Camaraderie in MLM…What It Means to Keep Our Industry Thriving!
One of the things that I’ve always adored about network marketing, and one of the reasons I was drawn to it was because it was a people business. There was a friendship and family atmosphere, where we tried to push each other in our organization to be better at what we do, be the people that we truly wanted and had the potential to be.
If ever there was an industry that epitomized self-improvement, fellowship, and camaraderie…it’s the MLM industry. At least that’s the way it always was.
Yet, these days I’ve began to see less of this. The MLM business may be slipping to be less about camaraderie and more about self-satisfaction and what’s in it for me.
There are probably a number of reasons for this, but I would say that some are much more prominent than others.
The internet is probably one of the biggest instigators to this problem simply because of the nature of the internet. The internet has taken away the chance to actually get out there and meet the people, and genuinely get to know the people, who we want to work with.
It’s hindered the chance for network marketers to genuinely care about the people in their downline as humans with wants and needs, and has turned them into numbers on a downline tree in our back-office!
Sure, the internet is a great tool for building a business, but I employ all network marketers to remember that this business has always been at its best, and is always best performed when we have personal stake in the success of others around us.
Now I can’t entirely blame the internet for the total loss of camaraderie in our great industry. I would say that while competition is a healthy aspect of success, we can get greatly carried away with it… especially when it comes to publicly bad mouthing other companies in order to hold up your own… or worse yet, bad mouthing individuals in the industry.
Of course if someone is unethical in the way they do things then they should be called out on that, but they should be called out by the industry as a whole. If the leaders of the network marketing industry would begin to band together and work together as a way to preserve the potential reputation of the industry, instead of working against each other to break it down, we could all sleep a little better at night knowing that we’re creating an environment where our beloved industry can thrive for generations.
On the same note, there seems to be a line in the sand where traditional network marketers vs. the modern marketers of our time.
Instead of embracing the knowledge of the experienced network marketers – and vice versa – embracing the new technical knowledge of the savvy youngsters who can create massive income online, we all keep working against one another… and there may actually be a time when we capsize the entire ship by trying to push each other off of the deck.
My wife Ann and I have found that with our experience in the traditional ways of marketing, coupled with the brilliance of internet marketing and internet lead generation can have a substantial effect on our success.
It’s been something where we’ve tried to embrace both sides, and we’re glad we have.
The fact is that when we stick together as a group of network marketers in the name of camaraderie, then we can move mountains, and continue the greatest ways of earning income, and recreating lifestyles at phenomenal rates. When we separate ourselves, we become vulnerable and less powerful.
MLM is just another word for Network Marketing, we all know that, but we mustn’t forget just what that means.
Network marketers… by its definition… should care for the success of not only our own organization, but the industry as a whole. The more this occurs, the greater the camaraderie we build, the faster our reputation begins to become solid again. Consequently, the faster we can rebuild our foundation that’s created the greatest way in the world to earn money, and create the lifestyles that we all deserve.