In today’s post, I want to talk about lifestyle marketing for network marketers.
Jordan Adler is one of my most trusted mentors in this industry. One of the key lessons he taught me was the importance of lifestyle marketing. Although I’ve never heard him define what it means specifically, here is how I define it.
Lifestyle marketing is living life, doing fun things and meeting new people as you do it.
Basically, you participate in activities and do things that interest you. You test drive that new car. You join organizations that interest you. You take vacations. You visit new places. You live life to the fullest and enjoy each day and connect with others as you do it.
I think this is a great way to build your network marketing business.
Top Lifestyle Marketing Tips for Network Marketers
What I want to do in the rest of this post is share some practical ways you can make lifestyle marketing work for you. These tips are listed in no particular order.
# 1: Join Organizations in Your Local Community
One of the easiest ways to get started with lifestyle marketing is to find organizations in your local community that interest you. Examples include Toastmasters, the Chamber of Commerce, Kiwanis, Elks Club, Boy Scouts of America, the Rotary Club, etc.
You can also search on Craigslist.com or Meetup.com for groups in your local area. Get involved with these organizations. Attend the events. Volunteer for leadership positions. Make new friends. The options are endless.
As you meet new friends and develop relationships, people will naturally want to know more about you and what you do for a living.
Joining organizations or networking groups lets you interact with like-minded people who can be invaluable sources of information and support, and send customers your way.
Besides the support and camaraderie, belonging to organizations can increase your business’s credibility. Many potential clients or customers view membership in relevant business groups as a sign that you’re an established business and accepted by your industry.
Source: the balance small business
# 2: Volunteer
Another great way to leverage lifestyle marketing is to volunteer. You could volunteer at your church, a thrift store, a soup kitchen, an animal shelter or tons of other places. It helps if you are passionate about the cause you are volunteering to do.
As you volunteer, you will meet so many great people. Plus, many folks will wonder how you can afford to volunteer during the work day. They will wonder what you do for a profession and ask you. This creates the perfect opportunity to share your story with them.
Millennials, who comprise the largest living generation in the U.S., care about causes. They are more likely than members of other generations to do business with companies associated with a cause and they like to work for companies that give back. They also account for more than one in three workers in this country and will make up nearly 50% of the workforce in a few years.
Non-millennials like to do business with companies that do good, too. So it makes sense to incorporate charity and volunteer work.
Source: Forbes
# 3: Go Somewhere New Every Month
You don’t have to be rich to do this. Draw a circle on the map of 100 miles from where you live, in different directions. Make a list of all the neat places that you could visit on a day trip or even a weekend trip.
Make it a point to go to a new place minimum once each month. This puts you around lots of new people you’ve never met before.
While you are out and about, you can hand out drop cards, talk to new prospects, collect business cards, and just meet new people.
One can save up vacation days for those future longer trips further from home. Even a two-night trip can result in adequate recharging of the batteries. Such a break allows one to return with more productivity.
The short getaways also teach you to pack efficiently as well as use some healthy habits during travels so that you become more prepared when the time comes to take longer vacations. Think of them as test trips before that big voyage you will take someday.
Upon returning home, the experiences you get during your quick getaways will make you a more interesting person in the eyes of the folks you work and socialize with back in your home territory. They often want to know how your trip was.
Instead of spending yet another weekend at home, chose to go somewhere for a quick trip to not only socialize with a few out of town friends, but to also experience something or some place new.
Source: Lifehack
# 4: Take a Vacation Once a Year
Save up some money and take a nice vacation every year. It doesn’t have to be anything exquisite. Stay within your budget, but find somewhere you can go, relax and meet new people at the same time.
Clinical psychologist Deborah Mulhern told ABC that when you don’t unwind and get away from “external stresses” (like a heavy workload), it gets harder for your body to relax.
Even anticipating a vacation can improve your mood. Researchers who studied 974 vacationers from the Netherlands discovered that planning for a vacation makes people happier before they go.
In fact, the mood-boosting effect of thinking about an upcoming trip has a more noticeable effect on your happiness than any post-vacation attitude shift, according to the same research.
Another study funded by Air New Zealand in 2006 found that vacationers traveling from LA lowered their heart rates by around 4% after visiting New Zealand. People in the study also slept deeper and longer (around 20 additional minutes a night) when they returned to the US.
Source: Business Insider
# 5: Learn a New Skill
Another great tip to practice lifestyle marketing is to learn a new skill. Jordan Adler took the time to learn how to become a helicopter pilot. You don’t have to do that, but you could take up golf, bowling, learn how to drive race cars, take up horseback riding, or something else.
Not only will you learn something new and have fun, but you will also meet new people you might not ordinarily meet.
On a physiological level, learning new things is good for your brain. According to CCSU Business & Development, practicing a new skill increases the density of your myelin, or the white matter in your brain that helps improve performance on a number of tasks. Additionally, learning new skills stimulates neurons in the brain, which forms more neural pathways and allows electrical impulses to travel faster across them. The combination of these two things helps you learn better. It can even help you stave off dementia.
Not only did these lessons serve as a strong reminder to an important mindset to have in business and in life, it also helped recharge mind. Even though we always think of recharging as synonymous with relaxation, sometimes to best way to recharge is to throw yourself into something that takes your mind off of the day to day. Naturally, learning something entirely new, without the pressure of it being directly correlated to career, will refresh mind and will help think of things differently.
Source: Inc.
# 6: Go to New Stores and Restaurants
Another thing you can do is find new businesses and restaurants to visit. Most people are creatures of habit and go to the same places every week. Try to mix things up a little bit. Visit a new grocery store. Fill up at a different gas station. Eat lunch at a new restaurant. You never know who you will meet in the process.
The human brain’s #1 survival strategy is the ability to predict and avoid danger. That’s why it quietly herds us to the same places again and again. These spots are predictable and probably safe. But predictability is bad for your creativity.
Unpredictable situations are so important. It forces your brain to pay attention and to form new neural pathways. Anything that pushes you beyond your normal thought patterns makes your brain more alive.
Just go somewhere new and unfamiliar. Walk around an unfamiliar neighborhood. Visit a store where you feel slightly uncomfortable. Go to a different coffee shop every day. Find places where the people are different than you. There’s probably a few within a couple of blocks of your house.
Source: The Writing Cooperative
Bonus Tip
As you do all of these things share your experience on Facebook. Share photos and videos of you living your life. This will pique people’s curiosity and lead to new conversations you might not otherwise have.
Additional Thoughts
Keep in mind that the purpose of doing all of these things is to enjoy life and meet new people at the same time. You’re not trying to recruit every person you talk with. Instead, you are focused on making new friends! Once you have a friendship with someone you can let them know what you do and see if they want to learn more.
The Benefits of Lifestyle Marketing
The major benefit of lifestyle marketing is that anyone can do it. No excuses. Plus, it’s a lot of fun. You get to go to new places, meet new people, try different foods and have different experiences. Not only can this grow your business, but it will also improve your quality of life. That’s a lot better than sitting behind your computer and spending all of your time on Facebook.
The Drawbacks of Lifestyle Marketing
Depending on what methods you pick, lifestyle marketing could get expensive. It also takes a decent amount of time to do this on a grand scale. So if you are really pressed for time, or on a tight budget, you will be forced to get creative.
Final Thoughts
The bottom line is that lifestyle marketing could be a great way to grow your network marketing business, do fun things, learn new skills, and meet new people at the same time. Ultimately, I think it’s a win-win deal for anyone willing to give it a try.
What do you think? What are your thoughts about lifestyle marketing? Leave a comment below to share your opinion. I look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely,
Chuck Holmes
Network Marketing Professional (21+ years)
Top Recruiter & Top Rep
mrchuckholmes@gmail.com
Volunteering your time to any of the examples that you provided above is great. People often will write a check to a charity of their choice, but it is the person that volunteers their time that is the most powerful. Perfect example of selfless service. Secondarily, take photos, write an article about your experience, give kudos to those that volunteer with you. The marketing of your volunteering will end up being a byproduct of your selflessness.
I volunteer at two thrift stores and have a blast doing it. I meet tons of great people.
Hi Chuck,
I found the idea of ‘lifestyle marketing’ interesting. One of the best things about network marketing is that it lets you own and run a business while doing the things that you love, and living life to the fullest.
However, I too agree that lifestyle marketing can take time, but how about doing it part time. Pick activities that you love doing the most, and stay within your budget. It’s a fun way of doing business.
Yes, this is a great way to build your business.
Volunteering is something that brings me great joy. I like being in a space doing something I enjoy with the knowledge that I am having a positive impact. I volunteer at my church and I also volunteer at elementary schools with children. My heart is happy when I see the positive impact of my efforts.
I like volunteering myself.
Lifestyle marketing makes good sense, and in many ways, that is how I market. Life is too short to not live it the way it suits you. When we market in this fashion, we are having fun and taking care of business all at the same time.
Just a short story on how that has worked for me as a book author. I was flying back to the Midwest for a short trip and just started conversing with one of the Stewards on the Southwest flight I was on. He has purchased books, and also shared my site and books with others.
By just living life, I was also marketing, and it became lucrative.