One of my morning rituals is to listen to Eric Worre's Network Marketing Pros video training. Eric is an old school, experienced and highly successful Network Marketer who provides brief snippets of training and lessons for the day.
I urge you to check out Eric's Network Marketing Pro training… you'll learn a lot from this very successful MLM veteran.
Today, Eric talked about the biggest enemy of a Network Marketer….
FEAR
I agree with Eric on this.
When I look back on the years that Rosemary and I struggled to get traction in our business, our biggest enemy by far was…
FEAR
So I sat down today after listening to Eric's video and reflected on my own fears…
the fears that stopped me dead in my tracks.
And I realized that there were 3 big fears that stopped me from succeeding.
I share these fears with you now, because I know it's quite likely that one or more of these same fears are stopping you.
The Big 3
Fear #1: Being Rejected
Who doesn't have this fear, right?
We all fear rejection in it's various forms.
- The child fears rejection from his parents when he misbehaves.
- The teenage boy fears rejection when he asks out the prettiest girl in his class.
- The person interviewing for a new job fears rejection after her less than stellar interview.
It's no different in Network Marketing.
People don't fear the phone… they fear the possible rejection from the person they're speaking with.
And to make matters worse, when you fear rejection and you get rejected (which is common in Network Marketing), you begin to …
EXPECT REJECTION
And then it becomes a self fulfilling prophecy.
Keep reading… I share what to do about the fear of rejection later in this post.
Fear #2: Fear of Looking Stupid
For some this may seem silly, but when I really look at my fears surrounding our business, the fear of looking stupid ranks right up there with the fear of rejection.
In many ways, they are close cousins.
I feared hearing the words that stop most Network Marketers in their tracks…
“How did you get yourself involved in one of THOSE things?”
or
“That's one of those pyramid things… don't you know you're getting scammed?”
And suddenly, you feel utterly foolish and wonder if they're right.
I feared getting asked questions and looking foolish when I didn't know the answer.
So instead of talking to people, I told myself I needed more training, more seasoning and more knowledge.
When all I REALLY needed to do was to pick up the phone and open my mouth.
Here's the thing…
Rejection and looking silly in the eyes of others is just part of the game… it happens to all of us.
Fearing these things can paralyze you if you let them.
Fear #3: Fear of Being Successful
Sounds crazy, but I actually feared being successful in Network Marketing.
I feared the day that someone who actually sign up in our business.
Why?
Because then I would feel responsible for someone else's success.
I'm convinced that this fear stopped me for YEARS.
With lots of mentoring and coaching, I've learned that I'm not responsible for anyone's success but my own…
that I can lead people by inspiring and NOT trying to motivate.
In short, this has allowed me to overcome this fear, but for a long time I was afraid of building a team who would depend on me for guidance.
I think many of us secretly harbor this fear.
How Do You Conquer the Fears that are Stopping You?
Eric said it perfectly at the end of his video training today.
“The biggest enemy of a Network Marketer is FEAR.
The biggest enemy of fear is ACTION.”
In other words, looking fear in the face and doing it anyway…
THAT'S how you conquer your fears.
When you have a fear of rejection or looking silly to others, the best way to overcome these fears is to talk to more and more people about your business….
to get rejected.
to feel stupid and silly.
But to TAKE ACTION nonetheless.
And then to realize that the world didn't end.
And it wasn't as bad as you thought.
Then a funny thing happens…
You talk to someone who DOESN'T reject you or your ideas.
You don't feel silly any longer.
Your confidence grows as you realize you can HANDLE the rejection and looking foolish.
And then you've broken through your fears…
and you SUCCEED.
17 replies to "My 3 Biggest Network Marketing Fears"
First let me say great post and you gave valuable advise there. Fear is the biggest stop sign on our roads of life. Fear has stopped more success stories than you can count. The thing is we need to remember that fear exist anywhere but in the dark recesses of our minds. With out that dark voided mass in our brains (fear) would not exist. Great post keep them coming
Fear always establish distraction and because of fear a person is discourage by himself and can’t take any step either it is network marketing or other matters of life.
An inspirational post as always Bob! It is like the Law of Attraction over and over. Now, after having learned from my mistakes I get up each morning with positive reinforcement to myself. Still-i have a long way to go since somethings imbibed since childhood are too difficult to overcome. Thanks for the share.
Very inspirational, Bob. And you are very right.
“Only those who dare to rise may lift themselves above horizons.”
Take care!
Hi Bob,
We all do feel scared of one or the other thing in the course of taking up a business activity. The fears you have mentioned in this post are of a fundamental nature and it is quite imperative to be experienced by an individual. The fear of being rejected and acting as stupid is indeed due to the mind working on speculations and unnecessary thoughts. Thanks for sharing your fears, it is indeed not easy to talk about one’s fears.
Fear of being successful, it is a weird one, but so true. When you actually think about it and realise that if you make it big that you have all those people watching and relying on you, and then it will make the other two fears even bigger. Scary stuff!
Regards,
Simon Duck
It seems that the fear you have encountered nowadays can help you in order to become much stronger than before.
To me the biggest fear is the fear of success, that is what takes on you. We all have our fears, at work or in life and yes, the solution to all of them is action. If it works, you will have success, and if not, you will have a lesson to learn. Thanks for the share, Bob.
Hi, Bob! I’m not afraid of being successful. At least, not the way you were afraid. I like responsibility, I enjoy giving tasks to my team, I love managing my business. But I am afraid of being too successful. What if I’ll have too many clients and if we won’t do a good job anymore?
Hello Bob,
I have to say that I rarely find good blogs on network marketing topic to read about….so I stumbled upon yours today! Thank you for a great post. I agree, these are major fears anyone has when they start network marketing. I’d add fear of failure as well! People don’t want to be perceived as unaccomplished especially with all the negative connotations this industry is attracting.
Thanks again for a great post!
Niveen
Hello Bob , I completely agree with you that Fear itself is biggest fear in network marketing and the fear of being rejected is the killer one.
Hi Bob
Great article!As i see, Network Marketing is very popular all over the world nowadays, it can help customers to find their need, and it can help company to sell their goods!
Thanks for your sharing Bob.
Puck
Thanks for your sharing!Blog is a good platform to comunicate withe each other.Also it is a nice chance for us to do business.Your tips is really helpful for me.
Hi Bob,
I’m fairly new to network marketing so your post really resonates with me. I’m slowly getting over my fears, but its not easy. I’ve been stuck in training mode for months on end so I didn’t have to pick up the phone and call anyone. I avoided talking with my warm market because I FEARED what they’d think of me. The list goes on and on and every new marketer can relate and has similar stories I’m sure.
The only way to get over it, is to do it…I’m learning that now. When I pick up the phone and call 10 people I realize afterwards that I’m still alive…it was no big deal. I even gain a little bit of confidence. 🙂 An easy way to get over it is to tell yourself you are going to get 20 no’s today. I can’t remember which guru coined this idea, but it really does work.
Thanks so much for this awesome post!
Jess
Excellent post Bob and boy do I hear ya!
Can I just say been there and done that! I know that one of my problems was that I had to know all the answers so I was afraid to pick up the phone or talk to anyone because I would sound dumb when they asked me questions. I didn’t know that it’s okay and we don’t have to know it all. When we know it all our prospects will think they do to and run into the same types of fears that we have had.
Moving into network marketing when you’ve never done anything like this before is just scary. I love people and love talking to people but I love knowing what I’m talking about. I’d never been in sales and didn’t know what all was involved, I just knew I could make good money.
This is a fabulous industry so don’t let fear hold you back. Take Bob’s advice and just take action. We don’t have to know everything, that is what our sponsor’s and upline is for.
Thank you for sharing this Bob, it’s so important.
~Adrienne
Great post Bob,
I especially like the part about fear of success. I do not think a lot of people realize or would admit it but I agree with that being one of the 3 big fears in network marketing.
Well put Bob.
I did watch Eric’s video last night as well, and the same as you it did have quite an impact but still good to see it interpreted by someone else and put into the written word.
🙂