Oh good, you took the red pill. Somehow I knew you would.

Let me say right now that I'm not some guru who just instinctively figured out how to be successful. I'm no Steve Pavlina. I'm no Tim Ferriss. I'm no Robert Kiyosaki. I'm just a regular guy who refused to accept mediocrity, and tried different things until I found something that actually works for regular people like me (but not for regular people who are looking forward to working at Wal-Mart in their 70s). So let's move on. This page is pretty long, but worth reading if you've made it this far.

First of all, I'm going to assume that just having a normal job isn't good enough for you, that you want more money, more time, and/or more freedom. If you need to be reminded why choosing to have a job is like putting nails in your own coffin, read Steve Pavlina's "10 Reasons You Should Never Get a Job" and my own Top 10 Reasons Not To Have A Job. Even if you don't want to quit your job, I'm going to assume that you'd like to make more money than the incompetent bozo who's only a tenth as productive as you, yet gets paid more because he has two more years of experience. You should also read Tim Ferriss's "The 4-Hour Workweek" (both the blog and the book) to get a better understanding of why you'd want to be personally independent and what that even means, although you should be aware that his recommended way of making money is orders of magnitude more difficult than what I'm going to share here.

Most opportunities are ridiculous

So, in order to make more money by calling your own shots, what can you do? There are lots of business opportunities out there, but most of them are worse than a job from hell. Look at franchising. Opening a Taco Bell franchise requires a minimum net worth of $1 million and minimum liquid capital of $360,000, with the ability to secure additional financing to cover the rest of the initial investment, which is estimated to be $1,290,000 - $3,088,000 (source). Gee, that's practical. Not to mention the fact that you'd be working around the clock. You don't own the business, the business owns you. That's no good at all.

At the other extreme are Mickey Mouse biz opps like AGLOCO (update 12/15/2007—now out of business!), where you get paid for looking at ads while you surf the web. I'm not against doing these things if the time investment is minimal, the monetary investment is nil, and you don't harrass anyone, but it's very unlikely that you'll get any significant value out of it. Even if you're the one in a million who does, wouldn't you feel like a total goofball introducing yourself as a "professional ad watcher?" It's just not worth putting your heart and soul into a Mickey Mouse business.

What about network marketing?

Network marketing is a much better choice for people who want their own business. If you don't know what network marketing is, it's a business model where you become an independent distributor for a particular company, selling their products and services on commission, while also earning commissions on sales made by people you bring into the business. Some of the key advantages are low startup costs, good income potential, not being tied to a schedule or location, and having the company take care of many details for you. However, there are major problems with the way network marketing is usually done, as well as misunderstandings about what it really is.

Is this a pyramid scheme?

Many ignorant people confuse network marketing with a pyramid scheme, but it's actually quite easy to tell them apart. A pyramid scheme is an illegal game such as a chain letter, where you give money to people for no other reason than the hope that other people will come along and give you money. Does this sound remotely legitimate? It's not. In fact, it's illegal, and likely to be shut down by the government once they find out about it. By contrast, in a network marketing business you get paid for selling products and services through your organization (the same way every company makes money). If the products and services are legitimate, why would the opportunity not be legitimate as well? While many network marketing companies have done and continue to do things wrong (more on this in a minute), the FTC in their 1979 ruling In re. Amway Corp. (huge boring PDF—don't click unless you really want to) determined that network marketing is a legal business model. In any case, you can check with the Better Business Bureau or Federal Trade Commission about the legality of any particular company.

Lotions and potions

Many people have complained that network marketing companies sell dumb products like overpriced soap. I agree that I wouldn't be interested in selling soap either, but this complaint is directed at the products of a particular network marketing company, not the network marketing business model itself. Many different types of products and services can be sold by network marketing companies. I used to be a member of a network marketing company called World Financial Group. Members carry the same licenses that they do at Merrill Lynch, and provide for free the same service that Vanguard charges $1,000 for. On my first sale at the lowest commission rate, I made $700 after splitting the commission 50/50 with my trainer, and the clients will obtain a much greater benefit over the years. Don't think that network marketing = lotions and potions.

All the hype and wasted time

Now we get into what network marketing companies are doing wrong. Most of them have a bunch of stupid rah-rah meetings where they talk about how great the business is, in case you forgot after the last meeting three days ago. So these meetings go on week after week, and you just kind of put up with them because you want your sponsor to help you, and you can use the meetings to introduce your prospects to the business. But despite all this "training," there is practically no training at all about the nuts and bolts needed to actually succeed in the business. For example, how do you find prospects, and what do you say to them? Don't those seem like relevant questions that should be covered by the "training?" (And acceptable answers do not include "Everyone within three feet of you is a prospect" and "Tell them that they just have to come to the meeting to find out what it is.")

Prospects aren't interested

Despite these things that the companies do wrong, they're still great opportunities. Imagine getting a business started for only a few hundred dollars, and making some extra money part time while keeping your job, until you were making enough to quit your job and enjoy the life you've always wanted! But what's the biggest problem of all with network marketing? The prospects! They just don't care! I know it's not politically correct to deviate from "the customer is always right," but don't you think it's fair to be annoyed by people who have no desire at all to improve their sucky life (especially after they've asked you for help)?

Would you believe that I once called 5,000 prospects in a row without finding one person who was willing to take a serious look at my business? 5,000! Then I switched to a different type of prospect and sponsored one person out of the first four. Doesn't 1 in 4 sound a lot better than 0 in 5,000? It does to me, and that's why I'll never go back to those mainstream network marketing companies knowing what I know now. Which brings me to the opportunity I want to share with you...

Leaders Club

Leaders Club is the one network marketing company I can personally recommend. First of all, there aren't any face-to-face meetings. Everything's done over the phone and on the internet, so it can get done much more efficiently and conveniently. What's more, they've eliminated all the hyped-up fluff and are the only network marketing company I've ever come across that actually focuses purely on business. None of that rah-rah stuff, but just practical training on how to find prospects, how to sponsor them, and how to train them. In fact, Leaders Club doesn't do business with the general public—their product is leads and training for network marketers!

I'm not going to get into the details here, because my Leaders Club site already covers what you need to know. But let's focus on the big picture first. Just know for now that since 1994, Leaders Club has been helping people from more than 200 network marketing companies succeed in their own businesses, as the most practical, reputable training company out there, and in fact the only one with a money-back guarantee.

Best business of all

Now think about that, because that's what makes Leaders Club such a great business opportunity. If they were selling nutritional products or travel services or communication products or whatever to the general public, then in spite of the lack of hype and meetings, they still wouldn't really be any different from any other network marketing opportunity. You'd still have the problem of having to sort through gazillions of people trying to find someone who's actually willing to work for success. Even if you were using the highest-quality leads you can buy, you'd still get a lot of idiots who claim they never replied to an ad, or changed their mind, or would rather watch TV than talk to you because they want to see if Ross and Rachel are still on a break. If you've ever been involved with network marketing, then you know exactly what I'm talking about.

But imagine if your prospects were network marketers. These are people who are already in a business (so they don't need to be convinced), who have failed so far but are still hanging in there (so they're persistent), who desperately want to succeed in their business (so they're motivated). You can find these people simply by running an effective targeted ad campaign. Having such a great target market is the single most important factor that took me from a 0 in 5,000 closing ratio to 1 in 4. (This is an approximation. I haven't sustained the 1 in 4 ratio consistently, and in most months it has been lower. However, in some months it has been higher.)

Because the people who come to my Leaders Club site are almost always in a network marketing business already, they're looking for help with that business. They're looking for leads and training, not another business opportunity, so it would be unethical for me to push the Leaders Club opportunity on them when what they want is the Leaders Club service. Good intentions aren't enough; people always have to want what you're offering, or you're not acting in their best interests. If someone only wants to sell a particular type of product, it's not my place to interfere with that. Unfortunately, most of them will promote only their other business, not even deciding to promote Leaders Club alongside their primary business, because they don't realize how much easier it is to promote Leaders Club. I didn't set out to become a network marketing business consultant per se; I just wanted to do what works (as long as it's legal, ethical, and enjoyable). I was lucky enough to stumble onto Leaders Club by accident, and now I want to get the word out that Leaders Club is the best business of all! And if you think you know a better one, tell you what, let me know!

Is Leaders Club legit?

I'll bet some of you are wondering "Does this mean that Leaders Club's training only works for people promoting Leaders Club itself? How can I promote it to network marketers if it won't benefit them in their current business?" Great question! In fact, it's a bit of a problem if this question never would have occurred to you, because that would mean you weren't thinking about the prospect (it's really hard to make a sale when you're only thinking about yourself).

Although Leaders Club provides the greatest benefit for those who promote it, I really think it's indispensible for people promoting any other network marketing business. It's really sad how poorly people have been trained by other companies, and if someone wants to get the best results in their business, they need to learn the best techniques. Doesn't that make sense?

Another way of looking at it is from the worst case scenario. Let's say that someone joins Leaders Club and thinks it has no value at all (although I can't imagine any reasonable person thinking that). They'll cancel within 30 days to get a refund of their first month's subscription (remember that Leaders Club is the only training company with a money-back guarantee), so all they lost is the $25 non-refundable application fee, which is used to send them some training materials in the mail including some CDs (which they get to keep). So it cost them practically nothing, and they've also learned a valuable lesson that will save them lots of time and money: network marketing is not for them.

Who might this be right for?

• Someone who wants to have their own business, but doesn't know how to do it, or has previously failed.
• Someone who has a passion for success, but doesn't necessarily have the experience and patience needed to build something completely from scratch.
• Someone who has been in network marketing before and liked the concept, but hated all the hype, deception, and rah-rah meetings.
• Someone who is currently in network marketing, and wants to improve their personal results and/or their downline's results.
• Someone who wants their own business but needs to do it part time, because they can't take the risk of quitting their job right now.
• Someone who would like more money, time, flexibility, or control.
• Someone who does not have their heart set on selling a specific product (unless that product happens to be network marketing leads and training).

Who might this not be right for?

• Someone who needs to start making good money immediately (you need a job in that case).
• Someone who doesn't have any money to get started (startup and ongoing costs are explained below).
• Someone who doesn't have any time to devote to a business (ideally, at least 10 hours a week).
• Someone who lives so far away from the U.S. that they aren't able to make phone calls at any time between 8 AM and 9 PM in the various U.S. time zones (mainly GMT-5, and to a lesser extent GMT-8).
• Someone who already has a business that's going well, and doesn't need something else right now.
• Someone who is not willing to work for success.
• Someone who is already retired and having fun.

Is this easy?

Please don't ask questions like "Is this really easy? I only have 5 hours a week and no money at all." It's not easy. In fact, it's really damn hard! (How's that for honesty?) Leaders Club is the easiest business I know of, but it's not easy in an absolute sense. It takes balls of steel to succeed (and that's purely metaphorical; women are more than welcome). How do you know if you have balls of steel? If you have to ask, you don't.

It seems like Leaders Club would be easy. When someone is struggling in their business, wanting more than anything to earn that residual income so they can finally enjoy their life, and they come to you for help, and you're able to offer practical solutions, and they're not able to find any serious alternatives, doesn't it seem obvious that they should subscribe to your service? Yes, but people aren't purely logical. They're also emotional, stressed, busy, suspicious, cautious, and all kinds of things that make Leaders Club far from a slam dunk. That's why Leaders Club has to train people on how to build their business rather than just letting them do whatever. Makes sense, right?

What does it cost?

OK, let's talk about costs. Ideally, you should have a few hundred dollars a month available in order to move full speed ahead. I know that's more than most people would like to spend, but I'm sorry—that's what it takes for the best results. However, if you need to get started for less, there are ways of doing that, you'd just be progressing more slowly than you would otherwise.

Sample monthly costs (all tax-deductible):

• $50 Leaders Club training fee. You have to pay this fee in order to receive commissions, plus the training will obviously help you build your business. (You'll eventually need to move up to the $80 plan in order to qualify for the highest commission rate. However, there's no need to do so until you're at the point where the higher commission rate will make up for the extra $30 you'd be paying.)
• $9.95 for Global Group Send. This is an email broadcast tool used for automated follow-up with your prospects. It's not the best tool of its kind, but the price is right.
• $14.95 - $19.95 for AWeber. This is an autoresponder that boasts >99.34% delivery. You get the $14.95/mo rate by signing up for a full year, or the $19.95/mo rate by going month to month. AWeber is great because you can create a web form that prospects fill out to be automatically added to your autoresponder list. However, it can't do some things that Global Group Send can do. For example, you can't use it to email purchased leads or leads that didn't request something from you personally. AWeber can be skipped if your budget isn't there yet.
• About $0.75 per domain name. You'll need at least one domain name for your website, and you'll probably want more than one, such as one for your own name and one for your catchy-sounding business name.
• About $3.00 for web hosting. This is what you pay to the company that keeps your website running on their server.
• $90 for promotional CDs and brochures. This cost is highly variable depending on how many you send out, of course. I arrived at $90 by assuming you get 2 leads a day, or 60 a month. The CDs cost $1.20 each and the brochures cost $0.30 each if you get a pack of 100 (with a max cost of $0.50 each if you only get a pack of 10). 60 leads X $1.50 each = $90. However, you may decide to go with 30 leads a month, or 90.
• $100 - $400 for pay-per-click advertising. Yes, that's a huge range, as the actual cost depends on so many factors, such as how many keywords you have, traffic and competition for those keywords, your bids for those keywords, the click-through rate of your ad, and the conversion rate of your landing page. As an example of how variable this is, let's say you're bidding $0.30 for each keyword (in reality, you'd have different bids for different keywords, but this is just an example) and getting a CTR (click-through-ratio, how often your ad is clicked compared to how often it's displayed) of 1%. Now let's say you change your ad to be more appealing, and now your CTR is 2%. On some search systems, such as Google, your higher CTR will effectively double your bid. You'll continue paying $0.30 per click, but your ad will be positioned as if you were bidding $0.60 per click. This means you can either get way more leads at the same cost per click, or cut your bids to get the same number of leads for less. Anyway, this all seems pretty complicated at first, so the best advice is to start small and learn the ropes before you spend too much money.

Note that these last two items, the CDs and pay-per-click fees, are the biggest expenses. Technically, you don't have to incur these expenses. You could simply buy leads from Leaders Club by upgrading your $50/mo plan to the $80/mo plan that gives you 80 leads a month plus the training, and simply market to those leads. However, I strongly recommend using the CDs and generating your own leads because it's just so much easier and more enjoyable. If you're using normal leads, the Leaders Club opportunity really isn't any different from any other network marketing opportunity. Although it might make sense to call some normal leads for practice in the beginning.

There are a couple of one-time costs as well (tax-deductible, of course):

• $25 + shipping for the Leaders Club application fee. The $25 is a one-time fee that they use to send you some training materials in the mail, including some CDs. They send it via UPS, so there's a shipping charge that varies depending on where you live. Note that you get to keep these materials even if you decide to ask for your money back, which is why the money-back guarantee only covers the $50 training fee, not the application fee and shipping. However, getting your money back probably isn't an issue anyway, as you're in this to win, right?
• $20 - $200 for ACT! This is a contact management program used to keep track of your interactions with your leads. The wide range in price is because some people want the latest version, and some people buy an older version used. Many people recommend ACT!, but you can skip it entirely. I don't use it, although I'm probably in the minority among those who are successfully promoting Leaders Club. Then again, I've always been naturally well-organized, so I have less need for it than most people.
• Whatever it costs to build your website. I'm talking about the costs to actually create the HTML pages, in addition to the domain name and hosting costs. In my case it cost nothing, because I know HTML. If you don't know HTML and don't want to learn it, there are many graphical tools out there that let you drag and drop to create your web pages. I've heard good things about CoffeeCup, but you should shop around and find one that meets your needs. I can provide some technical consulting, but unfortunately I'm not in a position to create your website for you.

How much money can I make?

I couldn't possibly answer this until you have a track record to look at. Otherwise, it's like asking how much money a 6 year old aspiring pro basketball player can make when they grow up, and there's no way to give an answer with any real confidence. Leaders Club's compensation plan is not listed on their public site, so I won't share the details here. I'll only say that it's a pretty typical unilevel comp plan. We can get into more details if you contact me.

"What's in it for me?"

What's in it for you are the benefits of having a successful network marketing business without the downside typical of mainstream network marketing. In time, you'll be generating all your leads from your own website, people will know who you are before you even call them, and they'll be interested in how you can help them succeed in the business they're struggling with. No convincing people to start a business, no calling people who don't remember requesting information, and no stupid meetings. Just helping people get what they need, and getting paid for it. Imagine that! A business that actually works!

There are many things you'll have to learn how to do, but that's what Leaders Club's training is for. Plus you'll have access to me. I can't really say that any one thing I do is so hard that it can't be learned by someone who's willing to seriously try. It takes time, money, and effort, but Leaders Club is the best business I've ever seen. Would you like to have your own business where you work from home, make good money, and call your own shots? If so, I defy you to find a better way to do it.

Next steps

Some people seem to have trouble with this concept, so let's make it perfectly clear. If you're interested in Leaders Club, it's your job to contact me, not the other way around. I can't contact you if I don't know who you are! There have been times when someone has given me their phone number, I eventually got them on the phone three months later, and they said "Yes! Thanks for calling! I've thought about you every day for the last three months, and I was going to call you. I'm serious about this, and want to get started right now." Aside from being a little creepy, it shows a tremendous amount of procrastination. What does "I was going to call you" mean? There's no "was going to," either you did or you didn't.

If you want to, you can simply join Leaders Club right now without talking to me first. I don't recommend it though. I'd suggest contacting me first to get all your questions answered, plus to see if I'm someone you want to work with. But if you're interested, I do recommend contacting me right now. After all, what's the alternative? Do nothing for another ten years, then get serious? C'mon, you're better than that. Aren't you?

Well, that's all I have to say. Thanks for reading. I'm happy to answer any questions you may have, but the ball's in your court now. I can only show you the door. You're the one who has to walk through it.

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