Leave Nothing To Chance

 

Network marketing is all about the art of inviting. You are inviting people into your company or product. You just need to be able to believe in whatever you’re selling. That is why network marketing is so important. Join your host John Solleder and his guest, Keith Hooper, as they talk about some different types of invitations. Learn the art of invitation from sharing an idea to looking at what you’re looking for. Listen in, take down notes, and become a master in network marketing today.

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The Art Of Inviting With John Solleder And Keith Hooper

Here we are at the end of November, November 30th, 2021 to be exact. What we’re doing now over these next five Tuesdays is a little bit of training, teaching, and getting ready for 2022 as Keith Hooper joins me and helps me out with this episode on invitations and the art of the invite. What brings me to mind is how important it is that we continue to build our businesses even throughout the holidays, so we want to give you some things that you can do as far as invitations. Maybe some people will push you off in 2022. That’s fine. No big deal, but the art of the invitation is what we’re going to talk about.

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Welcome to the show, Keith Hooper. How are you?

I’m good, John. It’s interesting to be talking about this art because the best part about this art is it’s a skill. Everybody can learn it and they can transfer it to others, the power of what we do here with network marketing.

The art of the invite. That’s where it all starts. When you were invited into the business, do you remember what the person said or how they got you to take a look?

I was at the Amtrak station and the guy was there. He was picking up his kids or something. We started a little conversation and he had a seem like a nice guy. He said, “I spend a fortune looking for people with your skillsets. Would you have time to have a cup of coffee?”

It’s an invite. It was the same with me. I was invited by a guy named Tommy Houston, who I knew from high school wrestling days. He had gone off to school in Pennsylvania and I had gone off to school in Pennsylvania and then came back to New Jersey. We ran into each other after several years of not seeing each other. He told me about something he was doing and said, “Would I be interested if I spent $32, I could start my own business.” I was about to graduate college and that was his invitation. It sounded good. Here we are now. Many years later, I am still doing this and teaching it to people all over the world. Let’s talk about the invitation. I’ve made some notes on this, Keith.

It’s your show. I’m not going to interrupt you anyway. We’ve known each other for many years. I hope I might take good notes because this is a rare opportunity. Most of the time, you’re hearing John interview other people and you want to take notes here because this is the guy that’s at the top of the skills of network marketing.

The best thing about these network marketing skills is they transfer to all of your other businesses, whether they’re in the real estate business, car business, or if you own gardening service. There are a lot of skills that you’re going to learn and John has mastered them all. Often on this show, you hear him asking questions and interviewing others. Now, It’s a unique opportunity, and It’s my pleasure to be here with you now, John.

 

One of the things I’ve done over the years is I use an invitation where I share an idea. What does that mean? If I know something about the person that I’m talking to and most of the time, 9 times out of 10, you know what they do for a living, their kids, or you know them through an activity that their kids are involved with. You know that they’re an accountant, lawyer, doctor, driving truck, school teacher or whatever that they do for a living. I came up with a thing called Share An Idea many years ago, where if I knew, for example, when you were a rancher, Keith, I would say to you, “Keith, can I share an idea that’s been a benefit to other ranchers?” What would you say to that?

Absolutely, John.

It’s an open-ended question. The person is going to react to it saying, “Sure, tell me about it. What is it?” That shared idea concept has worked well for me. I plugged that in so if you know what the person does for a living, in particular, it helps because you can say, “Can I share an idea that’s been beneficial to other lawyers, doctors, chiropractors, dentists, accountants, and school teachers?” Most people, fortunately, are not closed-minded to sharing an idea that says exactly what the teacher said, “Tell me what it is?” It gets the conversation going.

We’ll talk about near the end of this how to transition the conversation, the tools to use, immediate tools and all that stuff. You got to get the conversation going. You got to get the other person to start to play what I call a mental tennis game with you. You can envision a sport of tennis. I say to Keith, “Can I share an idea?” He says, “What is it?” I say, “The other ranchers like yourself have benefited by it.” He says, “What is it?” He opened the door now for me to tell him. Once again, we’ll plug into tools here as we go but the share-an-idea concept worked very well for me.

Another one is respect. You’re not quite a bit older than me, but you’re older than me. Keith has a lot more business experience in the real world of business than I do. I’ve been in network marketing forever. I haven’t been in that many traditional businesses along the way, dabbled here and there. I had some investments, but he spent traditional business most of his life. I have great respect for his business acumen. When I called Keith and I said, “Keith, I’ve gotten involved with something and with all of your years of business, I would love for you to look at it.” What did I do? How do you feel when I say that to you?

It makes me feel good. That’s what this business is all about.

This is called The Respect Invitation. We all have people on our list that we know, whether it’s the brother-in-law with more education than you, your sister with more experience in the business than you, or your next-door neighbor who speaks five languages and you only speak one, whatever it happens to be, you go with that respect idea, “I got involved with something and looking for you to look at it. Can you give me your opinion because I value your opinion?” I’ve respected that person for who they are, what they know, what they’ve experienced in life and in business.

Network marketing is a skill that everybody can learn and transfer to others. Click To Tweet

They may come back and not give you all the information or all the affirmation that you’re looking for. They might tell you that you’re crazy but what you’ve done is you’ve started that mental tennis game of going back and forth, where he says, “John respects me enough that he’s called me up on what’s my opinion on this product, opportunity or business I’m getting involved.” That’s the respect invitation.

The next one is what I call The Point of Difference. Not everybody wants to be in a business that everybody else is in. What makes your company or your product different than the guy down the street? When I talk about the point of difference, if I contacted Keith, you have got to see what it is that I found. It is truly unique, different, not one of many. It’s one of a kind.

If you’ve got that type of product, opportunity, or compensation model that you think is different than everybody else, that’s your point of difference invitation where I would call Keith up and the particular product that I mark has almost 47 years of evidence-based science. I’m not going to tell Keith about the executives in my company. What for? I’m not going to tell him about the pay plan. What I’m going to tell Keith about is what makes my brand different than the guide on the streets brand? Keith, do you want to comment on that a little bit?

The point that we’re talking about is the skillset of the invitation of the points of difference. What’s important to the person that you’re talking to? Whatever the strength of your company, you’re going to have, hopefully, all three. You’re going to have a great product, fair and equitable compensation plan, and good or great management.

When everybody you’re talking to is going to be one of those three, it’s going to be important to them. You can tailor your invitation about whichever one of those it is. If you’re talking to somebody and they’re real business-minded, they may want to know about the company ownership and they may want to know about the compensation plan or how their pay works before you get into the product.

You can also have, which I believe is the majority of the people, is what this product that you’re marketing is? What makes it unique? Why can’t I get it someplace else? How are we going to move this? That invitation is tailored to all three, John. That’s the important part. I hope everybody is paying attention to this show that John is doing for you. This invitation will make or break your business. This is the foundation of your businesses that are to the invitation or what is better. It’s a skill because it’s a transferrable job.

Here’s the fourth invitation. Have you found what you’re looking for an invitation I call this? All of us have had conversations with people perhaps in 2020 while the pandemic has been going on where somebody says, “I wish I could find a product that does this or a product that does that.” If you’re in a weight-loss area network marketing, which a lot of you are, you have a lot of people that have gained that supposedly COVID-15, which is probably more like COVID-30 by now.

 

They say, “I’d like to find a way to shed those fifteen that I gained being at home.” All of a sudden, you’re in a weight-loss business or maybe somebody says, “I have no energy because I’m home all the time. I don’t have the discipline that I used to go to the gym if I had more energy.” A lot of us sell energy products. Somebody says, “I wish I could find something for your immune system.” Somebody says, “I’ve got that problem. I want to get stronger. I’m at the gym. I’m not getting stronger. I’m stuck.” Some of you sell products that are performance-related.

You can pick whatever category that your company features and does well. The point is to go back to those people who have stated to you something to the effect of, “I’m frustrated with this or that in my life.” No matter what product category you sell, most people have recognized, “I better have a plan B financially. I better start to have some other income coming into the household besides what I got from my job,” or maybe they had unemployment for a while. Everybody is in that circumstance.

When you use that, have you found what you’re looking for? 9 times out of 10 are going to tell you, “I still haven’t found that product. I still haven’t found that plan B. I’m open to stuff. I’m looking. What do you got?” That’s going to be their natural reaction. Keith, if I called you up and said, “I found a product that helped me lose fifteen pounds during the pandemic.” What would your response be?

Where do I get it? That’s the point, John. Everybody is looking for something. Our invitation is simply to find out what are they looking for? Show them how what we’re doing with who and who we’re doing it with. We’ll help them get what they’re looking for. Use that invitation.

You can even go one step further on that, on the financial end. Even if they say, “I haven’t been looking for anything for a while.” Let me tell you something. They may say that but they don’t mean that because anybody who’s not hooked up with this economy, whether you live here in the States, Canada, Europe or in Mexico.

If you’re reading what Keith and I are talking about here, people are concerned, your neighbors, your friends, the people you are going to see over the holiday season, they’re concerned about what 2022 is going to look like, and they should be. Have they found what they’re looking for is that plan B to back up whatever plan A is? Chances are already haven’t found it because if they did, they’d probably be contacting you with an invitation to take a look at whatever it is that they found, as that plan B.

Sometimes check over at people who say, “I’m not in it for the month.” “Let me give you my address and you can send it to me because I’m in it to help people, for the money and help other people make money.” The people that tell you that they’re not interested in money are the people that are calling you up trying to borrow. Let’s get a better way. Let’s get them hooked into what we’re doing here in network marketing and opportunity, whose time has come.

Network marketing skills can transfer to all your other businesses, whether it's in real estate or a car business. Click To Tweet

With everything we’re dealing with now, with all the things that we can do and what you’re doing here with the show when people are able to learn, what I refer to John, everybody has that non-performing asset and that’s contact capital that they haven’t figured out how to contact and share with what they’re doing. That’s why they want to stay here for the work you’re doing here with the rest of the show.

The next one that we’re talking about is what I call the locking arms principle. Now you have friends like I have friends that have been in network marketing and maybe they didn’t succeed to the level that they wanted to succeed or they even did and their company, for whatever reason, had an issue, their company is not around anymore, the opportunity is not around anymore, or they got busy with something else in their life and they stopped working the business. They have a little downline and it withered away. It happens. That’s network marketing and that’s life. That’s every business for the most part. If we don’t pay attention to it, it will go away.

I have a perfect example. I’m talking to a friend of mine, and his name is Larry. He’s been in network marketing before. He’s very familiar with our product, he’s used and likes our product. He said he had good results with it, “If you want to get serious about this in 2022, you want to lock arms with me for the first couple of months of 2022. I’ll lock arms with you. I’ll give you my full undivided attention on the people that you bring and the people that we know mutually.” Most of the time, we’re talking to another networker. Some of the same people, “What about Bob, Mary, Sue, or Pete? What are they up to? Have you talked to them? Maybe they live in the same community or they were in the same company before.”

Whatever it happens to be, you tell me you’re going to lock arms. Of course, you keep your word. You bring that person in as long as they salute your proverbial flag, “We’re going to do a call now at 7:00 and another call tomorrow at 2:00. Get some guys. Let’s get going here. Let’s get your business moving. Let me help you. I can only help you if you help yourself.” That’s the lock on arms invitation.

I’ve used that very effectively through the years to get people who’ve been in the industry, whether they’ve been successful in some cases, modestly successful, or had no success. I’ll be like, “I’m here to help you and I’m going to give you 60 days of my full undivided attention, which means whatever you need, I’m there for it.” Within reason, of course.

If you want to borrow $10,000, probably not, but if you want to get to work or save, “I got one guy at 7:00 tonight. I can’t talk to this guy tomorrow afternoon. He wants to be talked to at 3:00. I’m at my regular job.” “This is my full-time job. I’ll call that guy for you. I’ll go through all the details. I’ll send them whatever you need and, of course, he’s your guide. He signs up. He’s going to be under you.” Keith, I know you’ve recruited some good networkers. Have you used a principle like that?

A friend of ours many years ago made an audiotape, so that goes back to the point of, “I hate recruiting and network marketing but I wouldn’t mind getting rich.” That’s working together. It’s building that team, leverage of time and effort, and leveraging both. The point that we’re doing here is we’re helping people leverage their time, contacts and doing it in a way that they can set themselves free financially over a 2 to 5-year plan. It’s not 2 to 5 weeks or 2 to 5 hours. Some people look at 2 to 5 hours. You’ve got to learn the skillsets, the art of the invitation or the skill of the invitation. It’s a skill because it’s transferrable.

 

You’re going to hear some other great things coming up here with John as to how you communicate with those people is the next step of this. You’ve invited them, their friends, and their contacts. You met them at the grocery store. The guy that I talked about at the train station, I had never met before. I didn’t know who he was. We were standing at the platform, waiting for people coming in on an Amtrak track, but I struck up that conversation with a stranger. You can do that too, but you have to work on those skillsets and we’re going to get into that next part here, John.

Keith, how important is that? What you said is there’s this guy was a total stranger. He approached you. Here you are 30 plus years later, you’ve had very successful downlines and organizations. You made a lot of income from this type of business. You’ve never given up your ranching interests and your other business interests at the same time, this has been a perfect plan B in your case, but it goes back to something.

One of the people that I interviewed, Lindsey Buboltz, who lives up in Omaha and is a nice lady, mentioned the fact that a person approached her shortly after she had contemplated suicide. She was on the highway. She was at her wit’s end with some things that had occurred in her personal life. The very next day, somebody talked to her about an opportunity. What she needed at that point in her life was an opportunity.

Not just financially, she needed the distraction from some very serious things that had occurred in her family. She wouldn’t even tell it to the interview. Read her story if you want but that’s how serious it is. We don’t know who we’re talking to how we can change their life and that leads me to my last point on the invitation.

If I could, John, before you move on to the next part, that’s powerful because you want to think about this. You’re saying, “So-and-so, they wouldn’t be interested.” They wouldn’t be interested in network marketing, making some additional income, sharing this product with their family and friends. You don’t know where they are. The number one thing that people are looking for now is a way to make a difference.

It doesn’t matter if they’re in their 20s, 70s, 80s or so on. People want to make a difference. In network marketing, they have that ability. Think about it. You’re talking to somebody. Maybe that person is a college professor, but they retired. They’re used to teaching and transferring knowledge to people to make a difference and now they don’t have that anymore. Network marketing affords them the ability to be able to share information, make a difference and earn some additional income as well, John.

It is perfect because of the point about Lindsey’s story, for example. The other invitation is what I call the belief one. It may not work well with a stranger on train tracks like that. Tommy Houston, when he invited me to look at the company that we looked at many years ago, his belief was so strong in what he was doing. I didn’t have to hear his words. He was so strong in telling me about Mark Hughes, Larry Donaldson, products that he had found, about his belief. I didn’t even have to listen to all the detail because I saw Tommy was legitimately excited about what he was doing.

The number one thing that people are looking for today is a way to make a difference. Click To Tweet

Ask yourself, what’s your story? What’s your belief in what you’re doing? If you believe in your product, tell somebody about it. Don’t make crazy claims. Don’t make claims that the FDA is going to knock on your door or do anything irrational like that but certainly share with people what the products have done for you? Whatever that product happens to be.

We’re all in companies that we’ve got a product that we believe and always shouldn’t be there, frankly. If we don’t believe in your product, you can’t fake it for very long. Realistically, people will figure you out. Therefore, find a product you believe in. That does not mean that you have to have the results that everybody else gets. I started on the product that I sold when I was 35. I did not have the results that my then 69-year-old mother had. Our health was different.

However, I saw what was happening with her and with others. I knew I felt good on this particular product. I did not have some dramatic results with it, but I knew it worked because I saw other people whose health wasn’t necessarily good getting results that built my belief. That’s what I’m talking about the belief one. Share your story with people. Feel free to tell people, “Let me tell you something. We all need to clean up our health.”

I want to get off of politics here or anything else here but I believe America is the greatest country in the world. That doesn’t mean if you don’t live in America, your country is not great. Canada is great. England’s great. A lot of great countries in the world but the United States is great because we have a lot of choices. We’ve always had a lot of choices.

Find that thing that you believe in that you’re passionate about that you’re willing to share with people because that’s where the invitation doesn’t matter. You could almost go up to them and say nothing, but they’re going to tell from your face, “Hold up your product.” They’re going to go, “I want what he wants. I want what she’s on because they’re going to get the next.” It’s like that movie, Keith. What was that movie with Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks was in it many years ago? They’re sitting in a restaurant and a woman at the next table. What was it?

She’s sitting in there and the one woman said, “I’ll have what she has.”

That’s what we’re talking about. I go say, “You could tell somebody is legitimately excited.”

 

You can look at that because that’s what you call enthusiasm. A point that you’re talking about here, John, is that you can’t fake that. You have to believe in your company, product, and management. If you don’t, the invitation is going to be hard to come across because it’s going to have a crack in your presentation. Get solid in your belief in your company. That’s very important, John.

Let’s move on, Keith. Many years ago, one of the mentors and I got many mentors in my life in different categories. I know you have too, but one of them was a gentleman by the name of Joe Gandolfo. I only met Joe once very briefly. He was the top insurance salesman in the world. The first person in history that could document $1 billion in sales in one year. He was pretty good at what he did. He lives down in Lakeland, Florida. Joe wrote many different books and I spent a short time in the insurance industry, which is how I got exposed to Joe. I love Joe’s writing because it was so basic and it made so much sense.

Joe Gandolfo had a book called Selling is 98% Understanding Human Beings… 2% Product Knowledge. That refutes what we said about the belief. Let that be the 2%, either your story or other people’s stories with your product that they see you’re enthusiastic and believe in and the other 98% is understanding human beings. Here’s what a leading up to Keith and how to approach them properly?

We’re two old guys. We grew up in a time where we used the telephone to communicate if somebody wasn’t sitting right in front of us. We had a telephone and we had the ability to meet somebody at Starbucks or the equivalent, depending on when and where they wanted it to meet, or in your living room or their living room.

All of those options still exist, but because of technology, there are a lot of people, especially younger people than Keith and I, including my own son, who I talked to by text more than I talked to him. Meet people where they are. Every good company has invested in tools. I’m sure your company has good videos. I’m sure your company has good presentations on your product, on your business, how it works and how to communicate it to somebody. When I say, “Selling is 98% understanding human beings, meet them where they are.”

In other words, if they are somebody in your relationship with them is over Facebook instant Messenger. That is how you communicate with them, both in writing and also what you’re going to send them your 3-minute presentation by video, your 15-minute presentation, whatever you decide based on the conversation with them, the appropriate thing is your 10-minute whatever your company has. Of course, you fit the tool. You know the company’s tools, but meet them where they are.

If your relationship with them is over Telegram, WhatsApp, TikTok, or any of the other social media, if that’s how you normally communicate with this person, that’s how you need to communicate about your opportunity. Our mutual friend, Randy Gage, Keith says something funny. He says, “You contact somebody under 40 by telephone. If they think something’s wrong, they call the police on you. They think something’s up.” You meet them where they are. It’s okay for me to call Keith because he’s still on his phone. It’s okay for him to call me. I still answered my telephone.

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For the most part, you got to meet people where they are. Otherwise, you might offend them or they may not even look there. When it comes down to how you’re going to communicate? You have to communicate with them how they want to be communicated with. You may sponsor people and maybe you already have.

You’re sitting there laughing right now, saying, “I already sponsor people like that all over the internet.” Another young lady that I interviewed, Carissa Rogers, is out of Florida. She’s about 40 in 2021. I’ve known her since she’s a little girl. Believe it or not, her mom was in my downline in a company, a good friend of mine still. I’ve known her daughter since she was 8 or 9 years old. She has her own family.

Carissa only deals on the internet. She very rarely talks on the telephone. All Carissa’s invitations to people, all of her information that goes back and forth when she’s recruiting them, is over the internet, 100% of it and she’s built some nice downlines and some nice income over the last decade by doing that. If I called Carissa and I tried to recruit her over the telephone, she wouldn’t even take my call. It would go to her voicemail that she may never listen to.

Let this be words of wisdom from an older guy to the younger folks reading this. If you’re going to recruit an older person, you can use those same technologies but meet them where they are. If they want a telephone call or they want the Zoom call, like you’re looking at this on, by all means, schedule it and schedule it around them. Give them an option, “I’d love to meet you on Zoom now, Keith. Can we meet tonight at 7:00 or 2:00 tomorrow afternoon work better on your schedule?”

Workaround your schedule and schedule something that they’re comfortable with. Why? A lot of people are visual. I can send presentations, videos, information electronically, but for somebody that’s over 50, let’s say, for the most part, they want to be dealt with, “I want to see something. I want to see you and talk to you. I want you to explain to me. I read this compensation thing or I watched the video on it. It’s great, but I don’t understand it. I want to talk to you.” Don’t feel that you can’t get on Zoom or if they’re in your neighborhood, meet them at their home, at your home, at Starbucks, at some mutually convenient place, once again, to communicate.

There are all of these different ways that exist, it’s great and it’s wonderful. Meet them where they are, but also be willing to meet people where they’re not in your world. I started out not very comfortable with IM, TikTok, WhatsApp and all these other things. I may not be good at it, but I’ve learned how to use them.

John, you’re making a point, talking to people into your business. You’re going to have people that love face-to-face and do phone calls or hate the phone calls. People that love instant Messenger or hate instant messenger. People that use TikTok and people that say that grandfather clock in the corner that’s going on TikTok. You’re going to meet all of those people but what’s important to understand is there are people successful in your business and in network marketing, using each and every one of those skills that they liked.

 

It doesn’t matter how you want to do it. My friend years ago used to say, “Ever how you want to build the business. We have a way to do that.” The idea is to find out where people are at. Find out how they want to communicate with them. Communicate with them but transfer the knowledge that when they’re sponsoring people, bringing those people into the business, and partnering with them, then you need to respect how those people want to communicate. That’s where you’ll build an empire. Build an empire by inviting people to find out what we do here in network marketing, John.

Now has been all about the invitation. What we’re going to do next show is on the art of communication. Exactly what we’re talking about here, because we can do that right now, but I don’t want to rush through it. I think we want to go through some of the ways to communicate with the proper texts and language, so we don’t offend people. We keep things clean and legitimate. Don’t forget, folks, as we end this segment, accurate communication allows progress, and I’d love Keith’s reaction to that.

That’s what it’s about. It’s about communicating accurately in what you’re doing. We have a legitimate business. I share with people. Oftentimes, I say, “What do we do?” Whatever you want to say to that, I’m not going to coach you that far. You decide what you want to say, but here’s what I can tell you. In many years here with the company that I’m with, I started a company and it cost me less than $1,000 to get started. We’ve done almost over $150 million in sales in 2020 alone. I did that with no employees, no product, no shipping, no returns, no credit card, and no theft, none of those issues that go with that. If you’ve got a better business model than that, call them.

I think that’s part of these invitations depends on who you’re talking to, but all of you have those stories, skillsets, and these stories that are within you. Hone and refine them, and that’s what you’re doing here with the show. The things that you learn from John and his guests is to take these stories, skills, hone them so you become a master tradesman with these skills, and you can build yourself an empire.

Don’t forget, folks. Moving Up: 2020 and Beyond is still available. Both Keith and I wrote together on Amazon, the bestseller, by the way. Of course, there will be a Spanish version of it. Leaving Nothing to Chance is based on the book, Leave Nothing to Chance. Holidays are coming. You’re all looking for gifts for your downline.

Amazon will do the shipping for you. Once again, feel free to purchase the books. We don’t make a lot of people think you get rich make writing books. I can assure you, you don’t. If you’re Stephen King, maybe. Those guys do, but you don’t a network marketing. You write them as a labor of love like we do this show because we want you to grow.

Keith, I think we’ll close on this. I don’t remember exactly who it was, but I remember, I was listening to a very wealthy man one night speak, and he said, “Do you know why we do want people to be successful because we pay less taxes when other people are successful. We don’t have to take the burden all by ourselves.” We want you to be successful. Not only because we pay less taxes, but because we understand what success is and how important it is for your family. With that, Keith, thank you for your time and that next episode on communication.

Important Links:

• Keith Hooper
• Lindsey Buboltz – Previous episode
• Selling is 98% Understanding Human Beings… 2% Product Knowledge
• Carissa Rogers – Previous episode
• Moving Up: 2020 and Beyond
• Leave Nothing to Chance