Leave Nothing To Chance

 

Network marketing is a great profession, but unfortunately, there is a lack of real skills training. Most pieces of training are just motivational sessions that make you feel good but do not teach you real skills. So, this is why MLM Nation is here to help you. In today’s episode, Simon Chan from MLM Nation discusses the value MLM Nation brings to people: teaching them what they need to learn in network marketing. If you are interested in network marketing, you better not miss this opportunity today! Hit that play button and listen to this insightful chat!

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Simon Chan “MLM Nation”

This is an interview I can’t wait to do. We have my new friend who’s a legend in the industry. He’s an author, a podcaster, a trainer and a top distributor with well in excess of several hundred thousand people in his downline. There’s not much that this guy can’t do or hasn’t done. He’s still a young guy so he’s still going to be doing a lot more in the future. Simon Chan, welcome to the show. How are you?

I’m doing awesome. Thank you so much for having me on here, John. It’s an honor.

Simon, I have to ask you. Coming out of college, you came out of a great university, Columbia University in New York and a great school, an Ivy League. You got to work for the NBA, which is a dream job for everybody. Somewhere along the line, you had what I would refer to and you would refer to as a solitary moment. It was that pivot point in your life where all of a sudden, you listened to Rich Dad Poor Dad and some things happened. They resonated with you and you pivoted from your dream job to be an entrepreneur. Tell us about that.

I did have my dream job. It’s funny. I met one of my closest friends in college. It is one of those friendships that I always felt close to him even though we only saw each other once in the last several years. There’s a lesson I’d love to share with your readers later on about one thing I learned from him but he was always one of the hardest workers at Columbia. We talked about that, “Do you need to go to a top university to be successful?”

He has two kids, one is in high school and one is going to high school. The answer is no. You do need to have a work ethic and people skills and learn to sell yourself. I never did well in college. I got a job. The only reason I got that job was that it was paying very little money. At that time, it was $20,000 a year. For me, that was the dream job.

I played basketball at college. I did fantasy basketball. All my whole life was sports and we talked about from baseball to basketball. I’d been to over 200 NBA games courtside. I remember in 2000 when I got to go to the NBA finals in Los Angeles. At that time, I lived in New York. I’m a shy choir, Asian kid. I grew up in Brooklyn, New York. I got to go to the finals and see Scottie Pippen, my favorite player, versus the Lakers, Kobe Bryant. I’m so excited. I still remember that game where Portland was up Game Six in LA.

Here’s the story. If Portland won that game, then we’ll be going to Portland. If the Lakers won, will be working in LA for two weeks. I never traveled. At that time, being in LA is like La La Land. It is a dreamland. I was like, “Portland better not win because if Portland wins, what’s it to do in Portland?” I’m an ignorant New Yorker. I didn’t know there were beautiful things in Portland. I’ve been there but at that time, I want to go to LA and the beaches.

We’re rooting there. I remember Portland was 20-something points with 5 minutes left and LA put a miraculous comeback. Afterward, I go back to tell my ex-girlfriend, “I’m going to LA. It’s awesome. The NBA is great.” Do you know what she said to me? She was never into sports but she said, “You still don’t make any money.” She never respected me because of the lack of money I made.

We didn’t stay together for very long but one thing she gave probably the biggest contribution to my life was it’s not just about money. The NBA’s awesome. She introduced the book Rich Dad Poor Dad to me. She told me about that book. I didn’t read it because I was like, “I love my job and all that stuff.” Later on, I saw her. She was in her mid-20s and owned 3 real estate properties, flipping them and making money. She liked to shop. She was very frugally saving.

All of a sudden, she had extra money to go shopping because of these properties. This is after we broke up. I can’t believe she had three properties. I love my job. I’m a little bit older and I’m struggling financially. I said, “Maybe I should read that book Rich Dad Poor Dad.” That’s how I got into it. I read Rich Dad Poor Dad. I realized no one ever taught me about this in Ivy League or in college to work for yourself.

My dad was a doctor. He was rags to riches. He came to the US, struggled and became very successful. I was always the richest kid in the public school who had three Mercedes but my problem is I never had time with my dad. I talked about that when you were on my show. I do a lot of baseball with my kids because I felt like I finally can be the father that I wish my dad was.

Granted my dad loved me. I’m very grateful but he made good money but no time. When I read Rich Dad Poor Dad, I always thought, “You work hard. You’ll have a nice corner office or work for the NBA, NFL or some other sports league marketing agency and retire at 60-something.” That book was like, “You don’t need to do that. You’re on the wrong path. You need to do what your ex-girlfriend is doing. Start investing yourself. Invest in passive income assets.”

That got me searching. At the same time, I was out in my life where there were a lot of personal things and soul searching. I read The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren. Jesus Christ is a big part of my life. I did these 40 excess chapters in 40 days. I realized, “What’s my purpose in life? What am I doing?” I wanted to start a business but I didn’t have money for real estate. I didn’t want to live off my parents’ hands. I got to do something for myself and that’s when I discovered network marketing.

I was like, “What’s network marketing?” I didn’t know anything about network marketing. I thought it was marketing computer networks. I was like, “Why do people have negative perceptions about marketing? I thought Internet’s good. Why are people negative about marketing computer networks?” I thought it was like Cisco or something. I learned more about it and I adapt. Initially, I want to do a subway franchise.

I discovered a subway franchise needed a ton of money to get started. You have to work for the first year before you hired a manager because they want you to learn the business. I thought, “I know the bread smells good but not that good to work seven days a week.” That doesn’t seem like financial freedom to me. I heard about network marketing. I was super skeptical. I read The Way Forward for Network Marketing.

I read even the dumbest book Network Marketing For Dummies and I still have that book. That book says, “If you stay with the same company and do consistently for five years or more, you can make a full-time income.” The more I thought about that, I feel like God’s purpose after I read Purpose Driven Life was to have a positive impact on as many lives as possible. They’re in alignment. Network marketing is not just about selling. It’s about having an impact on others if you want the long-term residual.

 

If you want short-term income, you can sell recruits but if you want long-term passive income, it is about helping others. That goes back to my purpose. When I read Purpose Driven Life, I realized even though I was shy and quiet as a kid, I always enjoyed mentoring. I was helping out with the youth fellowship at my church. I enjoyed running basketball clinics in college for kids in Chinatown, the YMCA and taking them off the streets. That’s why network marketing is the perfect business. For a couple of hundred dollars, you can get started. That’s when I got started back in November of 2003.

I was going through a little bit of the seven components in your book, The Consistency Pill. If you had to narrow it down, say the two most important ones.

They’re all important but the number one most important is accountability. We are all humans. We all slack off and we always like to lie to ourselves. We make excuses. It comes down to accountability. There are different types of accountability. There’s one-on-one accountability. I still have an accountability partner. One of my good friends is a CEO and owner of a company. He holds me accountable. We do monthly accountability calls. There’s daily accountability. You need accountability. It’s like going to the gym. You can work out but you’ll have your best workouts when you have a trainer that pushes you.

The other one for being consistent would be component number two. I see a lot of people make that mistake. Component number one is the checklist. They get it from the upline. They know what they have to do, the income-producing activities. They have big goals but they don’t create and schedule a time. As entrepreneurs, we have unlimited goals but God’s not giving you not even one extra second to work on them.

You have to look at your schedule and create and schedule them. Creating means you have to carve out the time and give up. Stop doing things that you like to do or currently do. You got to give up those old habits, whether it’s watching TV or spending a lot of time on email. Maybe spending less time on email, less time on social media, consuming the feed or whatever it is, you have to create and schedule the time.

The good news about network marketing is you don’t need much time but you do need a few minutes or blocks of time. You got to be ultra-focused in what you do. Those are the two things and you can apply that to anything, whether it’s exercise. We all have goals but until you create and schedule the time and block it off, it will never happen. There’s a thing like Parkinson’s Law. Everything fills a vacuum. We all have stuff like, “I got to clean the garage or do these chores on the weekend.” When the weekend comes, what happens? Time goes away and we never have time.

It’s like when you move to a new house. You have a nice room. You can keep the room clean and all of a sudden, within one month, all types of junk go in there. You’re like, “I’m going to keep this drawer nice.” Within three months, all types of junk go into that drawer. Things fill into a vacuum. It’s the same thing with your life. Until you create and schedule your time and block it off, you’re never going to have time to work on what you need to do.

Let’s talk about purpose-driven networkers and the community that you’ve created for purpose-driven networkers. Two questions on that, Simon. Number one, how important is a community, especially after COVID? People have been so disenfranchised, disconnected or whatever you want to call it. How important is it to join a community like the purpose-driven networkers? Question number two on that is how can our readers participate.

You are the average of the five people you spend time with. That’s why I enjoy talking to you, John. You spend time with people who are better than you or are more experienced. With the same niche, you are hanging around the campfire, you can be like that. If you don’t hang out there, you’re not going to be like that. It’s like if you’re trying to give up alcohol but you hang out in the bar every day, you’re going to start drinking. If you want to give up smoking but all your friends smoke, you’re going to be smoking.

If you want to achieve success in network marketing, you need to be a part of a community. Whether it’s with your team, uplines, friends or purpose-driven networkers, it’s so important. I always have a saying that you need to spend time. If the community wasn’t important, vendors don’t need to go to church. We all just watch sermons on YouTube but we know that doesn’t happen. We fall off and stray. In anything in life, you need to be part of a community. That’s why very few people can work out well at home.

If you want to succeed in network marketing, you need to be a part of a community. Click To Tweet

You have home gyms. I guarantee you that after a while, you may be excited for 1 or 2. Motivation doesn’t last. If you get a new workout bench, you may work out for 1 or 2 weeks at home excited. I guarantee that within 1 or 2 months, you can get bored. Initially, you slack off a little bit and before you know it, you don’t even use the equipment. You use it to hand close. Put it close there. That’s why people go to the gym because it’s community.

When you go to the gym and you see everyone working out, it intrinsically motivates you to do stuff. Community is very important. Purpose-driven is a community I’ve created. It’s an online community where you spend time. The reality is you need community. More people are trying to take you out of network marketing than trying to bring you into network marketing. You think about that. More people are taking you out.

When I was a distributor, I was building. Most of my friends are not in network marketing. They’re talking about going watch to a Laker game or talking about sports. It has nothing to do with network marketing. They’re already distracting me by talking to them. I feel like spending more time on ESPN.com looking at highlights than building my business. They’re taking me away. I’ll look at the newspaper or TV. They’re talking about all the disasters happening. Immediately, I feel like finding out what was happening there instead of reading a personal development book.

I’m talking to my friends, they’re hanging out. I’m talking about colleagues, they’re talking about work projects. They’re talking about hanging out after work. It has nothing to do with network marketing. You understand that most people struggle and don’t have success because they put themselves in a community that’s not related to their dreams.

Most people struggle and don't have success because they put themselves in a community that's not related to their dreams. Click To Tweet

If you’re reading or watching your big dreams in direct selling, you need to put yourself in the community. The odds are almost stacked against you. The rest of the world says that 5% are taking you away from the business. We’re humans. It’s very easy to get swayed. That’s why community is so important. If people want to learn about it, they can go to MLMNation.com. It’s on the top of the tab.

Let’s talk about the Daily Method of Operation, DMO, one of your favorite phrases and teaching tools.

With DMO, we have a free cheat sheet people can download if they go to MLMNation.com or reach out to me on social media and I can send it to you. Every team and leader has their version of DMO, the Daily Method of Operation. Some people call it IPAs, Income Producing Activities. In terms of specifying how many people you reach out to, I create my DMO based on my experience. I’ll recruit 1 person a week for over 5 years so 80-something people a year. That’s what the numbers are.

I’m not going to go to the specific numbers but there are five things you have to do every day. It’s very related to what you teach on the pennies. Number one is you have to post at least 3 times on social media, 1 on your feed and 1 on your story. That’s our way of marketing. I’m not talking about spammy, selling, talking about your products or being commercial.

Don’t be a commercial but let people know who you are. What did you eat? What did you do with your family? What did you learn? What podcast are you listening to? What training did you attend? What are you doing? It’s like your reality TV. Ultimately, nowhere does marketing in a relationship business. People buy from you or join you because they know, like and trust you. That philosophy hasn’t gone for thousands of years.

We are humans. When I click on your profile, do I feel like I know, like or trust you? This could be from a cold market. It’s very important. It was a warm market. I haven’t seen my friend because he lives in a different city and it happens to be a city that doesn’t do any business conferences and is inconvenient for my kids to go to. We’re seeing each other only once in the last several years but he knows everything I’m up to. He knows what my kids are doing.

When we talk, John, you knew my son and his baseball because I posted it on social media. It’s a way for warm markets to know what you’re doing and how committed you are to your business. Posting on social media is important. Other than next this is meeting new contacts. This business is about new sales and recruits.

A lot of reasons why people say network marketing doesn’t work is because they’re talking to the same 5 people or 300 people. You cannot be talking to the same 300 people. You need to meet 300 new people a year so you’ll have 600 new people. Someone like you, John, your database is probably like tens of thousands of people because you’re constantly meeting new people every single day and you’ve been doing it for many years. I was about to say Rolodex. I’ll be dating myself and half of the people wouldn’t even know what I’m talking about.

I’m laughing because I still have one.

My mentor, Robert Allen, told me, “Your network determines your net worth. Are you expanding your network every day?” It goes back to the community. You got to be expanding your network. You got to invite people to look at your business, at least five. You’re talking about the 10 Pennies but every day, you got to be asking someone whether they’re interested to take a look.

Your job is not to convince them. Your job is to simply collect a decision. Let them know about what you’re doing, whether they say yes or no. If they say ten noes, great. You did your job but go out there and keep exposing. Eventually, you get the sale. You have to follow up with people because that’s another thing people don’t understand. Ninety-five percent of the people you reach out to will not buy or join because it’s about timing. The timing’s not right. It’s about follow-up.

Here’s the good news. Everyone eventually will either buy, join or give you a referral. It may not happen now, in 1 month or 1 year but it could be in 10 years. I’m sure, John, you had people twenty years later join. That’s why you never quit. The longer you stay in this, you always win because it’s a matter of timing. The last thing that you have to have at least is presentations every day. Get three videos at a minimum. Whether it’s a company video or a three-way call, people need to know about what you’re doing. Your job is not to convince them. Your job is to collect a decision. That’s why it’s called network marketing. What’s marketing? Letting people know. You need to let people know you have a business. That’s a brief rundown of the DMO. It’s a checklist of what everyone needs to do.

Simon, you’ve done over 700 interviews on MLM Nation so far. You’re constantly doing them but if you had to take those 700 and narrow it down to 3 common threads and all those great leaders that you’ve spoken to over whatever time it is that’s taking the interview of 700 people. It’s taken me almost 2 years to get to 100 so I imagine. I got an idea at the time but more importantly for our readers if you said 3 things that you’ve heard repeatedly from those leaders that have helped them to build their networks, what have those 3 things been?

Number one is they’re always constantly recruiting. Management mode is the kiss of death. It’s not like, “I recruited ten. I hope those 10 bring in another 10.” A lot of times, people stop at 2 or 3. “I recruited three. I hope they bring in three,” then they bring three. “In six months, the whole world’s in my downline but that doesn’t work.” They’re all the top leaders constantly recruiting and focusing on new sales, recruits and people. They don’t spend their time in management mode. You can tell how successful a leader is by how many new personal sales and recruits they are getting. I’ll figure that’s number one.

The second thing is the top leaders are always investing in themselves. They invest back and go, “I’m not talking about books.” That’s the minimum, the books and stuff they’re getting. That’s like kindergarten, getting them started. I’m talking about they invest in coaching and go to mastermind groups and all the events. Even when they heard it a million times, they still go to events because they realize when you go to these events, it’s not about what you’re learning. It’s about the community.

You can learn at home whatever you’re learning at an event. They can always say, “You learn great stuff,” but it’s not about what you learn. It’s about the community. I remember my first convention. It was a game-changer for me. I don’t remember anything at that event. There was nothing I learned, even though it was great speakers but I did learn 1 or 2 things. I forgot what the saying was but it is like you capture the moment. Emotional connection.

 

There were two things I learned at the first convention I ever went to, the San Diego Convention on April 2004. I didn’t have the money. I only have 90 minutes because I broke up with an ex-girlfriend. I couldn’t sleep. The only reason I went was that I had to pick up two downlines. I had to drive for one hour to pick them up. Even though I stopped 90 minutes, I couldn’t be late because what type of upline would I be? I drove out to Fullerton to pick one up and to Torrance to pick up the other one.

I got to San Diego and said, “Let’s go to an event.” I then said, “I got to go to the bathroom. I’ll be back.” While they went in, I went back to the parking lot to take a nap. I learned a lot from that event but I don’t remember. The two things I remember were number one, seeing one of the upline diamonds I’ve never met before who’s making $25,000 a month. At that event, he was prospecting on the phone call. I had that immediate lifelong impression.

The second thing is I had a crossline dinner. I met someone worth over $1 million and still doing network marketing. She asked me what I liked to do for fun. I said, “I like to work out.” I asked her what she likes to do for fun. She liked to ride horses. She said, “We have our horses and stables.” I was like, “What type of people own horses that have their stables?” Rich people. I always thought poor broke people like me did network marketing.

I was like, “Why are you doing network marketing?” She said, “I sold my insurance business. I cashed out pretty well but I’m too young to not do anything. I want passive income. The easiest way to do passive income network marketing.” That blew my mind because before then, I was like, “Only poor broke people did it.” I only made $200 a week. The week after that, I made my first $ 1,000-week check.

When I was closing, I was at a closing convention. I wasn’t selling a business for broke people anymore. I was selling a business that horse owners and millionaires would do. I was so proud of them that were marketing afterward. I was like, “I’m the right profession.” Believing plays a huge thing. That was my event.

That’s the new South and the third thing would be they show up. You can tell this. You can see that the people are successful. Sometimes people reach out to me for coaching so I set up an interview. I don’t just take anyone. I want to get to know them but they don’t show up for the call. It happened to someone so hopefully, she’s reading this because she didn’t show up.

If you don’t show up, how do you be successful? I always tell my kids and they say, “What happened?” I was like, “Daddy’s got a Zoom.” Afterward, I’m done in two minutes. They said, “What happened?” “They didn’t show up again.” They’re like, “No wonder they’re not successful.” You got to show up. You schedule something. It doesn’t matter how inconvenient it is. Whether it’s raining or snowing, you got to show up. It doesn’t matter how inconvenient, you show up.

I have 700-plus interviews and I’ve only had 1 person show up 2 minutes late. Successful people are ten minutes early. In this conversation, you were an hour ready to go. Even when I interviewed you on my show, you were fifteen minutes early. Successful people always show up early. Also, interviews where the person had to pull over in the middle of driving and did it in a bad Wi-Fi in a parking lot but they showed up.

Raining was almost dangerous to drive. She used to stop in the covered parking lot and did it. Leaders show up. How you show up in small things is the same. How you do something is how you do everything. If you don’t show up for small things, then how do you show up for a prospect? If you don’t show up for small things, then why would someone join you?

I was thinking of all the interviews that I’ve done. The top earners are always early. The guy with less of a group is always five minutes late or I got to text him and go, “Remember, it’s today.” They go, “Where’s the Zoom?” The Zoom link that I sent you already you mean? No problem.” You resent it. We’re in the people business and people are busy but you are so right. I think of Dan McCormick, Randy Gage, Larry Thompson, Foster Owusu and John Carlo Torres. I got a list. All these successful people are on time. They’re amazing.

I’ll give you a side note. I got a couple of more questions for you. I went to a Christmas party. There was a guy there that played for Vince Lombardi and the Green Bay Packers way back. He was 80 years old. I got a chance to talk to him a little bit and shake hands with him but here’s where I’m going with that. The Packers ran on Lombardi time. Lombardi time was ten minutes to the hour or you were late. How I grew up was following Vince Lombardi. It was like, “You’re at least ten minutes late. You have an appointment. What if you get a flat tire? What if you get stuck in traffic?” You just don’t know but it’s such great points you’re making.

I met my friend. He’s always twenty minutes early. When someone is late, the alarm bells are like the spider sensor. It immediately tells you. Everyone’s said they’re successful as leaders but when someone’s late, they immediately trigger alarms. There are two reasons. Number one is you’re not committed or maybe if you are busy and you can’t show up, that tells you’re not organized. I also can’t trust you to do business with you. You’re either not committed or organized.

I’m sharing this with you because I used to be late all the time. My mentor once told me this, “Why are you late?” “I don’t know why I’m late.” Being on time is difficult for a lot of people but this is what helps you out because it helped me out. I was ten minutes late. It’s not a big deal but as a leader, you can’t be late. If you’re ten minutes late, then the next time, the person will say, “Simon’s going to be 10 minutes late so I’ll show up 5 minutes late.” I’m like, “He’s going to be late.” The next thing you know, the meeting stopped 30 minutes later and there’s no integrity to that meeting.

He asked me, “Simon, would you be ten minutes late for your flight?” I was like, “Of course not.” He was like, “Why not?” “I’ll miss my flight.” “Then what?” “I’ll have to rebook.” “Then what?” “It will be a pain in the neck.” “Then what?” I’ll probably have to pay a fine.” “Then what?” “I’ll probably have to take an extra sick day from work.”

“It’s inconvenient for you, ten minutes late for your flight. You won’t be late because it’ll cause a lot of stress in your life. You will even be ten minutes late. Would you be one minute late for your flight?” “Of course not.” “Then why would you be one minute late for others? That tells me that you’re selfish. You’ll waste other people’s time but you’ll never miss a flight to waste up your time. You’re a selfish bastard,” that’s what he said to me. “You’ll be late for me but not late for yourself when it causes you inconvenience.” I was like, “I’m not like that. I’m kindhearted. I’m not selfish.” I realized that being late is selfish. Ever since then, I’m never going to be late.

Who was your mentor?

I had a lot of mentors. I had mentors at the NBA. I gave these people shout-outs, Stephen Schwartz and Julian Segui. Stephen Schwartz gave me the opportunity. Julian Segui was the one who told me that ideas are cheap. I used to have all these ideas. He’s like, “I don’t give a crap about your ideas. Ideas are cheap. The only ideas that are worth it are the ones that you take action on.”

I learned early on that you have to take action. “No one cares about your great ideas, Simon. Take action on it and then I’ll look at it. Don’t waste my time with your ideas. Don’t tell me about them. Take action on it and then show me.” Also, Tom Kearns. These people all have successful careers, whether in business or corporate. Tom taught me, “Working smart is about social skills.”

Before I read the book How to Win Friends & Influence People, he was living proof of how to win friends and influence people. In network marketing, when I first started, I was the employee mindset. I struggled for months. I made no money and was clueless out there. I had the desire but no consistency. Steve Schwartz made millions in the profession. He’s a close friend of mine. People say, “In network marketing, you lose friends.” No. In network marketing, you gain friends.

Steve Schwartz’s daughter was the flower girl at my wedding. I still keep close and touch with him. He’s an awesome friend. He was the one to help me stay consistent. If I wasn’t consistent, I would not be where I am. Those are a lot of my mentors. Also, Robert G. Allen, a bestselling author. He made a big impact on me as well.

You said a lot there. I read a lot of Robert’s books. He’s a great guy and very smart. You mentioned something there about ideas. I read a book years ago by a guy named Joe Gandolfo, who at that time was the top insurance man in the world who lived out in Florida. He wrote a book and the book title was great. It was, Ideas Are a Dime a Dozen… But The Man Who Puts Them Into Practice is Priceless. It’s what you said. He had a million ideas.

Some people take books and they’ve filled the books with ideas but they never go out and go, “Let me circle this one. On this day, I’m starting with this idea and see where it goes.” What you said there is so profound. Let’s segue a little bit and talk about life lessons. I know you have a son who was an elite athlete. I’ve been following him on Facebook. I can’t wait until he makes it to the major leagues and pitches in Dallas.

Before that, let’s talk about some of the life lessons that you’re teaching because you’ve learned so much from doing. You’ve interviewed and worked with so many people that have had successful careers, be it in network marketing or a traditional business. You’ve been around since great people. What are the life lessons that you’re sharing, not only as an athlete on the field but more importantly, as a person off the field, as a student and as you develop his life? What did he take from what you do and impart to him?

The number one thing is attitude. It is your mental approach. If you have a negative attitude, everything’s going to be negative. You attract negativity. I love baseball because baseball is a game of rejection or you fail. If you’re successful 3 out of 10 times, you’re a multi-millionaire. I have no other sport. I only like that. If you’re scared like, “I’m scared of this pitcher,” you might as well go overboard or go home and not even play. You’re never going to get a hit.

 

If you’re a pitcher and you’re like, “That hitter is going to hit me,” and you have negative thoughts, you’re merely done. You can start throwing meatballs and it’s going to hit them. It’s about your attitude. You always act consistently with how you see yourself. Something I learned from my mentors is self-esteem. If you see yourself as not good, you’re not going to be good. I wish I learned this when I was younger. I could have been a much better ball player.

I used to have a lot of negative attitudes and negative language like, “I suck. I’m not good enough. I wish I was like that.” The more you think like that, the worse it gets. In the zone, if you’re happy, you always play well. Related to that attitude is you can’t control what others do. The only thing you control is your attitude and how you think. That pitcher is throwing fast. You can’t control it. The umpire is making bad costs. You can’t control it. The only thing you can control is yourself and making adjustments.

I was talking to some of the kids on my team. There’s a great book Heads-Up Baseball, which talks about baseball terms. If the referee is making bad calls, most kids get frustrated with the umpire. It’s not going to change. He’s not going to say, “I made a bad call. The outside pitches the ball. The next one, I’ll call it a strike.” No. The umpire is going to stay consistent the whole time. It’s not going to say, “I messed up. I’ll give you a good call.”

The umpire is going to call all those bad pitches and strikes for the rest of the game. How are you going to judge? You can’t control it. You can’t yell at him. He’s not going to change. What you can do is maybe move close to the plate. The next time you see the ball, you swing at it when you make adjustments and that’s like life. You can’t control the economy, the government or the politicians. You can’t control if your upline does your orders. You can only control yourself.

You control your thoughts. Your thoughts determine your actions and your actions determine your success. That’s the major thing we focus on. There are times when I’ve done stuff where I intentionally try to frustrate my son. “How do you feel? If you’re nervous or angry, how do you get back to it?” It hasn’t been easy, this called parenting moments but he’s getting a lot better. The more he’s gone better the games, he’s way more advanced than other kids.

You can only control yourself. You control your thoughts; your thoughts determine your actions, and your actions determine your success. Click To Tweet

He realizes, “One thing I can control is to take a deep breath and relax.” There are times when we’re nervous. If you’re nervous and pressured, what can you focus on? You visualize your success. I always teach them, “What’s the first thing you do? You visualize.” My mentor used to teach me this. If you think the person’s not going to sign up, you’ll never sign up. Even if they said they’re interested, you’d be so shocked and then your excitement is not there. That lack of excitement will scare them away, though we become skeptical.

When you pick up the phone, you always expect them to sign up. Things always happen twice. First in the mind and then in the reality. I’m telling my other two boys, “The first thing you do is visualize. If you that pitcher is fast, think about the good hits you’ve had.” When they were young, I always take videos and all his good highlights. I put together a quick 2 or 3-minute reel.

Every time we go to a game, we play eye of the tiger. Automatically, it’s like NLP by Tony Robbins. When he hears that song, he immediately thinks of his highlights. When he was six years old, he was very advanced. That’s what he’s thinking on. When you’re nervous and you’re facing tough opponents and situations in life, the only thing that can protect you that would help you is how you see yourself.

If you see yourself as, “It’s going to be hard,” you’re done. If you see yourself like, “I did it in the past. I could do this. I want to do a tough presentation.” If you have gotten a customer before, you can do it again. When I first started, I went through 42 people before I got my first signup. I didn’t know what to do but I took the PDF of that application and put it on my wall. If I was clueless that I could get that guy to sign up, I could get this person to sign up. It is all up here, the mind.

We’re living in a strange time. We’re still coming out of the COVID nightmare. The economy is in rough shape. Let me give you a hypothetical. Let’s say in 2019, there’s a dad and his son. They live in your neighborhood there in California. They see you working from home, having a great life, going to your kids’ ballgame and the gym when you want and doing the things that you’re doing. They observe that from the distance.

Maybe they’re not even somebody that you’re necessarily friendly with. They’re watching you from across the street. Neighborhood mentions, “He’s involved in network marketing.” I realize you’re not a distributor. You’ve got all these other things that you’re doing within the industry but you certainly know the industry as well as anybody, if not better. They were like, “He does that network marketing thing.” They were poo-pooed. They weren’t a fan of our industry.

Let’s say the dad was in his early 60s, getting to the end of the road business-wise, has done well, saved some money, was ready to hit some golf balls, catch some fish or play with the grandkids. The son went to college. He did well and got good grades. He started his business career, making some good money and all of a sudden, the spring of 2020 comes and we know what happened.

They’re sitting there saying, “We got to walk across the street and ask Simon a couple of questions because we think we might be interested in that network marketing stuff, multilevel, direct selling or whatever you want to call it.” They walk across the street, knock on your door and say, “Simon, we’ve never been involved in this industry. Why should we get involved in 2023?”

The old Simon will go, “I’ll give you all these benefits.” That’s what most people in network marketing do. That person had negative perceptions of network marketing before. If I act like a most typical network marketing, all talking about the benefits, all of a sudden, that puts them on guard a little bit. I would say, “You seem like you have a great job. Why would you even be interested?” People always like to say the opposite of what you say, refute or play devil’s advocate.

If I say, “Network marketing is awesome. We can do this and this.” They’ll be, “I had a bad experience. My aunt was like that.” This starts to be negative and I lose them a little bit. Instead, I’ll say, “You have a great job. Why would you be even interested?” What will they say? They’ll be like, “My job is not that good. The economy is not good and I see you living the lifestyle.” All of a sudden, they convince themselves why network marketing is good.

I always talk about this. If you approach the doctor and say, “Don’t be a doctor. Network marketing is so much better. If you’re a doctor, you got to see sick people and have student loans,” the doctor will be offended. They’ll be like, “The doctor’s the best profession. I don’t want to do network marketing. I help people. I saved the world.” If I told a doctor, “This is such an awesome profession. To be a doctor is so amazing.”

They’ll probably say, “It’s good but I have long hours and got loans. I see a lot of sick people. I get sick.” They’re a good prospect. My first approach is I ask them, “You have a great life. Why would you be interested in doing this,” that type of tone. They convinced themselves that they should do it. I’ll slowly tell them why. “The economy is not good. Network marketing thrives when the economy is bad.” There’s a thing called, “The fear of loss is greater than the desire for the game.”

Everyone wants to earn extra money but when the economy’s good, they can sleep well at night. They’re not worried. They’d rather relax and watch TV but when they’re worried about the economy and job security, they’re hungry. They want to do something to protect the lifestyle they have and that’s when they’re open to other opportunities. If you look at the history, 80% of the people I interviewed on MLM Nation got started when the economy was bad, including yourself.

 

When you got started in network marketing and I don’t want to date you but back around the Reagan era, the economy was bad. We’re talking about double-digit inflation back then and the market thrived. Most of the people that I interviewed on MLM Nation, a lot of them got started in the 2008 and 2009 financial crisis, especially the business owners. If business owners are losing money in real estate investment, what are they going to do? Get a job? They won’t ever make their money back.

The only way they can make the money back is through business. They don’t have the funds. They don’t have the credit to get a loan so they get started. Finally, they’re looking into network marketing. I would tell them this is a great time to do it. Also if they had a bad experience before, people are more open than ever to a side hustle. When we were growing up, people were thinking more of the traditional route, go to school, get a job and retire. We all know that doesn’t work well. You see the gig economy, people doing gigs.

People are more open to network marketing than ever. The thing is I would ask them why and then I’ll immediately find a way to provide value to them. I share a tip with them. Neighbors used to talk about the situation. They don’t know me that well. People only buy from people they know, like and trust. I’ll find a way to give value. Give a smart tip. It could be anything. It could be a health tip, exercise tip or something to help them. When you give something to them, there’s that deposit in a networking bank account.

Immediately, they feel like they owe you something and they went, “Simon’s a person that’s caring.” I’m not out there for the quick sale. I want to help and it goes back to Zig Ziglar. That was a big game-changer. 1) Be consistent. 2) If you help enough people get what they want in life, you get everything you want in life. I focus on helping and then, later on, the signup is going to become easy. All top leaders who made seven figures in a profession, including yourself, know that. It’s about giving and the people naturally will come to you with open arms.

If you help enough people get what they want in life, you get everything you want in life. Click To Tweet

Simon, the last question is how do they reach you and all the services that you provide? You’re doing some great stuff. It’s such an honor to know you, interview you and watch your career. Most importantly, how you’re helping a whole bunch of people all over the world to grow their businesses. Go ahead and tell them how to contact you.

They can go to MLMNation.com or go to Instagram or Facebook, @SimonWChan. Find me there and message me. I’d love to connect with you all. I reply to every single message. I may not reply right away but I’ll get to you and I’ll love to help you out. My final words are it’s not about selling products. It’s about helping others. If you help enough people get what they want in life, you get everything you want in life. Our profession is about helping others so go out, apply what you learn and have a positive impact on someone’s life. God bless you all.

Simon, thank you so much.

Thanks for having me, John.

 

Important Links

• Simon Chan
• Rich Dad Poor Dad
• The Purpose Driven Life
• The Way Forward for Network Marketing
• Network Marketing For Dummies
• The Consistency Pill
• Daily Method of Operation
• Stephen Schwartz
• Julian Segui – LinkedIn
• Tom Kearns
• How to Win Friends & Influence People
• Steve Schwartz – LinkedIn
• Robert G. Allen
• Ideas Are a Dime a Dozen… But The Man Who Puts Them Into Practice is Priceless
• Heads-Up Baseball
• Simon W. Chan – Instagram
• @SimonWChan – Facebook

 

About Simon Chan

Simon is a follower of Jesus Christ, a husband, a father, a speaker, the author of the Amazon best seller, The Consistency Pill and the Founder of MLM Nation: #1 MLM training on iTunes.

He is regarded as “The Oprah of MLM”, having interviewed over 500+ top income earners from around the world.

He got started in network marketing in 2003 and eventually built a team of over 200,000 distributors, creating a 7 figure MLM business for his family.

In 2013, he retired from building MLM to become a full time business coach, speaker and online marketer who helps network marketing distributors with Online Duplication, the same strategies he used to build his global team.