The Best Mentor & Teacher In MLM? That’s Easy

Every year we get asked to post this again and around Mother’s Day, we re-post it.

It’s always ranked in the top 3 of the 100+ blogs we post but today I’m sharing this with you at a different time for a different reason.

I’m on my way from Hawaii to Boston.   My Mom passed away on Saturday.

She did, really, teach me, just like most Moms do, everything I needed to know to be successful at network marketing.

Thanks for stopping by.

Moms and Networkers

Mom doesn’t know anything about Network Marketing,  I think when she asks me how my business is going.

I think she doesn’t understand it …maybe it’s me that doesn’t understand.

MOM taught me everything I needed to know to build a network marketing business, she gave me network marketing skills.

Mother’s Day.  Don’t we all feel like we should do a little more all year for Mom?

Would it really kill us to go to Mom’s house and leave the cell phone in the car, have a cup of coffee and just be ‘present’?

Can’t make up for the past, you know, all those times we’re a ‘little too busy’ to just visit?

She was never too busy for me.

Networkers

Don’t we all feel like we like we could all do a little more recruiting?

Would it really kill us to sit at our desk an hour a night and dial the phone and be ‘present’?

Can’t make up for the past, you know, all those times we were making ourselves ‘little too busy’ to just dial?

Why are we always too busy to actually do the business?

Moms

She encouraged me to dream.
She knew my dreams and encouraged them and me.
She asked me about them.
She found places, like where to get me signed up for Little League, and got me there.  So many countless things.

Networkers

We encourage others to dream.
We tell them they have to have a ‘why’.
Tell them to write it down.
Do we know their dreams like Mom knew ours?
Do we find articles, pictures, and events that support them?
After they do write it down, do we ever, like Mom, ask them about it again?

Moms

Mom was a hands-on-teacher.  Not a school teacher.
She was patient.  Persistent.  Insistent.
She never quit when I struggled.  Never.
Yeah, she made me read the directions, sit there while I read them… and answered a lot of the same questions over and over.
Asked me if I understood them and then she showed me how to do things right, no matter how many times it took.
She taught me skills.

Networkers

Am I a hands-on teacher or do I just ‘plug’ them in?
Do I quit on them when they struggle and rationalize it as ‘they don’t want it bad enough’?
Do I make sure they get the directions and make sure they understand them?
Could I be a lot more patient when I have a rep on the phone and they are not ‘up to speed’?
Am I as willing to answer the same questions over and over?
Do I teach skills or just keep selling the dream?

Moms

Mom never quit setting an example of excellence, even when people were not looking.
Never.
She never asked me to do anything she was not doing herself.
She was never a ‘do as I say, not as I do’ Mom.
She never quit on me.

Networking

Do I set an example of excellence?
…even when others are not looking?
Do I dog it and tell others what to do even though I am not doing it myself?
Am I a ‘do as I say, not as I do’ managing MLMer?
Do I quit on myself and others with the lie that tomorrow I will double up?

Moms

My Mom had to quit school and take care of her brothers and sisters when her Mom died.
Got her GED in her 50s.
Went to college, studied hard and graduated with highest honors in her 60s.
She was excused from her finals her last year.
Took them anyway, wanted to test herself.
All A’s, of course.
She knew she’d Ace the tests.
Always prepared.  Well in advance.
Pride.

Networkers

Am I staying a student, continuing to grow as a person and learn about people and my trade?
Or am I surfing the web for short cuts?
Do I have pride in my profession and performance or do I look for the easier, softer way and pretend I am ‘working smarter, not harder?’
Am I ready for the daily test of growing a business?
Am I prepared to succeed to the point that I know that I will?

Moms

Manners.
Please and thank you, no elbows the table.
Listen first. Ask for permission to speak, don’t take it.
Respect their needs, forget your wants.
Never talk about people that are not present.
It’s OK to disagree but don’t be disagreeable.
Honesty is the greatest of all manners.

Networkers

Do I have manners?
Do I belittle people mentally or with other reps who do not join?
Do I tell people why I am calling or ‘pretend to be their friend’ so I can use their words against them later to look?
Do I ask if it is OK to tell them about my business?
Am I focused on their needs or just trying to scare them about the future?
Do I listen? Do I take a ‘no’ as graciously as a ‘yes’?
Am I honest?

Moms

She never hesitated to go the extra mile for us.
Never stopped looking for the extra mile.

Networkers

We have a chance to do this for others every day AND get paid for it.
Do we look for it?  Take it?

Moms

My Mom is 89, legally blind and needs help.
Told her she has 2 choices.
Assisted living or move 6000 miles from Massachusetts to Kauai, HI and live with us.
She’s was living in the town she was born in.
Mom said she was scared.  Said she’s used to where she lives.  Knows where everything is and it’s comforting.
She packed and she’s here in Kauai.

Courage. Mom’s have courage.
Picking up the phone takes some courage.  At least we like to pretend it does.
 Not as much as moving 6000 miles to a place you’ve never been to at 89 and blind.

Do I lack courage or am I just lazy?  Mom’s are not lazy.
Rejection? Mom never accepted any obstacle as a reason to let fear determine her life.
Santa Januszewski will be 89 on October 12, 2010.  
Columbus Day. How appropriate.  She still has the guts to explore.

Networking allowed me to step up and doing something special for myself and our Mom.

I wonder how much sooner great things would have happened in the lives of others if I had not made the mistake of thinking Mom knew nothing about Network Marketing?

Like a little boy, I foolishly thought my business was so different that she’d never understand it.
Turns out she knew everything IMPORTANT about it before I was born.
Happy Mother’s Day

UPDATE... 2012.  Santa Maria Piccolo moved back up in New England, turned 91, was still checking up to make sure I’m doing the right things and brushing my teeth…

She passed in her sleep at around 4:oo AM Sunday morning, December 1st.   But she created a legacy of right thinking, and I would be remiss if I did not share with you how grateful I am to both the lessons and to network marketing.

You see, while I feel really sad, and that will come and go for a while, I am filled with gratitude for the lessons she taught and networking.   Network marketing gave me a chance to create money and time …and bring her here.

And spend a year, daily conversations about her life.

I had the time.  I had the money.

But what made it all happen?

Really?

When I told my Mom what I had as a vision, she looked me dead in the eye and said, as only a tough Italian can do,

“When will you begin?”

believe,

Mark Januszewski

World’s Laziest Networker