“Succes is not final; Failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts.”

I Learned Many New Skills

There was a time I was involved with Multi Level Marketing. It was excited at first, but then it became an obligation. I don’t like that feeling because is like things I do are forced. When something happens unnatural, it is like dying a little bit. That is my opinion, though.

Multi Level Marketing is a good starting point for people who want to achieve more than freelancing and those who love to tell white lies and attract people who do not like to think much. It is like a ready-to-use scheme without a creativity thinking.

It is like any other business outside that there is a so-called business model that people should follow and work for someone else in a higher position than themselves.

I can not deny it gave me clues on how I should work in the regular business field and put a light on my mind on how I should not work with people.

It was not my thing.

However, it taught me many new skills like teamwork, leadership, discipline, time management, presentation, and goals.

I started accidentally.

A friend of mine at the university invited me to a presentation. I was impressed because it was my first time seeing a beauty business presentation. That opened a great new world for me.

I love beauty products, and immediately joined the German company “LR Health and Beauty Systems”. I ordered my starter package, filled with hopes of becoming wealthy and fulfilling my goal for a long time.

By the way, my original aim has always been to be a creative writer, writing in Austrian art cafes. I wanted to earn passive income and travel the world.

Today, my goal is different, but that is another story.

Everything made me excited and curious for the first few months. I ordered products, kept my outlook beautiful, and tried to make people I know buy them too. They did not. The quality products are more expensive than the regular ones. It is up to people to decide on what to invest their money in.

For me the quality of products I use or wear is important.

I prefer buying a few things or beautiful clothes than filling my wardrobes with something I do not wear. The same goes for my cosmetics. I spend a lot on it. I call it sometimes myself a  Vanity Sinner like I used to write on a social writing blog platform before.

I kept going monthly for a few years, meeting many people and trying to sell them products they do not need but giving them the hope to be beautiful and successful. I learned to do presentations face to face. I have met many people helping me to understand human and business psychology better.

As time passed, my list of potential customers and business partners finished. My contacts rejected my business proposals, cutting ties because of the Multi Level Marketing /MLM/.
I do not blame the model but myself. I did things that I never wanted to do in the mad search for passive income. It was something I did not want to do because it gave me hope.

As an introvert, I like meeting new people frequently but not daily.

As a writer, making presentations is not something I like to do.

But, I am good at doing them because of the skills that helped me with other work projects later in the years.

While I was in my newfound delusional passion for MLM, I read many books on leadership and self-help. I studied every product of the company, and I made many sales.

Was it worth it?

For a short time — yes. For a long time — no. Everything I did, made me far away from my life goal.

That made me uncomfortable, wondering why I do this.

I never had a single person under me when I worked with the “LR Health and Beauty Systems” company. When people asked me if I earned from the business plan, I said No.

I can not lie. 

That was a clear sign I am not fit for that field. I continued to believe I could be successful. I went on team training and everything related but could not go with the lying crowd.

One day, that Beauty experimentation finished. A customer and reader of my Health and Beauty Blog In Bulgarian called me. She had cancer in the beginner stage and looked for health products that could help her. I explained everything I knew about the products she wanted. 

The caller asked me if these products could heal her. I told her the truth they may not heal her, but she should try and meditate to feel better. The woman ordered these products anyway.

Was I successful in sales?

I do not think so, and I cried much after the call. I am not sure what happened with that client after I sold her the products, but I saw the truth behind what I have done until now. I stopped being a saleswoman of beauty products.

I bought the beauty company products for myself and my family whenever I needed them. I stopped doing it many months ago, losing my independent associate status.

I learned from “LR Health and Beauty Systems” about health and how teamwork should look. 

But, it is not my thing to lie and sell hope to people, especially people whose life is at stake. 

Today I am a proud consumer of Korean beauty products in specific shops. These products are pretty good in price and quality.

After Beauty Experimentation, I started in another MLM company for video products called “Talk Fusion.” Their founder said it is the next big thing. Probably it was.

The company offers video products like a video newsletter. It is practical for the big corporate business that is not popular in my country. It was exciting to look at everything I could read in the video. The Platform worked well, and I learned handy skills.

But the products do not work in the long term.

There are platforms like Messenger, WhatsApp, Line, Viber, etc. 

There is also Storytel for audiobooks.

I discovered the importance of schedules, team meetings online, and video presentations. 

The business model is friendlier than the traditional MLM face-to-face. Team leaders were helpful and transferred people from their teams to me. I had two people that I took care of couching.

The earnings came from the team members that pay monthly subscriptions or customers who buy the products. I never sold a product, but I became close to a leader in that field. I received a lot of respect for my video presentations and public speaking.

One day, the upper leaders told one of the newest team members had organized a face-to-face presentation with twenty potential customers or business partners. I was the closest town to her, and I took the bus. Between the two towns, two hours are driving.

At first, it was exciting. 

Then I realized I was not ready for the serious questions that only people with more major success — like my leaders could answer. 

The newest member trembled from the stress of speaking publicly. I overcame that fear when I joined three personal development seminars during a time when I actively did network business.

Talk Fusion Bulgaria leaders assured us they completed the presentation online. It ended, and we turned them on to answer the questions. 

Guess what? 

There were only a few questions that people asked in the online presence of the leaders by politeness.

After we shut down the online connection, we received around ten questions we could not reply to properly because of our lower experience in the company. This presentation was a big failure. But, we still are respected because we did the best we could.

There should be significant leaders and not much improvisation on presentations on that scale. 

Face-to-face contact is the best working presentation of any business.

After these ashaming live presentations, I, and the newest team member, left the company.

I am grateful I have been there. I learned how the organization of an event works — from the time, place, and drinks to the short presentation of the business plan. You know, summarizing information is the most key skill. Nobody has time to waste.

 I am unsure if that company still works, and I do not care. It was a good experience that proved trust, communication, and face-to-face meetings are the key to personal and professional success.

I learned that you need to keep your ground as a professional always. Do not haste into a place where you may fail because of inexperience.

After Beauty Exploration and Video Platforms, I found myself at home, joining my best friend’s father’s team in Strong Future International Marketing Group /SFI/. 

He has been in Network marketing for long years because he loves doing this kind of business, and I found him trustworthy.

SFI is a curious business model — you have deep levels of structure and an option to sell old items. It is a kind of garage item. On the site are many sellers. I sold my author books there.

In SFI, I found success as a team leader of 200 people team — referrals, from which 12 were active. I have been Team leader there for a while.

I succeed both in sales and in building a team.

But, I worked 8 hours daily to promote on pay-per-click sites and social media the SFI products. I made a blog only for the products I liked to sell. Aftermath at the end of the month was $100.

Many people earned more.

I felt good as a team leader, I sent weekly emails, and they gave me points. I built connections with the active referrals, but the shipping kills the business outside the USA.

My team members applied what I had done but were unhappy with their income. They are from African countries, and similarly to my country, the salary is low. They needed money fast, and the shipping was too expensive.

Every month, I started on 0 points, and I should have 1500 points to keep my checks in the business. For the Team leader status, I needed 3000 points.

It was challenging, and I achieved it in 2012.

I broke my leg, and I stood at home for three months. Then I became higher Leader status.

I did not earn enough to stay home, clicking all day with the mouse and promoting SFI products. I kept my Team leader status for a few months. 

In 2018 I called it quits because I still had not the financial freedom to stay at home.

From 3 to 5 years is the period for Multi-Level Marketing to show results: financially and time managing. 

The same goes when people start their small businesses.

I had no satisfying results, and I left this field. I tried it, is not my thing. Since then, I do not want ever to hear about MLM.

Pros of referral business are working online, creating a team you need to organize, making sales, learning to present the products, and public speaking.

Cons of referral business are a second full-time job between 6 and 8 hours, lack of active team members, and high shipping outside the country-owner of the company.

Skills I learned from SFI are team leading, managing people and time, selling online, making presentations in public, and life and business coaching.

My final thoughts:

• MLM is good to learn how business and sales operate together. 
• More skills are better for the personality to grow;
• If you do not like selling yourself and trading;
• If you are not an extrovert person and are lazy at work is not for you;

This kind of business gives you many books to read and improve the skill you overlook

For me, the reason I do not want to know any more about MLM is that I do not want to lie in any form, and I am an introvert.

My dream always has been to be engaged in creative writing. At MLM, I looked for a way to achieve my personal goal.

Revised post. It bases on my older articles

Sources:

At First, MLM Was A Spark For Me

At Second, MLM Was An Obligation For Me

At Last, MLM Is Not For Me