Carl Eric Johnson

I have become an active social networker, participating in group discussions on LinkedIn and Facebook. Just now I replied to a post in one of my network marketing (MLM) threads, and I felt it would make for a good blog post. Here is the original discussion post:

Is representing more than one MLM company (at the same time) hurtful or helpful to your home-based business?

I’ve been involved in MLM for a bit over three years now and have already experienced the fact that I have found myself representing more than one company at the same time. Much of this is due to the shifting around of my immediate upline and their upline leadership. I have gotten to know many other network marketers, who say, with pride, how many other companies they’ve been involved with. I met one guy who say’s he is currently with 12 different companies—all at the same time! How is this possible? Or, more importantly, how is this profitable?

I am perplexed how I could even commit my time and energy to promoting only two “opportunities” with success.

Am I alone here? Does anyone else out there have suggestions on how to best succeed with presenting more than one opportunity?

Thanks,
Guy

Hi Guy:

Here’s my experience, and I look forward to hearing others’ experiences, as well.

I joined my first network marketing company in 2002 and immediately started seeing other opportunities all over the place. I joined a few, and most fell by the wayside, but over time I found myself juggling multiple opportunities at once, and none of them profitably.

By January of 2008 I was actively trying to promote four opportunities. Then I got the great idea of writing a book about network marketing, figuring I must be an expert by now. I outlined my book and started writing the chapter on how to evaluate a network marketing opportunity.

It occurred to me that I should plug my four opportunities in to my own criteria and see how they measured up against one another. Guy, it wasn’t even close: my first opportunity, the one I joined way back in 2002, was head and shoulders better than all the others combined.

I could have kicked myself. If only I had stuck to my guns with the first one instead of letting myself get sidetracked by “greener pastures” elsewhere, I would have found myself in a much better financial position. I stopped promoting the other three opportunities and focused on my first love. It was definitely the right thing to do.

I strongly encourage you to focus on one opportunity at a time. I have developed great relationships with my colleagues in other companies, and when I speak with a prospect who I think would do better in one of their opportunities, I am more than happy to refer him or her on to my counterpart. Over time, I’m sure my counterparts will start passing me their prospects whom they think would be a better fit in my company. In my opinion, this is a better way to juggle multiple opportunities—with multiple people!

I’m still plugging away at my book. I invite you to sign up for email alerts at demystifyingprosperity.com and I’ll keep you posted as to my progress.

Best wishes to you for massive success in 2010! The more of us who make network marketing work for us, the better off we’ll all be.

The recently departed Jim Rohn, one of my most influential mentors (rest in peace, dear friend), was an ardent proponent of network marketing, not to mention health and wellness and proper nutrition. His passing has prompted many glowing tributes.

I just read one in the form of a great blog post from Randy Gage, a fellow network marketer. He explains brilliantly and succinctly what makes network marketing so different from any other profession in the world. Here it is in its entirety:

http://www.networkmarketingtimes.com/blog/the-power-of-your-testimonial/

To summarize the points that Randy makes:

• The basis of what we do is duplication. We make money by helping lots of other people make money. In other words, this is a business model based on cooperation and not competition.
• Self-development is key. Network marketing makes us better people. I was not aware of this byproduct when I signed up.
• The people you sign up may very well earn more than you. What other business model has people lower on the “totem pole” making more money? Network marketing rewards effort wherever you find yourself in the hierarchy.

If you are already involved in a network marketing opportunity, good for you! Stick with it. The only people who make no money are the people who quit. Also, unless you are totally dissatisfied with your company or your team, don’t let other opportunities lure you away from your primary focus. You joined your company for a reason. Stay the course, follow the directions of your successful upline and crossline, and reap the benefits, one of which, as you know, is helping lots of others achieve their financial dreams along the way.

If you are not yet involved in network marketing, what are you waiting for? It is absolutely genius. Find an industry and a product that you are passionate about, sign up, and then spread the word. Paid word-of-mouth advertising makes so much sense. Most people start part-time, working their business in the nooks and crannies of their lives. As their commission checks grow, then they experience true financial freedom, continuing with their “day jobs” only if they want to, not because they have to.

You might consider signing up for email alerts at the website for my upcoming book, Demystifying Prosperity™: Why You Should Take a Serious Look at Network Marketing. And please post your comments below.

Here’s to your massive success!

I received an automatic Direct Message (DM) from someone I just followed on Twitter. I don’t have a major problem with setting up automatic DM’s when someone follows you, although it’s a practice I choose not to participate in. Most of these messages give me a chuckle as they are blatant self-promotion, and I can’t help but think that the click-through rate on the links they provide must be infinitesimal.

This particular DM, though, caught my attention. I followed this person as a fellow associate in my network marketing company. To my surprise, his automatic message invited me to check out a different opportunity. In my experience, it is next to impossible to juggle two or more network marketing opportunities at the same time. It is even worse if they are both in the same industry. Yes, both opportunities (our shared opportunity and his secondary business) are in the health-and-wellness industry.

The reason this is an extremely bad idea is that your credibility goes out the window. How can you put your reputation on the line standing behind one nutritional company while promoting another? At least the people who do this opportunity-juggling successfully (and they are few and far between) have the good sense to choose companies in entirely different industries. It’s one thing to stand behind a particular nutritional supplement and also recommend a phone service … or a travel opportunity … or a generic business-building affiliate program. It’s quite another to stand behind two essentially competing products.

So I sent him a DM in reply. I certainly have no business giving advice to a virtual stranger (pun intended). But writing a book on this very topic (essentially how to do network marketing right), I couldn’t let his lapse in judgment go uncontested. Will he learn from me? Who knows? I hope he at least signs up for e-mail notifications on my book, Demystifying Prosperity™: Why You Should Take a Serious Look at Network Marketing.

And how is it that I dare to present myself as an expert in network marketing? Quite simple: I am guilty of making this very mistake, myself. The only difference was that I was juggling four opportunities at the same time. Clearly, one’s own stupidity is the best teacher—and I had a good one! The good news is that I compared my four opportunities, and the one I am currently promoting exclusively was so obviously the winner of the competition, it wasn’t even close.

I enjoy helping others do a similar evaluation of their various opportunities. Let me know how I can help you. It gives me great joy to promote this exceptional industry of network marketing.

Lately I have adopted the discipline of reading 10–20 pages of a technical or inspirational book each day. I’ve enjoyed several current titles since the beginning of the year, and everything I’ve read is sure to serve me well. Some of the books are quick reads and others drag along ploddingly. Still, I force myself to read each day.

Right now, however, I am absolutely devouring a book that has been on my To Read list for years. I can’t remember how long ago I bought the book, but it had been gathering dust on my bookshelf ever since. In retrospect, I can’t imagine what took me so long to pick it up and start reading. It is absolutely magnificent.

As the title of this post suggests, I am talking about Dale Carnegie’s classic How to Win Friends and Influence People. It is geared mainly towards a sales audience, but its hints and tips apply to much of day-to-day living. Just yesterday I put some of its tactics to the test while dealing with an especially rude and negative person. If you haven’t yet treated yourself to this book, I can’t recommend it highly enough. Don’t do what I did and wait years and years before finally picking it up.

Of course, if you’re not in sales, you might think it will be of limited benefit to you. Well, think again. As I’ve always been quick to point out, we are all in sales whether we like it or not. If you’re married, then you successfully sold yourself to your spouse. If you’re employed, then you clearly sold yourself to your interviewers. So if you think you’re not in sales, think again.

My book, Demystifying Prosperity™: Why You Should Take a Serious Look at Network Marketing, is directed primarily towards an audience that is leery of network marketing, multilevel marketing, MLM, or whatever term is used to describe this part of the direct sales industry. One of the statements I hear all the time is, “I’m not interested in sales,” or, “I’m bad at sales.” Well, if you’re bad at sales, get good at it whether or not you become a network marketer.

How to Win Friends and Influence People can play a key role in improving your sales skills, however you end up using them. Go out and get this book today! Then add your Comment below and let me know what you think.

Just this morning I read an article in the June 2009 issue of Consumer Reports magazine, and I knew that it would be the subject of my next blog entry. On page 15 I read the title “Beware of work-at-home stings.” The article dealt with three common schemes:

1. “Stuff envelopes! Get Paid!”
2. “Assemble products at home”
3. “Start an Internet business”

The article was fair, informative, and factual.

Below it, though, was a sidebar (bottombar?) titled “Real vs. bogus homework” in which it gave further advice in the form of four admonitions. It is the second admonition to which I take exception. Here it is in its entirety:

Be wary of network building. Stay away from multilevel marketing schemes that make earnings contingent on your ability to sign up an ever-growing pyramid of “distributors” who are supposed to do the same and pass sales commissions up the line.

Now, to be fair, I agree 100% with this statement. It is the topic of one of the chapters in my upcoming book, Demystifying Prosperity™: Why You Should Take a Serious Look at Network Marketing. What separates legitimate network marketing companies from pyramid schemes, though, is that the former reward their distributors on the movement of product or services while the latter reward their distributors simply for signing up more distributors underneath them.

So what is my gripe with this one paragraph in Consumer Reports? Simple. To the casual reader it appears to be condemning network marketing as an industry. The author could have more clearly stated that there are plenty of legitimate network marketing opportunities out there—and the number is growing practically daily as more and more companies realize that word-of-mouth advertising is the best way to move their products and services.

It saddens me to think that this article might keep someone who really needs it from investigating MLM. To be sure, there are shady operations to avoid, and my book will help the reader separate the wheat from the chaff. The two companies that I personally endorse are both beyond reproach, with compensation plans that are entirely product- or service-driven.

So shame on you, Consumer Reports, for not being clearer in your condemnation of only certain “multilevel marketing schemes.” There are plenty of good apples to choose from; don’t let the rotten apples spoil the whole bunch.

In my inbox this morning was a fascinating e-mail from my friend _____ (I’ll keep him anonymous) whom I met at a personal development seminar several years ago. The addressees were blind-copied so he evidently sent it out to his entire network. Here’s the gist of his request:

This last year as everyone knows there has been a lot of change, from stock market to real estate market. Our new president Obama and change has happened. I have made money and lost lots of money over the last few years and am reaching out to my network to find out what they are doing to make money in these changing times. I am interested in finding out the items you have been investing in that you think I will be interested in. Please contact me. Thank you in advance for your knowledge.

It’s not every day that an idea for my blog appears first thing in the morning. Many days go by without me writing in my blog at all. Now, this is my third blog entry in four days.

Here is the answer I sent to _____. It is fitting that I re-post it here for my readership, as many of you wonder just what it is that I spend my days doing. Now you’ll know wherein my passions lie.

—◊♦◊—◊♦◊—◊♦◊—

Great to hear from you, _____. Excellent topic for discussion. I’ll be interested in hearing the range of replies you get back. Perhaps you and I can compile them into “Recommendations for Surviving and Thriving in the Current Economic Downturn” … or some such thing.

As for what I’m doing to make money, you’re asking at an opportune time, as income is beginning to pick up in all three areas of pursuit:

1. Web work. I still register domain names and host Web sites, and I’m beginning to do a bit of low-end website design—what I call electronic brochures with a blog. I’m also creating a seminar titled “Blogging and Social Networking for Professionals,” and speaking gigs are beginning to flow in.
2. Network marketing. I joined USANA Health Sciences in October of 2002. Since then I made a series of mistakes, most having to do with diverting my focus to other opportunities that have since come and gone. Then in the middle of last year I came to my senses and realized that USANA was the best network marketing opportunity around, and I am focused entirely on that now. It is also the main reason I am writing my book on network marketing (more below).
3. Direct sales. I joined Global Resorts Network in March of 2008. I did this primarily because of the promise of joining a team that focuses almost entirely on the Internet and so-called “attraction marketing” techniques—techniques that I knew I could also use in my USANA business. Also, I’ll confess that the generous commission structure helped. GRN helps me pay my bills today, while USANA will help me pay my bills on into the future. I consider USANA my pension and retirement plan, such is the power of residual income.

In addition to these three sources of income, there are two more that will come into play in the near future:

1. My book. Demystifying Prosperity™: Why You Should Take a Serious Look at Network Marketing has already opened doors for me, even before it is finished. I’m sure this will add to my credibility with USANA as well as being its own income stream.
2. My prior career history in IT. Years ago I specialized in IBM’s database DB2, and now I find my expertise being sought after once more. What form this will take remains to be seen, though I am open to all possibilities: full-time employment, contract work, or putting on my own seminars with my own course materials.

These are exciting times we live in, _____. Let me know what you are doing these days to pay the bills.

—◊♦◊—◊♦◊—◊♦◊—

And now I’ll open this up to the rest of you. What are you doing these days to pay the bills? Is it enough? More importantly, is it fulfilling work? Post your replies and let the discussion begin.

For the past year or so I have been enjoying learning about and practicing centering prayer. My church hosts a centering prayer gathering once a week, and I have been augmenting that discipline with near-daily sessions at home.

If you wish, you can click on the following link and read Wikipedia’s definition of centering prayer. My practice involves sitting in silent meditation for twenty minutes. To keep the mind from wandering, many people choose a mantra that is meaningful for them. My mantra started out simply being:

Breathe ~ Breathe ~ Breathe
Breathe ~ Breathe ~ Breathe

More recently I have been using some combination of Abundance and Prosperity, invoking the law of attraction to bring more abundance and prosperity into my life.

Just yesterday morning a third word entered the mix—Service—and specifically in this order:

Abundance ~ Service ~ Prosperity
Abundance ~ Service ~ Prosperity

I pondered this sequence of words, and then it hit me. Prosperity requires two preconditions before it will appear in one’s life.

Abundance

The first precondition is a mindset of abundance. Let’s face it, our modern society screams scarcity, scarcity, scarcity all the time, especially in our current economic climate of contraction. As long as we buy into this mindset of scarcity, we are sure to keep prosperity at bay.

So how do we cultivate a mindset of abundance in today’s world? Actually, it needn’t be all that difficult. The first thing we have to do is to recognize that abundance and prosperity still exist in our world. Some of the largest fortunes were made during the Great Depression and during other economic downturns. The simple adage, “Buy low, sell high,” still pertains. As an example, for real estate investors, now is an ideal time to buy depressed properties.

I’ve always loved the expression, “Buy low, sell high,” but for a reason that may not be immediately apparent. It is the classic mantra of a contrarian. If prices are low, that means most people are selling; it must be time to buy. If prices are high, then most people are buying; that means it’s time to sell. To cultivate a mindset of abundance in the face of economic chaos, one must truly be a contrarian.

So if abundance is possible in any economic climate, I may as well choose to think thoughts of abundance and to banish thoughts of scarcity as soon as they arise. This sets up the proper vibration to attract prosperity.

Service

It’s this second precondition that eluded me for the longest time: Service. Like many who have watched or read The Secret, I fell into the temptation that all I needed to do to attract prosperity into my life was to resonate with vibrations of abundance. Needless to say, this had little effect. Yes, it’s an important first step, but the second step is to offer something of value to the marketplace—to be of genuine service.

Moreover, one must strive to give away something of value. I am currently in the process of updating my various websites to offer valuable freebies to my visitors in exchange for providing me with their contact information. No doubt, I am opening myself up to being taken advantage of by people who subscribe one day, grab their free gift, and then immediately unsubscribe. So be it. That is a chance I am willing to take. (How’s that for an abundance mindset!)

This is also lighting a fire under me to ramp up the progress on my book, Demystifying Prosperity™: Why You Should Take a Serious Look at Network Marketing. I can begin to use content-rich excerpts from it as valuable giveaways, instead of (or in addition to) someone else’s products.

One of my goals is to be a successful platform speaker. In order to do so, I must offer a product or service of value to my audience. I’m sure I’ll ultimately be speaking on Demystifying Prosperity™, but for now, my presentations may have something to do with my other love: Demystifying Technology®. Therefore, I am also ramping up production on my technical videos. So far I’ve been offering them mostly to the people who join one of my network marketing businesses, but why not open them up to everyone?

So you see, Service has opened up whole new horizons for me. Such a simple lesson—I’m amazed that it eluded me for so long. Watch out world: Carl Eric Johnson is preparing great new things.

Prosperity

Only by first nurturing an abundance mindset and then offering a valuable service to the world can one attract true prosperity. The good news is that now it is likely to rush into your life much faster than you could have imagined it.

In my one-on-one coaching sessions, I help people identify their strengths and weaknesses and ultimately their long-lost dreams. This reveals areas where they can offer unique services to the world. It provides direction and a target to aim for. A life well lived is one where the world has been made a better place for you having been in it. Let’s all strive to find our unique gifts to offer the world. This is sure to open the floodgates of prosperity.

The apple tree in my backyard inspired me to shoot this video. Its branches are sagging under the weight of all the ripe apples, and it is a prime example of the abundance all around us in nature. I snacked on one the apples earlier today—no idea what variety they are, but they’re tart and quite flavorful. Enjoy the two-minute video, and I’ll continue afterwards.

What are you feeling more often in your life, abundance or scarcity? I’ll confess I succumb to anxious thoughts more often than I’d like. It is precisely for this reason that I am writing my book, Demystifying Prosperity™: Why You Should Take a Serious Look at Network Marketing. Network marketing isn’t the only option we have, but it’s the best option for the majority of men and women looking for financial security. More and more companies are realizing that it’s a great way to bring their products to market, so it is only going to become more prevalent.

But this post isn’t primarily about network marketing, it’s about abundance and prosperity. Let’s back up a step and define prosperity.

What Is Prosperity?

For some, prosperity is a steady job, a comfortable home, nutritious food on the table, a fulfilling family life, time for leisure activities, and enough left over for savings, investments, and charitable donations. For others, prosperity is measured in mansions and yachts and shopping sprees and other forms of excess … which is not a value judgment. If we truly believe in an abundant universe, then there is more than enough to go around.

For me, a large part of prosperity is time freedom—having the time to do what I want to do when I want to do it—for example, working because I want to work, not because I have to work. I’ll admit to wanting some of the finer things in life, and I’m sure I’ll have them all in good time. But a large part of me yearns to be of service to others, and prosperity would afford me both the freedom and the means to serve.

The most important question is …

What Is Prosperity to You?

I invite you to spend some time in quiet meditation imagining what your most prosperous life would look like. Does it involve fancy homes? fast cars? fine dining? furs and jewelry? If so, great! Just be honest with yourself.

Now, how are you going to get there? If you’d like some guidance, then I invite you to go to DemystifyingProsperity.com and sign up for my e-mail notifications. I’ll let you know when the book is finished, and I’ll also share bits and pieces of it as I write them.

The key in all of this is maintaining an awareness of the abundance all around us. Aligning ourselves with an abundant universe is truly the first step towards achieving true prosperity, however we define it.

You’ll notice that the subtitle of this blog is Demystifying Prosperity™ by Demystifying Technology®. Perhaps you’re wondering where these two trademarks come from. To explain I shall have to provide a brief history of my professional life.

Although I did not major in computer science in college—indeed, I went to college before such programs were widespread!—my first job out of college was with Boeing Computer Services, and I remained in IT for many years. I enjoyed working as a programmer and systems analyst, then as a consultant on various assignments. Recognizing that I enjoy teaching, I switched careers in 1987 and took a position as a technical trainer.

I ended up working for a company called Platinum Technology in Illinois. This started out as a dream job and ended up as The Job From Hell under a particularly incompetent manager. (I can’t watch The Office on TV, because it hits too close to home.) So in 1995 I quit and formed my own corporation with the incredibly clever name of Carl Eric Johnson & Company.

I did some contract training for Platinum and other companies but was dissatisfied with the quality of the courseware I was working with. So I spent the bulk of 1996 writing my own series of SQL courses. It was at this time that the catch phrase Demystifying Technology® caught on, so I registered it. My ability to demystify technology was proved time and again in the classroom, as I reduced complex topics around IBM’s database DB2 to concepts that my students could easily master.

I partnered with a company in New Jersey to market my courses, earning royalties every time they were taught. Sweet. Unfortunately, that partnership pretty much dissolved in 2001. They still sell my SQL courses, but not nearly as frequently as they once did.

I had enough money set aside to take the summer of 2001 off—my first summer off in decades. It was wonderful. But summer became fall became winter became spring, and before I knew it a whole year had passed. Now I needed to start looking around to see what I might do to make a living. Although I enjoy teaching, I was fairly burned out on DB2 and SQL. So I looked into passive ways to make money: stock investing, commodities futures, and real estate. I took various courses in all of the above and had some modest successes.

One of the courses I took was a CD series by Robert Allen, New York Times best-selling author of Nothing Down, Creating Wealth, and other books. The CD series was titled Multiple Streams of Income. It was a 6-CD set with a bonus 7^th CD dedicated to network marketing. I was skeptical, having had a bad experience in the late ’70’s with a multilevel marketing company. But I respected Robert Allen and listened to what he had to say. I was intrigued. He explained what network marketing was all about and how to evaluate a network marketing opportunity. At the end he invited his listeners to call an 800 number to learn about the one network marketing company he endorsed. I did so, found out it was USANA Health Sciences, got an information packet in the mail several days later, and joined at the highest level within the week.

Wanting to share what I had learned about network marketing with others, I soon transitioned into Demystifying Prosperity™. I have several blogs and e-mail autoresponder series on the topic, and I am currently writing a book titled Demystifying Prosperity™: Why You Should Take a Serious Look at Network Marketing.

In recent years I have used more and more Internet technologies to promote my network marketing ventures, and so this is where the two (Demystifying Technology® and Demystifying Prosperity™) overlap. Rather than waste a lot of money on telephone leads any more, I am now learning how to use social networking (a k a Web 2.0) technologies to attract free leads to my businesses—so-called attraction marketing.

And just what are my businesses? Well, I am certainly still with USANA Health Sciences and will be for the rest of my life. I am also in Global Resorts Network, a direct sales company marketing memberships in luxury timeshare rentals. It is from my team at Global that I have learned all of my attraction marketing techniques. And I am sure that my book will open doors for me.

I am available for speaking gigs of anywhere from 45 minutes to several hours. If you have an audience who would like me to demystify prosperity for them, let me know. I love helping people realize that they do have options, especially in our current economy. Actually, there has never been a better time to get into network marketing.