It's got to come from the heart

I heard a great song on the radio the other day. I think it was by Kathy Mattea. The chorus went something like this:

You've got to sing like you don't need the money,
You've got to love like you'll never get hurt,
You've got to dance like nobody's watching,
It's got to come from the heart if you want it to work.

The song was from the perspective of a daughter remembering advice about "life" that her father had given her. But it struck me that this was great advice about network marketing, too.

You've got to sing like you don't need the money

If you act like you desperately need money, you're going to have approximately zero success in network marketing. People simply aren't attracted to desperation. How do you feel when you see someone on the street corner with a sign that says "Homeless, Hungry, Please Help"? If that person came to you with a business opportunity, would you be interested? Now what if that same person, with the same business opportunity, showed up in a shiny, new Lincoln Town Car? Would you be more interested? But you don't have to go blow a lot of money on a fancy car just to get respect. What's more important is your attitude. If you're always whining and complaining about not having enough money, you're certainly not going to get many people to join your downline. But if you develop an attitude of success, if you look at things from a positive perspective, if you look at problems as opportunities, if you have an exciting vision for the future, you'll attract people to you like magnet.

You've got to love like you'll never get hurt

You are going to have a lot of disappointment in this business. The harder you try, the more disappointment you'll have. But that's no reason not to try. Because if you persevere, you will have success. You simply can't let the disappointment get to you. You can't allow yourself to become discouraged, to feel rejected, to quit. You must get your motivation from within yourself. You must have a vision and a dream that is big enough to stand up to the setbacks that come your way. You must find a reason to do this business, and constantly remind yourself of that reason. If you can do that, you'll make yourself bulletproof to all the setbacks and disappointments.

You've got to dance like nobody's watching

It is silly to be embarrassed about this business. If you're embarrassed to approach you friends, relatives, co-workers and other acquaintances then either you don't comprehend the business or you are in the wrong company. If you truly believe and understand that you've got a product and opportunity that can help people, why would you not want to share that with the people you know? I think a lot of this embarrassment comes from the preconceived notions that people have about network marketing. "It's a pyramid scheme", "You're just selling junk that somebody else sold you", "You're involved in some sort of cult." These kinds of things. The best way to destroy these preconceived notions is: DO YOUR HOMEWORK. I think one reason the stereotypes persist is that people describe their network marketing businesses like this: "I'm in one of those MLM deals." "I'm a MLM distributor." etc. etc. Don't be so lazy. Take the time to figure out a better way to describe what you do, like this "I help people who want to get optimum performance from themselves." And then do it. Dance, dance, dance, and don't worry about being embarrassed. The ultimate embarrassment is never to have tried.

It's got to come from the heart if you want it to work

Precisely.