In today’s post, we’re going to discuss MLM Experts. I’ll define what it means, share some real world experts, and give you 10 success tips to follow if you want to become an expert at network marketing.
I define a MLM Expert as someone with extensive experience and knowledge in the network marketing industry. They’ve been around the block, know what they are doing, and know how to be successful. They’ve invested thousands of hours “doing” and “learning” everything they can about the industry.
The Two Ways to Become an Expert
In essence, there are two distinct ways to become a MLM Expert. First and foremost, you can work as a distributor for a few years and build a successful network marketing business of your own. You can learn the ropes through trial and error and real world experience. This is the best way to become a MLM Expert, as I see it. I like to call this “hands on, practical knowledge.”
Your other option is to “study” the industry, reading all the books, eBooks, and training courses you can find, for several years. I like to refer to this as “book knowledge.”
The greatest difference between these two types of experts is that one person learned by doing and has practical knowledge, while the other person studied the information and has the “theoretical” knowledge. Personally, I’d rather learn from the person with the hands on experience, rather than the theoretical knowledge.
After all, the world is filled with people with book smarts, but few of these people ever apply this knowledge and achieve great results. I like to think of the college professor teaching “business classes” who has never owned a business before, never ran a business, and couldn’t make it in the real world if he tried (so he became a professor).
If you are trying to become a MLM Expert, you can follow either of the two methods mentioned above. Ideally, I think you should combine both methods. You should build a successful network marketing business of your own and you should be a student of your business and learn everything you can about our great industry. When you use both methods, you will have “comprehensive” knowledge about the subject.
Other posts you may enjoy:
- Start Your Own MLM Company: Should You Do It?
- Top 10 Tips for MLM Beginners
- Investing in Your Own MLM Business: What You Should Know
I believe that anyone can become a MLM expert if they are willing to invest about 10,000 hours to learn everything they can about the industry. This is known as the 10,000 hour rule, which states that it takes about 10,000 hours to become an expert at anything. Depending upon whether you are building the business full-time or part-time, this could take you anywhere from five to twenty years.
The significance of the 10,000-Hour Rule stems from what can be done after such rigorous practice. After putting in these hours of practice towards your craft, you may then acquire the level of mastery in that field. If this degree of practice is not fulfilled, one will not be able to meet that level. ~ Quizlet
Real World MLM Experts
First off, anyone who has earned six or seven figures in our industry is an expert. I think so anyway. Why? Because they had to invest a ton of TIME to figure things out and truly master their craft. Very few people reach these income levels in our industry by fluke or by chance.
Here are a few real-world MLM Experts I have a tremendous amount of respect for.
Mark Yarnell
Mark, now deceased, was my best mentor. He earned approximately $30 million in the industry and he also wrote the books Your First Year in Network Marketing and Your Best Year in Network Marketing.
As a respected advocate of the Network Marketing Industry, Mark was the first and only person from Networking to serve as Contributing Editor to Success Magazine. He and Dr. Charles King of Harvard University created the first certification course in Network Marketing taught at the University of Illinois, Chicago and in Seoul, Korea since 1993.
Mark has been honored and recognized internationally with numerous awards in the industry, including the American Dream Award, and was named the Greatest Networker in the World by Upline Magazine.
Mark has been indoctrinated into the Network Marketing Hall of Fame and has founded and supported a variety of charitable organizations. He founded both The Eagles, a literacy organization for penitentiary inmates and the School of Sobriety, the only free treatment program in Nevada for alcoholics and addicts. His charitable work earned him the Nevada Philanthropist of the Year Award from the Washington Times. ~ Business for Home
Jordan Adler
Jordan is one of the most humble guys in our industry. He failure to success story is beyond inspiring. His book “Beach Money” is one of the best MLM Books ever written. Here are a few things about him.
Jordan was involved in 10 network marketing companies in his first 11 years in the business and never signed up a single distributor. At the age of 34 years old, he had less than $200 in the bank. He had $36,000 in credit card debt on 22 credit cards. He was living in a garage in Tempe, AZ and his rent was $200 a month. His jeep had been broken down for 2 years and he was taking a bus to work. His job paid him $14,000 a year after the airline he worked for had just filed bankruptcy. 36 months later, Jordan became a top earner in his company of 2 1/2 million distributors and went on to make $20 million in network marketing. ~ Jordan’s website
Don Failla
Don has been a successful rep in the industry for nearly 50-years now. Chew on that. He’s also author of the best-selling MLM Book of all time, The 45-Second Presentation, formerly known as the Napkin Presentations.
Don Failla is truly the Grand Master of MLM training. Along with Nancy Failla, he has taught hundreds of thousands of individuals across the world how to build an enduring home-based business.
Don and Nancy Failla are a success story and they enjoy a lifestyle most people can only dream about. For over 40 years, they have been helping people share this quality of life, by building their own successful home-based businesses.
As the Founders and Executive Trainers for the International Association of Lifestyle Trainers, Don and Nancy are committed to helping people all around the world to become successful Lifestyle Trainers while building their own successful home-based business.
Don has authored and sold close to 5 million copies of his books in 23 languages, as well as having produced numerous CDs, DVDs and Seminars teaching others how to own their own lives. Nancy has recently authored her own books, “Fun to Be Free” and “The Time For Women Is Now”. ~ 45 Second
Of course, there are many additional MLM Experts. These are just a few that resonate with me.
Success Tips from MLM Experts
What I want to do in this section is share some simple tips you can follow if you want to become an expert in the network marketing industry.
# 1: Make a Long-Term Commitment to the Industry
Most experts have been working in their trade 10, 20, even 30 or more years. To become an MLM Expert, you must make a long-term commitment to the industry. You can’t have the mindset that you will dabble with it or try it out and see how things go. Your first five years will be challenging and will be your biggest growth period, as you learn the terms, culture, and technicalities of our industry.
# 2: Invest 10,000 Hours of Your Time
We talked about the 10,000-hour rule earlier in this article. It takes most people at least 10,000 hours to become an expert at something. If you are working the business 40-hours per week, that would take you about 5-years. If you were doing the business 10-hours per week, it would take you about 20-years. The quicker you complete these 10,000 hours, the better.
# 3: Commit to Daily Learning
Experts commit to daily learning about their chosen profession. They read books, attend events, listen to training programs, work with their mentor, and learn from their mistakes. They are a student of their business or profession. They seek knowledge and want to learn everything they can as quickly as they can.
# 4: Work with a Successful Mentor
When you take a closer look at most experts, you will notice they went through an apprenticeship with a proven master. They worked closely with someone who had already succeeded with what they are trying to do. Working with a mentor is the best way to shorten your learning curve and develop your skills.
# 5: Mastermind
If you’ve ever read the book “Think & Grow Rich” by Napoleon Hill, you will remember his lessons about the importance of having a mastermind team. This is when two or more people work together toward a common goal. They share ideas, encourage each other, and focus on solving the same problem. If you want to become an MLM Expert, you should have a group of two to five committed people you can meet up with once a month, or so, and mastermind.
# 6: Make a Lot of Mistakes
As kids, we learn to walk by falling down repeatedly. We just keep getting up. This is how we learn as adults too. Make a lot of mistakes. Don’t be scared to fail temporarily. Just keep getting up and keep learning and make it a point to not make the same mistake twice. Eventually, you will figure things out.
# 7: Stay in the Trenches
You can study something until the cows come home, but until you actually go and do it, you won’t learn as much. If you want to be an MLM Expert, stay in the trenches. Never stop prospecting, retailing, recruiting, and team building. By doing so, you will keep up with the changes. You see, our industry constantly evolves. What worked 10-20 years ago, might not work today. If you stay in the trenches, you will keep up with the changes in our industry.
# 8: Build Your Library
Leaders are readers. If you want to become an MLM Expert, you should read daily. You should have your own personal library with books about our industry, leadership, communication, conflict resolution, people skills, management ideas, and more. You should read for 20-30 minutes daily and try to read one book per week. If you do that, you will read 52 books your first year and more than 1,000 books in 20-years. Think about how much wisdom you would have if you did that.
# 9: Attend Industry Events
Attend industry and company events whenever possible. There are many benefits of doing this. You will rub elbows with other leaders in the industry. You will learn new skills at these events. And you will experience visual proof that the industry works. Plus, your motivation will skyrocket.
# 10: Teach
I saved the best tip for last. This is something all MLM Experts do. If you want to become an MLM Expert, you must teach. Teach others. Work closely with people. The teacher always learns more than the student. If you are teaching and help others, you will never slow down on your journey of learning. You will seek knowledge that you can share with others.
Final Thoughts
In summary, MLM Experts are someone with extensive knowledge about the network marketing industry.
All experts acquire their knowledge one of two ways. They either become experts by doing the hands on work, or they spend their time developing theoretical knowledge by studying the industry. If you want to make the big bucks in our industry, you should do a combination of both methods (but focus on the hands on).
What are your thoughts? Who are your favorite MLM Experts? Leave a comment below and let us know what you think. I look forward to hearing from you. Have a great day.
Chuck Holmes
20+ Year Network Marketing Professional
Top Earner & Top Recruiter
Email: mrchuckholmes@gmail.com
P.S. Learn how to grow a successful network marketing business. Secret tips, training, and practical ideas. Free training delivered by email.
Really great list of tips that are practical to implement and apply. I think anyone in MLM has an underlying desire to be an expert. We long to be able to share our wisdom and success with others and are often times overwhelmed at the idea of trying to reach that goal. However, these suggestions make the goal seem much more attainable and these are tips that you can share with your team so everyone is on the same path.
I think anyone with the desire to make a career out of MLM should strive to become an expert. It won’t happen overnight, but it’s a good goal to shoot for. Become an expert on your company, its products and the network marketing industry.
I think that it is best to have hands on experience. But I also believe that you can share what you learn as you go along. If you find that you do something really well in your MLM business you are an expert in that particular area and you can be an asset to another. You can also keep learning via books and trainings apply them and share your experiences via YouTube or blogs. You will never know everything but you can market what you do know without hesitation.
Focus on what you know and are good at and let those skills help position you as an expert.
It occurred to me to wonder if a wife and mother would have the same ability or freedom to devote as much time, effort and resources to the techniques that have made you successful and that you recommend. I don’t say that as a complaint or whining but its a matter of realism. And I can’t complain. I’ve been successful in a male-dominated field (it did take extra work).
People always have the time to do things that are important to them. Anyone could set aside an hour a day by waking up earlier, staying up later, working during lunch, etc. When you want something bad enough you make time.
I definitely agree that a true “expert” will have both hands-on experience and knowledge gleaned from others’ personal experience. It seems a little silly to call someone an expert who has never learned from anyone else’s mistakes. In my book, those people are called know-it-alls, and no one really likes them much. 🙂
Good point. I don’t like “know-it-alls” myself. I would rather learn from someone in the trenches who has made mistakes and tested everything they are teaching me. Sometimes an idea sounds good on paper, but unless it’s actually been tested and tried, it’s not proven!
I don’t think anyone can really be an expert if they haven’t accomplished what they are teaching themselves. There is a huge difference between theoretical knowledge and applied knowledge. Just because you are book smart does not mean you are capable of doing what you are teaching. I always tell folks to be careful who you listen to because you might end up just like them.
Good point, Jay. Just because you know how to do something on paper doesn’t mean you can do it in real life. At the end of the day I would rather learn from someone who has been there and done that.
If you want to become an expert at MLM, or anything else, get serious about it and be a student of it for a few years. You will be amazed at how quickly you will learn, if you focus and persevere.
Focus and perseverance are really important if you want to master a skill. Good things take time. Just hanging in there and being persistent is more than half the battle.
If you want to become an expert at anything all you have to do is be willing to invest an hour a day to study something for a three to four year period of time. This pertains to network marketing or anything else.
I think that if you studied something an hour a day, seven days a week, for a few years, you would have immense knowledge on that specific subject. You would learn even more if you combined that studying with APPLYING what you learned.
I think if you do anything long enough you can become an expert at it. But you can’t just repeat the same motions over and over. You need to constantly learn new things. You need to read, listen to tapes, attend seminars, have mentors and most importantly APPLY what you learn. The best way to learn is to roll up your sleeves and get to work. You can study and prepare until the cows come home, but if you never put it into practice, you will know nothing but a bunch of theory.
Danielle
Good points, Danielle. Keep learning, but never forget to apply what you learn. That sounds like a good recipe to become an expert.
Chuck
Danielle, I agree that you cannot keep going through the same motions over and over. Your points about developing knowledge and skills, as well as applying what you have learned, is precisely what people need to do. I would also add that evaluating what you are doing, noting things done well and opportunities for improvement, is an integral part of the development process as well.
I’ve really improved my network marketing skills by participating in mastermind teams. I listen to conference calls at least once a week. The information I have learned is very helpful. I’m by no means and expert yet, but I’ve learned a lot during this past year, my first full year in the business.
Mastermind teams are definitely a great way to become an expert and develop your network marketing skills. I participate in a few calls each month myself.
Chuck
I think the best way to become an MLM Expert is to enroll in “auto university.” Listen to a tape or CD every time you are in your car. If you do that to and from work, or at least for one hour a day, you can become an expert within a year or two.
Lola
Enrolling in “auto university” is definitely a great way to learn new skills and become an expert. That’s how I learned a lot during my first few years in the industry. The best part is that it’s a passive activity. It doesn’t take up any more of your time. Since you’re driving anyway, why not listen to something that will teach you new skills and make you better? I never got paid to listen to the radio before.
Personally, I think it’s hard to consider someone an expert who hasn’t actually done it themselves, but that’s just my opinion. If I had to pick between two of your methods Chuck, I think the best method would be to become an MLM Expert by actually doing the work.
Scott
Good point, Scott. I agree that the best way to become an MLM Expert is by doing the work. However, there are other legitimate ways too.
The best experts are people who have done what they are teaching.
Carl
So true, Carl.
If you want to become an expert in the MLM Industry, role up your sleeves and do the work. Work your business day in and day out for a few years and you will become an expert. That is the only way to do it as I see it.
I think that is great advice Jason. Yes, reading, listening to tapes and all of those other things are important. But nothing beats learning by doing. You will learn more by doing that you will ever get from a book. Real world experience is the best teacher.
I think your tips provide a good balance between continuous learning and reinforcing by reteaching and applying. It’s interesting to crosswalk various experts and their material, for common information will exist in all of them, which people should really pay attention to. They each have some differences as well, and it will take some time to settle into what works for each individual. In the meantime, there are some awesome role models out there–no reason to not be absorbing everything they share.
I always tell folks to learn my doing. Duplicate what someone successful did. Learn from your mistakes as you go and make sure you read, listen to tapes and go to seminars. All of these additional training will enhance your real world experience.
Chuck