A almost 10 years ago I made the case for Moms being the best Network Marketing [any biz really] trainers. I really didn’t think much of it, just kind of writing a tribute to my Mom years ago.
And every year, about 2 weeks before Mother’s Day, lots of requests show up about reposting it and explaining, once again, why all Moms are the top Network Marketing trainers, actually the best trainers period. Let’s face it, moms are bigger than home-based-businesses. Moms the best. Always have been, always will be… so thanks to all you Moms for asking us to update this and run it on Mother’s Day.
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Great trainers? Yup. The best? Not even close to Moms, not even on the same league.
MOMS and A Gentle Reminder
I’m in that group that believes Mother’s Day, each year, gives all of us a gentle reminder that we should appreciate those wonderful people who support us daily. Not just one day a year. It’s a chance, each year, to begin honoring the sacrifice this remarkable legion of #GoGivers who, despite their varied styles, all have one objective… that we become the best version of ourselves.
Happy Mothers Day to all the Moms out there… Believe me, despite all the awards, honors and accolades I’ve received over the last 30 years, including being
named Network Marketing Trainer of the Year and inducted into the Hall of Fame… I pale in comparison to my Mom.
MOMS and Network Marketing Trainers
My Mom doesn’t know anything about Network Marketing or so I thought when she asks me how my business is going.
I think she doesn’t understand it; maybe it’s me that doesn’t understand.
MOM taught me everything I needed to know to build a network marketing business. She gave me network marketing skills. Turns out, after all these years, I realize, hands down, Mom was the top Network Marketing trainer, ever.
MOMS
Mother’s Day. Don’t we all feel like we should do a little more all year for Mom?
Would it really kill us to go to Mom’s house and leave the cell phone in the car, have a cup of coffee and just be ‘present’?
Can’t make up for the past, you know, all those times we’re a ‘little too busy’ to just visit?
Mom was never too busy for me.
Network Marketing Trainers
Don’t we all feel like we could all do a little more recruiting?
Would it really kill us to sit at our desk an hour a night and dial the phone and be ‘present’?
Can’t make up for the past, you know, all those times we were making ourselves “little too busy” to just dial?
Why are we always too busy to actually do the business?
MOMS
She encouraged me to dream.
She knew my dreams and encouraged them and me.
She asked me about them.
She found places, like where to get me signed up for Little League, and got me there.
Drum lessons. Dance lessons. Drivers Ed. So many countless things.
Network Marketing Trainers
It’s our duty to encourage others to dream.
We tell them they have to have a “why”
Tell them to write it down.
But do we know their dreams like Mom knew ours?
Do we find articles, pictures, and events that support them?
After they do write it down, do we ever, like Mom, ask them about it again?
And again? And wake up thinking about their dreams?
MOMS
She encouraged me to dream with my heart, especially as I got a little older.
Told me money is great but don’t sell your soul, dreams and time believing the nonsense that you can “buy time” later.
“Dream with your heart young man and it will all work out.”
Moms are not “do as I say, not as I do” creatures. She invented an act for vaudeville … where after tap dancing and acrobatics, she’d end in a device she invented. And tap dance double time on her head!
Went to NY from Boston, failed. Came home, got better and invited to entertain the troups in WWII.
Followed her dream of the heart, insisted I do too.
Network Marketing Trainers
After asking the why, it instantly moves to pin-level and volume.
We forget no one really cares about the money. It’s what we can do.
Want to be more like a great trainer? Repeat many times daily…”dream with the heart, dream with the heart, dream with the heart.
My dream was to play at Fenway Park. At 8 I had that dream.
Got there in September of 2021… it was in my heart, thanks mom.
MOMS
Mom was a hands-on-teacher. Not a school teacher.
She was patient. Persistent. Insistent.
She never quit when I struggled. Never.
Yeah, she made me read the directions, sat there while I read them and answered a lot of the same questions over and over.
Asked me if I understood them and then she showed me how to do things right… no matter how many times it took.
She taught me skills.
Network Marketing Trainers
Am I a hands-on teacher or do I just “plug” them in?
Is it right to quit on them when they struggle and rationalize it as ‘they don’t want it bad enough’?
Do I make sure they get the directions and make sure they understand them?
Could I be a lot more patient when I have a rep on the phone and they are not ‘up to speed’?
Am I as willing to answer the same questions over and over?
Should I teach skills or just keep selling the dream?
MOMS
Mom never quit setting an example of excellence, even when people were not looking.
Never.
She never asked me to do anything she was not doing herself.
She was never a ‘do as I say, not as I do’ Mom.
She never quit on me.
Network Marketing Trainers
Is it better that I set an example of excellence?
…even when others are not looking?
Do I dog it and tell others what to do even though I am not doing it myself?
Am I a ‘do as I say, not as I do’ managing Network Marketer?
Do I quit on myself and others with the lie that tomorrow I will double up?
MOMS
My Mom had to quit school and take care of her brothers and sisters when her Mom died.
Got her GED in her 50s.
Went to college, studied hard and graduated with highest honors in her 60s.
She was excused from her finals her last year.
Took them anyway, wanted to test herself.
All A’s, of course.
She knew she’d Ace the tests.
Always prepared. Well in advance.
Pride.
Network Marketing Trainers
Am I staying a student, continuing to grow as a person and learn about people and my trade?
Or am I surfing the web for short cuts?
Do I have pride in my profession and performance or do I look for the easier, softer way and pretend I am ‘working smarter, not harder’?
Am I ready for the daily test of growing a business?
Do my actions show I am prepared to be a top Network Marketing trainer?
Am I prepared to succeed to the point that I know that I will?
MOMS
Manners.
Please and thank you and no elbows the table.
Listen first. Ask for permission to speak, don’t take it.
Respect their needs, forget your wants.
Never talk about people that are not present.
It’s OK to disagree but don’t be disagreeable.
Honesty is the greatest of all manners.
Network Marketing Trainers
Do I have manners?
Do I belittle people mentally or with other reps who do not join?
Do I tell people why I am calling or ‘pretend to be their friend’ so I can use their words against them later to look?
Do I ask if it is OK to tell them about my business?
Am I focused on their needs or just trying to scare them about the future?
Do I listen? Do I take a ‘no’ as graciously as a ‘yes’?
Am I honest?
MOMS
She never hesitated to go the extra mile for us.
Never stopped looking for the extra mile.
Network Marketing Trainers
We have a chance to do this for others every day AND get paid for it.
Do we look for it? Take it?
MOMS
My Mom is 89, legally blind and needs help.
Told her she has 2 choices.
Assisted living or move 6000 miles from Massachusetts to Kauai, HI and live with us.
She’s was living in the town she was born in.
Mom says she’s scared. Says she’s used to where she lives. Knows where everything is and it’s comforting.
She packed and she’s here in Kauai.
Courage. Mom’s have courage.
Picking up the phone takes some courage. At least we like to pretend it does. Not as much as moving 6000 miles to a place you’ve never been to… at 89… and blind.
Do I lack courage or am I just lazy? Mom’s are not lazy.
Rejection? Mom never accepted any obstacle as a reason to let fear determine her life.
Santa Januszewski turned 89 on October 12, 2010. Columbus Day. How appropriate. :) She still has the guts to explore.
Networking allowed me to step up and doing something special for myself and our Mom.
I wonder how much sooner great things would have happened in the lives of others if I had not made the mistake of thinking Mom knew nothing about Network Marketing and realized she knew intuitively how to be a top Network Marketing trainer?
Like a little boy, I foolishly thought my business was so different that she’d never understand it.
Turns out she knew everything IMPORTANT about it before I was born.
Happy Mother’s Day
UPDATE from 2012. Mom’s up in New England now, turned 90, still checking up to make sure I’m doing the right things and brushing my teeth… she wanted to see her brothers and sisters.
Hoping she’ll be back in a few months… I need my top Network Marketing trainer back :-).
UPDATE 2018. Thanks to the great Network Marketing industry, I was able to bring her to Kauai and spend time daily to giving a fraction of what she had given me… attention. I’m grateful to the industry for that.
At 92, a few years back, she packed it in, moved on to the next adventure. Buried her next to my Dad. Great day because we ran the service like she ran her life, a celebration. My Dad died in 1953. Mom never remarried, Joe was the love of her life. When she went back in 2012 the first order of business was visiting the grave, as always… with flowers and gratitude.
Moms are loyal to people. Maybe networkers could learn something there.
UPDATE 2022
The Fenway Park thing reminded me about her God stuff. Said all the religious stuff was fine be she believed that God only had 4 wrods that mattered for us mortals; “Come dance with me”. I used to sort of
dimiss it as overly simplistic but I’ve come to understand the profound wisdom. It keeps us in gratitude, keeps it simple and keeps us in the moment. MLM trainers are just to serious and they keep moving the goal posts. Make it fun folks or your team won’t stick.
Lot’s of great advice I could share with you but the best advice she ever gave me about networking came at her kitchen table, long before Kauai. I was just getting started and showing her a magazine the company put out. I was telling her about all the top pin levels, the big checks people were earning, pointing them out to her. I’d shown her, I’d guess, about 2-3 pages of achievers, had about 4 pages to go. She slams her hand on the magazine as I was turning a page.
“You’ve heard enough success stories Markie… isn’t it time become one?”
I’d love two things here… love to know your “best wisdom” you ever learned from your Mom. Is your Mom a top Network Marketing trainer too?
And I’d love to know you’re going to be “mother’s day nice” more often during the year. When they are gone, they are gone.
believe,
Mark Januszewski
World’s Laziest Networker
