4: The "Opportunities" You've Joined...

Alright, alright, alright. How are you guys doing? This is Steve Larson and you're listening to Secret MLM Hacks Radio. Here's the real mystery. How do real MLMers, like us, who didn't cheat and only bug family members and friends want to grow a profitable home business, how do we recruit A-players into our down lines and create extra incomes, yet still have time for the rest of our lives? That's the blaring question, and this podcast will give you the answer. My name is Steve Larson and welcome to Secret MLM Hacks Radio.   I love that intro. I put that together. I did a lot of music related things growing up. I always loved mixing music and putting it all together. When I was about eight years old, my mom, she was teaching piano lessons like crazy out of our house. It was really cool, I loved it because all these kids would come over, and they'd be learning. While my mom would be teaching these piano lessons, I'd get to go play with all these other kids. It was awesome. I remember that very vividly. It was just a lot of fun and really enjoyed that a lot.   What shocked me though, when I turned about eight years old, suddenly the tide shifted, and she wanted to teach me piano. I was like, "Okay, cool. Awesome." All these other kids are doing it. I'm excited about it. This will be great. I'll really, really enjoy that. This will be a lot of fun. I started practicing. You start out at a really small level. Just like with anything, you suck at the beginning. It's the same with anything in life. Soon as you start, you're going to suck at it. Why? Because you've never done it before, and as you keep moving forward and doing it, you start to suck less. "Eventually, you suck less so little that you actually become good." That's a quote from Garrett White. That's exactly what happened.   I was practicing, and I was really enjoying it and I was feeling the progress. I was feeling progression. I was feeling ... Which is, in my mind, one of the keys to happiness, is feeling progression in whatever you're doing. I was excited about it. I was learning different songs. I was learning that, oh my gosh, especially as the years went by, about four years went by. I was learning, I could woo some of the young girls around me also and get some attraction that way. Do you know what I mean? I was enjoying it.   But, when I turned about late 12, 13, I started hating it. I think a lot of it was because it wasn't cool to have my mom teaching me piano. I just so regret the fact that I did not continue doing that. For several years there, I was like, "Ah, piano. I'm not going to do that. I'm too cool for that." I was going through that teenage phase. Regrettably, I walked away from it, much to the dismay of my mom, of my mother. She kept teaching piano. I kept saying, "No, I don't want to do it. I don't want to do it."   What was funny is, about four years went by, I played for four years. Then, about four years went by, and I realized how cool it really is to stick with something and get really, really fantastic at it. My younger brother has stuck with it for a long time, and he's just insanely awesome at the piano. I have total jealous rage over it. He's awesome at it. I mean, extremely, extremely good. He's going to get recognized by states and stuff like that. He's quite good, for his age and stuff like that.   Anyway, what happened was I realized it was awesome. What I did was I picked it back up. I was 16, and I started self-teaching. I started getting interested into it for the sake of the thing, rather than anybody else really caring that much. I had just loved the actual act of playing the piano. I started learning it and I started working on it and started getting good again. What was funny is, I remember, I always loved it when I'd go to other people's houses, or I'd go ... There were churches, or I'd go in different classrooms, in high school, the music area. I would go there, and I would start playing the piano. What was so funny, to me, is that sometimes the pianos were just amazing. They were incredibly expensive instruments. Massive grand pianos and I could play on them. It was gorgeous music. You could definitely heard the difference in the keys. It was amazing. It was so cool. I promise the story is going somewhere very key, just bare with me for a second.   I was like, "This is fantastic. This is so cool, holy cow." Then I'd go on someone else's piano, and it would be slightly out of tune, but what was funny is, that sometimes being slightly out of tune, would be its own artistic flair. It actually would make it sound cool, in its own way, also. I'd be like, "Interesting. This is like a really, really cheap piano and it's out of tune a little bit, but this song actually sounds cool." This is slightly out of tune, or whatever it is. I realized something, that there were these people, these other kids that would walk up, and they'd play the piano, and they were crappy, really bad. But, they'd boast really good skill like, "I'm so good. I'm super good at it." But, they'd sit down and they weren't very good.   I was like, "That's interesting. You have this really expensive piano, but you don't actually play it very well, at all." Whereas, the piano we were playing on, it's not that it was bad, it's just that it wasn't really that nice either. It started getting out of tune, but this is something that really stuck with me. I realized that it didn't matter that the piano I was playing on was a little bit old, or out of tune just a little bit. That didn't affect my ability to play. That didn't affect my ability to go run out there and be self-driven and solve problems on my own. That didn't affect my ... Meaning, I didn't have to blame other people. I didn't have to blame external factors for my success. Whether or not I was actually going to be successful with it.   My skill level had nothing to do with the quality or brand of the piano. That had everything to do with my devotion to the instrument. What does that have to do with MLM? Everything. That has everything to do with MLM. I remember, I realized when I was first, remember I told you in the very first episode of this podcast that I joined and I got 13 people on my down line. It was a really cool experience. It was awesome and I really enjoyed it. Then they did nothing. I was like, "Ah, man," and I started getting discouraged. About three, four, five months in, six months in, seven months in, that I started getting even more discouraged and more time passed. Within the year afterwards, I had just flat out quit. I remember, distinctly thinking, it was the MLM's fault. I was like, "Oh, my gosh. This MLM sucks. It's nuts. This is terrible. Look at those other guys over there in that other one. Grass is always greener on the other side of the hill." Remember that?   I'm going, "Man, those guys over there, they totally got it made. Look at their comp plan. Look at the commissions that they get. Look at X, Y, and Z." Now, in all reality, did the brand of the piano matter? Yeah, like 10%, like not much at all. There was this extra 10% beautiful layer that got added on top of it, but the music still sounded good if it was on a cheap piano. It didn't matter what brand it was. That's the exact same thing with whatever MLM you're in. It's the same reason you'll never hear me say the name of the MLM that I'm in right now. I'm just not going to tell you on this podcast what I'm in. That's the exact reason why. Because if you love the MLM that you're in, good for you, that's your instrument, you're getting good at that one. That's awesome.   You're skill level has nothing to do with the MLM that you're in, like 10%. It has everything to do with your skill level. What is the skill level that you're working on? Marketing, marketing. It's this very, very big hole. T...