JULY/AUGUST 2015
People
FIRST Mari Smith “the Queen of Facebook”
9 Ways to
CONNECT NIGERIA:
No Job, No Problem
LAUNCH Your Biz on Social Media July/August 2015
VOL 14, ISSUE 2 MAR / APR 2015 $7.97 US / $10.97 CAN
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CONTENTS
PERSPECTIVES 5 LEADOFF
Embracing Change
Susan Sly For network marketing professionals, social media marketing is our new daily method of operation.
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WORDS OF WISDOM On Social Networking Memorable quotes by Mark Cuban, Chelsea Clinton, T.S. Eliot, and others.
DEPARTMENT 8 LEADERSHIP 9 Ways to Connect Michael Lee Stallard Take the time to become an intentional connector and build strong relationships that yield long-term benefits for everyone involved.
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OUR TIMES – PART 1 “Social media is changing how we do business…” • Amber Voight, Top 3 Mistakes • Meredith Berkich, Achieve Mastery in Every Aspect of Your Biz • Jim Lupkin, Attracting Prospects on Facebook
FEATURES 16
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LEAD INTERVIEW People First Mari Smith is one of the world’s leading social media thought leaders, widely recognized for her Facebook marketing expertise. Mari travels the world to provide engaging keynotes and in-depth training to social entrepreneurs. She has shared the stage with Sir Richard Branson, the Dalai Lama, Eckhart Tolle, Tony Robbins, and Arianna Huffington. Mari teaches small business owners how to build a true social business with measurable profits from integrating proven marketing strategies.
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CONTENTS
FEATURES
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MASTER NETWORKER God Is Using Me Stormy Wellington has been the top recruiter in every company she’s been in. Six months into her current business, she has 57,000 people in her organization, which is growing in eight countries. Stormy believes success is a spiritual affair. “If you give yourself to a cause bigger than yourself, you invite higher forces to propel you towards the fulfillment of your goal, which in my team’s case is to help 1,000 families make six figures this year.”
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MASTER NETWORKER From Skeptic to Evangelist Bri Richardson is a young mother of two who couldn’t have imagined a more promising start to her network marketing career. Sales and marketing had always been a natural fit for the stay-at-home mom with an effervescent personality. Once she found network marketing, Bri dove in headfirst, but after struggling in her first company, she was down more than a few dollars. Instead of giving up, she worked on herself and her strategy.
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MASTER NETWORKER No Job, No problem Gene Maxon Adigu is a young Nigerian network marketing leader who wasn’t ready to take a job upon graduating from college. When his wife told him about a network marketing opportunity, he recognized it as a vehicle to fulfill his dreams. Today Gene is one of his company’s top 5 recruiters worldwide. His ultimate goal is to help Africans see how network marketing offers a powerful, long-term solution to many of the problems they are facing.
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MASTER NETWORKER Fueled by Faith Originally from Colombia, Johanna Gil Bala runs a global network marketing organization that’s quickly expanding in North, Central, and South America. Based in Dallas, Johanna travels the world most of the time, as she believes in working shoulder to shoulder with her teams. Her lifestyle today forms a sharp contrast with where she was just 12 years ago. Homeless with her three children and in poor health, she made a firm decision to turn her life around.
Networking Times
CONTENTS
PERSPECTIVES 60
OUR TIMES – PART 2 “Social media is changing how we do business…” (cont’d) • Simon Chan, 10 Biggest Mistakes Distributors Make • Jackie Ulmer, Launching Your Biz with Social Media
DEPARTMENTS 64 PROFESSIONALISM Playing the G.A.M.E. Robert Butwin What is your intention in playing the game of network marketing and what’s your strategy to insure that you will win? 70
PEOPLE BUSINESS You Never Know… Dan Jones To improve your odds of being heard and creating a high-value relationship, consider writing thank-you notes from the heart.
RESOURCES 72
THE CLOSE Heed the Lessons Adam Green Social media is an integral part of our business. It gives us tremendous reach and power, which comes with great responsibility.
NEW! Visit the Networking Times Blog at NetworkingTimesBlog.com
Want to be a guest blogger? Email your article or video to info@networkingtimes.com We love to hear from you!
July/August 2015
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LEADOFF
Embracing Change
Social Media Marketing Is the New D.M.O. By Susan Sly “
L
et me ask my colleague in the U.S.” The professor tapped away furiously at his keyboard as the quizzical look on my face could not conceal the curiosity I was feeling about how someone could simply type a question into a computer and expect a response. Within what seemed like nanoseconds, text returned from this mysterious person hundreds of miles away. “How can this be?” I was dumbfounded. As a university student and research assistant, I had to go to the library and pull out information from microfiches for my research. Typing a question into a computer and expecting someone, or something—an artificial intelligence?—to answer it seemed more futuristic than a Tron movie. The professor answered, “Susan, it’s called email. Someday soon it will be as common as television. People will email back and forth all the time.” This was 1992, four years away from the launch of Hotmail™, six years away from Google™, and twelve years away from Facebook™. I was driving a tricked out Nissan Pathfinder with a cell phone that was as big as a box of Kleenex. I thought I had reached the pinnacle of tech-cool. Things were about to change… rapidly. Fast forward two mere decades and here we are connected instantly with a brother who lives in Spain, a team member three towns over, and basically anyone we desire to converse with. In our profession, things have changed dramatically. Years ago, network marketing was dominated by face-to-face meetings and home presentations; today, many of us use social media as the dominant force of business building. Social media has radically changed how we do business. While there are still many ways to build, many leaders today put a lot of their focus online. Whether it’s on LinkedIn to connect with potential business partners and clients, or in a Facebook group to celebrate team victories, the vast majority of today’s network marketing professionals have a strong social media component. In this issue of Networking Times, we are excited to share the wisdom of social media marketing expert Mari Smith. I had the pleasure of interviewing Mari, along with our fabulous editorial director Josephine Gross. Mari generously shares her tips for social media branding and creating a professional image online. Josephine and I were enraptured and Mari said it was one of her best interviews ever (we also found out Mari and I both hail from the same small suburb of Toronto—what are the chances?!) In addition to our cover story, we gathered many social media strategies in this issue, which will undoubtedly be one you will savor and share with your teams. Regardless of where we are with our online presence, we can always improve and embrace social media as the new daily method of operation. Done right, it can have limitless benefits for our businesses. We can’t wait to see how you take your social media game to the next level! n SUSAN SLY is a top income earner, bestselling author, sought-after speaker, and reputable trainer in the network marketing space. A passionate advocate of the profession, she is an Editorial Adviser for Networking Times.
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LEAD INTERVIEW
PEOPLE FIRST A Conversation with
Mari Smith By Susan Sly
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ari Smith is one of the world’s leading social media thought leaders, widely recognized for her Facebook marketing expertise. Fast Company calls Mari “a veritable engine of personal branding, a relationship marketing whiz, and the Pied Piper of the online world.” She has been featured as a Forbes Top Ten Social Media Power Influencer several years in a row. Dun & Bradstreet Credibility named Mari one of the top ten Most Influential Small Business People on Twitter. A passionate social media leader since 2007, Mari travels the world to provide engaging keynotes and in-depth training to social entrepreneurs. She has shared the stage with Sir Richard Branson, the Dalai Lama, Eckhart Tolle, Tony Robbins, and Arianna Huffington to name a few. Mari teaches people and companies how to build a true social business with measurable profits from integrating proven marketing strategies. Network marketers who apply her expertise can expect to see increased traffic, lead generation, and conversion, translating into more customers and team expansion. In addition to having a large, loyal following on her blog, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google Plus, Mari has taught tens of thousands of business owners around the world with her popular social media webinars over the past several years. On a personal note, Mari is Scottish-Canadian; she was born in Ontario, Canada, and spent her childhood in a small rural Quaker community in BC, Canada, then lived in Scotland for two decades before moving to San Diego, California in 1999.
What led you to your career today, and her, “When I grow up I’m going to be a secretary. I how does it tie in with your life purpose? want to know how to touch type.” As a child, I was painfully shy and soft-spoken. I hated reading aloud in English class. I used to slouch down and hide behind my book so the teacher wouldn’t call on me. I was sensitive to people’s energy and struggled to really show up and be seen. As a child I remember a pivotal moment around age 9 where I saw my mother touch typing on an old-fashioned manual typewriter. I was standing behind her, watching the words appear on the page. She wasn’t looking at the page or her hands. I asked, “Mum, how can you get these words to come out? If I covered your eyes, would you still be able to make these words on the page?” She said, “Of course, let me show you.” She was a secretary and worked in an office. I said to
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In my late teens I joined Toastmasters. I wanted to hone and polish my public speaking and communication skills. I had this longing to be able to communicate well in both the spoken and the written word. The two themes throughout my life have been people and technology. As I look at my career now, it’s this perfect blend of people, relationships, and technology.
You have a strong spiritual connection. How do you bridge the two worlds? I believe we’re all spiritual beings in a body, no matter what our faith. To me, mindfulness, metaphysics, conscious breathing, communing with a higher power, with yourself, with your guides,
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Psychological, Numerical, Duplicatable
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GOD IS USING ME Stormy Wellington 28
By Dr. Josephine Gross
Networking Times
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tormy Wellington was introduced to network marketing by a stranger. Skeptical at first, she chose to give the business the benefit of the doubt. Experienced in retail sales, she hit the ground running. When she saw her first month’s check, she thought the company had paid her by mistake. Stormy’s philosophy for success is taking massive action. Her methodology for momentum is to create massive duplication. She’s been the top recruiter in every company she’s been a part of. “That’s mainly because I know 20 percent of the people will do 80 percent of the work,” she says, “and before you quit on me, I already have your replacement.” Less than six months into her current business, Stormy has 57,000 people in her organization, which is growing in eight countries. “We have 20 people making between $15,000 and $55,000 a month already,” she says, “To me, this is 100 percent supernatural.” Stormy believes success is a spiritual affair. “If you give yourself to a cause bigger than yourself, you invite higher forces to propel you towards the fulfillment of your goal, which in my team’s case is to help 1,000 families make six figures this year.” Stormy loves what’s happening for herself and the people who have bought into her team’s vision. Every day she tells them, “Focus on a cause bigger than yourself so that nothing or no one can get in the way. Let’s embrace one another and stay humble, because it’s all God.”—J.G.
How were you introduced? In 2008 a friend dragged me to a party I didn’t really want to go to. I ended up meeting a housing developer there who did construction and refurbishing. Three months later my house fell into foreclosure and my car got repossessed. I was looking to rent my house out, and the person interested in renting it wanted me to fix up the basement. I called the developer hoping he could do the work at a discount. He came over to my house, and one thing led to another. He shared how his wife had lost a lot of weight using this product, and how they were now making $50,000 a month.
Did you have any skepticism towards network marketing? I never believed in it. In my early twenties I tried selling makeup door to door. It didn’t work for me. When this contractor introduced me to his business, I was with two girlfriends, and neither of us believed him. We were thinking, “Here we go,
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another pyramid thing. This guy’s just trying to make money off us.” As he continued, I remember thinking, “What if he were telling the truth? What if we really could make some significant money with this opportunity?” I have a retail background. I’ve owned three boutiques in the past, so I understood the direct sales aspect of the business. I understood buying a product for $10 and selling it for $20. In the beginning I looked at it just as a way to make retail commissions. When I received my first check, I thought, “This company made a mistake. I couldn’t have earned this much.” I was very skeptical. As a matter of fact, my two friends I was with at the time didn’t even join. They said I was stupid. All my friends said I was crazy for joining that pyramid scheme.
What was the first thing you did when you signed up? I reached out to friends and family, who as we all know are the last ones we should talk to, because
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FROM
SKEPTIC TO
EVANGELIST Bri Richardson:
Building a Social Global Business 36 36
By Dan Jones
Networking Times Times Networking
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uccess isn’t supposed to look this easy. At 30 years old, Bri Richardson will remind you it’s not. Yet for this young mother of two, it’s difficult to imagine a more promising start to her network marketing career. Sales and marketing had always been a natural fit for the stay-at-home mom with an effervescent personality. Working from her home in Texas, she had been able to provide a little supplemental income for her family while playing to her strengths of connecting with others. Once she found network marketing, Bri dove in headfirst with dreams of making a name for herself. After struggling in her first company, she was down more than a few dollars and had every reason to quit. Instead of giving up, she worked on herself and her strategy. A decade later, Bri is combining her marketing skills with a powerful social media presence. Leveraging her activities on Facebook, YouTube, and other online platforms, she has achieved top status in her current company after only one year. While the money is good, Bri has her sights set on more than simply providing for her family. A multiple-six-figure yearly income earner already, Bri is on track to hit seven figures in 2015. While she has personally sponsored people all over the U.S. (including Puerto Rico and Guam), Canada, and the U.K., her team also spans into Australia and New Zealand. Looking into the future, she says “changing more lives for the better” is where her future leads, and where many others With husband Clay, son Cooper, inspired by her story are sure to follow. and baby Cohen.
Unlikely Beginning In 2005, Bri Richardson was still in college when at a nail salon, the lady getting a manicure next to her began talking about a network marketing opportunity. With each success story she shared, Bri became a little more curious. “I decided to jot down my contact information on a slip of paper to hear more,” she says. “I really didn’t know what the business entailed or what I was getting myself into. Yet I knew if others could do it, so could I. I just had to figure out the how.” Bri came with her fair share of skepticism towards multilevel marketing. Growing up, she had been warned by her parents to be cautious about enrolling in such opportunities. Her mother would say, “You never want to pay to get involved in something that will supposedly pay you eventually.”
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Despite Bri’s early conditioning, she felt the opportunity seemed worth the risk. She’d only have to pay a $99 fee to join, and if the success stories she’d heard were true, there was nothing that could stop her from achieving similar success. After investing all her savings in inventory, she put her nose to the grindstone and focused on selling as many products as possible. She tried different approaches, including hosting home parties, but nothing seemed to bring the results she was expecting. “Unfortunately, the opportunity wasn’t as good as it was presented to be,” she says. Bri’s first foray into network marketing had confirmed some of the doubts she originally had about the business. “In my mind, this was proof my mom was right,” she says. “That first experience left a sour taste in my mouth. It wasn’t until
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NO JOB, NO PROBLEM Gene Maxon Adigu By Dr. Josephine Gross
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ene Maxon Adigu is a young Nigerian network marketing leader who is passionate about promoting the business model and profession across Africa. Gene and his wife Didi live in Warri city, one of the major petroleum and business hubs in southern Nigeria. An entrepreneur at heart, Gene had been studying Robert Kiyosaki and other business thought leaders while still in school. Upon graduating, he was primed to start his own business, so when his wife told him about a network marketing opportunity, he recognized it as a vehicle to fulfill his dream. Gene first joined a 40-year-old U.S.-based company that had been established in Africa for over a decade. Meeting prospects at the company’s local office/store, he became good at selling and recruiting, but he knew he could do better. Looking to leverage his online relationships and love of social media, he responded to a Facebook contact in the U.S. who was promoting a coffee company with a seamless e-commerce platform and stellar leadership. “This was the first network marketing company in Nigeria where you can do everything online and enjoy home delivery,” Gene says. “I immediately saw an opportunity to build a truly home-based business.” He joined his current company in July 2014 and a few months later his U.S. upline traveled to Nigeria for Gene’s business launch. Gene advertised the event which gathered close to 500 people. Gene’s upline traveled to four more cities in Nigeria to give presentations and that month Gene’s team grew to over 2,000 people. Today Gene has close to 8,000 team members and is one of his company’s top five recruiters worldwide. While he looks forward to becoming a Blue Diamond in the near future, his bigger goal is to help Africans see how network marketing offers a powerful, long-term solution to many of the problems they are facing.
Tell us a little about your background. I grew up in Nigeria in an upper middle-class family. I studied business administration at Rivers State University and graduated in 2010. All university graduates in Nigeria are required to serve the nation for one year before they can be employed by any firm. I was about to enter this
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one-year service corps program when my wife told me about a network marketing opportunity. She didn’t have all the details so she referred me to our sponsor, who she knew could help me answer all my questions. This is a first and important lesson for building your business: if you are just starting out, refer your prospects to your
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FUELED by FAITH Johanna Gil Bala:
Obstacles Make You Stronger 52
By Dr. Josephine Gross
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riginally from Colombia, Johanna Gil Bala is the highest ranked Latina woman in her network marketing company, running a global organization that’s quickly expanding in North, Central, and South America, as well as in Europe and South Africa. Based in Dallas, Johanna travels the world more than half of the time, as she believes in working shoulder to shoulder with her team of over 20,000 associates in 18 countries. Her lifestyle today forms a sharp contrast with where she was just 12 years ago—homeless with her three children, not speaking any English, and in poor health. Powered by her exceptional faith and a can-do attitude, she attracted the people and the circumstances that would allow her to lift herself out of a dire situation. She first believed her way out would be through a formal education, so she enrolled in a local college to pursue a nursing degree since her lifelong dream was to become a doctor. When she found network marketing, she recognized it as an even better vehicle to share her talents and live her passion: to transform lives by passing on to others the learning experiences she gleaned from her extraordinary journey. Today Johanna heads up Dinastia Hispana, a movement that teaches Spanish-speaking network marketing professionals about finances, relationships, and leadership so they can achieve their own version of success in business and in life.
Restarting Life in a New Land Married to an American living in Colombia, Johanna came to the United States in 2003. “This wasn’t my choice,” she says. “I was happy in my country, where we had a very successful business. We regularly came to Orlando for vacations, and one summer my ex-husband decided he wanted to stay. He made it impossible for me to return to my home country and from that point on our relationship turned into a nightmare, as a long process of mental and physical abuse ensued.” Three months later, Johanna’s ex-husband falsely accused her of spousal abuse and she found herself briefly incarcerated. The charges
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were dismissed and Johanna was able to leave prison but found herself homeless with her three children and absolutely devastated. Her life as she knew it had come to an end as her ex had taken everything—the house, the cars, any savings—leaving her homeless and penniless. “Somebody in court gave me $100 to restart my life and I moved into a shelter for abused women,” says Johanna. “At one point I heard someone announce, ‘We have a Hispanic woman with three kids homeless.’ This became a defining moment in my life and made me become what I am now.” Besides being in a foreign land without family
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PROFESSIONALISM
Changing the G.A.M.E. Turning Beliefs into Breakthroughs By Robert Butwin
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ave you ever wondered why most people don’t reach success in network marketing? I know, it’s a sad reality. In my experience, the reason is they are unwilling—or unable—to make simple changes. What if we could help people make some of these changes? Do you agree this could have a profound positive impact on their businesses—and lives? It all starts with our beliefs. If you look at the word belief, right in the middle of the word is “lie.” Take a look at some of the lies we hold onto from our childhood and upbringing. For example, if your parents were anything like mine, they probably told you “not to talk to strangers.” Now I’m here to tell you, you can make a fortune turning strangers into friends!
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Many network marketers believe that because their company sells products, our business is about selling products. This is another limiting belief, as in reality, our business is about people and empowering others. I have learned through the years that if you help build up people, people will build your business. What beliefs are stopping you from succeeding? Do you know about the 3 A’s? Once you are Aware of your beliefs, you can Accept that you have them, and take the appropriate Actions by either correcting your beliefs, neutralizing them, or acting upon them. Once you understand and apply the 3 A’s, I promise you will have a breakthrough in your business. I believe it’s easier to become wealthy today
Networking Times
JULY/AUGUST 2015
Get Ready for an EXCITING end of Summer and Fall 2015! August 20-22, Las Vegas, NV
September 25-27, Kansas City, MO
ERIC and MARINA WORRE gather Network Marketing Women Professionals from over 50 companies and over 10 different countries.
SONIA STRINGER holds her yearly BELIEVE event, the ultimate business conference for women in network marketing and direct sales.
Women In Network Marketing Event
BELIEVE Conference for WOMEN
6th Go Pro Recruiting Mastery
11th Mastermind Event
October 14-17, Las Vegas, NV ERIC WORRE holds his 6th Go Pro Recruiting Mastery event at the Mirage. Live event is sold out. Join the waiting list or Live Streaming.
November 15-17, Orlando, FL ART JONAK and RANDY GAGE join for the 11th Mastermind event, “Where Leaders Are Born”.
For more information, visit www.NetworkingTimes.com/2015events 74
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