What Is My Vehicle?
Why did I choose Network Marketing as my vehicle to achieve wealth and time freedom?
I was programmed my entire life that multi level marketing was illegal, and people called them “pyramid schemes.” So when I was introduced to them over the years, I shut them down and actually lambasted people for bothering me with such nonsense.
What is a “pyramid scheme”?
I grew up in real estate my entire life. My father built one of the largest real estate brokerage companies on the East Coast in the 1970s, before selling it to Merrill Lynch. When my brother and I graduated from college, we both joined him in building a new real estate company. I went into sales and into opening a few offices, while my older brother went into management of the company. In sales, I was able to create a six figure income. I worked 60+ hours a week in such pursuit.
He made millions because he earned a cut of every commission from all the houses his 1000+ agents sold. He worked smarter, while I worked harder.
My brother worked hard as well, but not in the same fashion. He focused on opening offices and recruiting others as agents to sell houses for him. My brother never listed and sold a single house in his career, yet he outearned me 10-to-1.
He made millions because he earned a cut of every commission from all the houses his 1000+ agents sold. He worked smarter, while I worked harder.
I guess he was at the top of the pyramid. Is this legal? Should he be allowed to earn more than any of the agents who worked so hard selling homes? I imagine everyone will agree that being a real estate broker is totally legal.
Those who are smart, willing to take the financial risk of overhead, and up for the challenge of recruiting good agents are the very ones who get to live a life benefitting from Leveraged Income.
So how is Network Marketing any different? I submit to you that I found it to be a step better.
One day a friend shared with me how he was earning the same income I was, but that he was doing so from home without the overhead, employees, insurance, stress, or being subject to market conditions. He was doing so in a network marketing business.
At first I rebuffed him by telling him that he was in a pyramid scheme. He asked me to explain why. I said that he was earning money off the backs of others he recruited into his downline, not from his own efforts.
He replied, “Do you mean like your family earns money off the backs of the real estate agents in your company?”
I froze, and anyone who knows me knows I am normally quick-witted. Then he said, “Who is working smarter, you or your dad and brother?”
I had been closed minded and it was costing me.
Now I was mad, not at him, but at myself. That was my light bulb moment. I had been closed minded and it was costing me.
This was the birth of my enlightenment, and I began to enter and study this network marketing profession.
Now, let me explain why I found it to be a step better...
My research led me to learn why the business model made so much sense for a company that wanted a cost effective way to bring a product to market.
Instead of spending millions in traditional media ad buys, which has a declining effectiveness, companies were opting to employ the network marketing model.
In doing so, the company only incurs marketing cost if and when a sale is made. They get an army of word-of mouth salespeople using the most effective way of influencing buying decisions, and they only get paid for performance. No salaries, only commissions.
But what is also employed is a high sense of motivation, wherein these salespeople can build a business of their own and not just be salespeople. If they choose to recruit others and teach them how to sell the product or service, then they can earn override income just like the broker in a real estate company does.
So now they see life through a different lens, as business owners waking up each day excited about the future they are building for themselves. They are not salespeople, they are business owners.
Let’s relate this back to my real estate background. Our family built and owned a very large national real estate franchise. They did not work for Prudential. On the contrary, they built their own company within the umbrella of the great national, household name and support structure.
In a network marketing business, you are doing the same thing — building your own business within the umbrella of the company you partner with. The marketing team you build is yours. The customer base you build with your team is yours. You have rights to the cash flow generated from your business in perpetuity.
In real estate, the agents will not likely be able to out-earn the big broker they work for. Their income is limited to only what they can personally generate. The broker is able, through massive leverage in hiring many agents, to earn substantial override commissions.
How could one agent compete with that? But nowadays, many real estate companies have caught onto the merits of multi-level marketing. Instead of only one broker at the top earning off all the homes being sold by the agents they recruited, now some companies have implemented an MLM structure. Brokers have elicited the help of their agents to recruit more agents to grow their company. Agents can recruit other agents and get overrides on their sales, without being the broker at the top and without footing the massive overhead bill.
In essence, they can create their own downline network of agents within the existing structure. Some of the fastest growing brokerages have employed this model and it is the reason for their significant growth.
Why? The agents would rather not just earn from only their own sales. They want LEVERAGED INCOME. So to circle back to my story… I decided to start a networking marketing business on the side of my 60 hours a week real estate career. I only had a few hours a week I could devote, but I did just that.
At first, I didn’t earn great sums of money. But I did learn a great deal. The entrepreneurial education I gained from the experience was far bigger than the initial earnings I generated.
But in time, my earnings grew as I grew within the profession.
Now my monthly income from network marketing is more than I used to make annually in real estate. Top that off with the fact that my income is now 97% passive overrides and residual income from the customer base that has been built!
Passive, residual income grants me the freedom to be a stay-at-home dad, to travel, and to feel in control.
Now that I have lived in both worlds — traditional business and network marketing — I will never go back. Network marketing is the only way I can see for average people like me to get ahead and get control of our lives.