About a year ago, I joined a network marketing company called Natralife.  Of course, the fact that I joined and have been sharing these products with people would be a  clear indicator that I’m a fan.

Totally aside from any agenda I might have to promote this company, and whether or not you ever consider joining, I think their are some huge lessons to be learned from the way this company chooses to do business and frankly, I’m inspired.

Ask anyone who’s been in network marketing for a few years or longer, and odds are high they’ll tell you, if they’re honest, they’ve come to develop a love / hate relationship with the profession.

It seems to me that a huge part of life is evolution and progression.

If we as network marketers are going to grow and impact the world in the way that we all want to, isn’t it essential that we start to figure out some solutions so we as a ‘profession’ can grow?

Talking  about professionalism, I think it’s probably the lack thereof that cultivates the “Turn my stomach” reaction so many people have when they hear the words “MLM” and/ or “Network Marketing”.

About a year ago, despite the fact that my family has received tremendous financial blessings from the home business profession, I became really frustrated with my career path.

I remember telling myself that “If one must do these things to be successful in network marketing, then I don’t think i want to be successful in network marketing anymore.”

I no longer resonated with the hype.

I couldn’t bring myself to promote yet another valu-less product and/or service built around an exciting compensation plan.

I didn’t want to be one of those people who made a great show of being attractive on the outside while remaining empty on the inside.

Suddenly, the solid ground I thought I’d been standing on in years past, suddenly seemed shaky and unsure.

Truthfully, it was a scary place to be.

I saw nothing around me that I wanted to be a part of.

I was sick of jumping on the next hot thing.

Our time is on this planet is short, and for maybe the first time in my business life, making a difference became vastly more important to me than making a dollar.

I remembered the words of Gahndi….

This is when a friend and business partner of mine, and I, decided to create something that we could be proud to be a part of.

Could we really “Be the change we wished to see in the world?”

We didn’t know for sure, but we did know, we could try. 

And that’s when we began building an affiliate membership program called The Home Business Academy.

(Stay with me here… this is the lead up to Natralife and the powerful things I think we can all learn from this company.

I knew that If I could be at the helm of my own company, I could always endeavor to make sure that our company stood for something great.

I could make sure that never again, could a company owner change the compensation plan, pay us tiny commissions and/or do things that were out of alignment with my heart and thereby jeopardize not just my income, but perhaps something infinitely more important.

And since our company would be a 1 -tier affiliate membership, I knew we could help people earn significant income based on personal production without the necessity of having to build a big team in network marketing.

All of these things resonated with my soul and deep inside, I didn’t think I’d ever join another network marketing company.

Well that all changed when I reconnected with a man by the name of Joe Perry about a year ago.

Joe is truly an industry Icon with an epic history in the network marketing profession.

His “worldly” pedigree is long and glittered with accomplishments such as…

• Building 2 companies that did 100 million in sales in their first 3 years.
• Helping to formulate the world’s first milkshake diet back in the 70’s
• Leading a company in 2009 to doing 20 million in sales in a 3 year time frame…
• And the list goes on and one…

But you know what really impressed me about Joe and caused me to re-evaluate my decision to retire from network marketing?

1 lesson I learned from him, i think, serves as a great illustration for what I’m trying to communicate here in this first lesson that all of us in The Home Business profession can learn from this company called Natralife, and it’s founder Joe Perry.

Joe told me that he got to a point in his career where he had just purchased his first private jet… a long sought after goal.

Right around this time, his daughter had told him… “Daddy, I feel like I don’t even know you anymore.”

So there was Joe, sitting on his new jet, thinking about life and fatherhood, when he looks over the side of the jet, strokes his hand along the edge and says to himself…

“You know, this is just plastic.”

It was then Joe discovered what he calls… “The law of diminishing returns.”

This law says, according to Joe, that the more stuff we accumulate, the less enjoyment we tend to get from it all.

It was then that he decided to make some serious changes in his life.

A few years went by and he received a beautiful letter from his daughter expressing to him how he was her best friend in the world.

Wow.

So I guess what I’m trying to express here, is that Joe is a guy who understands that there’s more, a lot more to life, that what kind of car you drive, or what kind of home you live in.

Check out this handwritten note he sent to one of our team members who had been having success in his weight loss journey..

And here’s another…

 

Who does these things in 2017?

Mr. Joe Perry does and I tell you what, it inspires the heck out of me.

He cares about people, and relationships and isn’t that rare in today’s fast paced world of “Gimme, Gimme, Gimme?”

I’m so sick of connecting with people who tell me how much money they make within the first 2 minutes of a conversation.

Really?

Is that all there is to who you are?

How much money you make?

No wonder people get so turned off by The Home Business “Profession”.

So here’s the first big lesson we can all learn from Joe Perry…

1 – “Real leaders touch a heart, before they ever ask for a hand.” -John Maxwell

I mean really, in the end, when it’s all said and done – is it possible that how you treated a fellow brother or sister on this road of life might count for slightly more than what year make and model of Lamborghini you drove?

and next,

2 – Real products with real customers

The day of crappy products wrapped up in a glitzy sales presentation talking about how much money you can “potentially” earn are over (in my humble opinion).

Not only is the market sick of it, after a while leaders spirits get sick of it no matter what they might try to tell themselves to keep themselves moving forward in models where people win at the expense of others.

And if even if the market and leaders weren’t sick of it – the FTC is sick of it and that means, the days of the product-less ponzis are truly numbered.

One thing I absolutely LOVE about this company Natralife, is that they have real products with real customers totally aside from any income opportunity.

In fact, when my friend Mike and I first started promoting this company, we would message each other back and forth in complete shock and amazement as we noticed people buying product and joining as customers.

In fact, we both had a chuckle as we realized that, for what could be the first time in all our network marketing careers, we were actually gathering real customers.

Any business that does not have products and services that people enjoy separate from the business plan, is doomed from the start.

Sure some quick money can be made for some, but building a real business that sustains itself over time and provides REAL residual income through the process of providing REAL residual value to REAL residual customers…

-Not gonna happen without a product or service that blesses the lives of customers.

It’s somewhat surprising to me (and maybe shocking to some) that here I’ve been working from home since 2005 and i’m even writing about something so obvious and apparent.

My friend Rick Martin told me earlier today, quoting John Maxwell, it’s what you learn after you know (or think you know it all) it all that counts.

Common sense truly does not seem to be common practice, especially in an industry filled with “Quick money crackpots.”

**Yes, 3 fingers pointing back at me too**  🙂

Oh, and one more point here.  Natralife actually incentives it’s reps to gather customers by paying them handsomely for doing so.

No one is ever going to go and get customers unless they’re rewarded for doing so… and it’s high time network marketing companies realize this and start building these incentives into their compensation plans.

Lesson #3 – Reward the “Little guy/gal by treating them right”

Natralife hits this on 2 points.

First, I remember getting my starter pack in the mail, and sitting down at my kitchen table to read it.

As i was going through the materials, I was shocked to get to a point where the literature said something to the affect of…

“and if you learn, work diligently and stay focused, an extra $500 to $1,000 part time is completely within your reach.”

Huh?

What about the mansions and sports cars, and the big fat $20,000 plus monthly checks.

$500 to $1,000

I smiled as my soul said…

“How refreshing.” 

Over promising, hype, painting pictures of what are for so many, nothing more than pipe dreams, does not serve anyone except the one’s selling the easy buttons.

If you paint a picture of what’s real and attainable, maybe more people would believe, achieve and go on to succeed way beyond their wildest dreams.

I like that.

It feels good to my spirit to offer something that for so many people, seems real, tangible and do-able.

It feels like that’s treating people the right way.

And another point on this topic…

One of the things that’s frustrated me about network marketing recent years, is the fact that the commissions are usually so tiny, that it takes a downline the size of China (or at least maybe Taiwan) to earn any real money.

This, I think, is why affiliate programs continue to flourish.

When people produce, they want to get paid for their efforts.

Well one thing Natralife has done, that other network marketing companies can do as well, is offer payment in the form of “Shares of company profits.”

This is where you take a percentage of the entire company gross sales, and make pools available where people can share in the company profits by qualifying for those pools.

I realize that many companies do this already, however, most companies reserve these pools for the elite, million dollar + levels of leadership.

Natralife has chosen to make these pools available to the early levels of leadership..

For as little as 300 customer volume, or 500 organization volume, you can begin to share in the profits of the company, effectively making it so the entire company becomes your downline.

This makes it so people, early on, can begin realizing great profits and income from their efforts, without having to build a uniline to China.  🙂

I think that’s cool.

So there you have it my friend…

The top 3 things the network marketing profession can learn from Mr. Joe Perry and his unique and refreshing company, Natralife.

1 – “Real leaders touch a heart, before they ever ask for a hand.” -John Maxwell

2 – Promote real products to real customers

Lesson #3 – Strive to reward the “Little guy/gal by treating them right”

I think these are 3 keys to ensuring that we continue to turn our profession into something we can all be proud of so we can sustain our prosperity and positive message far off into the future.

Thanks for reading,

Paul Hutchings