Tim Edwards is a serial Entrepreneur who became a Millionaire at 29. He went on to become a Multiple 7 figure earner in 3 different businesses including both network marketing and traditional business.
Like many, he struggled when he first got started, advancing just 1 rank his first 3 and a half years in Network Marketing.
He finally hit his groove and went on to build the #1 sponsoring team in a multi billion dollar company with roughly 1 million reps.
He stayed with his first company for almost 2 decades, semi-retiring twice. In this interview we cover Tim’s inspiring story and pick his brain on systems, team building, personal development, mistakes, biggest lessons and more.
Video Version
Audio Version
Timestamps
Tim Edwards introduction & Bio : 0:44
Tim Edwards Story : 2:25
How Tim Edwards got introduced to Network Marketing : 5:08
Mark Yarnell’s Magical Presentation : 06:20
The problem with Traditional Business that network marketing solves : 07:22
The ‘successful people don’t need this’ myth : 08:06
His first 3 years of struggled in network marketing : 09:39
Why he had to refinance his house 5 times : 11:22
The Turnaround from struggle to success in Tim’s Network Marketing Journey : 12:15
The direct mail breakthrough : 14:30
Why people who say ‘no’ then say ‘yes’ later : 15:15
How Tim Developed the #1 recruiting Team in a multi billion dollar company : 16:13
What are good things to systematize vs things you shouldn’t : 17:29
This is better than the perfect script : 18:23
Internet Lead Gen in 1998 and tens of thousands of recruits without meetings : 20:35
How To Hold The Team Together : 22:33
Tim’s #1 win/memory from his network marketing journey (The Cheerio Lady) : 23:30
How to be a great mentor and help people get started right and win : 25:12
The only 2 reasons people stay in the business : 26:11
How do you walk the line between not pushing a rope and staying in touch: 27:48
Tim’s Intense Morning Routine : 29:25
How has the internet changed the game in network marketing : 32:00
This is better than 3 way calls : 33:00
How has the internet changed holding teams together & how to combat distractions : 35:00
Where to dig for network marketing gold – 38:40
What do do with new Facebook connections & how to avoid wasting too much time – 39:40
Tim’s biggest business challenge in network marketing and how he overcame it – 42:07
What lights you up and helps you stay motivated – 44:00
The money illusion – 46:00
How did you retire? – 47:15
Who’s been your best mentor and why? – 48:35
What are your top recommended books? – 49:35
What are your favorite types of YouTube content to listen to? – 51:13
What advice would you give to your younger self? – 52:17
Do you have a favorite quote? – 53:00
What are your thoughts on Retention and the only 2 things that keep people in – 54:45
Closing words of inspiration – 55:45
The staggering numbers and a shocking success statistic – 56:30
Tim Edwards, Xelliss Master Distributor, Multiple 7 Figure Earner Interview Transcript
Let me go ahead and get right into the introduction today. I have the opportunity, the privilege, the pleasure to introduce the great Tim Edwards.
Tim Edwards is a serial entrepreneur who became a millionaire at 29. He went on to become a multiple seven figure earner in three different businesses, including both network marketing and traditional business, like many Tim struggled when he first got started advancing just one rank his first three and a half years in network marketing.
He finally hit his groove and went on to build the number one sponsoring team in a multi-billion dollar company with roughly 1 million reps (Nu Skin).
He stayed with his first company for almost two decades, semi retiring twice after being off the better part of a decade, he decided to become an industry coach because he loves mentoring when underserved 200 clients worldwide from almost all the major brands.
So let’s go ahead and bring on Mr. Tim Edward.
Tim, how you doing today?
What’s up, man.
Hey, thank you so much for doing this. I know you’re a super busy guy and I’m just so honored that you’re taking some time to be with me today and, and, uh, and our audience. So thank you so much.
Well, let’s go ahead and, uh, you know, get into the number one thing that I want to hear about, which is you and your story, you know, take, take us, take us all the way back, you know, take us back to when you were a kid, you know, did, were, were you raised me, entrepreneurial parents?
Yeah, it was interesting because, um, my dad took on entrepreneurship when I was little in a, in a, kind of a small way.
He had a, a job where he worked driving a forklift loading trucks, but at the evenings he would, uh, do do lawnmowing, you know, and he had a landscape business.
And so I would help him mow yards, you know, starting at five years old, the big yards we’d have this riding lawnmower and he’d sit me on it and turn it on.
And I would just start at the perimeter and just mow the whole yard. Uh, while he was doing the, the edging and the weed, eating and shrubs, and I couldn’t even touch the pedals.
So whenever I got done, I would yell, I was done, He would have to come stop it.
I couldn’t reach the break. So it started off making money at five, uh, ended up, uh, uh, having my own lawn care business in elementary school.
Cause I’m, I’m kind of a perfectionist.
My mom kinda kind of drilled that into me. And so we had a corner lot and, uh, and so our yard was perfect. And so everybody on drove off. Wanted me to do their yard.
So that’s how I kinda got into the, to the lawn mowing business. And, uh, so it made quite a bit of money as a kid.
And, uh, and then my dad opened up a car business.
I started, uh, with him at 17 and opened up my own business at 26, a solo business.
And, uh, what was interesting during that, during, uh, that business, uh, I got approached with network marketing and of course, you know, I had a business with 5,000 clients. And I was on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
And I’d been five years with no vacations.
I mean, I was, and I had a five-year-old daughter that was born the same year as the business that I really didn’t know because I left. It was dark. She was asleep.
At nights, when I was sleeping, I had heart palpitations in my late twenties, early thirties.
I mean, because I was on call all night.
So I literally, this is back, this, this will date me up cause I’m kind of a geezer, but, but back in the pager beeper days, you know, I would actually sleep on a pager, uh, with this, this delivery company that I had and every hour and a half, all night long Xerox, which was my biggest client would call for a delivery.
It would be going to a major law firm or something like that.
And, uh, and I couldn’t delegate that.
I had to make sure I took the call and make sure somebody was awake and went and got it. Right.
So I get woken up every hour and a half all night long, and then I would get up at 3 45, be at the opposite six work til eight, and then come home and be on call all night long.
I slept on the couch. I wouldn’t wake up my wife and my, and my young daughter.
And so it was just, uh, it was, it was, uh, it was a stress pot.
And so when I, when I looked at, uh, network marketing and I didn’t want to look because I was super busy, so I had this young brother-in-law who I didn’t really know he was new in the family and I kind of had this thing for salespeople.
Yeah. People would always call my office and try to get me to buy stuff.
And it was like, they always wanted to sell me stuff that I didn’t want and didn’t need, so they can make the commission.
So I had this negative concept on salespeople and he was a sales guy and he was new in the family.
So I just like, no, he said, why don’t you do this on the side?
You know what? I’m working 90 hours a week. There’s no side.
So finally, you know, they come over one Friday night to eat.
And I’m just a mess from the week. I’ve just completely sapped. And I can tell something’s on his mind and I’m thinking, he’s going to ask him about this video again. Cause he called me every day for 17 days in a row.
And I said, no, I’m not interested.
So, so we sitting there and he kept calling.
You said you weren’t interested, but he kept calling.
Yeah.
He kept going. He knew I had a work ethic. Right. And I was an entrepreneur. So he just didn’t stop. So basically I just said, how long has the video?
He says 15 minutes.
I said, well, when we get done, I’m going to watch it.
I’m thinking I’m going to get rid of this guy once.
And for all, I’m going to watch this video and be done.
And so, uh, I start watching this video and, uh, the great mark Yarnell, who was my upline, who a lot of people know in the industry was on doing a presentation.
He was talking about, you know, no commute, you know, no office and no receivables, no employees and all the things I hated.
Right. And then he, and then, uh, and then he walked out And, uh, and he was on the fairway of a golf course,
I grew up on the golf course and I’m thinking, oh, where’s this business been my little wife, you know?
And it was just, it was instant.
And I literally hit pause on the, uh, on the, on the recorder and stop the video, like seven minutes into a 15 minute video and my brother-in-law thought I was gonna like punch him or something.
He said, said, I’m gonna do, I’m gonna do some homework if this is real. If this is true, my businesses for sale to.
Because I wanted that life.
I wanted the freedom of, of being home with my family and homeschooling your kids.
And these guys were taking four and five vacations a year and they lived on a golf course, you know, and you know, I don’t tell this story too often, but I had a step son at the time that took off one half of one day to watch him play in a golf tournament.
And that day I lost a $10,000 a month account that I’d worked three years.
Oh, my gosh.
I had no leverage. I had, no, I couldn’t, I couldn’t leave my business without it falling apart, you know?
And God forbid, if I get hit by a truck or something, it’s over, you know what I mean?
Cause you are the business.
And so when I saw this leverage and understood that you could do something and you know, work hard and build up a network and over time, have a recurring income without the office, without the employees and have the time that you were.
I was instantly in, you know, and so I, I met some guys locally. I flew up and, and, and toured the facilities.
You know, when I got back home, my business was for sale and nine months later it sold and, uh, the rest is history.
I’ve been full time.
Wow. One of the things that I love about your story is that a lot of times people are hesitant to approach those who they would perceive as successful. You know, like they’re, oh, they’re living the American dream.
They’re an entrepreneur, they got this big business. They’re, they’re living the life and it’s not always the case. Right? That, that is the case, because as you mentioned, traditional businesses bring with them, you know, their own set of challenges.
Um, Yeah, the more the business, the more you make, the more responsibility you have, the less time you have and you get on that treadmill and you can’t get off.
And so even if someone has a really successful lifestyle, I mean, it’s all about this quarter.
It’s, you know, it’s, you know, it’s gotta make, you know, there’s always challenges in business.
you’ll get a kick out of this. I was back in the days before the internet, right. I cold called this guy to, to prospect him about the business.
He said that he said, I’ve got like a seven bedroom house. I drive a Bentley.
What I need your business for?
I said that I said, last time you went on vacation, how many times vacations do you take?
He said, I take a few.
So have you ever had something happen, when you’re on vacation at true business, he said, I can’t believe you asked me that.
He said the last time I was on a trip, I have this, this factory and, and, and someone got killed on the job.
Oh my gosh.
So I said, so here’s the difference?
I said, you have money that you will never have freedom.
Wow.
And he was in my house in 15 minutes to look at the business.
Wow. That is incredible. What a great story.
So you put your business up for sale. And then from what I know about your story, you still you kind of had a challenge in network marketing for the first few years. Now you’re in network marketing.
It’s not working. Tell us about that…
Well, you know, it’s, it’s an interesting business because, you know, I’m an introvert, I’m the quiet type.
I blame it on my, my, my mom, because I was grounded.
Most of my adolescent life, I was kind of mischievous.
So I’m in my room by myself. She would let me play on the sports teams.
My parents moved three times in the first couple of years of school.
So I was kind of an introvert and always the new kid in school and grounded most of the time. So I couldn’t go out and play or play.
So, so it became the quiet type.
So in business, I was hard people to call people and heart people to sell and hard people to collect.
And I was kinda like the Oz behind the curtain, making it work.
And all of a sudden I sell the business and I go, holy crap.
I don’t know how to talk to people because I’ve turned down every phone call on the planet. Cause it was always somebody trying to sell me something.
So I had to reinvent myself.
You know, I had to just start off, you know, talking to people and finding ways to get information in front of people.
So I could create conversations, you know, because, you know, until you can interact with somebody and have a conversation you can’t learn.
So it was all about just getting out and getting conversations.
And I was the worst on the planet. I mean, I did, you know, I ranked one time in three and a half years.
Uh, it was terrible.
You know, I made, I made, uh, in the first three years I made what I made in my traditional business in 3 months.
Oh, wow. . Did you know that was going to happen?
Did you kind of have a cushion?
Yeah. It’s still, you know, I still, you know, I had my house was paid for, but you’ll, you’ll, you’ll love this story too.
I had to refinance my house five times to what, four of them to pull cash out the fifth time it had taken off and I’d finally did well.
And I had. Oh my gosh, so much taxes.
So, but I was committed to do whatever it took.
I don’t suggest that to people.
Yeah, I was in it. It was, uh, I, I kept saying I, you know, and I always tell people that, you know,
God’s not through with you yet.
So what was the breakthrough?
Well, you know, I, I I’m, I’m relentless about mindset, you know, in visualizations and preparing yourself for your day.
Um, you know, in business, you always have a little process.
I love process.
There was no internet, there was no social media.
So you had to, you had to either call people on the phone.
Oh, you had to chase him around Walmart, really, no other way to meet people.
You know, it’s either interacting with people or calling people.
So I decided, you know, and I tried the interacting with people and it was just brutal.
So I said, I’m just gonna call people.
Cause at least if it goes south, I can just hang up and they’ll never see me again.
I love it.
I got pretty good at calling and just talking to people and just talking about, you know, because I’m a business, I was a business owner, so I did have that little, that little understanding.
That I can talk to people.
So, you know, I said, I know, I know what you’re going through as a business owner, you know, your, your employees drive you crazy.
You’ve got overhead, you know, you’ve got, you know, competition, you know, the people that you want to work for you that they’re really good.
You can’t pay them enough, so you can’t get them.
You know, if you pay them a lot, you know, you, can’t making a profit, you know, and, and, and the really good people typically learn your business and go start their own.
You, you train people to be your competition.
So I said,, the thing is, is that you’ll never be free.
You know, and I would ask people, you know, you know, how important is it for you to be done at some point, do you, can you see yourself doing what you’re doing from now on, right.
And not being done and that, so I, I worked on that and, and you, you know, and if you talk to enough people, you’re going to find people that are unhappy and don’t want to be where they are and don’t want to keep doing what they’re doing.
So I was relentless about writing scripts.
I mean, those, those legal pads, I still got them, those legal pads, you know, uh, but I don’t use them now but what I used to do, I would write scripts and try to make it, you know, I figured if I said the perfect thing, everybody would say, yes, it wasn’t that it was really more about timing.
You know, if you call people and I learned this from a guy that came to my house, one time he, he was in, he was in direct mail that conveys when you used to get those coupon books in the mail, that was Like 50 coupons to clean your ducks to paint your house, whatever he said, Tim, you know, the reason they sent 10,000 of those ounces, it doesn’t matter what the offer is.
Is it 2% are going to respond?
And that hit me.
It’s like, oh my God.
You know, it’s just about getting more information out because if somebody is ready, if they hate their job, they’ve been laid off.
Their businesses, eaten their guts out.
If the timing is right, people are gonna look, you know, at the timing’s not right.
They’re not gonna look.
It doesn’t matter what you say.
Right. I mean, you may have influenced with , but the timing of their in their life is what’s going to make people do the deal.
Yeah. And have you ever asked someone to look that said no, but then you went back to later that said yes.
Yeah.
What’s really funny is that I had this, I was, I ended up, uh, calling businesses and in like 15 minutes from my house, so people could come to a presentation.
Right.
Cause this is again, And so I would call through the same zip codes and they would take about six months to call through the zip codes that people actually remember me and say, ah, you know, you’ve called me. Like three times now you’re still in this and obviously it’s going well. So I want to come look now.
Wow. So you were using the phone and then you were also using live presentations.
I mean, cell phones, cell phones weren’t even out, you know?
So you had to, you had to get out and meet people or you had to call people, um, until the late nineties.
And then you went from having your breakthrough to developing like a team system that then turned your team into the, like the number one recruiting team in the entire company. Is that right?
Yeah. You know, I I’m, uh, I’m, I’m very good at systemizing things from, from business.
And so I, and I, and I’ve seen stats before, and you’ve probably seen this before that 94% of people failing is this.
You know, and not the person, you know, if you, especially in corporate America.
So, so I, I set out to teach people, you know, approaches and then everybody would watch the same presentation.
Then we would have a little interview that we’d ask them a few questions.
So everything was very systemized where people can get very good at it with repetition.
And because one of the, one of the hardest things for people was what I do next what’s after that. What if this happens?
So you, if you have a little flow that you know, that you’ve, you’ve got, uh, uh, a, B, C, D you know, that they can follow, you know, and they can just get good at that.
And they re and you teach them, you know, if you just get good at this X number of people are going to do it, and it doesn’t really matter.
Right. So you got to get out of all the nos and just focus on the process. I love it.
One of the questions that I wanted to ask you regarding systems is that it seems that everyone wants to systematize and everyone wants to systematize everything. And it seems to me that. There are a category of things that are good to systematize, and then maybe some things that you don’t want to systematize.
Is that been your perception? And if so, what are good things to systematize and what are things that are not good to systematize?
Well, I mean, if you get, if you, if you micromanage too many things, it makes people feel restrained and it makes people feel like they can’t have a personality.
So you, you, you can, you can only give them a path to go on, you know, as what I found after 30 years now, you know, because, and, and I had this interesting aha moment, one time, one of the things that got me off of trying to write the perfect script.
Is that I had this, this is back in the teleconference days where you’d call in, , and we always taught people, you know, introduce yourself and say where you’re from.
And so this is Tim and Dallas, you know?
And so I had this guy on my team, it was this DJ and he had this booming voice, great voice.
And when he’d come on, introduce him, oh man.
If I had that voice, I could just kill it.
And so I had this girl that was a. Withdrawn. I would say she’s more than librarian type behind the cubicle crunching numbers.
So not this booming voice.
Right. And, uh, and so I w we had this contest in our company and I was working with both of these guys and the quiet girl won the national contest.
Wow.
And the DJ didn’t really do anything.
And that made me think what the heck is going on.
Right. And, uh, and it dawned on me that, you know, people worry so much about how they sound and all my voice is not great.
Or I’ve got this accent or, you know, I’m young or I’m old, whatever.
And what, what dawned on me is that when, when people would say something, if you don’t feel it, it doesn’t work.
So belief and passion is not audible.
Right?
You, you can’t just say something and it hit people. If, but when you say something, if you feel it. Um, I know me that the process I had taught the girl, she felt it and she believed it.
So people acted on it, even though she didn’t sound like this incredible DJ.
So she got results from belief.
This other guy, there was no belief behind it.
He didn’t believe what he was saying. He didn’t believe in him.
It’s kind of like Zig Ziglar’s famous quote sales is not a thing in the world, but a transference of feeling.
Exactly.
Exactly. Yeah.
So you got to get people, a path to run on, but they got to feel it, you know?
And so people that you’ll have people that will do the, exactly the same thing and succeed, and people do that exact same thing and fail.
And, and, and if you’re, if you can’t figure out why that’s it, that’s it that’s it that’s the belief.
So you put together some systems, were you guys doing any internet lead generation or just all kinds of like warm market, cold market.
Yeah, we were probably the first team to go on the internet.
Uh, I had a partner and we, uh, we had a tech team and we built a system, uh, and integrated it with a lead source in 1997.
Wow.
So we, we, cause I was tired of doing meetings.
Right? I’d done. I had done 5,000 meetings since I’ve started.
And I said, I am so tired of 3000 meetings.
Yeah. I mean, you’re doing, you’re doing meetings like all day everyday for yourself, for your team and you’re traveling and doing meetings for your team and other places.
I mean, if you do that for years, it adds up pretty quick.
So, so basically when the internet came out, I said, I want to figure out a system, a way to centralize this, where I can stop traveling and have a life.
You know, it doesn’t do any good to have a home-based business if you’re never home.
Right. That’s right. That’s right.
And pre-internet, you had to travel, you had to go do meetings and houses and hotels and other cities and other countries.
And so I wanted to bring it to the internet.
So that’s why we went out and did this presentation.
So I recorded the presentation.
Put some scripts together and put a follow-up script together and, you know, and got on and taught people to use it.
You know, how to approach people, calling people.
And we did start at that 98 and, uh, and we put on tens of thousands of people without without meetings.
Ha I think this is great because like sometimes on the internet you see these messages, like, are you sick of meetings?
And it’s like, yeah, you were doing that in the nineties.
So I think that’s funny. Um, how about like cohesiveness? So when you moved your team to the internet or to where you’re doing most of your recruiting and stuff on the, you know, Um, did you have like a weekly conference call?
Of course you had company events, like you still kind of have to have something where you’re bringing.
Yeah. Yeah. So we had teleconference calls that were weekly.
Obviously we would do three way back then you had to do three calls.
So we do three-way calls with our team all day. Every day we do conference calls for the team.
And what we’d also do is we had an event every three months. And so we, you know, and the team got so big that corporate actually came to Dallas to, to do our events with us.
And we went to corporate one time a year, but we’d fill up the biggest hotel in Dallas and, uh, and use their ballroom once every three months.
And we’d bring everybody in. And so, and everybody would get to know each other and hang out and stay up til three o’clock and talk to each other and fall in love with the team.
You know?
So you, you, you built that, that cohesiveness and that culture, and then we’d have contests for three months building up to the next event and you bring all the new people back to the.
Again, everybody meets, everybody falls in love.
You know, you go back and have another contest.
So we recruited from event to event to event.
And what was your first big, like exciting win memory that you, that you can remember from this, from this timeframe?
Probably the number one memory. I mean, obviously when you work with a lot of people, you have a lot of great memories, but I had this one, one girl that a.
That I met in Houston back when I was traveling.
So I was, you know, I was going to Houston every week for a while building this team.
And this was, uh, uh, a young woman that, uh, was kind of in the back of the room the whole time.
But, uh, but then decided she ended up getting a divorce and, uh, and she, her husband, uh, she was going to get the house, but she couldn’t afford the house without her husband’s income.
And so she had, uh, she had a small child at the time.
And, uh, and she said, what should I do?
I said, well, let’s work on it first.
Right? Don’t make a knee jerk decision.
Let’s work on it first and see what happens.
Cause she had some cushion.
And so we worked on it, worked on it, worked on it.
And she was so broke that all she could afford to eat was Cheerios, her child Cheerios pretty much all day.
And then we finally get her to the top of the company and she goes out to pay cash for her first Mercedes.
And she takes a picture with her, her child there with a box of cereal.
No way.
Yeah.
Wow. Wow. I love that. You know, when I asked that question, I was kind of waiting for you to come out and tell us when you bought your first Lamborghini or when you did this and that, you know, so I just think that’s so cool.
You know, that your memory was from this lady, you know, help helping someone, helping someone, you know, step into that success. That that is so great. Wow. Congratulations.
Uh, so one other question I have is working with people, working with your team, what are some tips you have for, uh, you know, being a good mentor, helping people get started.
Well, you know, it’s all about staying connected to people, right?
I mean, obviously there’s a, there’s a lot of people that, are total sales people, and this isn’t a bad thing. Right.
You need salespeople and you need mentors, just like you need athletes.
Like you see an athlete sometimes it’s kind of selfish and they’re kind of, they’re kind of a braggadocious on TV.
so you have to have people to score, right. Uh, or you can’t win, but you also have to have those people that are team oriented and coach oriented.
Right.
And so I always teach people that, that, you know, spend time with people, especially early on, because everybody’s nervous.
Everybody’s. Did I make the right decision?
What are my friends going to think?
You know, or maybe they’ve tried something like this before.
And so you’ve got to stay close to people and build that relationship because people want to stay in the business for two reasons, money and, and relationships and the money doesn’t usually come early.
So you’ve got to build a relationship quick and make it solid, or everybody leaves.
So you got to build a relationship and, and I used to tell people, look, you gotta, you gotta run on my belief in you until you get your own.
You know, and I, I would say things like that and make them answer me back and I would get, you know, occasionally I would meet a leader.
There was, oh, you spend all this time. It’d be a, if you spend all this time with people and they quit, I said, well, what if I don’t spend time with them? And they stay,
so I’m big on mentoring.
I’d much rather, you know, there’s a lot of people that just want to recruit wide open and make a million bucks.
Right.
And maybe they’ve got 10,000 people that they’re making a hundred bucks.
I’d rather, I’d rather teach 10 people to make six figures.
I’d rather spend time with 10 people and develop those people into leaders than to just put a bunch of people and throw a bunch of mud against the wall.
See what sticks and ignore people and look for people that can do it on their own.
I couldn’t do it on my own in the beginning, and I didn’t really have anyone close enough to me to actually mentor me.
And so it’s kind of like someone who grew up without a father and you just want to be the best dad ever, you know, it’s that kind of feeling.
So that’s the way I feel about mentoring.
I really want to spend time with people and develop people.
And, and, and the biggest thing for me is to, is to see them walk the stage, right?
I want to be the first one there to hug them when they come off the stage, you know, it’s that kind of thing versus I don’t want to be on the stage.
I’d rather everybody else speak, I’ll speak, but I’d rather see other people’s speaking.
So how do you walk the line between not pushing a rope and staying in touch with people
You have to have a, again, this comes down to processes, right? You got to have a little process that you use.
And the first thing I would like if I sponsored you, I said, Paul, the first thing I want to, I want to tell you is that, you know, is that, you know, this is going to be more difficult than you think it may take a little longer than you want, but I’m going to be here every step of the way.
I’m going to ask you to do some very simple things.
We want to do it together and together we can, we can do anything I said, but if you distance yourself from me early on, like if you don’t follow through and maybe set up your, you know, your, your product order on a monthly order, if you don’t show up on the trainings, you know, if you miss appointments with me, when we’re supposed to talk to somebody, I’m going to look at, at your, at your commitment to the business.
And if, if your commitment doesn’t match me, if you’re not showing up, then I’m going to say, you know, I’m going to have to distance myself from you and say, that’s cool. Um, but you know, when you’re ready, let me know because, so I, and I say, is that fair?
And I’m gonna say, if I’m gonna make you say yes, because you have to commit to do the things I asked you to do, or I have to separate, and you tell me when you’re ready and I’m always going to be here.
I’m never going to disown you, but I can’t stay and try to motivate you.
I can’t try to make you do something you don’t want to do.
I’m looking for people that want to act now to get out of their comfort zone.
Let me help them. And if that’s you, I’ll never leave you.
Awesome. I love it. Great, great, great answer.
Um, so let me ask you a few other questions here that I have written down. Um, one of the things that I really wanted to ask you is, can you tell me about your morning routine? Because when I chatted with you one time, you said, Hey, I got this thing in the morning. I don’t mess with it. It’s pretty intense.
And so personal development is the theme of this podcast. So I’d love to hear about your morning routine.
Yeah. Um, well, you know, I’ve always been, I’ve always been either the uneducated guy, cause obviously I didn’t finish high school.
I got kicked out of high school, so I’ve always felt like I needed extra prep to, uh, to learn.
And when I got in the business, I had never sold anything and I was the quiet type.
So I’ve always felt why I I’m under-prepared right.
And, uh, and you also see successful people talk about a power hour or first thing in the morning and doing meditation.
So I, I, I listened to successful people, Tony Robins, whoever, right.
And I just emulate them.
So if they get up early, I’m going to get up.
Or if they have a routine, I’m going to figure out a routine.
So I get up, uh, I have my, my energy drink and my, and my shot of coffee.
Uh, and then I go straight into my visualizations because you know, the mind to imprint the mind in the first 30 minutes of when you’re awake or the last 30 minutes before you sleep is the, is the biggest time you can impact your, your mind for learning.
So I have a set of visualizations that I go through that, uh, that prepare me for the day.
And it’s basically me visualizing what I call my perfect day when I get up, how I’m going to feel, right.
What, you know, how many people I’m going to approach, what kind of results do I want, you know, and feel it. And so just this, the action plan, right?
It’s just like, uh, an athlete visualizing the shot or visualizing the putt.
Right. I’m I’m going through my perfecta day. And getting the feeling of, of that.
And then I go out and attack today.
So get the visualizations, you know, then I go, then I go into a workout and I’m typically watching content on YouTube while I work out and I’m taking notes.
So I do my personal development while I’m working.
And, uh, and I’m about to get back into a lot of content.
Like I’ve done a lot of content in the past, but I’ve been off while I was moving, you know, I moved, but I’m going to be back and doing some, some heavy content starting next week.
And I get my content from when I watch YouTube in the morning during my workouts.
So my mindset, my visualization is my workout, my fitness, my, my prep, my content, everything is in the morning.
And I don’t let anybody interfere with that.
I don’t take appointments.
I don’t do calls in the morning. I don’t talk to prospects that are interested. I don’t do anything until I get me. Right. And then I go attack my day.
Perfect. How has the internet changed the game from when you were first getting started to today? Both good and bad.
Um, you know, the good part is that, that it leverages our time. You know, where you can actually be anywhere in the world.
You know, you can be talking to someone on a, on a messenger video chat or a zoom anywhere on the planet for free, you know, and I, and back when I started, you know, you were cold calling and at 9:00 PM, you couldn’t even call anybody because there was a no soliciting law.
So if I got home at eight from my business, I had an hour to call and I said, You know, I had to pay long distance charges if it was outside of Dallas.
So, so the flexibility, the ability to reach people 24 hours a day, anywhere in the world for free is massive.
Uh, also I like, uh, you know, a lot of people are either old school and don’t do any technology and some people are just technology, right.
And don’t want to really meet people.
There are things about old school that I’ll never leave the relationship part, you know, and, and, uh, and getting to know people and helping people.
Um, but when we used to meet in person, you know, there was a feeling that you got. And so I only do video chats.
Like I have people that say, I want you to do a three-way call with me.
I won’t do it.
I won’t do anything anymore that doesn’t have face to face.
And so I like to replace, three-way calling with a video. ’cause it’s like we’re all at Starbucks.
And because I can tell you I’ve done the research, you know, 97% of what people do not 90, 93% of what people do comes down to we’re hardwired for eye contact, for smiles, for posture, for tonality in your voice.
All those things create trust in relationship and move people to where they’re influenced. Right?
If, if you’re trying to get someone to believe, to believe in you and your team and what you do.
You need to pull in all those factors.
If you’re just on the phone, you don’t have hardly any of those. Right.
And they don’t know who you are, what you look like if you’re smiling, you know?
So I, I like to bring the video part of it that I won’t do it the three way call. I’ll just do the chat. So I pull this together. So it was kind of old school. And I like to do events once the pandemic’s over, we’ll be back to doing events.
So I’d still tap into the relationship.
The, you know, the eye contact, the, and the events where I still have that old school feel, but I can talk to a new person every 20 minutes anywhere in the world for free.
So I used that leverage in the technical.
I love it. I had a team member asked me the other day, uh, you know, Hey, do you send voice messages to people on Facebook or is text?
And I told them about how, when I messaged you, you said, Hey, let’s pop on a zoom. And I said, why do you think he did. And, and, you know, the way I explained it is because there’s like levels of rapport, like in a text you lose so much, you know, voices a little better, and video is a little better and face to face interaction in like in-person, you know, that’s the best.
So I love that. How has the internet changed, uh, the ability to build and hold a team together, if at all, like, is it harder now with the distractions and all the ads everywhere or not?
Yeah. Well, I mean, if you, if you have a culture where you do a lot of, uh, interaction with people daily, you do video chats and you have events, you have a lot of the same structure that you had back in the old days, but in the old days, you know, if somebody were in your video, They rarely got called by someone and, and another business because people have call reluctance
But they’ll do a Facebook post-sale everybody on the planet, what they’re doing, you know, because it’s easier.
And so that part is, is negative because you, you, you take the easy route, which is less productive, and then people get this, this.
The grass is greener. You know, that you get that kind of thing where people get approached by several deals a week.
And back in the old days, you didn’t get approached.
Um, people gravitate to the lowest common denominator and try to do something simple in the easier something is the less it works, you know?
And so, so those two things have, have, uh, factored the outcome down.
But, uh, I think overall it’s still a plus because the people that will do what you and I are doing.
And bring in the social part, uh, and, and have the face-to-face and still lead with the passion and leverage the technology.
They’re better off than somebody in the old days.
Um, I love it. And so to, uh, combat the distraction and the approaches and the ads everywhere, would you say that staying connected with people, having strong culture, you know, serving them like.
Are those, some of the things that would be good or would you recommend anything else and teaching people, you know, everything’s culture, right?
So, and everything is a process.
So part of your teaching, like I teach people to say, look, um, and I hope this doesn’t offend someone, but I say, look, new companies are like, there’s a thousand new ones every year.
Right. Just know 99% are going to be out of business.
So, so just know the grass, even though it seems greener.
People that do new deals typically start over for the rest of their life.
It’s really hard to pick the next legacy company in the it’s just your odds are one in a thousand.
So I say, you know, so, so what I do is it when people and I don’t, I don’t like, oh, you look at mine and I’ll look at yours.
I never do that.
And I tell people, I said, don’t do that be up front.
When people say, look, um, if, if you want to meet and talk about what I do, I’d love to meet with you.
If not. And I always tell them, I sit and leave with your flags flying.
Right? So, so what you do is you say, look, when that doesn’t pan out, I’m here for you plant that seed.
All right. But don’t look at their deal and only get on if they’re interested in your deal.
And just make that part of your culture.
I love it. It’s almost like, Hey, let me know when you fail and I’ll be here to pick you.
you can soften that a little bit. If it turns out that it’s not as profitable as you think, or you don’t get, there you go, you need, or something like that.
And you feel like you’re, you’re you, you have the commitment that if you’re not, nobody’s helping you, I’m here for you.
Right. I love it. You can say it in a different way. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Messaging is important. Right? We have to say, we definitely have to say it in the right way. Um, uh, so on one of your quotes, I was looking through your Facebook photos, you know, uh, it said something about to find gold.
You have to know where to dig. So where do you dig? You know, for prospects?
Um, you know, I, I look for people and not everybody does this, but I like to look for network marketers.
Cause, you know, when you’re, when you’re prospecting the general public, I mean, there’s a lot of people that have a negative connotation than they work marketing.
And, uh, and rather than debate that back and forth, trying to sell somebody on the street, I like to find someone who’s already sold on the industry.
And I like to talk to people who have a little bit of experience, even if it’s just a tiny bit and also to have a little team and they’re not happy, you know, instead of one person coming over, you might have 10 people.
And so you have a leverage.
Uh, you don’t have to do as many battles with people about explaining the industry.
You’re validating the industry and you can leverage your efforts sometimes by, by getting more than one person at one time and people that can just bring instant volume.
And when you find someone, like, let’s say you’re, you know, looking through Facebook and you find someone that you want to connect with, how do you lead?
Do you, you know, Hey, you open to popping on a zoom, right? Like right off the bat. Do you, do you ask if they’re open, do you, you know, yeah. Tell us about your process there.
I don’t do a lot of process because I, it goes back to what I, what I heard when I told you before with.
So I know that I could, I could friend you for example, and if you are in love with what you do, I can, I can communicate with you every day for the next 20 years.
You’re not going anywhere.
Right.
So the relationship part is a little bit over sold, you know?
Oh, you got to put people, I take the little bit of relationship and a lot of action over a lot of relationships and a little action.
So I’m going to connect with you, you know, thank you for the connection. Um, I’m going to see a, you know, Hey, why don’t we jump on a, on a zoom or something’s changed some info.
I like to hear people’s stories about how they got in the business, you know, what their backstory is, you know?
And, and I always put this little, little thing in there and you never know what might happen in the future. Right?
I like to see that because you know, what you’ll find is if you just want to get on a crossroads with people, you know, it, it’s a waste of time and you’ll find people that won’t want don’t want to talk.
If they don’t think they have a shot. So, if you say it like that, what I’m really saying is I’m not going anywhere, you know?
And at some point, if, if it’s right for you, I’m going to be here and they probably take it as a little bit of both, but I just want a conversation with people.
Right. And, uh, I just want to see what they’re about, you know, why are they getting the business kind of what their process is and, and, and, uh, and I don’t just prospect every single person.
Uh, but after I connect with them and ask questions, you know, they usually ask me questions. And by the time we exchange info, uh, they know, I know what I’m doing and I can help them.
And if they’re open, they typically come forward. If they, if they don’t, I’m not the kind of person I’m not going to call you 17 days in a row.
Like my brother.
Right.
I’m very much either much a sifter I sift and I’ll keep moving because I know that there’s a small percentage of people out there that, that, that, that are.
And my odds are better if I keep moving to come across people that the timing is right.
man convinced against his will as of the same opinion still.
Yeah. I love that. Um, what is the biggest business challenge you faced and how did you overcome it?
Uh, the biggest challenge, uh, was probably. Me and understanding the business, you know, when you think it’s sales, when it’s not, when you think is what you’re saying versus how you feel, when you think you can convince somebody or say the perfect thing, when it’s really about timing, just the lack of understanding of what’s going on, man.
It was very frustrating.
It takes an enormous amount of time and it can send you down. Lots of rabbit holes.
They make no sense and get you nowhere.
So I think understanding the business as much as you can, as you go along is more important than, uh, than just being relentless and talking to the same people.
You know, I think one of the biggest problems people have in the industry is they spend, you know, a month or a year or two putting together a small team of people and they spend their whole career trying to get that small team of people to be leaders.
Hmm. Instead of continuing to expand.
Yeah. You know, you’ve got to keep, you know, you, you’ve got to lead by example and bring new people on or your team does it, your team keeps your team.
You don’t have to even tell them what you do.
They’ll gravitate to what you do, even if you don’t tell them, you can even tell them you’re doing something different.
They’ll still go. It’s a weird thing, right there.
Just do what you do, no matter what. So the right stuff or your team duplicate.
As Emerson said, men are wiser than they know.
And they, they pick up on these things, you know,
I love it. Yeah. And, uh, that’s, that’s so good. Uh, one of the reasons that I continue to strive to produce is, is just because I want to set a good example and I want, want that to transfer over, you know, um, What, uh, what lights you up and helps you stay motivated?
I mean, millionaire at 29, multiple seven figure earner retired, you know, twice, obviously you don’t need the money, you know, like yeah. What, what, what helps you do that?
You know, uh, when I, when I finally, you know, cause this was all a process for me that I didn’t didn’t plan all of it.
So I got in the business to be free and then I figured out I’ve got.
Mentor people and systemize things so that people could produce enough, so I could be free. And then, so I do all this and I get free.
And then after being free for almost a decade and, you know, doing all the stuff that you do when you, you know, your dream goals and knock off your bucket list, your house and cars and whatever.
And then when you, then you feel, I felt a little bit empty and it was really weird because, uh, I didn’t see myself as a mentor, but in the process of mentoring people so that I could get my outcome and my hoping.
It dawned on me that I really, that my passion to be free led me to my purpose, which was mentoring.
And so connecting with people and helping people like the girl with the Cheerios, you know, that kind of thing, you know?
Cause, cause the cool thing about network marketing it’s it’s way better than, than like athletics because athletics you’re your body.
At some point you can’t keep up with right here. I mean, I’m an old guy.
You know, so, so you can do this, you know, 30, 40, 50 years if you want, and you can, and you can help people.
And so it’s like, it’s kinda like if you win a championship or your kids win a championship, which one feels better, it’s always your kids,
the kids, for sure.
So, so helping people rank and get their goals is like, they’re like my kids.
And so I get to live through that over and over and over.
And that’s what floats my boat more than anything is, is a feeling when.
they don’t know, they can do it and then they get it done.
And then you see that spark and then it just become these, these leaders that they had no idea that that was in them.
That’s that’s the cool part.
There’s more than money to be found in the pot of gold at the end of the rain. Oh, isn’t there?
Yeah. Big time. Yeah. The money you see a lot of really wealthy people that are miserable.
So it’s not, it’s not, if someone’s never had money, they think money’s going to fix that.
You know, and you’ve probably heard this in the business early that people said, you know, the money’s great, but at some point there’s not a check that could really excite yet, but the relationships are worth a billion dollars.
The relationships are worth more than the money.
And I used to say. Yeah, right.
Yeah. And if you’re at the beginning, part of the journey, one of the things is you want to just jump to the money as fast as possible.
And what that causes you to do is skip over the relationships or do relationships wrong. And if you could really understand that truth that you just laid out. The journey would be so much more rewarding and fulfilling, you know, on the way to the money and beyond.
So that is, that is so good. Um, uh, when you retired, was that purely from your business income or was it a combination of what you’re in business and then like reinvesting the money that you made?
Uh, at that time it was all network marketing, residual.
Because I’d taken my business money that I got from selling my business.
I kind of went through that.
Obviously I wouldn’t have refinanced my house five times. So you go through this. So I was, so that was all residual income, you know, and, and, you know, getting out of debt and just, you know, just, you know, when you have that kind of cash flow, you know, and there’s no overhead, you know, and, and if your teams are pretty automated, you got systems set up.
I mean, it’s just, it’s like a trust fund almost, you know, it’s a, it’s, it’s highly recommended to people.
No idea what it’s like to just note when you wake up. And you just have this crystal clear head and there’s no stress and there’s no place to be.
And you just turn to your significant other or your, what do you want to do today?
You know, when you’ve been, do that every day for as long as you want, it’s the coolest ever.
Such a beautiful, beautiful place to be free to write to total freedom and the company that you’re with didn’t have like ongoing production quotas or anything like that, where you were kind of tied to continuing.
No, it was about having a certain amount of legs, you know?
And so it’s drive your legs and solidify your legs.
You know, you don’t have to worry about, uh, any type of quota.
Okay, cool.
Who’s been your best mentor and why,
you know, I didn’t really have a, uh, a relationship with a mentor.
It’s all been external stuff I’ve been watching, you know, and listening to Mark Yarnell on watching, listening to Tony, Robbins.
You know, things like that.
So I’ve had to sort of get that from other places, because I didn’t have anyone close to me that that would spend a lot of time with me.
Yep and that’s an important part to realize about mentorship. A lot of times people think that, well, you’re only my mentor. If we’re talking on the phone three times a day or whatever, and what you just said, that’s my experience as well.
I have had a few mentors where I was closely connected with, but most of my best mentors I read what they wrote in a book, or I watched them on a video. Never, never knew them. They died, you know, 10, 20, 30 years ago. So, yeah, that’s a great, great, great point.
How about, um, books?
Is there a favorite book that has impacted you in a deep way?
And, and yeah, I did quite a few seminars and books back in the day, but, uh, since then I’ve just strictly done a lot of YouTube and stuff.
So, so I mean, I I’m real old school, so, so thinking grow rich.
You know, is, is a, is a biggie. The Bible, obviously, you know, Tony Robbins awaken the giant within, you know, and you know, so a lot of the old school books, cause to me, personal development, if you, if you study think and grow rich, everybody that teaches anything today, it’s rooted in thinking grow rich.
I mean, you literally can take everything that’s said and everything that’s done.
It’s it was there a hundred years.
And so I love they can grow rich. It’s the, it’s created more millionaires than any book on the planet so that if you have that and get the original version, right. Not the new updated version.
I liked, I liked to see exactly what the Napoleon hill wrote when he wrote it. I don’t want the new version. I want what he wrote.
1937 edition. Right? I love it. You and me are brothers. I love, love, love that book.
Yeah. In my, in my delivery company, that the one that took all my time and almost killed me, my driver was, was, uh, in between deliveries and he was at a little, little garage, uh, garage sale.
And he brought me in original, 1937 hard. Copy of things were rich. He bought for 50 cents. I love it.
Was it the red cover with the little top hat on the front?
Yeah. Yeah. So, cool.
Um, you mentioned YouTube. Are there some favorite YouTube channels that you follow or how do you, how do you find your YouTube content that you listened to?
I, uh, I watched, I do a lot of stuff with, with Kiyosaki and Tony Robbins and, you know, and so I like business concepts.
Versus, you know, cause if you watch network marketers, I watched some that were walkers, but they’re telling you the same stuff you kind of already know.
So it’s hard to think outside the box and you know, if you’re going to create content, you know, and I’m an entrepreneur first, I’m really an entrepreneur more than I’m a network marketer.
And so I like concepts by business people that I can take in related to network marketing.
So it keeps it fresh for me versus the same old.
Do this and do this and do this already know all that.
Yeah. Yeah. I feel the same. I love that advice. Uh, we, we, we, we don’t want to be bored as we’re doing what we’re doing.
So grant Cardone and you know what I mean?
So all the guys that are big in business that, that teach things that I can apply to network marketing and put a little different.
Awesome. What advice would you give to your younger self? Like if you could go, if you could go back to the Tim that, you know, uh, put his business for sale and went all in, in network marketing that first day, you know, what, what would you tell yourself?
Okay. You know, focus more on, on the passion and the feeling and talking to a lot of people set up trying to figure out the perfect way because I spent the first three years or so trying to figure out the perfect way to do it.
And if I had. Took action with passionate feeling. I’d figured it out probably in six months.
I love it. Great advice. Do you have a favorite quote, um, or set?
There’s there’s no defense against an excellent that meets a pressing public need.
There’s no defense against an excellence that meets a pressing public needs.
So network marketing is a public need, right? People they’re tired of their jobs. They hate their jobs. They’ve been laid off.
Corporations are, aren’t gonna let them retire. You got the pandemic, you got all kinds of things that you have no control of your life. And corporations are where they don’t even want to do benefits. Right?
Pretty quickly people are going to be independent contractors and there’s going to be no value to having a job.
So, so th there’s no defense against network marketing.
You know, there’s so many people that run happy. If you just, if you just practice on getting a passion for talking to people about their life and work, where you could help them be, you know, you can’t be stopped, network marketing and another thing, AI and stuff like that is going to ruin a lot of businesses.
You can never. Replace people and that we’re marketing because of it’s a relationship business.
Um, that is actually very profound. Um, uh, I’ve, I’ve heard a lot of, you know, tech people say that you want to be in something that can’t be replaced by a robot.
Imagine us talking, one of us is robot right now. We’re trying to do this interview, right?
Right.
Not so good. Not so good.
Oh, um, I had one last network marketing question, and then I want to give you some time to say anything you want to say, closing words of inspiration, anything like that.
Um, how important is retention, both from looking at a company and, or managing your team, do you focus on it? You pay attention to it.
Retention is super important. Um, there’s two, two aspects of retention.
One obviously is quality of products, right? If you’ve got great products that people stay on, you got to have that.
Otherwise it’s just revolving doors.
If people can’t they’ll stay on your products and lot of the products, it doesn’t matter how good you are.
Right. You’re, you’re kind of done.
And on the people side, again, build relationships because if you build a relationship with people, uh, they don’t get treated well at their jobs, They don’t get encouraged at their job.
They don’t have a chance to, to make five times, 10 times what they make it, their job.
So the relationship, if you, if you keep that type, people will stay with you.
So you got to have a great relationship with your team and you gotta have great products.
And if you have those two things, you don’t have to worry too much about retention.
Hmm. Very good. Thank you so much for that, Tim. Any closing words of inspiration or insight? Anything we missed that you’d love to pass along to.
Yeah, I guess probably the number one thing is that, you know, if you’re looking at this and you’re wondering, can I do this, you know, or am I cut out for this?
Or if I’ve done this before, you know, just know that that I’m a quiet guy.
I didn’t graduate high school. I’d never sold anything. I’m sure you have some similar characteristics in on your side.
So this is really about just having a passion and, and, and a, and a love for freedom.
And. And if you have that and you’ve got that good product and you spend time with people, you can’t fail.
I mean, it’s mathematically impossible to fail. If you just keep putting info out.
I always tell people this, this little scenario here, I said, look, people don’t understand the numbers.
I’m a numbers guy. So I said, if you talk, let’s say you reached out to take, take one minute to reach out to 10 people.
Right, right.
Do that five days a week in a year is 13,000 people.
I find one or two.
You have to, right.
Here’s the kicker where it’s a leverage business.
And so if you teach that concept, you know, if those people do that same thing, right.
You teach those people, do it again.
You’re, you’re talking about, you know, 130,000 people, you know, if, and then 1.3 million people as it duplicates.
So if you duplicate something simple like that, you know, that’s how I succeeded in my first company is that we put up massive amounts of. And we had great products and a great system and great people.
So if you get massive amounts of information out, at some point, it’s impossible to fail.
So, so just get information out, have a passion, duplicate it and teach it, you know, and, and don’t stop.
You. Don’t stop. 90% of the people who stay with one company for 10 years are at the top.
Where else do you have a 90% chance of being a millionaire that where the recurring income and the existing.
Say that stat one more time.
90% of the people that stay with the company 10 years are at the top of a pay plan, 90%.
Wow. So I’ve never heard that before.
It’s a fact, most people quit before that.
So if you stay long enough, I mean, people aren’t going to stay and not do something, right. So just the tenacity of staying, you know, you can become a.
Amazing. I love it so much, Tim. This has been incredible. We’ve had some great feedback from our live viewers. Thank you so much. How do people connect with you with you if they want to learn more from you
Tim Edwards, uh, on, on Facebook and you’ll see the thing there, that thing, you know, the, the scoop is my, my old, uh, uh, image there and, and, uh, it says, uh, Finding nuggets to the gold quote.
So just check with Tim Edwards on, on Facebook.
All right. Well, thanks again, Tim. And thanks to everyone listening. We love you. We believe in you. We know you’ve got greatness within you. Get out there. Take action, go for your dreams. And we’ll hear you in the next episode of the Paul Hutchings podcast.