Leave Nothing To Chance

 

Family relationships can be challenging for some. Add business to that mix, and you can just imagine crazy dynamics involved. Yet, there are those who somehow make it work and thrive while at it. Sharing some of their secrets to growing a successful family business, John Solleder invites mom and son super team, Mariluz Sanchez and Gian-Carlo Torres  of Immunotec. Here, they talk about the things they learn from each other and how they are keeping their roles in the family and balancing it with their business. As part of the book, Leave Nothing to Chance, Mariluz and Gian then tell us some of their favorite principles that have helped them in their personal and professional journeys. They also share a couple of tips from the books that changed their lives — from marketing and finances to mindset and self-development.

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Listen to the podcast here

 

Mom And Son Super Team With Mariluz Sanchez And Gian-Carlo Torres

The reason for this show is simple. We are introducing people to great leaders in a network marketing industry, mostly distributors, some will be corporate people, some will be influencers within our industry, but mostly, people who are in the trenches every single day, building sales organizations to take care of themselves and their families. Along the way, I’ve met some great people. We had our first show with Foster Owusu up in Toronto, Canada. Now you’re going to meet a remarkable mother and son team. They happen to live in Atlanta, Georgia, and they are successful with the company that they’re with. They have separate distributorships, but they work together. I’m sure they’re going to share a little bit of that. Let me welcome Mariluz Sanchez and Gian-Carlo Torres. Welcome to the show.

Thank you, John. It’s our pleasure.

Thank you for the invite.

Thank you for being here. It’s been such a pleasure to experience what you’re doing as a family. It’s nice to see families involved in a business together, getting along, working together. Maybe that’s my first question to you before we get started. When do you take the mom hat off and put the upline hat on, and when do you put the mom hat back on? Why don’t you talk about that a little bit?

I feel blessed. I’ve been a homeschooling mom since forever. Along the way, I have great kids. I feel blessed that God gave me wonderful kids. I’ve always had a good relationship with them. Starting this business together has brought a relationship to a whole other level. I’ve discovered many things from him that I did not know he had, especially many talents that I didn’t know he had. They were hidden. They blossomed in the business. We had much love and respect before, but now we respect each other so much more. I don’t see him as my baby where I have to scold him more or let him know what to do, but it’s a good relationship, sometimes we might not agree, but it doesn’t matter.

It’s part of our growth, part of our molding, adjusting and making things work. I always tell everybody, “I’ve been in other network marketing companies before, but this is the first time that I seriously believe that we’ve been successful.” I know that I wouldn’t have been able to be where I’m at if it were not for him. He has mentioned that before that he would not have been where he’s at without my wisdom, because I’ve been in the industry before. It’s been wonderful. Overall, our relationship has strengthened, but our respect for each other as well.

It’s nice to hear and it’s such an incredible thing to watch you two work together and the dynamic and how you support each other, love each other, and also, you’re building a huge business on top of it, which is all the better. What a nice feather in the cap. When things hopefully calm down, you’ll be able to travel again together as well. How nice is that, some of the beautiful vacations you get to go on in an industry like this? Gian, how is it working with mom?  

We’ve gone through stages. There were stages that I didn’t know about the industry, she knew about the industry, that was a little confusing to learn from mom and about the business. In the beginning, I thought some of her advice was a little older. It’s different now, but then I had to learn how to be humble and listen to that, “It’s working for you, it’s not working for me.” She’s doing something better because she’s having more results. Let me stop and learn from her. That’s by me doing the business, that’s also helped me in other areas of my life. Stop and listen, you don’t know everything. If she’s having more results than me, she’s doing something better than me.

Something about the business that she does a lot better than me is that she does know how to nurture her team. She does know how to nurture, motivate, lift them up. Those were things that I thought I was good, and then eventually, I started killing it. I said, “No, she’s better. Let me stop and learn from her.” I noticed by getting a little bit of this helped me become a better leader and vice versa. We had a long day, ten hours of work maybe or who knows more, we were done, but we were happy. I would love to tell you that I was done working. We were pumped up. We did those ten hours of work happier than ever, and now we’re going to have another long day, just like the Bible says that two is better than one. Truly, if I fall down, she puts me up. If she falls down, I put her up. That’s what we’re like every single day.

If you wake up excited for the day, the day truly does become meaningful. Click To Tweet

At the end of the day, it’s funny because we’re doing these Zooms together and then I’m giving my part and all of a sudden, he adds up what was missing. It’s like, “That’s right.” He’s doing his part. I put something in that we were missing, and at the end of the day, we do a fist bump. We were like, “We killed it. We’re such a dynamic duo. Together we’re so much powerful.” I didn’t have to tell him, he reads my mind, and he jumps in and vice versa. We’ve created this dynamic that we enjoy.

You can see it whenever I talk to you and we do stuff together because we’re in the same company, you are such a joie de vivre, as my French-Canadian wife would say. It’s a breath of fresh air to watch the life force between the two of you. It’s great. It’s something that all parents, if they added up the opportunity to do work with their kids, should do. Let’s talk a little bit about Leave Nothing to Chance. You were both featured in that book. There are fifteen principles in that book. Let’s do ladies first if we can. Mariluz, what was your favorite principle in the book?  

I would say, because of my circumstances, because my job as a mom has always been first because I still have a younger one, is to commit, but with the commitment to create a balance. I originally started working this industry because I needed more time with my family. In this business, if you’re not careful, if you do not know how to create that balance, family doesn’t come first. You can quietly obsess about reaching your goals. There’s nothing wrong with that, because there are so many things we can achieve in this industry, then it forgets what’s important. I did not want that to happen. I wanted to keep my priorities in order, which is God first, family second, and then third would be my career and my job. We need a commitment and a goal, but it was creating balance while I committed to something that I wanted to do with that I knew would help my family in this process.

You’re a person that’s almost had their priorities in order, and you’ve raised a remarkable family as a result, and you’ve built a great business. Congratulations again. Gian-Carlo, what about yourself?  

It’s principle one, which is wake up excited for the day. When I first read this, I said, “I had read this in another book.” Here, it was different because there were stories. There was your story. There was Foster’s story. I related to this because if you wake up excited for the day, the day truly does become meaningful. Work has to be meaningful. If you’re excited, you put that excitement in your work and in your Zoom, and everything becomes more meaningful. When you work with meaning, you enjoy working, you don’t want to stop. That’s why it’s important to wake up excited. It’s my favorite principle. My second principle is to commit or risk giving up too soon because a lot of people have troubles to commit. They’re at one company and then two seconds later, they’re in another company, another place. Before you know it, they’re in ten companies or ten projects. That’s not committing.

I remember that once we started, I told mom, I told the family, “I’m sticking to my company. If everything goes okay, I’m going to stay here for years. I’m going to commit until I get to the top rank and I’m still going to help more people.” That attitude has truly helped me. By rereading that, it’s like, “Commit. Keep committing. Don’t give up, stay in that place. One project, one mission, one product and stay there.” Principle one and principle five, which is commit, has shaped me as a person and as an entrepreneur.

One thing I want to note for the readers is tell them how old you were when you started.  

I started at nineteen years old. I get no special education, no degree. I was always a super hard worker at everything I did, but I had not found my career. I want to find a career where not only was I learning, but I was also getting paid while learning. I saw that was network marketing. I remember that once I understood what network marketing was, I said, “This was made for me, this was made for Gian-Carlo.” I probably have $50 in my name on nineteen. I was super broke, but I had a big desire. I’ve said this story a million times and it’s true. I go back. Do I have any special talent? No, but did I have the desire? Probably it bigger than anybody at that age. Nineteen, and now I’m here.

I’ve watched you the last number of years since we’ve known each other. The first time we ever met, we were in Houston, it may have been somewhere else, it may have been in Mexico. I don’t remember. That was a few years ago, but I remember talking to one of my colleagues at the table and I said, “That young kid’s got burning desire. I can see it in his eyes.” I could see it the way that you talked and the way that you approached people. Here you are. You’re doing great. You’re doing wonderful things. You’re inspirational to a lot of young people who are looking for that career path. What am I going to do? Maybe they’ve got a lot of skills, but they don’t know how to apply them, and they need that vehicle, network marketing, multilevel marketing, whatever we want to call it, it’s all the same stuff.

I know I kid you about being a young legend, but you’re a young legend in the making. You are doing some remarkable things, but you’re going to continue to. Let’s talk about the next thing. We all start somewhere in a business like this. A lot of the time, maybe we started the business first and then we get information or maybe we get the information first. What I’m talking about is a book perhaps that inspired you, maybe the first book that you read, or maybe the first book that you read that got you where you said, “I can do something remarkable with my life.” Mariluz, what was that first book for you?  

I have to be honest. I would love to tell you that I am an avid reader, but I’m not. I do have certain books that caught my attention. I am not a bookworm like Gian-Carlo, which if you would look at his room, they’re all full of books, and I admire that very much. I like to be practical. I like to focus not on many books and see what I like about them. I’m practical on things that I want to focus and want to learn and obsess in it. I found many great ideas and great training with John Maxwell. This book is in Spanish. I don’t know the title in English.

The 15 Invaluable Laws of Growth. You have this book.

Why do I like John? I feel John is balanced in the way he helps us grow. Something that I like a lot about John Maxwell is that one thing that he teaches is in loving and taking care of your people. Nurturing, taking care, be interested in their own interests. That is very much the way I’ve built my company. I love it, especially at the beginning of this book, you hear a lot of people say, “Are you ambitious?” “Yes.” “Do you work hard?” “Yes.” That’s not enough. In this process, we see people that are ambitious, hungry and want to grow. There are many things and goals that they want to achieve, but we all need self-development.

In this process, nobody’s perfect. In this industry, in this process, you start getting to know yourself a little bit better. If you’re humble enough, books like these and a few more that starts showing you, it’s like a good mirror that starts showing you, “You should do better this way. You should do better this other way.” I love John Maxwell because of that. There’s another book that Gian-Carlo shared with me that I love it, which is The Power of Five, also by John Maxwell. What I love about John as well is that his stories and his chapters are small and short, but they’re precise. For example, one that I love is motivation. I have to be motivated. Gian-Carlo knows that every time I’m down, all I need is a little bit of motivation.

She’s on fire.

Just a little bit of motivation and I’m on fire. Maybe somebody who has this powerful energy. I’m a woman, John, there’s drama. All I need is sometimes to speak up and then I get motivation. “Mom, let’s do this and that.” He helps me organize my ideas. I’ve noticed that has been my great strategy to help my team. Not only do I need to educate them, I have to make sure that they’re educated, and they know what to do, they have the tools, but they also need that motivation. They usually need to know that somebody has gone through that. It’s okay to whine. It’s okay to do drama for a little bit, but after a while it’s done, we move on, there’s still a North. I’ve found wonderful things with John Maxwell. He’s my top author on books.

If you want to have a good business, you have to have the right mindset. Click To Tweet

Gian-Carlo, the first book that got you was what?

When I signed up as a distributor, the instruction manual, and I remember in the instruction manual of our company, it recommends 4 or 5 books. One of them was Moving Up. One of them was the Secrets of the Millionaire Mind by Harv Eker. I remember I bought a couple. Secrets of the Millionaire Mind was my first one. I realized that it was about mindset. If you want to have your finances right, if you want to have a good business, you have to have the right mindset. That was my first book on mindset. I never realized how important mindset was and how important certain habits. High performers have other habits that low performers don’t have.

That was my first exposure to personal development. It’s an awesome book. Books that have shaped my life that I’ve read ten times, The Power of Five is one of them. It’s an awesome book. It’s simple. It’s about our industry, network marketing. I was excited when Moving Up 2021 came out because my story was there. I remember I was the happiest kid of that year. I remember, if you see my book, I had it right here. This book looks like it’s twenty years old because there are many notes. I’ve read this book 10, 15, 20 times. It got me excited. I started as this nineteen-year-old and now my story is here.

The good thing about this book, the first one and the second one, is that sometimes you think you’re that one last Coca-Cola of the desert and nobody else is like you. To learn how most of these successful people, they started at zero, they’ve gone through some tribulation on their way. Things have not always been easy. All kinds of people, moms like me, men of all different ages, many people who never went to college, it’s the fact that you can relate. John, you’re a man, you’ve done different things, you’re a great athlete, I probably didn’t relate to that, but there’s something about the process of growing your business that I can relate about.

I can look back and say, “This is the way John did this. Maybe I should do it this way.” Maybe one of these stories is relatable to one of our teammates who says, “I remember this story. I want to share this with you. What are you going to do? This is what he did with this situation. What are you going to do with this situation?” We need those principles and laws, but we learned so much from other people. Part of my growth has been learning from my teammates, learning from people like you that work in the same industry. Every time we go to the conventions, what do we do? We look up to people and say, “I remember when I used to be there.” Look at all the things that he has accomplished, all the hurdles he has been able to succeed. We learned so much from other people.

One more thing about Moving Up 2020, it doesn’t only teach you skills on how to be a network marketer, it teaches you how to think like a business owner. Sometimes you come into network marketing, you think you’re going to earn $50,000 a month and pay zero taxes. In this book, it’s like, “No, you have to have your finances right. Think like a business owner. Not only think about prospect, but you also think about marketing.” Those are things that I haven’t gotten from a lot of network marketing books, but here it’s like, “You’re a network marketer, true. There are network marketer principles. Do you have to think like a business owner?” That state of my mind. John, there truly are many books that have helped us, but Moving Up 2020 is awesome, The Power of Five is great, The Millionaire Training by Larry Thompson. There are truly many books that have shaped my life.

You build this up because sometimes we think we’re no big deal and all of a sudden, somebody admires us and puts in that book. I’m like, “Maybe we’re a little bit of a big deal.” We’re happy that our story can inspire somebody else and that they can relate to this and they can be successful because of our story. We thank you for that.

It’s more than well-deserved. One thing you’ll find in anybody I write about is I make sure that they’re doing the business, because there are a lot of frauds in network marketing. A lot of people write books and never built a business for that matter. You’re a writer. If you’re reporting on the industry is one thing, but I wanted to write a couple of books as somebody who’s done it, and also about people who I know are doing it or have done it at one point or another in a big way, in a good way, and in a way with integrity, in an honest way, which is what it’s all about. You made a great point.

I want to reference for our readers, Mariluz. The great CS Lewis, the great theologian writer always said that we read to know that we’re not alone. You illustrated that point so well that there are other moms, dads, young people, guys who were athletes that were going like, “What do I do now? I’ve been an athlete. That won’t make me a dime unless you’re a professional at it.” They get into network marketing. There are older people, young people, different ethnicities, different religions, different everything. It’s a big tent. Before we go to the next subject, is there any additional book you want to mention that has inspired you? Mariluz, we’ll start with you.

I’m sorry if I sound cliche but believe it or not, my main book on a daily basis is the Bible. Gian-Carlo and me, we were talking about that. I love self-help books. I’ve read them before and they’re wonderful. Sometimes, reading them, they all go to the basics. It’s in the Bible. Not because I’m a saint or I’m better than anybody, but I always find a lot of great treasures in it. A lot of great examples of how many servants of God in the past dealt with issues, with people and conflict and in many other levels. That’s my main book. I’m not an avid reader besides that. I would have to say all Maxwell books and your Moving Up 2020 book. Let’s put it this way. Because I was in that book, I was excited about reading the book. It was the fact that I was able to open it. It was awesome to open it and see. There was so much more, there was many treasures that I was able to find. I’m functional.

The Bible is our book. Since I know that this is a generic network marketing episode, if I have to talk about truly business, The Millionaire Training by Larry Thompson, which you’re there, John, somewhere.

I am, at the bottom, right in the middle.  

He is the person to ask about all the awesome books.

I’ve read it 10, 20 times. I’m a big believer. Don’t read one book 1,000 times. That’s my philosophy every single day. The Millionaire Training breaks out the concepts. You know Larry Thompson better than me. You know how good he is when it comes to concepts. The Millionaire Training would be the book. For the readers, get that book.

John, anybody who has not done this before, what will be the first book that you’ll tell them to get? Would it be that one?

The first book is As a Man Thinketh by James Allen. It’s a short read. You can read it in 45 minutes to an hour, depending on how fast you read. Amongst other things, what it addresses is that you attract what you are, not what you want to be. If you want to attract good people, be a good person. If you want to attract people with integrity, have integrity. As you get into about everything else that we teach in network marketing, that book would have been one of the staples that most of us read. I read it early on. I wasn’t even in network marketing. I had spinal cord surgery when I was seventeen. I read a book by Dr. Norman Vincent Peale, The Power of Positive Thinking. The second book I read was As a Man Thinketh. My late father gave me both books. They had been books that had inspired him. That’s where I started.

You attract what you are, not what you want to be. Click To Tweet

As I got into network marketing a couple of short years later, that’s what the foundation became of when I started to hear things, whether it was Larry saying it, who was my first mentor and still a good friend several years later, whether it was the late great Mark Hughes, whether it was Jim Rohn. I knew Jim a little bit, I knew Mark as well, whether it was any of those gentlemen, whether it was Bobby Depew. When I met Bobby, he was one of the guys that got the industry started way back in the ‘60s. Everything that they talked about went back to that. James Allen, son of a Presbyterian minister, everything in that book comes from the Bible, the ultimate self-development book. If you only read the Bible, you’d be fine in this industry. As Mr. Rohn used to say, “There are a lot of examples of what to do and what not to do in that book.” Let’s move on, on this. What are you reading right now? If I came to your house right now, what am I going to find on your coffee table? John Maxwell still?

I was talking to Gian-Carlo, he said that he’s been focusing on certain books, but he reads them over and over again. He says, “I almost become obsessed with the idea because I won’t be able to be a mentor or a teacher unless I know what I’m teaching and I’m applying what I’m learning.” You can become a bookworm. You can have that one book that gives you the basic principles of what to do, and you become obsessed. It’s reading over and over again. For example, reviewing my flaws, “I noticed that this is a flaw that I have, let me go back and read and see how I can fix it, but let me start applying the things that I learned so I can become better at it.” You almost became obsessed with that one chapter, for example. “Today I’m going to start applying what I learned.” In whatever measure you start applying what you learn. From December of 2019 until December 2020, our numbers went up 4X, quadruple. The thing about this is that we took advantage of 2020 and the circumstances of 2020 to fix things that we were not doing right. We had to acknowledge, “I want this to work this way, but I won’t be able to go anywhere if I don’t do this.”

In my case, I am a mom and a nurturer. Moms are doing always stuff for others, and you let them grow. That was one thing that I noticed. I said, “No, being a good mom is to help a little bird fly. That bird might fall a few times, but you always guide them up until they are able to go free and fly and do their own thing.” Sometimes you might go crazy, and if you’re that person, wonderful, because I know many people who love books and they’re able to engrave it in their brain and do it. In my case, I like to obsess, become a master at something. For example, this has worked well for me that I wanted my team to do the same. Take them step-by-step because not everybody goes to the same speed either. Understand as well the circumstances, women move that one way and men do it in another way. It’s a good thing that I have my sidekick to be a man who can understand things in another perspective that allows us to have a balance to help everybody in the team grow. That’s my philosophy. Not many books, but that one book.

Talking about books again, if you see my room, it’s a mess on many books that I’m reading. When it came to finance, I started reading Moving Up. Especially now with 2021, the stock market and everything else, I’ve been learning more on finances. I went back on your principle on compound interest and you have to value your money. That’s why your book, I’m reading it again. One book I’m reading is by Courtney Epps, it’s More Relaxing, Less Taxing. I realized that I’m not an expert in taxes. I’m not a CPA and I’m not planning to be a CPA, but I realized I should be smarter on what I can write off and what I can’t write off. This book is for home-based businesses for network marketing. I bought this, I had the chance to read it, and now I’m reading it because we want to be a business owner. We want to know everything, which is skills, finance, mindset and taxes. Right now, this is my priority because I realize I’m not fantastic at this topic.

This 2021 we had great training with Randy Gage. I didn’t even know who he was, but we got great tips from him. He mentioned his book, Direct Selling Success: From Amway to Zombies. We got great perspectives on this, on how we want to build in the near future. It’s something a little bit different because that’s something else. When you see somebody in an industry that has been there for long and they continue growing their income and building, that’s a good book to think about. That will guide you a little bit more, a little further on your business.

You’re both illustrating a great point, and that’s why I’m starting this show. It’s to get people to realize that all leaders are readers. It doesn’t mean that you have your face in a book 24 hours a day, you’ve got to work, you’ve got to apply this stuff, but at the end of the day, it’s those ideas. To your point, Gian, that you’re making about going back continuously. Mariluz, you’re making the same one with the Maxwell book, for example, and I do the same thing. I can’t read something once. I’m not that smart. I’ve got to read it over and over, and all of a sudden, I go, “When he said this, at that time, I didn’t get it.” All of a sudden, I read it again, I go, “I know exactly what it means now.”

One illustration of that is a little book that Jim Rohn wrote many years ago, based on the book of Ecclesiastes, it’s called the Seasons of Life. When I was your age, Gian, that book made no sense. I read it about maybe 25, 26 years. I hadn’t lived yet. I’m still figuring out life. You read it, you get into life and not just business, and you start going, “I get the metaphor of going from wintertime when things are dark to springtime when things get better. If you hang in there, springtime always follows winter because that’s the way the guy upstairs planned it.”  

Things like that. Back to CS Lewis again, “I’m not alone. Somebody wrote a book on this and I’m feeling this right now.” Let’s digress a little bit into network marketing. You’ve both been successful, and I know the company you’re with, I’m greatly familiar with. The prior company that you were with, Mariluz, I’m also aware of. Let’s start with you. I’m a new distributor. Whether you want to talk about the first 48 hours, whether you want to talk about the first 30 days or anything in between, give me your best advice. I have a lot of new people getting into the industry right now. They’re going to read this and they’re saying whether they join this company or that company, it’s all the same, “How do I get started fast? How do I get this thing moving?”

You have to have a specific goal. The first thing we ask them is, “What do you want? What do you want to get out of this? What is your why?” For a long time, I thought asking people the why was ridiculous. I thought it was cheesy, but no. It was my strong why that has me where I’m at right now. Asking always that question, and when I say asking, this is not just saying, “What is your why?” No. Sometimes it’s pressing those buttons to know what is your why. I always try to put myself in their position. I’m going to tell you what my why is so they can understand what a why is. Sometimes, people don’t even know what a why is. Some people are living life without knowing that there is a why, that they can have a why. They have no mission. Sometimes you have to ask key questions for them to understand what their mission is.

Once we figure it out what their mission is, then believe it or not, we help them organize their ideas of how they can accomplish the mission because there’s not a one size fits all. I’ve had people in my team that have signed up because they want to win a free trip and they want to give it to their wife. Once I know what their why is, Gian-Carlo and I, we make a plan for them. The first plan is education. You have to know how the company works. You have to understand our product. You have to be part of our family. This is a team. This is not about you. If this sounds terrible, that’s the way it is.

This is about a family. This is about a team. This is about being humble. Do I say this many times? Are you willing to learn and be humble and allow us to teach you? I don’t know everything. I’m sure I’m going to learn things from you that you don’t even know you have. It’s all about that, learning your why. Know what your circumstances are and help them plan a work plan depending on their goals and their circumstances. It makes me feel good because I make them feel that they’re not working for me but that I am working for them. Not that I’m their slave, but I want them to feel that it doesn’t matter what they do, it’s okay, but influence in a way that they feel they’ve made the decision.

It’s that influence. Gian-Carlo and I say, “Whatever you want, it’s okay with us.” We never make anybody feeling if somebody wants to earn $100 a month, we praise it. We acknowledge it because that’s where they’re happy with. We’re always trying to inspire because of other people’s stories, because of the family that we have, that you can do so much more. Are you ready to be taught? Are you ready to go that way? Influence makes them feel inspired, not obligated. That has been the success for our business. We’ve created a foundation of happy people. Our retention is spectacular because we have happy people. What do they do? They feel comfortable inviting more people because we invite them to the happy family.

They stay around the campfire. It doesn’t matter what’s the desire, but they stay around the campfire. You covered 90% of what we do. If I have to share one thing to the readers, find that one tool in your company that you can use so you can about your context. If you’re in a company that’s on a service, a health product, find out one tool that will educate your prospect. For example, every single Monday, we have what we call Testimonial Mondays, and we always have a testimonial on our health product as you well know. I will record these testimonials and put it on the YouTube account. That video, we had 200 views because the people with high skills and people with low skills are sending the video. You don’t have to be a genius. You don’t have to be a superstar. You don’t have to have high authority to send that video.

We were training someone, and she said, “That video, that testimony, I sent it to 40 people.” My recognition for someone who just started the industry is find that one tool that you can send to everybody. You will be surprised on all the results you’re going to get, and then duplicate that. I always say you can’t duplicate everything. There have been misconceptions on duplication. Before, people would think that you have to duplicate everything. That’s not true in my opinion, but you can duplicate tools. Tools are the ultimate duplication. Once you have a large team, sending the same tool, you can become whatever you want. That’s my recommendation, truly.

Let’s go to the last thing, you referenced it a little bit, but maybe we can elaborate a little bit more without getting specific names of things. One of the things I admire about how I’ve watched you guys build your business over the last several years is how well you have used social media and how you’re constantly communicating. I’m on some of your social media. I was getting Mariluz’s, every time my watch goes off, I look at it, “Mariluz again.” They speak English and Spanish. I get it in two languages. It’s helped me learn Spanish. Let’s go to that because that’s something, Gian-Carlo in particular, probably on your end, because of your age, you grew up with all the devices that your mom and I didn’t. Why don’t you talk a little bit about what you’ve done because you’ve done a super job in how you communicate.

Whenever a network market gets into the industry, and thinks about social media, they have to do social media two ways. First, you have to create a social media account that could be Facebook or WhatsApp to communicate with your team. If you have 1,000 people in your team, it’s insane to call each one of them to follow up with them. It’s better to have a community through Facebook or through WhatsApp. We’re WhatsApp obsessive, to create communities where we can communicate one message to a hundred people, and then create that community. It takes time to create a community. It’s not from one day, but once you create a community, John, and for the readers, people stick to you. They love you. They love the team. It’s not about Mariluz or Gian-Carlo anymore, now it’s about Juliana, the distributor. They start to know the whole family. Let’s say you want one box a month. It doesn’t matter. They know the whole family. Sometimes, “Here’s a referral.”

It’s almost like they feel committed that they know that they need us, but we need them. They look forward to, “I need to share this because it’s going to help the family.” That’s what we’ve created within the past several years.

The more attention you get, the more people know you, and the more people want to do business with you. Click To Tweet

With that in mind, that’s the first thing. You have to have the mind when creating social media. You have to create through Facebook or WhatsApp or Telegram now, a community where you’re sharing things with the team. That’s step one. Step two is how I can approach people about the business or product through social media. There are a million trainers and coaches out there. Social media is all about attention. The more attention you get, the more people know you, the more people want to do business with you. It’s that simple. It doesn’t matter how you get attention. I know some people that are super hyper, they go to TikTok and have made a big business through TikTok. I personally can’t stand TikTok. It’s not my style. I’m not saying it’s a bad thing. I’ve seen that from Mark Hughes recruiting tons of people through TikTok. It’s their personality.

For example, I’m an Instagram, Facebook guy. What do I do? My recommendation is if you have a social media account, don’t create a new social media account. Stay with the one that you have right now. If you’re posting once per day, post three times a day. Keep being yourself, keep getting more attention. From there, start DM-ing people, which is Direct Messaging. Start having conversations with your contacts through Instagram and Facebook. You’d be surprised how many customers and distributors we’ve gotten by sending direct messages to 10, 20 people. I’ve got many customers and distributors through it, and then staying active, getting attention. We had the CEO of our company be part of our Zoom. I put him on my social media. People are thinking, “Gian-Carlo is serious about his business. He’s serious. He’s talking to see you.”

At the same time, “Gian-Carlo has a great business that is giving him all this free time to enjoy the things that he loves. I’m liking what he does.” Without us being one of those advertisement spammers. It works for some people as well, but we like to do things that we love, the things that we would be attracted to, or the things that you’ve been attracted to. It’s like, “I like her. I like what she does.”

You start becoming an authority for them. They say, “When it comes to health products, talk to Mariluz and Gian-Carlo. About business, talk to Gian-Carlo.”

Talk about keeping positivity in your social media, because social media can be tricky and people could use it for all kinds, even for their own problems. This is about attracting your tribe. Whatever you do, it’s the kind of people you’re going to start attracting. I achieved my diamond rank through social media. I had never done a personal presentation about attracting friends through social media. Through them, I got a bunch of other connections or referrals of many people that I didn’t know. Yes, social media is powerful. There’s not a one-size-fits-all. Sometimes there are trainings, “You need to do this.” No. You just get a bunch of ideas and pick your own. That’s what’s been helping.

It’s hilarious. “How much do I put up on my business?” “I put things here about my business. It’s about us.” Even about that one joke that made you laugh hard, “She’s funny. I like her.” You called attention and there’s stuff going on, and out of the blue, you have no idea how many times, “I need to talk to you.” You’re like, “Sure.” They start talking to you about their problems or health problems, whatever’s going on. You get them as a customer. That has been our key, keeping fans, attracting people.

One word for the readers, attention. If you put that in your mind, you will have a fantastic social media business.

We can close on that. One of the things that you did was you built this tremendous culture of followers. All of a sudden, you ran into a well-known celebrity, Mr. Wonderful, and you posted a picture. Your social media account increased dramatically.

A lot of friends that didn’t see me as a business owner, see me as a business owner. Now, they call me, “Gian-Carlo, I’ve started a business. Can I ask for some advice?” All the time, because of that picture. Now they understand.

 

It’s interesting because when you started this at nineteen, there was no respect.

People were killing me.

That has changed completely.

Now they call me.

Now people are like, “How can I do what you do? I like what you do.”

They talk to me about finances. I’ve had people wanting to interview me through podcasts because of that picture. It’s funny, the power of social media. People cannot respect you and then eventually, change their mind about you.

This has been a breath of fresh air to interview you both. You’re both incredible people, incredible leaders. You’re doing amazing things. You’re blessing lots of people in your business. You’re helping a lot of people. Through your social media, it is happy. I watched the way that you encourage people constantly. We’re at a time where encouragement is needed. There are lots of stuff going on in the world that isn’t encouraging for most people. That “welcome to the team” type of thing that you’re doing is phenomenal.

Thank you both so much. This is the second episode. Second of hopefully hundreds and hundreds of these for the next who knows how many years that we will do them for. On this show, we meet remarkable people like the people that you met here, Mariluz and Gian-Carlo. There’s more to come. Thank you. Speaking of social media, and I learned this from Gian-Carlo, on WhatsApp, you can join our Leave Nothing to Chance social media group, where we’ll be posting when calls are going up, who the speaker’s going to be, a little bit about them. Feel free to go up there and to join Leave Nothing to Chance podcast. If you need the phone number for that, it’s (972) 259-0875. Thank you both.

Thanks, John.

Important Links:

• Mariluz Sanchez
• Gian-Carlo Torres – LinkedIn
• Leave Nothing to Chance
• The 15 Invaluable Laws of Growth
• The Power of Five
• Moving Up
• Secrets of the Millionaire Mind
• The Millionaire Training
• As a Man Thinketh
• The Power of Positive Thinking
• More Relaxing, Less Taxing
• Direct Selling Success: From Amway to Zombies
• Seasons of Life