Ray Higdon is one of my personal business mentors.
We have never formally met, but I’ve been following his blog and training for about five years now.
He taught me lots of valuable lessons about blogging and online recruiting.
To be quite frank with you, I have the utmost respect for Ray and believe he is one of the top 5 best trainers, and probably the best blogger in the network marketing industry.
In case you don’t know who Ray Higdon is, here are a few quick facts about him.
- He is a top earner in World Ventures
- He is one of the top recruiters/producers in My Lead System Pro
- And, he was a very successful real estate investor and lost everything, prior to getting involved in the industry
- He jumped around 8-10 different companies before he found his present company and made it big
- He is a VERY highly respected speaker, trainer, coach and consultant in our industry
Through the past five years, I’ve learned a lot from Ray Higdon.
What I’d like to do now is share five things I learned from Ray Higdon.
I learned most of these lessons from his blog or YouTube videos.
The lessons are listed in no particular order.
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# 1 Qualifying is More Important Than Presenting – Learn How to Qualify People So You Don’t Waste Your Time Showing Presentations to Unqualified People
My Take: Most amateur and inexperienced sales professionals (and network marketers) are taught to show their presentation to everyone and anyone.
Whenever they meet someone they immediately start “pitching” them on what they are selling.
And most of the people who follow this approach get horrible results.
You have to realize that not everyone you talk to is really a prospect.
If anything, they might be a suspect.
On the other hand, when you study top distributors and top sales persons, you will quickly discover that they spend more time qualifying people than they do showing presentations.
Taking the time to qualify people saves you lots of time in long run.
After all, would you show a presentation for an insurance policy to someone who doesn’t want insurance and couldn’t afford it anyway?
I hope not.
From this day forward, always qualify your prospect first, before you do a presentation.
# 2 Practice, Practice, Practice Until You Sound Natural – No One Starts Out as An Authority, You Need to Practice Until You Master All Aspects of Your Business
My Take: No one starts out as an expert or authority in anything.
For every speaker you see on state at your network marketing company’s convention, you see a finished result.
What you don’t realize is that they have probably spent MANY years building up those skills.
They have practiced, failed, learned from their mistakes, failed some more, and kept practicing.
Do yourself a favor and don’t compare yourself to the top earners, especially if you don’t know their entire story.
There is always a story behind the story.
If you want to succeed in network marketing, you should follow Ray Higdon’s advice and practice, practice, practice.
You should practice doing presentations until you are a master at it.
You should practice prospecting until you can prospect anyone.
And, you should keep practicing your craft until everything is second nature to you.
I am a former Army Officer myself and we have something in the Army known as battle drills.
These are basic drills that every Soldier must be able to do.
The reason Soldiers can do these battle drills is because they have literally practiced the task thousands of times UNTIL the task becomes second nature to them.
Do the same thing in your network marketing business if you want to become successful.
# 3 Have a Huge Vision – You Must Have a Huge Vision That Guides You Through Your Setbacks and Challenges
My Take: To succeed in any type of business, you need to have a big vision.
Ray Higdon is spot on when he talks about the importance of having a big vision.
He teaches people to clarify what they want and focus on the big picture.
Don’t let today’s setbacks keep you from reaching your big goals.
Don’t get so caught up in the busy work that you forget what you are working toward.
Do the work, but let your vision GUIDE you.
In the Bible they say something like “man without vision will perish.”
I believe that.
Your key to success is to develop a crystal clear vision of what you want to accomplish in your network marketing business and in life.
You must decide exactly what you want with your business.
Also, you must know your WHY.
You should write it down and put it on paper and look at it daily.
Keep a copy of your vision statement in your wallet or purse.
If you don’t have a big WHY, you will quit when times get tough.
# 4 The Power of a Daily Routine – You Need to Create a Productive and Efficient Daily Routine
My Take: We are all creatures of habit.
Everyone I know of has a daily routine.
Some routines are good and others are bad.
Setting up a good daily routine is imperative to your success in the business.
It really boils down to goals and discipline.
You need to have goals to work toward and you need the daily discipline to follow through until you succeed.
It helps to have a day planner and a daily “to do” list that you can follow.
You need to “block off time” to work the business every day.
And you need to hold yourself accountable to do the work.
# 5 It’s Not What Works, It’s What Duplicates – You Need a System Anyone Can Follow
My Take: There are millions of ways that YOU can build your business.
Anyone can develop a simple system that they can follow to achieve success with their network marketing company.
What separates the people who make the big money in network marketing from the people who don’t is having a system that EVERYONE can follow.
Success in network marketing is about a lot of people doing a little bit consistently, not one person doing a lot.
Never forget that.
Your goal is to have something so simple that anyone can follow it.
You need a step-by-step plan of attack that people can follow to get started and build their business.
Sure, some people won’t use your system.
They’ll want to do it their own way instead.
That’s fine.
But you need something that the part-time, inexperienced network marketer can follow and get good results.
Final Thoughts
In summary, Ray Higdon is one of my favorite network marketing trainers and bloggers.
What I shared with you are just five things I learned from Ray Higdon.
I’ve learned many other things too, but these lessons really resonated with me.
As you can see, Ray Higdon provides tons of value for the industry, and his team.
He stays busy teaching at seminars and building his downline.
If you’re considering joining World Ventures, you should seek him out as your sponsor.
You won’t regret it.
What are your thoughts?
Have you ever worked with Ray Higdon in the past?
If so, I would love to hear from you.
Please leave a comment to tell us how he helped you, when you met him, and how long you worked with him.
Disclaimer: I am in no way affiliated with Ray Higdon. All business names in this post are registered trademarks. This review is my personal opinion and I was in no way compensated to write this post.
Sincerely,
Chuck Holmes
Network Marketing Professional (21+ years)
Top Recruiter & Top Rep
mrchuckholmes@gmail.com
I am not a fan of public speaking so I know I had to do a lot of practicing before I was comfortable and natural at giving a presentation. I started with standing in front of a mirror and practicing speaking and then I gave presentations in front of groups of my family and friends so I could have their feedback. Another thing that helped me was that I recorded myself giving a presentation and I was able to see the little things I did (such as saying umm a lot or saying like, or swinging back and forth) and so I was able to pinpoint those and work on controlling those things so I would come off as confident.
AWESOME coverage of Ray’s training. Ray has to have some of the best training in the industry. His views on duplication is a much over-looked aspect of network marketing strategies. Without duplication, you have nothing. Thanks for sharing the knowledge.
You’re welcome. Thanks for the comment, Mike.
What I learned from Ray Higdon is that it generally takes a few years to build a successful blog. It took him a few years to really get his blog going AND generating lots of traffic. Most newbies expect to be able to achieve success within a few short months. Thanks to Ray, I’m taking the long-term approach.
Aaron
Good for you, Aaron.
I can testament to this idea as well. It took me about 18 months to establish a successful blog that was generating a large amount of traffic/followers on a regular basis. I just had to be consistent in spite of having only a few views daily and continue to deliver quality content and over time I did gain the kind of traffic I was hoping to gain. I think for some people the investment of time is too much, but if you are willing to commit for awhile it can be quite rewarding.
Ray taught me that you can’t sit around and wait for leads. You have to get off your butt and call people or meet with them face-to-face. In the beginning, that’s how he built up his six figure Numis business. He worked his warm market, cold called people and called referrals. I think we can all learn a valuable lesson from what Ray Higdon did in the beginning. While the Internet is good, you still have to pick up the phone and connect with people.
Rolando
So true, Rolando. Nothing will beat face to face connections. The phone is the second best thing.
Chuck
Ray Higdon has achieved phenomenal success during the past five years. He really came onto the scene and blew things up. I admire the guy for all that he’s been through and for all the success he has achieved. Overcoming drinking and depression can be two major obstacles. Good job Ray!
Good points, Ola. I have a lot of respect for Ray, too.
I visit Ray’s blog every day and love it. He teaches so many new things. I even read his book “Top Earner Recruiting Secrets” and really enjoyed it.
I haven’t read that book yet, Terri, but plan on doing so in the next few months. Thanks for the comment.
I really zoned in on the fact that Ray Higdon jumped around between 8 -10 companies before finding his current company and making it big. It just goes to show that you cannot really expect to be an overnight success. In order to succeed in a major way it takes a lot of work and time. Nothing worth having comes easy. So you shouldn’t get discouraged if one thing doesn’t work out or if one idea doesn’t take too well. Diligence and patience is the key.
Very true. Realistic expectations are important to keep vividly in the foreground. Understanding that starting a business takes tremendous planning and work,as well as time, to build is part of the reality check. Expecting to be phenomenally successful overnight is not. Unrealistic expectations often result in defeat–one extreme leading to the other. John Maxwell wrote a wonderful book called “Failing Forward,” and in it he talks about failing-and we all WILL suffer setbacks and failure-and the attitude with which we approach them. Failure is a good reality check for our expectations as well as our planning and implementation process. Many people fail and quit. Failure is an opportunity to identify pitfalls, learn from the mistakes, implement an improvement strategy, and move forward.
Failing Forward is one of my favorite books.
Ray Higdon is one of my favorite mentors because he tells it like it is. He tells you that success won’t come easy. He talks about the importance of learning from your mistakes, adjusting your sales, and re-routing your path if necessary. He’s simply a class act guy.
Chuck
Ray Higdon is a great example to follow and study. Just because you don’t get the results you are looking for right away in your business, it is not a good reason to give up on your dreams. Also, I don’t think Ray Higdon is successful because of Numis. I think he is successful because he made the decision to be successful with Numis. He found a company he liked and then he rolled up his sleeves and did the work. That is what it takes to succeed in the MLM Industry or any other industry.
Chuck
You bring up an excellent point, Chuck. A person is not successful because of a company. A person is successful because of commitment, attitude and consistency. Ray Higdon’s values and work ethic–all part of Ray Higdon, the man–made him successful. People have a tendency to lay blame and find excuses for failures, missing out on the best part of failing, which is taking ownership and learning so that they can do better.
Good point, Amy. Take responsibility of your own success and failure and you will eventually succeed.