I often browse used bookstores, and one day I came across "Ultimate Guide to Network Marketing" edited by Dr. Paul Rubino. As the MLM Skeptic, I read it with a skeptical mind... Overall, I am rather... disappointed. While several of the authors out of 37 did dispense practical advice, such as how to utilize modern tech like autoresponder and such, while others laid out do's and don'ts on what to say in a sales speech, ZERO discussed what's legal and what's not legal.
"Pyramid scheme" was NEVER discussed, other than as an resistance to be overcome, as doubt in a prospect that must be quashed, and so on.
Product-based pyramid scheme was never mentioned.
In fact, the entire book is devoid of definitions other than odd backronyms like WOO = window of opportunity. There is no glossary, just an index.
Consider the implication: how would the network marketing noob know what's legal and what's not if it was NOT discussed in a so-called "Ultimate Guide to Network Marketing"? How "ultimate" can this guide be if legal stuff was not discussed at all?
Furthermore, many of the chapters were about belief / faith. Belief in oneself, belief in product, belief in company, belief in team... Belief involves TRUST. What happened to due diligence? Common sense? What makes the company, product, or team members WORTHY of trust?
This is basically a collection of "business porn"... written by network marketing "leaders" who claimed success through effort even though they can't prove that their success was a result of their effort. Anything they wrote are results of survivorship bias and self-serving bias, but people starting in network marketing believe these to be words of wisdom, and indeed, many of the 37 articles advocate "just ape what I do" or "create system that can be easily aped"
In fact, one article is about how to CREATE business porn... awards, recognitions, newsletters, mailing lists, podcasts, Youtube videos, and so on, as marketing vehicles.
Would you really consider "monkey see, monkey do" to be wisdom? The entire book is thin on actual practical advice. Most are motivational talk and how to customize such for your particular market (i.e. your prospects). Again, it's business porn, and it does NOT help.
Just as porn is not sex but sexual fiction designed to titillate, business porn is NOT business advice, but sales pitch designed to motivate. Porn is fine in moderate doses, but porn addiction is serious problem. Similarly, business porn is fine in moderate doses, but business porn addiction will simply depress you as you constantly choose to compare yourself to leaders, trying to ape them, without understanding WHAT made them successful (often, it's just luck) and what price did they pay (which is NOT depicted).
The book basically is all about trust, and duplication, with a few bits of sales techniques and marketing vehicles covered, but has ZERO advice on what to look for, how to spot good from bad, and how to spot legal from illegal.
The implication is very troubling: if this is the sort of book written by top network marketing professionals, network marketing is about faith and recruiting, not about sales and earning trust.
In case you want to check out the table of contents, I've excerpted the table of contents, with chapter number, chapter title, and author, along with a TL;DR summary. If you look hard enough you can find this book as a PDF, but I'm not linking to it. I have my hard copy.
1 Carpe WOO! Brian Biro
TL;DR -- WOO = Window of Opportunity
2 Bring the Right Attitude to Your Network Marketing Experience John Terhune
TL;DR -- motivate yourself
3 Nine Things More Important Than Capital for Achieving Network Marketing Success Jim Rohn
TL;DR -- Time, Desperation, Determination, Courage, Ambition, Faith, Ingenuity, Heart and Soul, and Personality (all motivational stuff)
4 Creating a Winning Strategy for Your Network Marketing Business Cliff Walker
TL;DR -- do half of SWOT analysis... without weakness and threat, i.e. identify Life Priorities, Purpose, Vision, Core Values, Core Skills, Marketplace, System, Key Interfaces, and Key Resources. All positive, no negative.
5 The Power of a Great System Mark Stevens
TL;DR -- 5 steps: establish goals, commit to goals, make prospect list, get busy, celebrate accomplishments. Half motivation, half system.
6 Behave Your Way to a Six-Figure Income Captain Dave Klaybor
TL;DR -- clone yourself in the pattern of your leader, motivation.
7 VITAL Signs of a Healthy Business Glenn and Marian Head
TL;DR -- V=Visualize I = Intent T=Training A= Action L=Live , half motivation, half system.
8 The Most Critical Skill Every Network Marketing Professional Must Possess Steve Siebold
TL;DR -- be mentally tough, control your thoughts, feelings, and attitudes. Mostly motivation.
9 Belief: Why It’s So Vital, How to Build It, Who’s Responsible Art Burleigh
TL;DR -- believe in yourself, your company, your industry, your products/services, etc. through awards, recognitions, and attitudes. Believing is key to success. Motivation.
10 The Stages to Achieving Freedom Well Earned Dan Conlon
TL;DR -- described a personal growth / business growth plan, half motivation, half practical advice.
11 You Are Only a Couple of Sentences Away from Terrific Success in Your Network Marketing \
Career Tom “Big Al” Schreiter 86
TL;DR -- you can only be successful if you TEACH your downline the sales skills... motivation is crap without skills. Practical
12 A Sense of Urgency Charles E. “Tremendous” Jones
TL;DR -- seven laws of "leadership" (mostly about motivation), plus discipline and loyalty. Mostly motivation
13 The Art of Persuasion Nido Qubein
TL;DR -- positive, prospect, prepare, perform, percept, probe, personalize, please, prove, persist. Pretty practical stuff about sales.
14 Why Won’t They Listen to Me? Kim Klaver
TL;DR -- a good list of do's and don'ts in the network marketing sales/recruitment speech. Good practical advice.
15 Finding Passion in Your Business Kathy Coover
TL;DR -- build a belief system and then try to instill the same in your recruits. Motivation and "leadership"
16 Finding Your North Star Shannon Anima
TL;DR -- list a bunch of "values" (service, integrity, respect, joy, love, etc.) people treasure, then figure how they fit into your own daily plan and overall marketing strategy
17 Values-Based Selling Linda Avery
TL;DR -- figure out what value are you providing to the prospect, and sell them that
18 Recognition: The Driving Force Brad Hager
TL;DR -- recognize people for their "achievements" and you'll get them hooked, because you make them believe in the system... and themselves (and you).
19 The Magic of Network Marketing: Building Real Residual Income Barry Friedman
TL;DR -- if you generate a "business" that pays 2500 a month without work, it's as if you have 1 million dollars in the bank earning 3% interest!
20 Creating a Steady Stream of Prospects Randy Gage
TL;DR -- direct or indirect approach? Most noobs only know the indirect approach.
21 Creating a Simple Yet Effective Method of Operation Art Jonak
TL;DR -- leverage tools and create a replicable system (DVD, internet, whatever) to showcase your operations.
22 Sponsoring a “No” Beatty Carmichael
TL;DR -- have a script when the prospect says no
23 Leadership in an All-Volunteer Army Greg Arnold
TL;DR -- leadership and motivation
24 Free, Fun, and Creative Ways to Find an Endless Flow of Hot New Prospects for Your Business Nick Hetcher
TL;DR -- where to prospect that you may not thought of
25 Prospecting and Creating High Visibility to Attract Business Builders Dr. Tony Alessandra
TL;DR -- some practical tips in spotting prospects where you didn't notice before
26 Octopus Networking: Stretch Your Tentacles and Inspire Others to Help Romanus Wolter
TL;DR -- marketing in multiple directions
27 Heating Up Your Cold Market Amy Posner
TL;DR -- spend money on advertising and such
28 The 7 Best (and Most Profitable) Internet Prospecting Tools Chris Zavadowski
TL;DR -- banner ads, autoresponder, youtube, podcast, and more...
29 The Internet Can Replace Your Warm Market Max Steingart
TL;DR -- "how to troll for recruits online"
30 Building Your Network Marketing Business with Trade Shows, Booths, and Fairs Dr. Don and
Mary Lou Vollmer
TL;DR -- practical tips in planning, location, display, and follow-up.
31 Party Your Way to the Top of Network Marketing! Jan Ruhe
TL;DR -- home party every week, half selling, half recruiting
32 How to Use Direct Mail to Promote Your Network Marketing Program Larry Chiappone
TL;DR -- post cards
33 Proper Follow-Up: The Hidden Gold Mine Jeff Mack
TL;DR -- referrals and branding
34 Visionary Leadership Mike Melia
TL;DR -- lead with a vision
35 Posture, Process, and Perspective Create Profits Scotty Kufus
TL;DR -- posture to win, process to work hard, perspective puts a good spin on things
36 What Are You Afraid Of? Overcoming Challenges,Obstacles, and Fear Ray Gebauer
TL;DR -- reframe your problems
37 The Importance of High Self-Esteem to Your Network Marketing Success Dr. Joe Rubino
"Pyramid scheme" was NEVER discussed, other than as an resistance to be overcome, as doubt in a prospect that must be quashed, and so on.
Product-based pyramid scheme was never mentioned.
In fact, the entire book is devoid of definitions other than odd backronyms like WOO = window of opportunity. There is no glossary, just an index.
Consider the implication: how would the network marketing noob know what's legal and what's not if it was NOT discussed in a so-called "Ultimate Guide to Network Marketing"? How "ultimate" can this guide be if legal stuff was not discussed at all?
Furthermore, many of the chapters were about belief / faith. Belief in oneself, belief in product, belief in company, belief in team... Belief involves TRUST. What happened to due diligence? Common sense? What makes the company, product, or team members WORTHY of trust?
This is basically a collection of "business porn"... written by network marketing "leaders" who claimed success through effort even though they can't prove that their success was a result of their effort. Anything they wrote are results of survivorship bias and self-serving bias, but people starting in network marketing believe these to be words of wisdom, and indeed, many of the 37 articles advocate "just ape what I do" or "create system that can be easily aped"
In fact, one article is about how to CREATE business porn... awards, recognitions, newsletters, mailing lists, podcasts, Youtube videos, and so on, as marketing vehicles.
Would you really consider "monkey see, monkey do" to be wisdom? The entire book is thin on actual practical advice. Most are motivational talk and how to customize such for your particular market (i.e. your prospects). Again, it's business porn, and it does NOT help.
Just as porn is not sex but sexual fiction designed to titillate, business porn is NOT business advice, but sales pitch designed to motivate. Porn is fine in moderate doses, but porn addiction is serious problem. Similarly, business porn is fine in moderate doses, but business porn addiction will simply depress you as you constantly choose to compare yourself to leaders, trying to ape them, without understanding WHAT made them successful (often, it's just luck) and what price did they pay (which is NOT depicted).
The book basically is all about trust, and duplication, with a few bits of sales techniques and marketing vehicles covered, but has ZERO advice on what to look for, how to spot good from bad, and how to spot legal from illegal.
The implication is very troubling: if this is the sort of book written by top network marketing professionals, network marketing is about faith and recruiting, not about sales and earning trust.
In case you want to check out the table of contents, I've excerpted the table of contents, with chapter number, chapter title, and author, along with a TL;DR summary. If you look hard enough you can find this book as a PDF, but I'm not linking to it. I have my hard copy.
1 Carpe WOO! Brian Biro
TL;DR -- WOO = Window of Opportunity
2 Bring the Right Attitude to Your Network Marketing Experience John Terhune
TL;DR -- motivate yourself
3 Nine Things More Important Than Capital for Achieving Network Marketing Success Jim Rohn
TL;DR -- Time, Desperation, Determination, Courage, Ambition, Faith, Ingenuity, Heart and Soul, and Personality (all motivational stuff)
4 Creating a Winning Strategy for Your Network Marketing Business Cliff Walker
TL;DR -- do half of SWOT analysis... without weakness and threat, i.e. identify Life Priorities, Purpose, Vision, Core Values, Core Skills, Marketplace, System, Key Interfaces, and Key Resources. All positive, no negative.
5 The Power of a Great System Mark Stevens
TL;DR -- 5 steps: establish goals, commit to goals, make prospect list, get busy, celebrate accomplishments. Half motivation, half system.
6 Behave Your Way to a Six-Figure Income Captain Dave Klaybor
TL;DR -- clone yourself in the pattern of your leader, motivation.
7 VITAL Signs of a Healthy Business Glenn and Marian Head
TL;DR -- V=Visualize I = Intent T=Training A= Action L=Live , half motivation, half system.
8 The Most Critical Skill Every Network Marketing Professional Must Possess Steve Siebold
TL;DR -- be mentally tough, control your thoughts, feelings, and attitudes. Mostly motivation.
9 Belief: Why It’s So Vital, How to Build It, Who’s Responsible Art Burleigh
TL;DR -- believe in yourself, your company, your industry, your products/services, etc. through awards, recognitions, and attitudes. Believing is key to success. Motivation.
10 The Stages to Achieving Freedom Well Earned Dan Conlon
TL;DR -- described a personal growth / business growth plan, half motivation, half practical advice.
11 You Are Only a Couple of Sentences Away from Terrific Success in Your Network Marketing \
Career Tom “Big Al” Schreiter 86
TL;DR -- you can only be successful if you TEACH your downline the sales skills... motivation is crap without skills. Practical
12 A Sense of Urgency Charles E. “Tremendous” Jones
TL;DR -- seven laws of "leadership" (mostly about motivation), plus discipline and loyalty. Mostly motivation
13 The Art of Persuasion Nido Qubein
TL;DR -- positive, prospect, prepare, perform, percept, probe, personalize, please, prove, persist. Pretty practical stuff about sales.
14 Why Won’t They Listen to Me? Kim Klaver
TL;DR -- a good list of do's and don'ts in the network marketing sales/recruitment speech. Good practical advice.
15 Finding Passion in Your Business Kathy Coover
TL;DR -- build a belief system and then try to instill the same in your recruits. Motivation and "leadership"
16 Finding Your North Star Shannon Anima
TL;DR -- list a bunch of "values" (service, integrity, respect, joy, love, etc.) people treasure, then figure how they fit into your own daily plan and overall marketing strategy
17 Values-Based Selling Linda Avery
TL;DR -- figure out what value are you providing to the prospect, and sell them that
18 Recognition: The Driving Force Brad Hager
TL;DR -- recognize people for their "achievements" and you'll get them hooked, because you make them believe in the system... and themselves (and you).
19 The Magic of Network Marketing: Building Real Residual Income Barry Friedman
TL;DR -- if you generate a "business" that pays 2500 a month without work, it's as if you have 1 million dollars in the bank earning 3% interest!
20 Creating a Steady Stream of Prospects Randy Gage
TL;DR -- direct or indirect approach? Most noobs only know the indirect approach.
21 Creating a Simple Yet Effective Method of Operation Art Jonak
TL;DR -- leverage tools and create a replicable system (DVD, internet, whatever) to showcase your operations.
22 Sponsoring a “No” Beatty Carmichael
TL;DR -- have a script when the prospect says no
23 Leadership in an All-Volunteer Army Greg Arnold
TL;DR -- leadership and motivation
24 Free, Fun, and Creative Ways to Find an Endless Flow of Hot New Prospects for Your Business Nick Hetcher
TL;DR -- where to prospect that you may not thought of
25 Prospecting and Creating High Visibility to Attract Business Builders Dr. Tony Alessandra
TL;DR -- some practical tips in spotting prospects where you didn't notice before
26 Octopus Networking: Stretch Your Tentacles and Inspire Others to Help Romanus Wolter
TL;DR -- marketing in multiple directions
27 Heating Up Your Cold Market Amy Posner
TL;DR -- spend money on advertising and such
28 The 7 Best (and Most Profitable) Internet Prospecting Tools Chris Zavadowski
TL;DR -- banner ads, autoresponder, youtube, podcast, and more...
29 The Internet Can Replace Your Warm Market Max Steingart
TL;DR -- "how to troll for recruits online"
30 Building Your Network Marketing Business with Trade Shows, Booths, and Fairs Dr. Don and
Mary Lou Vollmer
TL;DR -- practical tips in planning, location, display, and follow-up.
31 Party Your Way to the Top of Network Marketing! Jan Ruhe
TL;DR -- home party every week, half selling, half recruiting
32 How to Use Direct Mail to Promote Your Network Marketing Program Larry Chiappone
TL;DR -- post cards
33 Proper Follow-Up: The Hidden Gold Mine Jeff Mack
TL;DR -- referrals and branding
34 Visionary Leadership Mike Melia
TL;DR -- lead with a vision
35 Posture, Process, and Perspective Create Profits Scotty Kufus
TL;DR -- posture to win, process to work hard, perspective puts a good spin on things
36 What Are You Afraid Of? Overcoming Challenges,Obstacles, and Fear Ray Gebauer
TL;DR -- reframe your problems
37 The Importance of High Self-Esteem to Your Network Marketing Success Dr. Joe Rubino
TL;DR -- ignore the problems, reframe them as non-problems
