This entrepreneur got involved with a multi-level marketing company about 20 years after he was first introduced to the MLM industry. He was fascinated by the fact that a person could make money from the efforts of thousands of other people in what is called a “downline.” When someone introduced him to a health product that worked for his son, he decided to start his own MLM company simply by asking other MLM owners how they started . Here is his story.

Tell us how you got involved in the multi-level marketing industry. Then I want you to tell me how yau signed up 1,000 distributors, but also teach me how to start my own vitamin MLM company, if I want to?
I had looked at MLM for about 20 years, but never really understood it. All I saw were people calling to get us to come to meetings, then telling us how much money we could make, and then pressuring the heck out of us to join.
You never even tried it?
Actually, we went to an Amway meeting the very first time we were approached. It was held at a doctor's home, but at the time we weren't told this. We joined and actually got fired up until we went to a high school friend and started telling him about it. The first words out of his mouth were, 'This isn't that Amway crap is it?" Needless to say, we never said another word to another person about it, and were through with MLM for the next 20 years.
What changed your mind after 20 years?
I met an impressive businessman.
He told me he was a full-time network marketer, and then he told me he was making about $14,000 a month selling vitamins for a company out of Florida. Once he proved to me that he was, in fact, making that much money a month, I let him explain how MLM works, the good and the bad.

What was it that got you interested enough to join an MLM company and work with it?
The compensation plan was good. The product was a weight-loss product that was OK, but I felt like almost anyone could make a nice little income each month if they marketed it differently than most MLMers market.
Before you tell me how you made money in MLM, now that you are no longer in the multi-level marketing Industry, what do you think of the industry as a whole and what would you say to anyone getting involved In it?
The concept of MLM is incredible. On paper, it is the greatest thing going. Think about it. Build a downline of a thousand people and then get paid for their efforts each month. Incredible.
As far as me telling you my feelings about the industry as a whole, that's hard to do. I think there are a small number of companies and products that are great, and I think the majority of companies are not so great. People have to do their homework before they join a company. If a company will not help them market or sign up people, most distributors will fail. Marketing is the key in this industry. Always remember that.
What would I tell someone wanting to join an MLM company? I actually think making money in MLM is the hardest thing in the world to do. Your success doesn't depend on you or your skills, but it depends on the skills and work habits of those people you sign up. The majority of people who get involved in MLM want you to do the work for them. If a company tells you that you will make a fortune just by sending out some postcards or putting up a web site or talking with your friends and families, run.
You sound down on the industry?
Not really. I dearly love the concept of multi-level marketing, and people have made a lot of money doing it, but it is a tough industry. I think I am down on some of the people in the industry. They sell the industry as easy money. They get people involved by telling them how easy it will be for them to make a lot of money. People get involved, fail, drop out and then talk negative about the industry. Plus, to be honest, most people are lazy and they want to find that great marketer, put him in their downline and let him do all of the work while they collect the money. No business works that way.
You told me with your first venture into MLM, you were making about $6,000 a month by the sixth month. What did you do to make that happen?
In the beginning, I was told to make a list of my friends and people I knew in business, and go to them and sell them. Since I hated people to approach me, I decided 1 couldn't go to my friends, so I decided to find a way to sign up people without actually talking to them. Plus, I knew my success in MLM didn't really depend on me, but my success depended on the people I signed up. If they were told to go to their friends and family also, I was pretty sure the whole thing would grind to a halt, because I feel 99 percent of the people don't want to do that either.
How do you sign someone up that you don't know and you don't talk to?
You set up a process or a system that a person can go through and eliminate them self any step of the way.
I don't understand?
Let me tell you what I did and you will understand. The first thing I did was determine that most people were interested in making money. They were also probably a whole lot like me and had a negative feeling about multilevel marketing. They also would probably not want to approach family and friends, and if that were the case, they wouldn't have a clue what to do. So I had to set up a system for every single person that would sign up people, but didn't depend on them and their sales ability to sign up other people.
I then looked at all the MLM advertisements in all of the magazines and determined that most ads did not appeal to me or someone with my mindset. The ads would not get me to call in because they were too vague, promised too much money for too little effort or gave me all the information, therefore giving me everything I needed to say "no" to their offer before I actually knew any-thing about it. Plus, I didn't want to call a phone number in the advertisement and have someone answer the phone and then "sell" me to death about his or her product or company. So I had to eliminate all of those problems at the same time.

The NonThreatening System:
o three-line ad
o 24hour recorded message
o prospect leaves address
o mail information to prospect
o prospect calls
o prospect joins

Tell me what you did and why you did it.
I first put an advertisement in the "business opportunity" section of the local newspaper. It was three lines and a phone number. It said, "I have been successful for 20 years. I have made $200,000 a year for 20 years. I've been stupid for 20 years." Then I had a tollfree number followed by the words, "24hour recording."
I wanted people seeing my advertisement to call, so I didn't put anything in there about MLM. I wanted them to know I had been successful for a long time, but I wanted them to wonder why I thought I had been stupid for all that time also. They had to call the toll-free number to find out why. The "24-hour recording" was to let them know that nobody would answer the phone to "sell" them on something. Nonthreatening.
Once they called the number, they would listen to a message that I had recorded. If they listened to the whole message and wanted more written information, they were told to leave their name and address, and their phone number was optional. Again, Nonthreatening.
The message they listened to told them everything I would have wanted to know when I was totally turned off by MLM. I talked about the hype, the room full of people standing on chairs clapping and chanting, the going to friends and family and the negative responses the family and friends would give them, how I had been turned off by MLM for 20 years, and things like that.
Why did you do that?
So they would identify with me. I wanted them to know I was one of them. I was not an MLM guy trying to "sell" them my product or company.
After I told them all the negative stuff about MLM, I then told them I had finally taken the time to find out about and study MLM from a man who was making $14,000 a month and wasn't a salesman. I told them a little about the company and the product, but then I told them I had been stupid for 20 years because I had never concentrated on making residual income, which is what you make in MLM. I then told them I had come up with a system that anyone could use to sign up prospects. A system where they would not have to talk with anyone, friends or family, until a prospect called them and had a few questions or they just wanted to sign up. It didn't matter who they were, if they had ever sold anything or not, or their age, color, creed or sex, they could sign people up and make money, regardless of whether they had succeeded or failed in any other MLM company.
Did you really have this system in place where they could sign up people without talking to them and then they could do the same thing? If you did, explain it to me.
Sure I did. Here is the system. I put the three-line advertisement in the paper. People called the 24-hour recording and listened to the whole message, or they didn't listen to the whole message. Those that listened to the whole message had the choice to leave their name and address so they could receive more information. Those that did were mailed specific information about joining me. Those that received the information had the choice to call me or not call me. Those that called needed a few questions answered or they wanted to join. Those that joined were then told how to join, and then I set up their system for them.
I now see how they were able to eliminate themselves each step of the way without you having to hear a "no" from them.
Absolutely. They always had choices.
When they read the ad, they had a choice to call the number or not. They then had a choice to listen to the whole message or not. They then had the choice to leave their name and address, and on and on and on. Those that kept going all the way through the system had a choice of joining or not, but I was never mentally dragged down by hearing any "not interested" from anyone.
One question. What did the information say that you sent them?
It again briefly talked about the product and company, but I really concentrated on how they were going to be able to sign up people without talking to anyone. I described the marketing system more than anything. In fact, I would tell them they were in the middle of the system at that very moment. They called the number in the paper. They listened to the message. They left their name and address. They were reading the information and after they were through, they could make the decision to call me or not call me. Either way, it was up to them.
Why not go into detail about the company and product?
Because to the majority of people, they don't care how good the company is or how good the product is. They just want to make money, and they want to know how you are going to help them do it. Now, I'm not downplaying the product or company, and I think everyone should try to find a good solid company and a product that works, but marketing is the key to everything.
How could they use the same system you used to sign people up?
Let's say you sign up. I would send all the instructions to you in writing. It would tell you where to call to get a toll-free number with a voice mailbox that could accommodate a five-minute recorded message when someone called the number. You would get a passcode to enter your mail box so you could listen to your messages. You would then give me your passcode and I would go into your mail box, from my phone in my home, and record the same message you listened to when you called my toll-free number.
Then you would put the same three-line advertisement that I used in your newspaper or any paper of your choosing, and you would put your toll-free number beside the 24-hour recording line. You would be given the exact packet of written material to send out to anyone who left their name and address so you could make copies of it. Instead of my name and address on the front of the material, you would put your name and number down so the people could contact you if they were interested.
How well did this system work?
Within six months, my check was around $6,000, and I had over 1,000 people in my downline. That three-line advertisement was in over 150 newspapers and in USA Today.

The NonThreatening System:
o three-line ad
o 24hour recorded message
o prospect leaves address
o mail information to prospect
o prospect calls
o prospect joins