Chances are, you either rolled your eyes in disdain or you became giddy with glee when you read my title. There doesn’t seem to be any middle ground when it comes to network marketing—people either love it or hate it.
I’m not disrespecting anyone who has a career in network marketing (though I wish I’d stop getting spammy comments on Instagram from network marketers). I’m simply saying that I tried it in December of 2012, discovered that it’s not for me, and learned some valuable lessons along the way. Here are the tactics I learned and I’ve got to tell ya’ that these tactics work excellently as a creative professional.
1. Use your warm market
Your warm market is comprised of your personal friends and connections. When you enter a network marketing company, you are encouraged to contact your friends and your family as opposed to “cold calling” random strangers.
A lot of people hate to be targeted when their friend enters a network marketing company (I’m just giving you my very honest outlook). However, I’ve contacted my warm market as a freelancer and they have been more than happy to introduce me to people in their network.
Whether you want to be a full time freelancer, you want to freelance on the side to supplement your income, or you want to work your way up the corporate ladder…reach out to your friends and family. Tell them what you’re doing. Send them a link to your portfolio site. You never know who they know.
2. Creating residual income is the key to obtaining wealth.
Freelancers and employees are similar in one regard: they both exchange time for money. Entrepreneurs, on the other hand, build income generating assets. They put systems into place (which requires a lot of work up front) so that they can make money whether they’re working, they’re sleeping, they’re on vacation, or anything in between.
Network marketing appealed to me in 2012 for this reason. I saw that it was possible to build a team and to build multiple streams of residual income (also known as passive income or recurring income).
If you want to attain wealth, location independence, and financial freedom—you need to build residual income. I have a great podcast interview on this topic at Launching Creative!
3. Pick up that phone, baby!
I’ll be honest—there are days when I just don’t feel like talking to my clients. It’s nothing personal, of course! Sometimes, I simply feel more comfortable with an email or a text message (it’s a Millennial thing).
When I joined a network marketing company, I was told that a phone call would get the best results as far as finding customers. Not a text. Not an email. Not a Facebook message. A good ol’ fashioned phone call.
Chris Ducker has a great blog post about his 20 minute phone call with his client. The call went well and both parties walked away feeling happy. Chris wrote that it would have taken hours, if not days, to accomplish the same results with email.
I know it can be uncomfortable—even scary—to pick up the phone and talk to your client. But give it a try. Seriously, just give it a try and see how it goes.
At the end of the day, it’s all about your relationships.
People do business with people they know, like, and trust. If you’re reaching out to your friends and your picking up the phone and if you’re finding ways to build passive income (which we talk about in our podcast interview with Claudine Hellmuth), you’re going to be an unstoppable force!
—Nik Parks, Co-Founder of Launching Creative
