Last week I posted an article on branding yourself as a network marketing professional. This post is part two of that series, a follow-up for the visual learners out there.

Here are the thoughts from the horse’s mouth on why branding yourself is so important.

And here is the All-Mart video referenced in the video above about how silly most multi-levelers look to the general public… Enjoy!

If you enjoyed this post, do me a solid and share it with with your facebook or twitter friends using the share buttons at the top of the post! (Or just leave me a comment... :) )

To Your Smashing Success,

P.S. If you're sick and tired of investing HUNDREDS of hours online with little to nothing show for it, it's time to take control and change your game plan. Discover my EXACT formula to generating free leads and signing up more reps on autopilot!

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Think your company is going to be the next Amway, AVON, or Mary Kay?

Think again…

You see, things have changed a little. The era of the 50+ year old skin care and soap companies has come and gone if you ask me. I mean, I’m sure these companies and others like them will be around for a long time to come, and if you really know how to market, you can still make a very good living as a distributor for them.

But we no longer live in an age where the majority of people want to exchange an “honest” day of work for a day’s worth of wages. People have been long searching for a way to one-up the competition. A way to make more in less time with less effort.

The companies that have been born to acquiesce to this demand are a sexier, faster growing breed, and an Amway/AVON-esque company fighting to get off and racing today would have a harder time attracting the type of distributors that could build their brand effectively.

If you really get down to the nitty-gritty of it, it’s because we are a lazy, button pushing, money grubbing people. We all want something for nothing. (Or at least as close to nothing as we can get.)

That’s why the sexy new juice, technology, and investment network marketing companies popping up every day are so appealing. They tout a way to “get rich quicker” with their flashy products and amped up comp plans, pulling distributors away from the more stable companies that have been around for ages.

But is it all hype, or can you really make money faster?

Well, there are some trade-offs.

These newer companies do tend to have more explosive growth than the “kingpins” of old. This is partly because most of them focus more on recruiting new reps than actually getting customers that buy their products, which can unfortunately make them appear to be a “scam” when in reality they are not. (Although if the way you make money is by recruiting new people and not by moving product, maybe you should be concerned…)

Recruiting new reps with a business opportunity, especially in today’s market, moves a lot faster than trying to get people sold on a new product that they could really live without, or buy somewhere else at a lower price (even if the quality is not as good).

So can you make money faster?

Yeah. You can.

But here’s the catch.

These sexier companies tend to die off faster than the old reliable ones. So is it worth it to participate as a distributor in a company that may not be around in 30 years for a few extra bucks upfront?

Well, it depends.

It depends on a lot of things, actually. If you’re 75-85 and looking for a few extra bucks to live on for the next few years, then you may not care too much about what happens to the company ten years down the road. But if you are 25 and starting out a family, banking on “your” company paying your residually for the rest of your life, and your kids lives, then you may want to stop and really think about this.

What if it all goes down the tube? What if?

So am I saying that you should drop what you are doing in your sexy new company and go find a place in the dinosaur bones? Am I saying that these new companies are evil scams out to get you?Not really…

Here IS what I’m saying.

You should absolutely take advantage of the opportunities in front of you. You’d be an idiot not to. But you really should think about a few years down the road. Do you have any “insurance” on your company?

What if it all goes down the tube… would you be able to, or even want to rebuild it?

What if I said it could be easily done?

Here’s the thing, most network marketers focus on the wrong activities, even though they are doing exactly what their uplines have taught them. They focus on building their business, instead of building themselves. There is a HUGE difference between the two – one that drives an enormous wedge in the income distribution of the self employed.

And to be honest, I don’t really see a problem with that. There will always be people all throughout the spectrum of education and income ranges. There will always be someone in the stage where flipping burgers is a good job. (Not that there is anything wrong with that.) There will always be people that are complacent working 9-5 for an honorable wage and some good benefits. There will also always be people that are willing to go the extra mile, put extra work, time, and money into themselves, that are not content working for anybody but themselves. (And who’s to say that one stage is better than the other? It’s all a matter of perspective…)

There are even people at different stages within the stages… especially in the self employed. There are those that make a little money, those that make boatloads, and those that make none at all.

So what makes the difference?

You do.

That’s right, YOU do. Whatever you have done to make yourself more valuable to the marketplace will determine your income and your place in life. Now there are variations on what is meant by “value”, but I’m not going to get into that.

And where I have been leading you since you started reading this post, is that it matters less than you think on what company your are a part of and how long it is going to be around than it does on what you have done to build your own personal brand.

It can seem like a big hairy job, but as you may have heard before, “By the inch, success is a cinch. By the yard, it’s hard.” Start TODAY to educate yourself on how to become whatever it is you want to become.

I love the way that Jim Rohn always put it… “We’ve all heard the expression, ‘An apple a day keeps the doctor away.’ Well, I’ve got a good question for you: What if it’s true? Wouldn’t that be easy to do—to eat an apple a day? Here’s the problem: It’s also easy not to do.”

So don’t let the easiness of the small steps deter you from taking them. Start today and pretty soon you will have taken a lot of small steps, and will have moved more than if you took one giant one! You are capable of anything. It’s only a matter of time before you achieve it if you just get started.

If you enjoyed this post, do me a solid and share it with with your facebook or twitter friends using the share buttons at the top of the post! (Or just leave me a comment... :) )

To Your Smashing Success,

P.S. If you're sick and tired of investing HUNDREDS of hours online with little to nothing show for it, it's time to take control and change your game plan. Discover my EXACT formula to generating free leads and signing up more reps on autopilot!

Go here NOW! ==> Give Me The Formula!

The other day I had a good friend of mine introduce me to a new company that he had gotten involved with. I figured that it was a network marketing deal, but went along because he was such a good guy. Since that night, I have had a lot of mixed emotions about what I learned as I sat there listening to the presentation.

WakeUpNow Inc. is a brand spanking new company based out of Provo, Utah – the network marketing capital of the world. To be completely honest, I’m not even sure how long they have actually been in business, but it seems like they have just come out of their pre-marketing phase. This means two things – one, that this is a VERY ground floor opportunity. My guess would be that there are not more than a few thousand distributors – if that.

However, the other thing that it could mean is what all companies risk in their first two years, which is potential failure as a start-up company.

One thing that WakeUpNow definitely has in its favor is the purpose behind the company. Their mission includes both helping people in America and across the world to get out of debt as quickly as possible so that they can have their lives back, and to help children in need across the world through the UnityOne Foundation, a charitable organization that owns forty-nine percent of WakeUpNow, Inc.

As it was presented to me the other night, all the company’s profits each year will be donated to UnityOne. This definitely appears to be a noble cause to get involved with at first glance.

WakeUpNow’s main product is a web based program called CurrentSee that helps people to reduce the amount of time required to become debt free – which in and of itself is a brilliant idea in my mind. Together with this software, there have been created a series of applications designed to work on select smartphones that allow you to log your receipts on-site with a date, time, and gps location stamped “digital receipt”. These import automatically into your online debt management software to help you track your expenses and separate which ones are deductible from those that aren’t quickly and efficiently as you go instead of sorting through shoeboxes full of receipts at the end of the year. This service alone could save millions of people the headache and stress they are weirdly bombarded with around the beginning of April each year.

Their compensation plan is a hybrid binary plan based on the binary structure paying a ten percent commission of whatever the volume is on the lesser of the two legs, with the ability to earn additional income once the rank of executive has been reached from a separate bonus pool. Some things that they will openly state in their opportunity meetings are that each distributor spot is capped at $10,000 per month – a policy they say is in place to teach a principle called “rich enough”. However, they do allow each household to have up to 3 distributorships – making the real cap at $30,000.  (I guess “rich enough” really isn’t rich enough.)

Getting started with WakeUpNow is fairly inexpensive – a mere $250 for the debt management software upfront, followed by $50 each month to maintain it. It’s a pretty cut and dry program – no product that you will accumulate in your garage if you fail to really get out there and work the business.

As you look at this business opportunity from a distance, you should be very impressed. They have a great solution to a huge economic problem, a good compensation plan that you can make some decent money with, and a great mission to help drive their cause (erasing people’s debt and the UnityOne Foundation). Along with all those great things, their company leadership boasts some impressive experience.

Even with their impressive presentation and business plan, for some reason I had a feeling that I needed to look more in depth into WakeUpNow… something that I couldn’t pinpoint just didn’t sit right with me. The things that I found are things you may want to consider and weigh in your mind before making a decision to join WakeUpNow.

I started searching online for every bit of information I could on the company, its products, the corporate leaders, the charity they are involved with and whatever else I could find – and much to their credit I did not find one bad thing about them. However, it may have been because I could barely find information on anything associated with them at all besides their own website and a blog of one of their distributors named Jake Green.

Now if I were reading this I would be thinking, “Duh Jeff… they are a new company! How do you expect them to be all over the web already?”

But I was looking for some other kinds of information… bits and pieces of information about the accomplishments of corporate leaders or their associated charity that would certainly be able to be found online.

Information about claims of success made by their corporate leaders in the field of network marketing would have to be searchable online, right?

Here is what is on their website about the corporate leadership:

Richard Smith: Founder, Unity One
Richard Smith comes to us with over 22 years of high level ownership success and visionary management within the NM arena, having founded and run companies with annual revenues over $100M and distributor forces topping 400,000 representatives and true to his values and philosophy, 63% of those 400,000 representatives made more money than they spent. He knows what he’s doing. Richard’s commitment to each of the Wake Up Now partners is that NO ONE WILL SPEND MORE THAN THEY MAKE WITH WAKE UP NOW.

Matt Peterson: CEO
Matt Peterson has spent the past 18 years on all sides of Network Marketing, from building large organizations as a distributor, industry consultant to Executive Management. Matt has directed astonishing growth in start up companies through the execution of highly effective marketing, leadership and strategic initiatives that bring above average bottom line dollars to the distributors and companies that he leads.

Ron Lowry: President
For over 25 years, Ron’s stellar performance in Corporate America has been highlighted by his service mindset and humility, serving as the Chairman and on the Board of Directors, even receiving the prestigious President’s Service Award within a large and influential civic organization. Ron believes that Wake Up Now will change the economic landscape in the United States through the application of value-based leadership, the destruction of debt and the endowment of principle based financial education.

With achievements like those highlighted above, my reasoning tells me that I would be able to find something confirming at least one of the successes claimed online. This doesn’t necessarily mean that the information is not out there, but it did pop up a little red flag in my head.

Beside the fact that I was unable to find anything, the descriptions of the leaders on the website seem a little too vague to me, but then again it is a good idea to not give out too much information about yourself to help protect your identity, right?

The search results came up empty not only for the leadership of WakeUpNow, but I could also not find so much as a functional website for their 49% owner/charity, the UnityOne Foundation or its members/founder. The one page that I did find that looked like it belonged to them had literally nothing on it and looked like it had been thrown together in a rush in 2010. (It is February 25th, 2010 at the time of this writing.) There may very well be a reasonable explanation for this, but whatever it is there is another little red flag in my head.

The last little red flag that popped up was the product.  I have a hard time wrapping my head around any network marketing company that has a technology based product.  Technology just changes so quickly that by the time you have learned the system, things have already changed.  To use CurrentSee, WakeUpNow’s flagship product,  you would have to pay the initial $250 and then the monthly $50.  Now, there are a few other things that you will get with that, including some good education, and I might add that your education is one area that you should never skimp.  However, there are a lot of places that you can get debt reduction software for a lot less.  For example, at www.zilchworks.com or www.simplejoe.com you can get a similar piece of software for a one time fee of $30-40.

You see, network marketing companies need a consumable product that they can count on you to buy each and every month. That is just the nature of the industry. So in order for WakeUpNow to stay in business, they have to figure out a way to charge you for something every month.

CurrentSee is undoubtedly a valuable piece of software, but I don’t think it is an ideal product for a network marketing company simply because it really shouldn’t require any monthly fees to work.  I hate to say it, but what you are really paying for each month is not the product.

I am not saying that WakeUpNow, Inc. is a network marketing scam. I just felt it necessary to share with you the information that I had about the company so that you can make your own educated decision. If you decide to join WakeUpNow as a distributor, I wish you the best of luck, and if you are serious about being one of WakeUpNow’s top producing distributors, I highly suggest that you learn the

WakeUpNow Success Secrets

that will transform your business from a nightmare to a fairytale. I believe in the network marketing industry and know that you can achieve whatever dreams you have if you will only make a specific plan about how to achieve them and stick to it.  Whether it is with WakeUpNow or with me on my team, I encourage all entrepreneurs to do whatever it takes to shatter the shackles of debt and become free!

If you enjoyed this post, do me a solid and share it with with your facebook or twitter friends using the share buttons at the top of the post! (Or just leave me a comment... :) )

To Your Smashing Success,

P.S. If you're sick and tired of investing HUNDREDS of hours online with little to nothing show for it, it's time to take control and change your game plan. Discover my EXACT formula to generating free leads and signing up more reps on autopilot!

Go here NOW! ==> Give Me The Formula!

As I drive down Interstate 15 through Salt Lake and Utah counties, I have to take my shoes off to count all of the different network marketing juice companies that litter the sides of the freeway.  This is a big reason I had the reaction I did when my former employer started to tell me about the next big thing he just got into… I laughed in his face and walked out of his office!

I had all but hung up my network marketing boots.  I had tried it for a few years and come to the all too common conclusion that I was not cut out to be a network marketer.  I sincerely loved the products of all the network marketing companies that I had been a part of (and still do for the record).  Furthermore, I really did dream of the passive income that was advertised at every home party and hotel meeting I ever attended.  I envied the Craig Tillotsens, Brig Harts, and Nathan Ricks of the world.  After all, they had it all.

I watched people in the same “opportunities” that I was in wondering how they managed to be so successful while I was spinning my “little plastic wheels”.  (I didn’t realize at that point how detrimental I was being to my own success by trying to compare myself to somebody else.)  “How on earth is this doofus so successful?  If he is doing so well I should be rich by now,” were thoughts that reverberated in the cavity between my ears on an almost daily basis.

I finally threw in the towel – I was tired of pretending things were going to change.  I blamed the company and the comp plan – it was just too hard and wasn’t “ground floor” enough for me to be able to capitalize from it.

Lucky for me, my boss had passed my phone number on to the individual responsible for suckering him in – Byron Belka.

Byron has a long history of business successes.  He started out in the mortgage industry, but was soon swayed to the world of network marketing by a “friend”.  He was lucky enough to have a mentor that wouldn’t let him quit before he got going.  Because of this, he proceeded to become a top earner in quite possibly one of the most saturated market spaces possible.  He was in the corporate office’s 20 year old shadow! But that didn’t stop him and nothing has since.  He went on to build an oversea empire with that company, which happened to be one of the same ones I had fallen so flat on my face with.

The thing that got me to sit down and shut up was the fact that Byron left his hard earned monthly check to start at zero with this new company called eXfuze.  He wasn’t the only one either!  Other global leaders like Randy Heaton, Steve and Melyn Campbell, Eddie Freeman, and Keith Halls all left massive checks to come start at zero, some of them even paying their way out of non-compete contracts to be a part of it.

Something HAD to be going on…

They had my attention, but I still couldn’t get over the fact that it was just another juice!  All that was ever preached in the 20 year old giant that I had but briefly been a part of was that all the juice companies were just a “flash in the pan” – that they would not be around for long and would never amount to anything great.

You can probably imagine how confused I was…

I decided to listen to what they had to say, and I was surprised to learn about all the good things that eXfuze had going for it.  Besides being a fairly new company with the outstanding, proven distributor leadership (which, by the way, is an absolutely essential part to the success of a network marketing company), the company had some major financial backers.  Together with Gary Gagliotti, the primary investor in the company, dozens of professional athletes put their money into the financial backing of eXfuze.  This told me two things:

1. The company was extremely well funded. – (We all dreamed of becoming a professional athlete at some point in our life.  After all, who wouldn’t want to get paid the big bucks to play their favorite game?)
2. The product must be amazing – professional athletes are well known for not putting their name on anything unless they are being paid for it.  They are also extremely picky about what goes into their bodies.  They can’t afford to put junk into their tanks.

eXfuze’s product is called Seven+, and is a combination of the extracts of seven of the top “super-foods” on the market.  I was very surprised to find out that it even tasted good!  I had tasted some of the ingredients that were in there and I don’t care HOW good they are for you, if it tastes bad I won’t drink it.

The next thing I wanted to hear about was the comp plan.  Having the “right” compensation plan had always been drilled into my head by my up-line.  What I didn’t understand then is that a lot of that is just hype from your up-line leader trying to keep you from switching to another company with a “better” comp plan.  The truth is, as long as it is a fair compensation plan, whether it’s a binary, uni-level, or matrix of some kind, people make money with them and you can too.

In all reality, you don’t even have to understand the comp plan to get paid.  Many new distributors worry needlessly about whether or not they will be able to answer all the ins and outs of their prospects’ questions about the compensation plan.

Save yourself a lot of headache… you will learn the details as you go!  As long as long as it is an equitable compensation plan (preferably one that has a track record with other companies) you should be golden.

In eXfuze’s case, the compensation plan is a hybrid binary copycat from an extremely successful precursor.  A few small adjustments were made to keep the integrity of certain parts of the comp plan, but all you need to know is that it is fair and it works.

With checkmarks on the company, the timing, the product, and the distributor leadership, there was really only one thing left to investigate – the corporate leadership.

Since I live in the “Mecca” of the network marketing industry, I hear a lot about the different companies that come and go.  One of the biggest problems that I have come across is that the companies are mismanaged by the corporate leaders.

So even with everything as picture perfect as it appeared to me at the time, if the corporate staff was sub-par, I would definitely have retained my decision to stay out of network marketing.

However, I was once again pleasantly surprised.

The corporate team is comprised of four men – Rick Cotton, Don Cotton, Peter Hammer, and Paul Morris – with over 80 years of experience both in and outside of the network marketing industry.

The vision that is driving eXfuze gives tangible hopes of its prolonged existence, as it was created to fund Rick and his wife Ann’s missionary efforts in third world countries.

A portion of all gross sales goes to VivaKids, Rick and Ann’s philanthropic organization that is helping feed, clothe, and educate children in the

Dominican Republic.  I have been fortunate enough to travel there with Rick, Don, Gary, and Ann and see the good things they are doing.  Seeing the children there interacting with Rick is a testament to me that he will do everything in his power to keep eXfuze where it needs to be.

eXfuze appears to be a sound business opportunity – so sound in fact, that I put my money where my mouth is and joined.

However, here is a word of caution:

Just because a network marketing company looks perfect on paper, it doesn’t mean that there won’t be casualties along the way.  You can significantly reduce the risk of becoming one of them by working with the people who know what they are doing, and learning the secrets to being successful in ANY network marketing company.

Whether you are thinking about joining eXfuze, or are already a part of it and just not seeing the results you wish you were seeing, here are the

eXfuze Success Secrets

that you need to make your own luck and create the income you have always dreamed of.

If you enjoyed this post, do me a solid and share it with with your facebook or twitter friends using the share buttons at the top of the post! (Or just leave me a comment... :) )

To Your Smashing Success,

P.S. If you're sick and tired of investing HUNDREDS of hours online with little to nothing show for it, it's time to take control and change your game plan. Discover my EXACT formula to generating free leads and signing up more reps on autopilot!

Go here NOW! ==> Give Me The Formula!