Hutchinson Builders Breeds a New Generation of Authentic Leader

Traditionally the construction industry focused on technical and administrative features with the past perception of leaders chiefly built around power, authority, and task-orientation. Recently a new kind of authentic leadership has emerged expanding the building industries traditional boundaries of conventional management. This new generation between the ages of 18 and 33 is now dealing with greater challenges associated with modern times alongside a progressively diverse business environment.

Millennial’s have copped a bad reputation within the workplace. Perceived as entitled and spoilt by parents, Gen Y are seen to struggle with professional challenges, however the building industry is leading the way and learning to embrace these qualities. Instead of criticising them for being different, companies are capitalising on millennial traits such as embracing technology, willingness to work together, enthusiasm to network and eagerness to improve with peer learning and motivation. These new authentic leaders demand a different vision for leadership and call for a change in traditional perceptions and mindset about management.

As the workforce shifts from the old paradigm to the new, the construction industry is beginning to pay more attention to project leadership. As the saying goes ‘People will work 8 hours a day for a job they love, 12 hours for a boss they love and 24 hours for a mission that they buy into.’

Globalisation and the rapidly evolving nature of construction have demanded leaders employ different leadership behaviours, abilities and techniques. This new breed of leader holds positive values, leads from the heart, sets high levels of ethics and integrity, and go beyond their personal interests for the welfare of their teams. These young leaders capitalise on the environment of trust and are skilled at motivating people to achieve challenging tasks.

A company that has been at the forefront of growing strong young leaders is the family owned Australian company, Hutchinson Builders. Hutchinson Builders or ‘Hutchies’ was established in 1912, it is considered as one of the most influential businesses in the country having an inherent understanding of developing innovative leaders and decades of experience applied to achieve a larger purpose in each of their managers and projects.

Traditional qualities such as intelligence and experience were important traits used to develop leaders for tomorrow’s building industry. However, Hutchies also place particular importance on the relationship between interpersonal skills and empathy as key behaviours to fostering young industry executives.

Hutchinson Builders Site Manager Joe Jacobsen is an example of a new generation of leader. Joe has been with the organisation for 5 years and has worked his way up conventional channels through hard work, focus and persistence. Unlike traditional leaders Joe offers many of the qualities that Gen Y provides. Hutchies capitalisation in their emerging leader’s growth and development is seen as a solid investment in their workforce and vision because high potential employees like Joe represent the future of the organisation adding to their proven structure and unity across the company.

Joe’s interest in the construction industry started during the time he spent growing up on the Gold Coast. “I always had an interest in the building industry. I loved the possibilities and freedom it offered, working with the projects from the ground up gives you immense satisfaction, where I take great pride in the details and design quality points.”

Employers can best demonstrate their investment in their future leaders by offering training and development, a clear career path and ongoing coaching and feedback. Leadership is a learnable skill and if construction companies want the next generation to be great leaders, employers have to show them a new way to achieve it.

This rang true for Joe, where leadership wasn’t an obvious goal during his time starting out. Hutchies management quickly identified Joe’s natural skill and ability to lead a team, assisting with his progression by providing more responsibilities and challenges with every new project. Joe believes that being a part of the Hutchies family gave him the chance to understand every aspect of the business by working his way up.

"The process of becoming a leader is identical or very similar to the process of becoming a fully balanced person.” –Joe Jacobsen

The new generation of industry leader possesses certain characteristics. Becoming a leader requires a certain mindset and construction companies are starting to emphasise the need to empower new young talent. Considering aspects of great leadership, Joe says, “I believe the best leadership qualities are excellent communication, consistent management and being able to create an environment for your team to trust you.”

Award-winning author of six books, including Leadership Sales Coaching, Jason Forrest’s article talks about ‘Becoming a Great Leader Starts With Building Trust.’

Jason says, “Think about the areas in your life that generate the most passion and commitment from you. For me, it’s the belief that I create my own success. I believe it so wholeheartedly that I never accept an excuse or victim mindset from myself, my kids or my employees. I can’t expect my team to buy into this concept if I don’t believe it for myself.”

Jason adds “A strong belief brings emotion with it. Emotion is necessary to create buy-in. Think about it: Your favourite movies are the ones that make you laugh, cry or want to throw your popcorn at the screen. Emotion makes us care. When we care, we can ask our team to care without compromising our integrity. This positions the team to reach the company’s goals.”

Gen Y leaders have the ability to let go and guide their team to grow within new and wide-ranging roles and responsibilities. Teams want to feel valued and challenged; they want to be trusted and given the freedom to learn within the job. These young leaders that stretch themselves to develop and take on more advanced duties should be given the opportunity to further accelerate their advancement. It boils down to the right kind of leaders continuously creating new opportunities for their team and learning from the mistakes of those who came before them.

The shortcomings which previous leaders presented had now opened up an opportunity to reinvent the industry. The use of old fashioned procedures and attitudes as well as redundant management skills provided the experience needed for young leaders to create an alternative leadership solution.

During initial training Joe experienced firsthand the types of qualities ineffective leaders used which included inadequate communication, self-interest and lack of delivery. Joe says, “Leaders need to learn, ask and listen and most importantly lead by example. I believe it’s a sign of weak leadership to ask others to do things that you’re not prepared to do. You can’t tell others to always improve if you’re not demonstrating ongoing improvement yourself.”

Joe thinks the biggest challenge facing new leaders in construction isn’t just about obtaining the right information, time management with contractors and delivering projects on time. The new challenge is also embracing technology, be willing to take risks but having a clear plan, maintaining positive morale as well as having the ability to read people and being able to hold an open conversation with your team.

Today’s young construction leaders have tremendous untapped potential but to access it and become “balanced” they do need guidance on ‘self-skills’ such as face-to-face communication, work ethic and professional patience. It has a lot to do with authenticity. It is largely the fact that you cannot truly lead unless you are skilled in self-management. The essence of Gen Y leaders is placed firmly on issues of character and self-awareness. Hutchinson Builders is providing that guidance and support for the future construction leaders. Young authentic leaders that strive to care, believe and be fair.

"Nobody ever got muscles by watching me lift weights. Leaders must be committed to making change happen for themselves.” - Arnold Schwarzenegger

(Hutchinson Builders site foreman Joe Jacobsen with site manager Cody Harris, Woolworths supermarket on Waterson Way, Airlie Beach QLD)

Emma Read- Pop Media Consulting

What Did 28 Days Without Facebook Teach Me?

With a website that boasts over 900 million active users Facebook is where you became digitally counted, your photos given a living audience, and every-single-thing you encountered was now in digital existence. 

The entire social universe came to life through the birth of Facebook. If it did not exist on Facebook what meaning would it hold? Facebook was there for the world to judge and envy, it's the one thing that hears, sees, checks in, responds to any situation at any time and place.

I have been a 'Facebooker' for over 9 years. By now I must have a clear understanding of my true nature because I watched it play out through social media... right? I post something reflecting my perceived character and I can gauge my audience’s affirmation through my posts engagement.

My inner monologue would chatter “Oh! That’s something Emma would totally post. My friends and fans will like, share and laugh at this.”

I opened my Facebook one morning and I felt sick. It seems, slowly but surely a type of anxiety had crept in like regrettable news.

So what’s really going on here?

I had been living on Facebook for just under a decade, investing personally and professionally, forging businesses and friendships. I would consider myself a rational common sense kinda girl. Why was I feeling this way towards Facebook?

"The manifestation of emptiness is the essence of truth."

Lives are affected by circumstances and the environment, they can adapt themselves to a certain degree. If we become unhappy or dissatisfied with our present situation, and the need to change becomes strong, then we will seek to internalise these changes.

Our Facebook reality is essentially empty, without roots, while its primary nature is eternally bright and profound. For most people, true reality is perceived to be hidden. However true reality is not inherently disclosed, it only appears that way to unenlightened eyes. Facebook seems to create an alternate and deceptive reality, unlike true reality which is fundamentally crystal clear and if seen correctly can offer true wisdom. 

To change every moment means to die in that moment or maybe reborn is a better way of explaining it. To live an unfulfilled life people tend to cling onto past feelings and memories, living vacantly. To live freely you have to understand that everything changes in an instant and I believe only a wise person can apply this principle to their everyday lives.

But isn't this the very frame work and foundation of Facebook? Constant feed of delectable news and stories. Never ending fresh information - endless choices moment to moment?

Yet I didn’t feel connected or fulfilled anymore.

A psychological experiment conducted by Facebook on nearly 700,000 users, saw Facebook "manipulate" news feeds to control which emotional expressions the users were exposed to.

The research was done in collaboration with two US universities to gauge if "exposure to emotions led people to change their own posting behaviours". The research was conducted on 689,000 Facebook users over a period of one week in 2012.

According to the study: "The experiment manipulated the extent to which people were exposed to emotional expressions in their News Feed". The study found that users who had fewer negative stories in their news feed were less likely to write a negative post, and vice versa.

Adam Kramer of Facebook, who co-authored the report on the research, said: "We felt that it was important to investigate the common worry that seeing friends post positive content leads to people feeling negative or left out".

Could 9 years exposed to these emotional expressions across my news feed, good and bad, negatively affect my rational rhythm?

I was not just visiting social media in the mornings. It was a relationship that spread across the day. I probably make the rounds on my various social media networks every hour to make sure that I am not missing something important. Checking my Facebook and other social media like Instagram at an alarming 31 different times in one single day. The average person only checks Facebook 14 times a day. I feel it was time for social media intervention.

Having realised just how dependent I had become on Facebook, from preening through my retrospect of photo albums, maintaining status update obligations, to solving the world’s problems one sarcastic meme at a time. I wanted to find my true nature, my true reality, ‘my enlightenment’. I decided it was time to take a break and see what 9 years of social media had taught me and what I will become after 28 days through a social media blackout.

First week into my 28 days of social media abstinence, feelings of vulnerability and guilt slipped in. People will think I deleted them! What will people think of me, or god forbid, they won’t even notice and don’t really care?

Boredom. I felt ‘cold turkey’ bored. Working from home with my own business, the TV would be running for background noise, iPad locked in position beside my work laptop and my iPhone ready on charge. I was actively orchestrating all devices simultaneously, reading, commenting, chatting, researching (stalking) and of course working. Now, it was just me and quiet.

Silence was an overwhelming feeling.

So I bought books, lots of books. I bought art supplies because I had talent as an artist at one point. I started writing more because that’s something I always loved and I focused my on fitness and investing in stronger relationships. I don’t remember being that bored in 2006 prior to joining Facebook so it’s not going to beat me now!

Before Facebook I could sit and just be still. Slow down and be aware of my surroundings. Have patience and be totally relaxed. Eat a meal, slowly and enjoy it. Stand and chat with strangers with no awkwardness and no phone to attend to. I was always so hyped and constantly nervous. I wasn’t sleeping well, my body was rigid and continually activated. To be honest re-training my body was going to be tough.

Finding peace.

Week two. My days are quieter. Focus was clearer. I can express myself without the aid of social media. I had disconnected and faced the fear of being myself without distractions.

"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.” - Henry David Thoreau

I thought back to the Facebook conversations I used to have with people I didn’t even know. I knew things about people I had never actually met. I used to piece together stories of what they could be like by patching together the tiny bits of information given through social media. Imagination would run wild with fanciful stories, speculation and false comparisons.

Human habit of overestimating other people’s happiness is nothing new. Experiencing ‘keeping up with the Joneses’ is common. As one economists put it "The increased opportunity to succeed in many dimensions may have led to an increased likelihood in believing that one's life is not measuring up."

After D day, I was called by five friends. Two seriously asked if I was ok. Like was I dead? Or was something sinister was about to happen? Disconnecting from Facebook isn’t seen to be a normal behaviour. I mean, a part from unhinged girlfriends who deactivate accounts to make a statement, “I’ll teach you” type deal- I don’t need you in my life, just watch.

Social media had become so ingrained in human life it can be compared to a religion. Leaving your faith prompts questions from your followers or oblivious and easily manipulated boyfriends.

28 days without social media, Facebook seemed like a distant memory. Only when Facebook was mentioned on the news or if I tried to contact a friend, it  actually dawned on me “Oh yeah? I wonder what everyone is doing on Facebook?” Anxiety had past and my work ethic improved. I felt happier and relaxed.

So what did 9 years on Facebook and 28 days of digital deactivation teach me? Not only was I desensitised to the world around me but I had become numb to vulnerability. Vulnerability is uncertainty, risk and emotional exposure. To feel and experience vulnerability is important for true connection because it gives us purpose, authenticity and meaning to our lives. My reluctance to lean into the discomfort of vulnerability was restricting my life experience and the chance to feel truly alive. Social media skilfully prevents vulnerability. I found that we tend to hide behind our digital projections because of our primal need to “belong”. Willingness to let go of who I thought I should be on Facebook let me become fully vulnerable, connected and present in a true reality.

(I haven't picked up an art pen in 15 years. I have always been passionate about black and white 'Pointillism' using fibre tip ink pens. I had forgotten that dot work was so labour intensive but I find it's therapeutic at the same time. I'm quite proud of my first attempt in full colour. What do you think?)

Emma Read- Pop Media Consulting

So they Discovered you’re a Fake

You have worked hard throughout your career keeping up appearances, busily building up your wall of make-believe. Highly aware that, if you’re diligent and work above and beyond no one will be privy to your dirty little secret…that you’re a fake. Little do they know that this ‘over achieving’ is just a cover-up strategy. You take great care in your web of intellectual phoniness to prevent the discovery that you’re not that skilled or successful after all- you’re just a fraud.

This experience is called Impostor Syndrome and is a very common unsubstantiated belief people live with throughout their working life. Mostly associated with women, it’s a chronic feeling of self-doubt and intellectual fraudulence.

These feelings could be:

• Feel like a fake
• Attribute success to luck
• Discount any success
• Fear success
• Pressure not to fail
• Avoid showing confidence

The impostor’s belief relates to an inability to process past and current success. They have a constant fear of achievement because of the responsibility and visibility that it involves increases the pressure between the inner feelings and the outside perception.

However, despite someone’s deserved degrees, acknowledgement and professional recognition from respected peers, they don’t feel an inner sense of success. They consider themselves to be phonies and are in fact convinced that they have fooled anyone who thinks otherwise.

“Sometimes I wake up in the morning before going off to a shoot, and I think, I can’t do this. I’m a fraud.” – Kate Winslett

Impostor syndrome is found in both sexes but why do women seem more doubtful than men? This is because women seem to be treated considerably different in their professional achievements. Men are promoted based on potential while women are more commonly promoted based on past accomplishments.

Men are continually celebrated for being ambitious, powerful and successful but women who display these same characteristics often pay a social penalty. When a woman fails, she is more likely to believe it is due to lack of talent.

So, let’s unpack this. To have reached this point in your career, where you are at this very moment. To have achieved what you have, you must have done something that worked. That’s right, this has happened because you said yes, or no, and then, opportunities presented themselves to give you your current position. It isn’t a fluke.

Here are some important steps to take that can help you deal with impostor feelings.

1) Talk to someone: it’s important to be open and discuss those feelings with others so you can begin to understand that you’re not alone. This will allow you to be aware and start to change these negative thoughts. Just identifying impostor feelings can set you to work on turning those automatic thoughts around.

2) Let go: You need to let go of your extra self-importance and focus less on your perfectionist projection that never actually existed. This can be assisted by helping others and focusing on providing value in the office.

3) Feel good file: Make a list of positive things people say about your work and gather up your wins, testimonials and visit them when you’re feeling these negative thoughts. Remember, being wrong doesn’t make you a fake. It’s important to realise that losing is part of life.

4) The world needs you: Everyone has doubts, the best thing you can do for the world is do the best you can. Your positivity and vibes rub off on other people. If you’re not fighting the fight how can you inspire others? You deserve to be here, to be respected and invest that valuable contribution.

Just because you feel something so strongly doesn’t mean it’s right. It is so important to understand the difference between feelings and reality. Do your own reality checks and always question those impostor thoughts and feelings to create more balanced thoughts.

"But I also know that in order to continue to grow and challenge myself, I have to believe in my own abilities. I still face situations that I fear are beyond my capabilities. I still have days when I feel like a fraud. And I still sometimes find myself spoken over and discounted while men sitting next to me are not. But now I know how to take a deep breath and keep my hand up. I have learned to sit at the table." -Sheryl Sandberg COO of Facebook

Emma Read - Pop Media Consulting

Driven to Death

The year was 1996 and Mount Everest had just lay witness to its greatest loss of life where eight ill fated climbers suffered from what’s called summit fever. The teams drive and focus was so great they could only define success by getting to the summit at all costs.

Summit Fever describes the elated, disoriented and sometimes dangerous mental state that climbers can find themselves.

Summit fever not only develops in mountain adventurers but in boardrooms too. Mountaineers and leaders share many of the same traits. Both are experts in the field and aware of the risks and the consequences of failure. Well, at least they are supposed to be.

You know that feeling where you have set aside your whole life for something, working night and day, living and breathing its entirety. You have placed every ounce of energy and strength into achieving a single goal.

You become so hyper focused, important features may not be met like ethical behaviour and company reputation. Among other things like:

1. Too narrow, which leads to neglect of other important qualities of performance 
2. Too unrealistic, leads to taking unacceptable risks and engaging in unethical behaviours 
3. Too short- term, which leads to neglect of longer term aspects of performance 

These could then lead to employees making poor decisions.

It’s important to think about what are you willing to give up for you to reach this goal and would giving up everything be worth it? What if there was no one there to share it with or it meant losing your health or emotional stability?

Famous Everest mountaineer and explorer Sir Edmund Hillary said “I personally have found it equally important to get back down the mountain alive.”

To keep the project alive, it's important to remember you need to be able to see it through to the very end- intact with no casualties. This might mean you have to stop and take stock. I know you can struggle with turning around, making you feel down right awful, like you have failed, you weren’t strong enough, or you made poor planning decisions. It’s important to remember successful people are smart enough to pin point the right time to regroup.

You need to understand success.

If you were running a marathon where you pushed yourself so hard you were never able to run again but you won the race. Who really wins?

If you simply define success by making it to the summit of your mountain, then you won’t need to pack extra oxygen tanks for the trek back down. It’s critical to empathise the balance required for you to find success. Climbing your own ‘mountain’ you want to avoid the urge to reach your goal at any expense to yourself and others.

Have a think about these five factors and consider how you might define success for your mountain:

Professional
Personal
Financial
Physical
Spiritual

Your definition will continue to be dynamic and change as you evolve and grow. Once you have defined your success it’s important that you remain open-minded. What works today may not work tomorrow. When you’re able to merge these different factors and types of information, you can begin to shape a route that will work best for you.

Great leaders can also sense when target fixation is sweeping over the team and intervene with a different angle. This can be managed by implementing regular process meetings devoted to evaluating the project, and physical and emotional health of the group.

Never feel the need to justify reevaluation.

Sometimes organisations and teams can be gripped by summit fever as they get closer and closer to their desired objective and lose sight of their core purpose and focus. The project is literally pushed to its death.

Evaluate your situation using past experiences, judgement and common sense. No need to make excuses. As a leader it’s your job to ensure that other members of the group are equipped with the right knowledge and the team’s frame of mind is in check. Leaders need to be aware of this threat and build insurances to guarantee that they maintain a sense of perspective and recognise when it’s time reassess.

Summit fever is impacted by greed, desire and need. Managing this psychological state is vital for a leader to keep a clear mind, a strong team and maintain rational over projects.

Emma Read, Pop Media Consulting

You're a Leader Whether you Like it or Not

“Leaders become great, not because of their powers, but their ability to empower others.”

Some people know from an early age that they were not put on this earth to follow others. This knowledge is usually built from observing inconsistent leadership performances, bullying or narrow mindedness at some stage. You are different. You can only see endless possibilities, a ‘better way’ and could never accept being led.

This realisation happened when you set off in your new job where the opportunities seemed infinite. Then, that slow sinking feeling set in. All your greatest talents are now your biggest flaws. You can see beyond the wants and needs of others, but working for someone else, your wings are clipped. Considered the office renegade you’re treated as a threat and you quickly become disenchanted by the workplace.

Working for others you dream together, the teams focus becomes yours by default. There’s a point where you begin to lose your individuality and you need to work double time to get that feeling back, where everything seemed possible again. It’s time to leave. Your future is not in working for others. You are your own boss.

You’re a leader whether you like it or not

Born leaders, more often than not, will be put in charge of situations despite their status or position. People gravitate to you for advice on business and life matters. In fact, they appreciate these words of wisdom and enthusiastically follow your direction.

Endless creativity

You are a natural corporate architect who immediately revaluates projects as soon as they are delegated. You mentally make changes, redesigning a better formula and think about how differently you can approach it. It’s because you are intuitively predisposed to embracing new ideas, projects and guidelines. You know that you can build a project from its foundations and commit to seeing it work till the very end.

You don’t have time

Your time is limited. Investing your precious energy into work you’re not passionate about, co-workers you don’t like or respect is damaging. This doesn’t mean you are unreliable or uncommitted. It’s just obvious you work better on your own, where you can control the working environment and ensure project and team success. Making that leap into leadership where people now work for you is a daunting adjustment. You have nothing to lose but giving it a go. Start building the world you dreamed, one where you don’t apologise for your talents. Believe and make it happen.

Is your Current Job a Pyramid Scheme?

 Charles Ponzi 1920

The owner of Pop Media Consulting I have been in marketing about a decade. So when I came into Multi-Level-Marketing or Network Marketing I had the same reservations and questions like most people.

What’s the difference between multi-level marketing (MLM) and the infamous Pyramid Scheme?

Well interestingly, a type of Pyramid Scheme started in 1920 by Italian American Charles Ponzi. Ponzi had created a business no different from any other business, where he sold investors a promising endeavour. In this case the business sells empty shares taking advantage of the lack of investor knowledge or claiming the investment strategy must be kept disclosed to ensure a competitive edge. The deal would be a vague verbal explanation like a ‘Hedge Fund’ or ‘Offshore Investment’ where there is no tangible product or service.

These investors were not paid in the traditional sense from profit, but paid from new investors. The perpetuation of high returns required an ever-increasing flow of money from new investors to maintain the business, this couldn’t be sustained long term and the business slowed and collapsed giving the illusion of insolvency.

Today this is known as the highly illegal Ponzi Scheme.

Now, let us take a look at two types of Pyramid Schemes which are closely related to the Ponzi Scheme.

Naked Pyramid

Participants only make money by recruiting more members and there is no product. For example:

•      You recruit 10 people to invest in “low risk or no-fail investment”
•      Those 10 pay $100 to the recruiter
•   The recruiter tells them to go out and recruit 10 more to do the same

Ok this sounds simple, but we run into a pretty big problem. Those 10 recruits each find 10, then 100 new recruits will have to find 10 each to make their $900. Meaning they have to come up with 1,000 people willing to invest in the business. Then, that 1,000 needs to find 10,000 to make a profit. This forms the ‘Pyramid’. There will not be enough recruits at the bottom of the pyramid to support the level above leaving everyone at the bottom losing their investment.

Product based Pyramid

Same concept but has a legitimate direct sales opportunity. For example:

•  Distributor recruits 10 salespeople who pay $500 each for a product starter kit to on sell
•  Distributor receives 10 % for each kit sold
•  Distributor also receives 10% from every kit sold by their recruits
• Recruits encouraged to recruit more over selling products

Everyone at the top of the down line receive commissions for these new recruits
Problem, the products themselves don’t sell very well, or have barely any profit margins. Forcing the distributors to find more recruits. Market becomes quickly saturated with an unnecessary product and no one left to recruit. It collapses.

What makes MLM different?

Well to be honest, looking at ‘product based pyramid scheme’ there seems to be comparisons.

Don’t let that fool you.

At some point I think everyone has been pitched a MLM opportunity. While the pitch differs from each organisation, it’s pretty much a chance to abandon your everyday job, be your own boss and make lots of money while making new friends along the way.

Well that all sounds peachy but with the programs legitimacy so hotly debated, I’m here to plough through and expose some truths with what I believe is an industry primed for explosive growth and will be one of the most significant solutions to our current job dissatisfaction.

A growing reality is the increasing number of people disenchanted with their current careers. I was one of these people. We are exhausted from the so called ‘stable’ corporate grind, day in day out and don’t feel the connection between job and the people it impacts outside the office. Our focus is the desire to be part of something bigger and better, to have a positive effect on others. Aspects of life that can be fulfilled with specific types of products and service available through MLM.

“Don’t tell me stability is stable because it’s not.” – Seth Godin

MLM can lessen the hurdles people face coming into entrepreneurship, with providing training, support, and ample encouragement along the way.

This is not a ringing testimonial for the entire industry. Like any investment of time, money and energy, people need to be aware of what they are getting into and do their research. Remember, your product is going to be key and if you treat it like a hobby it won’t pay you like a business.

You should be asking these questions:

• Does the product meet a need?
• Does the product fix a problem?
• Is it on trend?
• Is it priced to sell?
• Is it priced to profit?
• Do you even like the product?

MLM program will feature a low upfront investment where a distributor will purchase the product. The distributor sells it directly to the public, friends and family through presentations or direct selling. People are more inclined to buy a product from recommendations showing proof the product works rather than a traditional advertisement. The program asks participants to encourage their existing distributors to recruit new distributors by paying the existing members a percentage of their recruits' sales. It also makes sense that If you are passionate about a product and it’s something you use every day to become a ‘member’, giving you access to major discounts. MLM programs aren’t just a financial escape but a business model that helps uncover human spirit.

Example compensation plan here.

Daria M. Brezinski Ph.D, a practicing psychologist and former marketing director for a multi-level marketing magazine, explains.  “Many people don’t realize that multi-level marketing companies are successful because they help people satisfy a number of important human needs, including feeling significant, having connections, learning something new, and making a difference.  I have heard people in network marketing say again and again, ‘I’m doing this because I’m meeting amazing people … making so many connections … and I feel so good about myself.”

What people are finding is that even though not everyone has landed on easy street, that when human needs are being met, the members and consultants don’t focus solely on the financial aspects.

As seen here through Network Marketer Karen Pogue’s passionate story. Karen’s has been in involved the MLM company Nucerity since 2011.

“First and foremost are the Founders. Without their foundation, we wouldn’t be where we are today. The ethical, brilliant businessmen that they are is what defines this company. They respect each other and us. Their leadership and core values reflect throughout NuCerity. Also, we have something that no one has in the world. Skincerity is a breathable barrier, a category creating technology that is ours to tell the world about.”

More success stories here.

MLM is not just meeting the needs on an ethical level but at the highest financial level. MLM is now being recommended by the top business leaders all around the world.

These include Donald Trump, Richard Branson, Robert Kiyosaki, Darren Hardy, Jim Rohn and Stephen Covey. In the book “why We Want You To Be Rich by Donald Trump and Robert Kiyosaki, the authors have an entire section dedicated to network marketing.

Donald Trump explains, “It requires an entrepreneurial spirit and that means focus and perseverance. I don’t recommend network marketing to people who are not highly self-motivated.”

He continues “Another important aspect of network marketing is that it’s inherently social so if you’re not a social or outgoing person I’d think twice about going into it. Sociability is a requirement. My advice about network marketing is to do your research and put everything you’ve got into your product. Genuine enthusiasm is hard to beat and the odds will be with you.”

Donald Trump famously stated “If I lost everything and had to start over, I would associate to a multi-level marketing company and start working.”

Regardless of age, gender, education, background, experience, nationality, past or present, you can change your future through choosing the right product. Becoming a Multi-Level Marker you can build your business as slowly or quickly as you choose, where you personally select those with whom you work, and build a limitless future where you control your own life.

The contrast between the Pyramid Scheme and MLM is vastly different when you break down the defining features. It’s clear to me that MLM has much more to offer than just commission and recruitment and is a far cry from the illegal Pyramid or Ponzi Scheme.

In fact, I believe the concept of starting a business for perpetual income will become one of the most significant trends impacting us through the 21^st century. But it has to start with redefining entrepreneurship. That means helping people find ways to turn a passion or personal desire into extra money in their bank, replacing a work identity, staying relevant and connected. Something MLM companies are poised to capitalise on.

So You're a Driven Entrepreneur? Prepare not to be liked.

There are always going to be critics. And it’s going to be a constant annoyance throughout your life.

The stark reality about being successful is that you are going to make people irrationally offended in the process, inevitably making it a part of your journey.

At times your enemies are going to be your peers, your family, your community. They attempt to break you apart in your quest for achieving greatness.

The things that make you successful are sometimes offensive to other people. The choices that you have to make are annoying to other people who don’t always understand your motivations.

Ok, so let’s unpack this.

It’s normal for people not to like you and you are never going to make everyone happy.

But what is supposed to happen?

Take a look at some of the most popular 'unpopular' success stories, from Jesus, to Martin Luther King Jr, Hilary Clinton, Henry Ford and Richard Branson – those who fight the hardest to make a difference, get the most criticism.

So what are you going to do to keep focused and inspired?

1) Be clear in your own head about why this business is so important
2) Surround yourself with friends and mentors you trust to be fair and honest
3) Make a schedule for a time where you review your goals and ideas and progress
4) Laugh off the silliest accusations and focus on the positives
5) Tune out almost everyone around you most of the time

This isn’t going to be fun nor easy to achieve but no one said this was going to be a walk in the park. That’s the price you pay for doing what most other people only read about in books.

You’re one of the few destined to be remembered by history. Some angry chit chat along the way is a small sacrifice.

Keep going, the fight is worth it.


- Emma Read