But rather than work in the office on marketing plans and theories, Tom always preferred to be in the field, personally sponsoring and training distributors. Logging his forty-third year in network marketing, he developed a treasure chest of tips and tools which he generously shares with audiences around the world. An engineer by training and a natural marketing genius, Tom has meticulously tested every strategy he teaches—from icebreakers to building rapport, from how to get distributors started fast to more advanced marketing lessons and case studies. We recently picked his brain about his newest book How to Prospect, Sell, and Build Your Network Marketing Business with Stories.—J.G.
What led you to write a book about story- together, and creates a story. telling? For most people, story is the only way to comStories are the best way to communicate with people, and that’s our job. We have to get ideas from our heads inside theirs, and the story is just the absolute best way to do it. Before the written word, all information was passed on from generation to generation with stories, so the mind is set up to accept information, remember it, and visualize it in story format— and it does all this automatically. We can remember a story from age five, but we can’t remember dates we studied for a history exam fifteen minutes later. The human mind is set up to understand and see things in story format. Think about dreaming: while we sleep: the mind takes useless bits of information it can’t file away, puts them
May/June 2014
municate directly to the subconscious mind, because it does everything automatically. When you tell a story, the subconscious mind of your prospect pops up a movie screen, pulls up a barrel of popcorn, stuffed chair, sits back, and watches the story on the screen. What’s really cool is the subconscious mind is not very smart. It says, “Wait a minute, if it’s up on the movie screen, I’ll put myself in as the main character.” That’s why we enjoy books and watching Pirates of the Caribbean, because we feel we’re one of the main characters. Since our subconscious mind doesn’t have the thinking capacity the conscious mind does, when it sees the story up there, it’s as though that story actually happened to us, and it helps us feel and
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MASTER NETWORKER
Believe You Can Achieve Shelley Ke: Work Hard and Help Others By Dr. Josephine Gross
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Networking Times
Being Introduced Originally from China, Shelley came to Australia in 1988. Naturally industrious, she and her hushelley Ke is an Australian citizen from band Victor started their first business in 1989. Chinese descent who got started in “We opened a Chinese restaurant, as many network marketing in 2009. She became Chinese immigrants do,” she says. “After a couple her company’s first Royal Black Diamond in the of years, we sold our business and got into clothSouthern hemisphere in 2012 and today she is ing manufacturing. All through the nineties we a Presidential Black Diamond with over 70,000 were involved in wholesale and retail until our distributors in her organization. business became heavily affected by increasing Based in Sydney, Shelley built her business all overseas import.” over Australia, as well as in Malaysia, Singapore, Shelley had noticed many fashion stores had Thailand, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. Her team also a jewelry section and that the margins there were expanded into Japan, the U.K., the U.S., and she much better, so she decided to start a jewelry can’t wait for her company to open her homeland business. Her children, Ying and Bo, were still China by the end of 2014. babies at the time, so she went store to store with Shelley had been a successful businesswoman, her two babies, asking if anyone wanted to sell franchisor, and property investor when a friend her jewelry. introduced her to network marketing. She “I started at 9:30 a.m. until shops closed at immediately recognized the similarities with 5:30 p.m. Soon I found one shop in downtown franchising, but loved the residual income and Sydney that was willing to wholesale my jewelry. exponential growth potential. She became even To mitigate risk, my husband stayed in the clothmore passionate about her new business once she ing business while I built my jewelry business.” started building internationally and realizing her Ten years later Shelley and Victor had over dream of leading a truly global team. thirty jewelry stores across Australia, including Shelley says the journey was not easy Sydney, Melbourne, Gold Coast, Brisbane, Central and took time, as she had no prior networking Coast, and Canberra. experience or background in nutrition or “It was not an easy undertaking, but it gave wellness. From working with engineers who have me a solid business foundation,” says Shelley. no business background and zero people skills, “Luckily just before the global financial crisis in to overcoming language barriers at home and 2008 I was able to sell my business. This gave us abroad, to mentoring women whose husbands feel a cushion so we were not in a rush to do anything. threatened by the idea of their wives becoming Instead, we invested in property and enjoyed our financially independent, no matter what quality of life after years of hard work.” challenges she faced, there was always love and Shelley and Victor developed a real estate support from her husband Victor and her children portfolio in Australia, and by end 2008 one of Ying and Bo. Today Shelley uses the success Shelley’s property friends who had just had a baby stories she has collected over the years to inspire called her to say she wanted to visit. Shelley was others to achieve more. looking forward to seeing the baby, but instead of bringing her newborn, the new mom brought her upline.
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MASTER NETWORKER
Family First Randy Hedge: Life Lessons from a Cowboy
By Dr. Josephine Gross 40 40
Networking Networking Times Times
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ased in DeQueen, Arkansas, Randy Hedge was a single dad and a former insurance broker when he got involved in his current network marketing company. Today he is a top money earner leading a growing team of over 35,000 in Texas, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Missouri, and the District of Columbia. Randy’s innate gift for telling a good story and timing a joke, as well as his knack for mixing humor with hard-hitting business training, made him one of the most sought-after speakers in his company. Yet he is quick to inform prospects and new business partners that entertaining or educating a crowd is not what he gets paid to do. Randy likes to point to the success of top leaders on his team who simply used the system and plugged into meetings where they never took the stage. Often a long-distance sponsor, he compares his leadership style to an “absentee daddy” whose kids knew he loved them and was there for them in case of an emergency, but who also taught them to be self-dependent. When Randy married his soul mate Marcie in 2006, he made the commitment to never be away from his family for more than three or four days at a time. Extensive travel while building his previous business took a toll on his first marriage, and going through the loss of a business and a marriage made him reprioritize. What was one of the most difficult times in his life became one of the biggest blessings, because it allowed him to understand and protect what’s most important to him.
“I didn’t want mom and dad to sign their life away for me to have my own farm,” he says. “Insurance wasn’t my passion, but it was a great means to an end.” In the mid-nineties, Randy was doing well running a couple of insurance businesses when another insurance broker told him about a network marketing company. Active in his church and community, Randy had been approached before, so he had his standard answer: “I wish you the best. I’m happy for you, but I’m focused on what I’m doing. If I want more money, I will just sell more insurance.” Randy didn’t particularly trust this gentleman, so he listened to be polite, but he knew he wasn’t going to get involved. The gentleman left a little brochure behind, which Randy threw in a desk drawer and forgot about. A few months later, Randy was working at the office one evening, feeling frustrated with the long hours he was putting in. Cleaning up his desk, he ran across the brochure and threw it in the trash, but somehow it missed. As he went to pick it up, it opened to a page that talked about how to get paid residual income by marketing telecommunication services. “I’d always been chasing passive income,” says Randy, “whether it was with the ranch and cows or rental properties or insurance. Intrigued, I started making some calls. At that point I had been approached by five or six people about this company, several of whom had already quit.” Randy got a hold of a gentleman who knew Entrepreneur at Heart someone else. One call leading to the next, he endGrowing up on Possum Creek in South Polk ed up talking to a gentleman in Oklahoma who County, Arkansas, Randy always knew he wanted said he was making some money. Randy told him to be an entrepreneur. For generations his family he was probably not going to join, and if he did, had owned cattle, and once he graduated from col- he’d sign up with the gentleman from church who lege he knew he wanted to be his own boss. But he had approached him first. But the gentleman in didn’t want to risk anything his parents had built, Oklahoma said, “I don’t care who you do it with. so he started an insurance business. You’re just about to miss something you could be
May/June 2014
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RISING STAR
Manu Rekola Setbacks Make Us Stronger By Dr. Josephine Gross
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anu Rekola is a network marketing leader from Finland who got started in the business in 2002. Twenty-three at the time, he was studying automation engineering in Turku, a city on the southwest coast of Finland. “Technology has always been close to my heart,” says Manu, “but my father, the CEO of a pharmaceutical company, pushed me to also study economics. He said having a degree in both would open more doors and provide better salary.” Manu wasn’t interested in economics at the time, so he ignored his father’s advice. In May 2002, however, he had a wake-up call that changed his life.
Dream An old friend called him one Friday evening, announcing, “How would you like to get your own fighter plane?” This friend had studied with Manu when they were fighter mechanics in the Finnish Air Force. He knew Manu’s biggest dream was to earn his private pilot license so he could fly those fighters one day. Manu asked, “Can I pick out the color?” His friend said, “Choose whatever you want and I’ll show you how to get it.” Eager to achieve his dream, Manu listened as his friend introduced him to network marketing. “Always a fast starter, I decided to join immediately,” he says. “I had three years left to finish up my engineering degree, so it was the best idea I’d heard for becoming a licensed pilot any time soon.”
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Networking Times
RISING STAR
Kestutis Matulionis Step by Step, We Arrive... By Dr. Josephine Gross
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estutis Matulionis (he goes by Kesh, pronounced cash) is a network marketing professional based in Lithuania who leads a rapidly growing international team in Central Europe, Scandinavia, and the U.S. Kesh had multiple careers and experienced numerous financial and emotional crises before he found inspiration, freedom, and prosperity through network marketing. An overachiever from an early age, Kesh became a musician—playing the trumpet in an orchestra; a professional athlete—he won second place as downhill skier in the World Cup of Lithuania; and a karate coach and club owner trained by a prominent Japanese master. Professionally Kesh was trained as a medical doctor and worked in the emergency room as an assistant trauma surgeon and neurosurgeon. He cofounded a network of private clinics in Lithuania, co-owned a real estate holding company, and was involved in other businesses for over two decades. “I saw each new field as a promising way to happiness, success, growth, and freedom,” he says. “Although each venture did bring achievement—I had medals, black belts, properties—inner peace and fulfillment did not ensue. I just couldn’t settle for less.” In 2008 when the global real estate crisis hit, Kesh and his friends with whom he co-owned the properties made some business mistakes and their company, valued at about 40 million USD, collapsed into tens of millions of personal debt. “I lost houses, flats, cars—everything except my willingness to succeed,” says Kesh. “I had to start all over again from zero— or more precisely, from below zero.” Kesh asked himself, “What do I believe in? What’s next?” He knew he
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Networking Times
DEPARTMENT SUMMARIES
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LEADOFF Once Upon a Time…
Rita Davenport Storytelling is one of the best ways to spotlight who you are and the products you’d like to share. Simply start your presentation with a story. Wrap it around an experience. Involve people in your message. Then give them the solutions you found that will make their lives better. Make them laugh and they’ll learn more. Know how you’re going to close. Once captivated by a well-crafted story, people are receptive to a call to action. Don’t worry about being perfect—it’s hard to relate to perfect. Be yourself. Be authentic. Share your stories and have fun with them. More often than not, your listeners will have fun too and get their own results. Page 20
PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT Discover Your Unmet Needs Sonia Stringer If we don’t know our personal needs, they can easily control our choices or behaviors, and ultimately sabotage our success. Once you discover your unmet needs, you start living from your values (connection, cour-
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age, fun, adventure, love, contribution, beauty, leadership…). Your values are an expression of who you really are, while your unmet personal needs keep you from being who you are. When you live in alignment with your values, business and personal success happens organically, and you’ll also experience a profound sense of balance and fulfillment.
OUR TIMES p. 10 Marissa McDonough Telling stories can help you become comfortable with leading your prospects through the objection and into action. p. 12 Frank Keefer We all have a great story. We just need to make our story compelling and relevant to our target audience. p. 14 Stephanie Davis Stories are like simulators, allowing listeners to learn what it’s like to be in certain situations and how to overcome obstacles.
do online and you’ll attract a powerful audience of targeted prospects. p. 18 Wes Linden At opportunity presentations, quickly pair up guests with people whom you know they have synergy with because of their similar stories. p. 56 Presley Swagerty To collect stories, read books every day. Study others. Model your mentors. Most importantly, observe your own life. p. 58 Margie Aliprandi No matter where you are on your network marketing journey, your story provides the personal connection and hope people yearn for. p. 59 Susan Sly The greatest storytellers move people to action and inspire them to continue on no matter what. p. 61 Sarah Robbins Facebook is great for sharing testimonials, videos, and pictures of distributors’ and customers’ success stories.
p. 17 Jackie Ulmer Learn to weave your day-today stories into everything you
Networking Times
DEPARTMENT SUMMARIES
p. 64 Richard Brooke Your story is the most powerful evidence you have that what you are telling others they can do, can actually be done. Page 66
COUNTRY OVERVIEW South Africa: Gateway to the African Continent
Richard Clarke South Africa tends to be the point of launch for direct selling companies venturing into Africa. With growth averaging 10.3 percent over the last three years, direct selling reported sales exceeding US$8 billion in 2012. Direct selling currently provides income earning opportunities to over 1.3 million South Africans. Another projected 300,000 new direct sellers will join over the next three years. Entry to the South African market is not complicated as long as the entrants are up to date with current legislation and work with experts in global expansion.
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Answers to the Word Puzzle
THE CLOSE Tell Your Story
Ana Gabriel Mann We are all storytellers, every day of our lives. We transmit our truth best person to person, because sharing our authentic selves, witnessing and being witnessed by others is part of our humanity. We don’t have to know the precise way or set formula to simply share a part of ourselves that is deeply personal. Your story is your most powerful tool to build your business, because it tells the listener about you, about your decisions, your values, and your personal perspective. For over twenty years I have shared the simple story of how I started in network marketing.
Credit Fotolia.com
p. 62 Jordan Adler When telling a story, first position yourself so people understand you are just like them, and they will be more engaged.
(Over, Down, Direction) 1. PARTYING (1, 9, S) 2. PUBLICSPEAKING (1, 5, E) 3. MATCHERS (12, 10, SW) 4. OBJECTION (4, 16, NE) 5. COOPERATION (13, 1, SW) 6. ENCHANTMENT (15, 11, W) 7. AUTHENTICITY (9, 1, S) 8. TRUST (5, 19, NE) 9. UNDERRATED (15, 14, N) 10. LAUNCHPAD (4, 4, E) 11. RULE (9, 20, E) 12. MIDDLECLASS (11, 18, NW) 13. SQUEEZE (8, 19, NW) 14. RECEPTIVE (2, 11, SE) 15. LEADERS (14, 18, N) 16. ENGINEER (8, 20, W) 17. COMMUNICATING (1, 6, SE) 71