Leave Nothing To Chance

 

Men dominate the marketplace. And despite the many rising opportunities these days, women in business still find it hard to break through the industry. Joining John Solleder is key influencer Taylor Thompson in discussing how businesswomen can start to step up and take responsibility in creating their own success. They talk about how women should have a deep sense of self-confidence to work alongside men and their stereotypical perspectives, allowing themselves to go beyond self-doubt and impostor syndrome. Taylor also shares her work in bridging the gap between women and direct selling through The SheNetwork, wherein she spends time guiding ladies to navigate the market through proper collaboration strategies and leadership skills.

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The SheEO Leader With Taylor Thompson

It is my privilege to introduce a long-term industry friend of mine. She’s somebody who has been around the industry for a long time and has become a key influencer in training both men and women, but doing a heck of a job leading a lot of women in helping them to build their distributorships, build their own businesses, and deal with everything that’s been going on especially in 2020. Let me welcome my dear friend, Taylor Thompson. Welcome, Taylor.

How are you?

I’m great. This is fun that we are getting to do this together. Taylor, I know you’ve been in the industry for a long time. Why don’t you share how you got started?

It’s hard to think about whenever you say a long time because I still feel like I’m in my 30s and just getting started. I started many years ago and that’s a hard thing to say. I didn’t start looking for a business. I was not that girl. I was a West Texas girl, born and raised. I was raised in a trailer park, in a mobile home. Some people may not even know what a mobile home is. I was the least likely person to have a business and be in business for themselves. What happened for me after graduating from college, my husband at the time had an injury in the NFL. We had a brand-new baby and my priorities changed. Everything changed for me. I know that moms reading out there, once you hold the baby for the first time, all of your personal aspirations and dreams go by the wayside because everything becomes about them. We left LA. We were back in West Texas again, full circle. I wanted an opportunity. I wanted to be able to make money from home. That was before internet, that was before cell phones. Most people wouldn’t even know what that looks like in their life. Phones were wired to the wall and they weren’t even mobile.

I started answering ads in the newspaper. Some people may not even know what a newspaper is like, where they had these personal one ads and how to work from home. They had all these stuffed envelopes. I know people go, “What is she talking about?” You had to mail money and I believe this. I was so desperate. I mailed off money to think I’m going to be stuffing envelopes for some company and they’re going to pay me to do this from home. I started answering ads because I was so desperate to have mom care versus daycare.

Whenever you can speak the right language to the right audience to create the right behavior, you've got a winning formula. Click To Tweet

If I could make $800 working from home, I felt like that was equivalent to me working full-time and paying for daycare. That was my offset. Moms reading this right now, I’m sure you’ve probably done your own calculations. What would that look like? What could that look like? Could I have mom care versus daycare? To me, just the thought of that, you can’t put a monetary value on. I started answering these ads. A lot of people may have heard the company called Herbalife. Keep in mind, I just had a baby and I was answering these ads. They were like, “It’s Herbalife.” I’m being like, “God, I don’t want to sell anything. I’m not doing that.”

The funny part about it is there was this little red-headed lady that lived across the street from me. In her driveway, she had this car and there were all these bumper stickers, these magnetic signs around her car that said, “Lose weight now. Ask me how.” I’m like, “Is that what it looks like to sell that product?” I can’t even imagine driving around a vehicle like that. I had my preconceived ideas about what it looked like to sell something. Yet I was willing to stuff envelopes or do something crazy, and I kept answering these ads. I sent off for this booklet that I paid for. There’s supposed to be all these different opportunities in. I made beaded jewelry. I got a beaded jewelry kit. In between, I’m answering all these Herbalife ads. Keep in mind, many years ago, the opportunities were small whenever you talked about selling anything, but Herbalife was very prevalent.

My last straw was I was literally processing goat hair out of my bathtub. I know you’re raising your eyebrows at me, “What are you even saying, Taylor? What is that?” They sent me this box and I thought that I was going to be making doll’s hair. It sounded legit because baby dolls have hair, and that’s what they make doll’s hair with. People do things out of two reasons, inspiration or desperation. To me, that was the epitome of desperation whenever I had goat hair, little shaved off of a goat in my bathtub that I took a bath in, thinking that I was going to make money doing this. I’ll never forget the moment that I looked at it and I started bawling because I thought, “Is anything going to work? Is anything truly legitimate?” I was broken. I know it’s funny now whenever I say that like how ridiculous, but this is a true story. I can’t make this stuff up.

I went back to answering ads in the newspaper. I answered an Herbalife ad. It’s one of those things that as people go through things, your perspective changes. As you go through challenges, you hear things with a different set of ears. You see things with a different set of eyes as you change. What happened for me is they told me this story. They were sharing with me about this couple that lived in a little bitty town in West Texas, not very far from where I lived in. It was a small town. This couple was making $10,000 a month. You have to understand, I never believed for a minute that somebody like me from the other side of the tracks could make $10,000. What I did hear in that story is that if somebody, not very far from where I lived in a little bitty town could make $10,000 a month, surely I, a processor of goat hair, could make $800. That story is what got me. It did change the trajectory of my life because I called myself ignorance on fire.

Before, whenever I’d heard these stories, they were trying to get me on their products. Even though I needed to lose weight after having a baby, I couldn’t hear that because I couldn’t make the connection of, I have to buy the products and how does that work? Because they led with this story about money, and then they said, “You get on the products and then that’s what you talk about.” For me, that made sense. I got on the products. My first week, I lost 5 pounds. I made $420 in my first seven days. My first 30 days, I dropped 28 pounds. I went from a size 14 to a size 6. I made $2,400 in my first 30 days in the business. I knew nothing. I call myself ignorance on fire. I was talking to anything and everything that could breathe. That’s how I got my start. I got a set of Millionaire Training tapes. I was very fortunate to come into this learning-teaching environment that somebody like me could have a business.

 

Remember that little red-headed lady from across the street, she was my upline. I think about that because she lived right across the street, but it took an ad in the newspaper to get me. That was Tish Rochin, the lady truck driver. She’s the first Herbalife distributor in the state of Texas. Also, the mentor to millionaires, Larry Thompson, the strategist behind that. Larry had already left Herbalife right as I was coming in, but I felt like I knew him because everything that our culture was built around was Larry’s teaching and training like meeting protocols and, “Larry would never let that happen.” It was Larry this, Larry that. This guy must have walked on water. That was the environment that I grew up with. There was Larry Thompson, Jim Rohn, Millionaire Training. It set the course for my business and laid the foundation for what I know to be true even to this day.

It’s a good foundation as you know I would agree with. That’s where I started way back. This was many years ago. Now your daughters are all grown and are all doing well. You work the Herbalife business as a distributor for how many years?

It was until about 2002 and there are a lot of stories in between all of this stuff. I went from being a stay-at-home mom of three to a single mom of three doing my business. At that time, Mark Hughes had passed away in 2000. In August of 2000 is the first time that I got to meet Larry. There was a presidential summit that was taking place. Tish took ten of our top distributors in our organization to meet and work with Larry. That was the first time that I met Larry ever face to face. I’ll never forget, I was the last person out of the limousine. His closet was bigger than the house that I was living in at that time. It was in Hidden Valley at the top of this mountain, this 25,000 square foot mansion. I’d never seen anything like that in my life. I’m West Texas girl. I was in awe.

He was coming down the stairs. Everybody had already gone into the training room. I met him and shook his hand for the very first time. I don’t know if you believe in love at first sight and I didn’t know that I thought that. I thought I was a groupie like, “What is wrong with me? What is happening with you?” It was the craziest thing. It was a working relationship that we established. It wasn’t even a couple of years later that we had our first date. We became the best of friends. It was a tough time in my life being a single mom. We became spiritual confidants more than anything. I know this is the personal side of the story, but I would go out on dates and I couldn’t wait to come home and tell him about my date. We were that kind of friends.

I got to the point where I didn’t even care about the date. It wasn’t about getting home and telling him about the date. It was about getting home because I wanted to talk to Larry. It didn’t make sense because he was in California, I’m a single mom in Texas, and I’ve got three little girls. How does this even work? Am I crazy? I guess God had a funny sense of humor. We ended up having our first date almost two years later after we met. We’ve been together ever since. Whenever we started doing business together, that’s when I walked away from my Herbalife business to do marketing consulting with him because I couldn’t do both.

Men are always trying to fix women, but what they really want is simply to be heard. Click To Tweet

Let’s do a little segue here, Taylor. Women have become the dominant force in our industry for a lot of good reasons, but you’ve got a bird’s eye view because you’re training, coaching, and mentoring so many of them at all different ages right now. Why does a woman look at network marketing as opposed to all the other business ventures such as franchising and other types of businesses that one could be in? Why is this industry so good for women to be in as opposed to any of those other things?

I believe that this business was designed for women. You’ve heard the term whenever you think about social media, whenever you heard the term about social selling because women are so relational. I always said that women will join a cause before she joins a business. Whenever you look at our space as a whole, there are causes and mission statements all over the place, whether it’s to help people with their health, energy, or finances. A lot of companies use their mission statement to attract women because they want to share something that’s going to be of service, or share something that they feel valuable. With the technical world that we live in especially, it allows that message to be communicated faster, quicker, and better. It’s like women talking over coffee. What do we talk about? We talk about our kids. We talk about going to the store when there was a sale, “I bought these shoes. You’re not even going to believe, I’m working out at this place. Have you tried this workout wear?” That’s who we are and what we talk about.

Men and women not only assimilate information differently, but we disseminate information differently. Especially what I’ve seen evolve over the last several years, you talk about an industry that was primarily dominant with men, whenever you look back when Larry started, the Cadillac-driving, whiskey-drinking, the meetings. Can you even imagine what it was like whenever he started with guys drinking whiskey and smoking cigars in a meeting? That doesn’t even compute. As these things evolved, it’s something that Larry and I teach that we always felt strong about was the Thompson Rule, the 80, 15, and 5. Eighty percent of your business will be that person that wants to make $500 to $1,000 a month. That was me, $800 a month. Whenever you create spaces like what I had, that learning, teaching environment, or belief.

Belief determines behavior and whenever you could create a community especially with social media, it allows that incubator process to be cultivated for women. I mentioned that I came in because of a story. It allowed me to say, “If it works for them, maybe it might work for me.” It allows the stories. It allows the vision to expand because it’s in front of them all the time. We didn’t have those kinds of things. It had to be an invite to a meeting concept. Women were home taking care of the kids. They didn’t have those social outlets to necessarily be able to invite somebody to a meeting or invite somebody through a phone call because they were busy taking care of the house or working then coming home taking care of kids. I don’t think it was as conducive to lifestyle as it is now.

For me, it’s more natural. What happens is that men create the stumbling blocks. They want to make the women like they are. They don’t understand. They don’t speak our language. I don’t know if you’ve ever read that book, Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus. It’s so true. Being in the consulting space, working with companies and stuff, and you see all the CEOs. I can’t even tell you how many boardrooms I’ve sat in and being the only woman sitting at the table with all these men, and they’re making these decisions. I’m like, “That’s stupid. I would never do that. I would never say that. I would never try to implement that.” They don’t understand who their audience is. Larry and I teach one of our pillars is audience, language and behavior. Whenever you can speak the right language to the right audience to create the right behavior, you’ve got a winning formula. I think that the stage is set for women especially to thrive because it’s who we are.

 

It’s funny that you say that because we are different. It’s okay to be different. Men and women are different. A number of years ago, I was in Toronto and I went to this show called The Caveman Defends His Life. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen it. It’s a one-man show. The guy is hysterical. It did start here in Texas. I think the guy was from here. The guy goes through these whole scenarios about the difference between women and men. One of the things I remember from that is he said, “What we don’t understand as guys is that a woman uses 7,000 words a day, and this is according to anthropology by the way. A man uses about 2,000.” A guy comes home from work and the wife says, “How was your day, honey? Tell me this, tell me that.” The guy just grunt because we’ve used our 2,000 words, where the woman still has the words left. Not all women and not all people, I’m generalizing. I’ve always thought that’s a reason why in my businesses, I’ve always preferred women to men.

I love your reaction to this. You were a single mom so you’ll relate to this. I’m not endorsing women to become single moms. If you’re married, please try to stay married, try to keep your family together. I have seen many incredibly strong women like Taylor Thompson and others that I’ve worked with through the years that became single moms. They gave up on that whole notion that some guy is going to ride in on a white horse and take care of everything. It’s like, “Yeah, right. Let me take care of it. Let me have the responsibility. I’ll take care of my finances. I’ll build my business. I’ll take care of my kids. By the way, if the guy shows up on a white horse, terrific. If he doesn’t, I’ll take care of myself.” I love your response to that. Anything that you want to add to that because I’ve seen that pattern in our business and in many companies. I have such tremendous respect for all of our female distributors. You’re working on this every day. You know a lot more about it than I do.

I appreciate you sharing that. The part of the story that I didn’t share with you, John. That was a big catalyst in the demise of my marriage. It was a very abusive situation. What was happening is that the dynamics shifted the more I grew personally in that personal growth, the more I grew my business, the more I grew financially, the intimidation became more and therefore created a very volatile situation. Leaving the situation, I always thought like, “I’ll never be in that situation again. I will never allow somebody to have that control or power over me again.” I think that becomes a part of the mindset, especially for women whenever they don’t feel validated at home or whenever they feel like they’ve lost power and control.

I’ve seen this unfold, especially working with women, that once they get that and once they get that belief that they can do it, and that they do have that control based on their desire and their willingness to do the work, based on those things, that belief increases. It’s like they own it. Once they own that belief in themselves, I don’t know that I’ve ever seen a woman retract, or backed off of that belief in who she is and what she’s capable of. I don’t want any men to be listening and hearing this differently, I’m not about, “I’m a woman, hear me roar.” I’m not that girl. I am an old-fashioned girl and I do like the idea of chivalry and men opening doors and all of those things.

From the Bible, we are helpmates. We don’t walk behind and we don’t walk in front of. We walk alongside of. Whenever you think about that and you think about how we were created, we were created from the side of the man. There’s always synergy to that. I don’t know if I’m answering your question. I feel like that now more than ever, women have the opportunities to believe in themselves because for so long they didn’t have those kinds of opportunities to serve. It isn’t about the money. At some point, the money is not the issue. It’s the fact that we feel valuable. We feel a value. We feel like we’re making a difference. To my point to what I said at the beginning is women will join causes before they join businesses. Whenever you can create a cause for a woman to realize if I’m having an impact, or if I’m making a difference for someone else, it’s inspiring to me. They will walk through the wall for that recognition or that impact, and the money is the secondary like, “By the way.”

Comparison either makes you ego-driven because you're better than others, but more detrimentally, it makes you feel less. Click To Tweet

I’m reflecting on an interview that I did with a lady named Mariel Hawley. She was one of the first Mexican women, but one of the nineteen human beings, male or female, to ever swim the seven oceans of the world. During one of her swims, she was in Moloka‘i. I didn’t know this, but it had been a leper colony at one time. She put the pieces together and she started a charity helping children that have these cleft lips and help to support it. I’m thinking a guy would have missed that. I would have missed it. I would have been caught up in the swim. That would have been where my head was or in my case, it would have been wrestling matches or judo match or whatever I was doing. I would have been focused.

Women are going, “I just swam 21 miles in the ocean, but these kids over here, how do we help them?” I’m not dissing my own gender, but women are so much more aware of what’s going on beyond that narcissism that those guys have, where it’s all about me, or it’s all about us, or it’s all about the moment. What’s the big picture? Comment on that if you would because you work with so many remarkable women that are doing remarkable things or building great businesses, but they’re doing other great things in addition too.

Whenever we talk about The SheNetwork, that’s one of the things about the mission aspect of it. We started getting into personalities. Men are more read, money-driven, blinders on, and they forget the relationship. No offense to men, but if you guys would stop and listen, because most of the time, women just want to be heard, you don’t have to fix us. Men are always looking to fix us and we don’t want to be fixed. We want to be heard. If I could give any advice to any men reading, please listen to what’s being said. I find that sometimes talking to men, they want for them to finish the conversation so they can say what they want to say and not connect to the words that are being spoken. The women will look at the result. The men will look at the activity. The women want to see what the outcome is. They want to know if I do this, what’s the outcome? It’s like a formula. If I invest my time here in doing this activity, what is it? Most of the time, 99% of the time, it is not money-driven. The money supports it, but it’s not money-driven. It is the equation to the means to the end. If I do this, what impact will it have and to whom will it serve?

You’re making a lot of great points. You started the SheNetwork how long ago?

Officially, I didn’t launch it until July 2020.

You were motivated to do that, I’m sure about some of what we’ve already talked about. First of all, what caused you to start this? You’re married to an icon in our industry. You’re around all these network marketing legends and everything else that we talk about. You saw that there was a void in the marketplace for not only women’s voices to be heard certainly, but for something that was missing. You started this movement because you said, “With all the great things that are happening with women in direct selling, there’s still something missing.” What was that thing?

This has been a big journey for me. I had been sitting in church. I can’t even hear the pastor speak sometimes because I’m hearing God put stuff in my brain. I fought it for a long time because I was like, “I don’t have time. I don’t know if I can put anything else on my plate.” I’m being transparent. Whenever it came down to it, what it was I love stories. I feel like that stories or the thing that serve is multifaceted from many different directions. A lot of times I feel that women don’t feel like they’re good enough. They don’t feel like they can measure up. They don’t feel like they’re worthy. I don’t believe that there’s not enough environment that allow them to bloom where they’re planted.

Social media is great but I feel like in some aspects it is derailing. Women are either comparing themselves to other women. It’s such a dangerous spot to be in because comparison does one of two things. It either makes you ego-driven because you’re better than, but more detrimentally, it makes you less than. You have this imbalance. I was seeing lots and lots of women that were shrinking back. I was seeing lots and lots of women being bullied in our space. You know this, John, even though 75% of our business is women, I will tell you that there’s still a double standard. The double standard is this. I don’t know if you remember back in high school. I’m being personal. You have the football star. All the girls are like, “He’s so great.” He’s a rock star and he can do whatever he wants, and you know what I’m talking about. He’s amazing.

You have the cheerleader and all the guys like her. She’s a bad girl. She has a target on her back. They celebrate the football hero, quarterback, but the cheerleader, the pretty girl or whatever, she has a target on her back. It’s the same in network marketing. A man could come in and he planned, he’s a legend. A woman can come in and blow up a marketing plan, who does she think she is? It becomes very rampant in our space. I’ve seen it. To the point where there’s sabotage. I wanted to create a space that allowed for women to flourish, to have them a safe haven. The SheNetwork, SHE is an acronym for Sharing Her Excellence. That’s sharing her experience and expertise. It is important because again, we go back to the story. Whenever you allow the woman to come in and she can share her story and realize her story, that someone, there’s another woman that’s waiting to hear her story that’s going to be empowered. That’s going to go, “If she can overcome that, so can I. If she can get through that and have success like that, so can I.”

I’m very fortunate because I have such amazing relationships with many top-tier women in our space. Whenever I went to them, I want to collaborate and not compete. I want women to be able to generically come in and share their story. You’re geniuses in your own lanes, in your own companies, but other women in other companies don’t see you. They don’t know you. They don’t know what you’ve had to overcome. What if we could come in and share your story and journey, and see that there have been tears on the pillow? There were a lot of challenges you had to overcome, drug addiction, physical abuse, alcoholism. There are so many, and most people only see what they see from the front of the stage. They don’t know the backstory. They don’t know the previous chapters of life. Whenever you come in and they connect, I’m going through this interview and they’re sharing their story, then other women are like, “I had no idea.”

You never know the little nuggets of information that can change everything. Click To Tweet

The idea was to create this ripple effect. Not only in lanes of business, but I wanted it to be this vision that I have, a place where women can connect in whatever area of life they’re in. What if your expertise or your excellence is how to potty train a two-year-old in two weeks? I’m not in that lane of life right now, but how many women right now would love to know that. They’re so focused on trying to potty train their two-year-old that they can’t do their business because they’re trying to do this. There are many hats that women wear, and many responsibilities that we have throughout the day. We are constantly resourcing not only for ourselves but for our families, our husbands. We are the stopgap to everything. We’re not only wives, we’re not only moms, but we’re trying to be entrepreneurs at the same time.

We’ve got to take care of ourselves, look great, be in shape, and be fit. It’s daunting whenever you start thinking about it, but I wanted to create the space that allowed women to be safe and share their stories. The story we shared was she’s a top earner in her company. She went through a miscarriage. That’s a conversation that even women don’t have. They don’t have that spot or they don’t have that place. How encouraging is that going to be to another woman that’s either going through it, been through it, or about to go through it? These conversations are not only business-related, but it’s all the conversations that we want to have with our girlfriends.

It takes me back to the late ‘80s, I was working with a company. For some reason, a lot of single moms involved. One in particular who I interviewed is Arlene Lowy in Pittsburgh. She was a new single mom when I met her. I sponsored her it into the business. I went out to Pittsburgh and I worked with her. I was there like, “I’ll be here for 72 hours, all I want to do is you put as many people in front of me as you can,” which she did. We did $40,000 in business in three days. In the meantime, I stayed at her house. She had an extra room. She said, “Stay at my house.” I watched this woman cook, take care of her four-year-old, take the four-year-old to day school or Hebrew school or whatever he was in at the time. I watched her wear about nine hats.

That’s when it opened my eyes. I said, “Guys don’t deal with this. We deal with business for the most part in network marketing.” We’re dads and we have other roles, but nothing like the woman in the relationship if they’re married, or the woman if they’re single, especially if there’s a kid or two that they’re responsible for. They’re switching hats every five minutes and yet they got all this business done. That’s when it started to open my eyes. I was starting to say, “The women are the dominant force.” To your point, about 75% of our industry is now women. Let me ask you this, first of all, let’s not forget because I want our people to know this. How do they get ahold of The SheNetwork? What’s the website? What’s all the stuff to get to?

The website is MySheNetwork.com. I have a free Facebook group, which is The SheNetwork. It’s a Facebook group that I do the live interviews in there. It’s free for anybody. The website for the membership platform like we have trainings. These top-tier women that come in share their story. What I do is I have them shared training. I give them training and that’s for the members inside of The SheNetwork. There are all sorts of different training, resources from social media to mindset, whatever they feel like every woman needs to know. I have all of those different top-tier women in trainings from financial education to social media, to whatever. I’m getting ready to launch the SheEO Of Your Life. It’s going to have six pillars of different aspects of life for women. It’s being the SheEO Of Your Life and the different pillars from health to financial, emotional, spiritual, business. It’s going to encompass all those different arenas of life that women need to balance or to juggle.

 

Everything that you’re saying here, what I love about this in addition is the fact that as a guy, we don’t understand women. I’m not going to be the first guy to admit that. I think John Gray was the first guy to admit that publicly in a book. I’ve been married a couple of times. I’ve got two daughters. I’ve got two sisters. I don’t understand women. Here’s what I do understand, when a woman gets determined, get out of the way as a guy because you’re going to get run over. To that point, you were working with women generically. You’re not working with women in this company or that company. If it’s a woman and she’s got a problem with her business, personal life, marriage or family, The SheNetwork is there to support them, hold their hand a little bit, encourage them and teach them.

What am I missing? A woman comes and she joins the SheNetwork. It’s a support mechanism to build a business because that’s why they’re there. Network marketing, direct sales, party planner or whatever, and it’s also a support network socially to some degree. Where I’m going with this is this is generic. This is to help women grow their businesses. It’s not myopic that it’s about this company or that company. It’s about women growing their business, etc. What part of that am I not explaining?

Larry and I have positioned ourselves, and we’ll talk about that with our academy in the online upline. For me, that’s the way I want to position and how I’ve positioned myself in this manner from every layer. What I mean by that is because of my big vision. In 2020, I had a SheEO retreat. There were 15 seven-figure earners that we went on a girl’s retreat. I took care of everything. I had a chef come in. I had masseuses come in. All the meals were taken care of. We did yoga. We were on the beach. We took care of everything because I wanted to have a safe place for them to come, let their hair down and be themselves.

Even at that level, we’ve got women who give, give, and give, but they never can get poured back into. I wanted to create that space for these top-tier women here at the echelon. As it goes down and as it flows down, we have women that are getting started. We have women that need support in different arenas. I saw myself in being this collaborative entity that women could connect with other women and create relationships. The bigger vision is taking this on the road. We’ve been in shutdown. I’ve had to pivot a little bit. I do have a philanthropy piece that goes with this. I wanted to go to different cities and different locations and pour into the women in those locations from every aspect, business to financial, to all of those pillars in live meetings.

The next day, we have our field trip. We all collectively go together and we pour into the women of that community. Whether that’s a shelter or whatever that looks like that’s based around that hostess‘s connector because I want us to leave that place better than we found it. That was the bigger vision that I saw and the impact. 2020 has tapered and slowed that vision down, but it’s still there. I’m trusting the Lord to keep opening the doors as He sees fit and see what happens, and see how He directs my steps.

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When I look back many years ago, I was in the life insurance business for a short time. You had the million-dollar round table. You got people from all these different insurance companies. You would go to a dinner or lunch once a month. You were sitting next to your competitor, but you weren’t competitors in that environment. You were collaborators. The guy next to you might be with somebody who’s knocking on the same door, but then he told you, “Let me tell you how to do this or that.” That’s what you’re doing in essence. You’re taking these women from a variety of different companies. Some might be network marketing, some might be party plan. Some might be some other hybrid plans that are out there now.

You’re saying, “We all have that commonality. We want success. We want to build a financial fortress around our families. We want to be able to put money away for retirement down the road, etc.” You do all of those wonderful things under that roof. It’s the greatest thing in the world that you’re doing. As a guy, I’m complimenting you. As a colleague, I’m complimenting as well. Let’s go one step further. The women get involved. There are fifteen women that are seven-figure earners. I probably know a handful of them, but they’re there to coach everybody. A woman joins this and she may hear from somebody in a company, but she’s getting that advice and guidance to build her business. Comment on that a little bit. How has that worked in terms of the mentorship of more senior-level women in the industry coaching some of the newbies?

We are talking about generic training. The training platform is live so the women can attend the meetings or the training live, but then we house the content in a back office so they have access to it at all times. It’s not these women are taking away from their own businesses, they’re getting a piece of their knowledge. They’re getting a piece of who they are. They’re getting a piece or a way to connect with them. It’s always the little things. You never know the little nuggets of information that can change everything. To me, that’s what I see in this being special. It’s that one little thing. You may have got it from somebody you’ll never know again. You may never see them. They may be in another company, whatever, but their story, that one little thing or that one little piece of advice that they latched on to, and they were able to take that and run with it.

You know, John, in your business, it’s the little things that can change everything. That’s what I see happening. That’s what I see unfolding. It’s not these big, massive downloads of something. More importantly, it’s going to be the relationships that they’re building and seeing each other through the Zoom meetings, through the groups, and they already know each other. Whenever we have a live event, they’re going to know each other. They’re going to be at a whole other level with that person because they’ve made those relationships outside of being online or this company or that company. They’ve established something different outside of a product or a compensation plan. That’s what I think women connect to more than anything.

Having this mindset of collaborating and not competing because there is enough oxygen at the top for everybody. That’s what I want to dispel more than anything. Ladies, let’s get rid of the stereotypical back-biting, those things that are not who we are at our core. That’s not who we are and there’s enough for all. The more we give in to each other, the more we’re going to get back. That’s the way I see it. That’s the environment and the culture that I want to create in this space for women.

 

You’re a veteran, an influencer. You’re married to somebody who’s a huge influencer, and a huge influencer in my career, life and everything. You’ve created this path. It’s a wonderful thing that you’re doing. Let’s talk from the standpoint, male or female, it doesn’t matter. Here we’ve been through this same commonality of COVID. It’s affected all of our businesses, families, lives, circumstances, etc. Many people right now, and let me categorize them. There are people in my age group. Let’s call them 50 to 70-year-old male, female. Maybe they started their own business, non-network marketing, and it’s not going to be the same when it’s all said and done. Whether technology has replaced aspects of it. We live in the same community. My favorite pizza parlor for example has closed after many years and fell over there. We see businesses like that.

Second, maybe you were a key person, key man or key woman in somebody else’s business for years. You had a great career going. You were starting to look towards retirement. While things are going to be great, all of a sudden, March 2020 comes and we know what happened since. Let’s call that one group of people. The other group of people is at 25-year-old. I know you’ve got a couple of kids around that age, I got one that age. They’ve got all these skills. They can take their iPhone and launch the space shuttle with it, but they’re living on mom and dad’s couch or spare bedroom saying, “What the heck am I going to do? Where am I going to make my career or make fortune or my place in this world?” Let’s pretend here that they walk into your home. They’re sitting in front of you. What do you tell them to get their business started rapidly, because they need to be seeing strike paper and money going to the bank? That’s number one question. Number two question, why our industry versus any of the other things perhaps that they might be considering?

It’s interesting because these are conversations that we’re having in our household. This is an interesting question that you pose. We have children in that age range. It’s been quite a challenge to have experience or have success. They watch all of that unfold right at their fingertips. They see all the things that have been afforded to them as a result of the efforts we put in. I think it’s that old phrase, it’s hard to be a prophet in your own hometown, as our Savior so eloquently share with us. Larry and I have always been like, “We’ll help you, but you have to find your own thing that drives you, whether it’s a product or service. What is it that you feel excited about or passionate about? What is it that you love? That can’t come from me.”

That ultimately is at the crux or at the helm of everything as far as I’m concerned. Larry said, “The biggest thing that we have to bring to the table is a burning desire.” We’ve heard that. What does that mean? It’s the willingness to do the work and being teachable. Those are cute little words, but it’s so true. We live in a time and a space that kids don’t know what a burning desire of anything is. I don’t think they know what a bed of nails looks like. I was always told whenever the bed of nails gets hard enough, you’ll do something about it. I left home when I was seventeen. I put myself through college. My parents went through bankruptcy. They lost everything. I didn’t have a home to go to. When I left, I left, that was it. There was no turning back.

Because people aren’t put in a situation where the bed of nails is hard enough, they’re not forced to make a decision. They’re not forced to get out of the nest. There’s a lack of that burning desire that comes to and the willingness to do the work, a real willingness to do whatever it takes to get out of your comfort zone. That only comes whenever the bed of nails is hard enough. Otherwise, if it’s too uncomfortable, maybe I’ll look for something else. If I’m having the conversation to this new person coming into the space, without those elements, without you bringing that with you, there’s not a lot that I’m going to be able to tell you, or to equip you with if you don’t bring your toys to the table.

Let’s assume that they’re bringing those assets to the table. They’re bringing that burning desire. They’re bringing that willingness to do the work, to be teachable and say, “You don’t know everything. You’re going to have to listen, and you’re going to have to do the things that I’m telling you to do.” Let’s talk about that. How many 25-year-olds are willing to listen to somebody a little older, with a little more respect? You and I both were raised that way, but I don’t think as a whole, we live in a culture that thinks that way.

If we’re assuming all of those elements are in place when they come to the table, then I would say, the things that you have to do is that you have to learn what your job description is. Your job description never changes. Your job description is always the same. It’s use your product or service, talk to people about your product and service and your opportunity at every opportune moment. However you go about talking to people because there are only two kinds, you either know them or you don’t. If you have a story to tell, then you share it in every opportune moment, and you never stopped sharing the story.

If you do that every single day, no matter how you go about doing it, whether it’s face to face, belly to belly, old school, new school, social media inside, outside, upside down, I don’t care. If you make that your job description and you talk to the people every single day and you get the answers, “Yes, I want to buy. No, I don’t. Yes, I want to join. No, I don’t.” If you’re getting those conversations going every single day, you can’t help but be successful. Everything else outside of that, from my perspective, is complete busy work and is not income-producing activity. If you stay in that lane, no matter what, and never let the day end without doing your job description, you will have success and you will be able to build a residual income for a lifetime.

Taylor, I want to thank you, first of all. I want to continue to wish you nothing but the best. What you’re doing is incredible. You’re helping a lot of people, male and female, but females in particular. It’s an underserved market in our industry. I’m glad you’re recognizing it and doing something about it like women always do, taking action. Those guys would be talking about still starting it but you did it, and continued great success with that. Leaving Nothing to Chance is where you can get the archives for this show. The name of my book is Leave Nothing to Chance. Taylor, the last word is yours. Is there anything else you want to share with this great audience?

John, I wanted to thank you so much for the opportunity to come on your show and for you to have me as a guest. I hope that what we had to share brought some value, brought maybe some a-ha moments for those reading, maybe a few little nuggets that can help change their life in some way, shape, form or fashion. I want to leave everybody with one thing. I want to leave you with HOPE. I love acronyms. If you can think about this and you put HOPE in your daily method of operation, and that means Help One Person Everyday. Whenever you think about life like that, then you’ll always have a life full, happy and joy, because you can never out-give God. That’s what I want to say. Thank you so much.

Thank you so much, Taylor.

Important Links: 

• Taylor Thompson
• Herbalife
• Tish Rochin
• Larry Thompson
• Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus
• Mariel Hawley – past episode
• Arlene Lowy – past episode
• MySheNetwork.com
• The SheNetwork – Facebook group
• Leave Nothing to Chance

About Taylor Thompson

Running a multimillion-dollar business, being a speaker, and coaching women & men, are not skills that are inherently my talent. I had to learn. I made mistakes and learned from them. One powerful and simple lesson I teach is that it’s not about the position, it’s about the mission. Sometimes the mission is hidden, takes time to grow or needs a reason.

Who I am today comes from accepting nothing less than momcare instead of daycare. And that led me to my mission: to share my story and continue to be a walking example of what’s possible, for my girls and the thousands of women and men with whom I work.

I share my story around the world. I share it without shame. I cry and I laugh and my story comes from deep within my soul. I am especially grateful that my story shows other moms who want to be home with their children that their dream is possible. I know the joy that comes from that experience.

I never thought it possible I could be a speaker who encourages other people to grow and prosper. Achievement takes doing the things that are uncomfortable even more than doing what comes naturally. I have stepped far outside of my comfort zone; it comes down to having a burning desire to make a difference.

Today I work with single parents and couples who are willing to do the work necessary. I teach the importance of keeping the focus on your daily method of operation (DMO) and on being teachable. The lessons I’ve learned and how to avoid the mistakes I’ve made are keys to the success for others. I teach how to bring value to the lives of others and how to have a strong business and be successful no matter what.