Business is changing. You no longer have to spend all of your time and income on marketing, creating products, building a website, and finding a customer base to become an entrepreneur. Loren Slocum Lahav, CEO and founder of True Consulting Company, is here to explain how multi-level marketing companies are helping regular people around the world to become business owners, and six and seven figure earners. Working with an established team can lead to residual income, and huge success. Loren discusses the misconceptions around MLM, the ins and outs of network marketing, and how to build your business.
—
Transcript
Hello, and welcome to Marketing Speak! I’m your host, Stephan Spencer, and today, I have the pleasure of having Loren Slocum Lahav on the show. Loren’s been a longtime friend of mine. We’ve met through the Tony Robbins World. I’ve been active with Tony Robbins-2009 was my first Tony event, and I met Loren, probably, in 2010 or maybe it was 2011. She is the CEO and founder of True Consulting Company. She’s a distinguished international personal development speaker, seminar leader, coach, author, philanthropist, entrepreneur, wife, and mother. She’s the founder, CEO, and president of LoBella International. It’s an organization inspired to help women stay true to who they are. She is a founder of 501C3 non-profit called Elevate, which does all sorts of good in the community including giving baskets and bags to the homeless. She is active with Tony Robbins’ company. She was personally chosen by Tony and Sage to launch their life mastery program in Fiji in 2002, and she still is active with life mastery to this day. In fact, I attended a life mastery event in 2013 with my fiancée in Fiji, and it was amazing. It was taught by Loren. She’s the author of Life Tuneups, which was voted by People magazine as one of the top three books of 2010. She’s also the author of The Greatest Love, and co-author of Chicken Soup for the Soul: Time to Thrive, which was released last year. Her new book that she’s working on now is called, The Courage to Raise a Gentleman. She’s also had aradio show on Voice America for nearly two years so she is a powerhouse. What we’re going to talk about on this episode is all about multi-level marketing because she has built quite an empire with MLM-not by creating her own MLM, but by being a powerhouse inside of other MLM’s and building up a huge downline. We’re going to talk about how to maximize the opportunities that MLM provides as well as other marketing tips, tricks, and strategies that will help any business-whether you have zero interest in MLM or a lot of it so Loren, it’s great to have you on.
Hey! Great to be on! I’m so honored to be on the call with you. Exciting! I’ll tell you something interesting for a lot of people who might not know is, I actually said “no” to the industry of MLM for 17 years. One of my best friends is one of the top people in the history of direct sales, and I said “no” to him for 17 years. I had what I would call the “I’m-too-cool” syndrome. About eight years ago, I thought, “Well, this just makes sense,” and that’s actually how my journey started, but I did say “no” for 17 years. If you’re listening or about to turn off and say, “I don’t think I will listen to this right now,” listen closely-it’s a great decision. That’s how I got started.
Well, I’m going to listen with curiosity because I have, I think, pretty much zero interest in pursuing in MLM myself.
Right.
But maybe I can be convinced so I’m going to listen with curiosity instead of judgment. I know what an incredible life and business you’ve created for yourself leveraging MLM, and I just have to have you on to talk about this so let’s start with-what are some of the myths about MLM?
Well, I think the biggest thing is-and like I said that I definitely had the “I’m-too-cool” syndrome, and I thought that, “Oh my gosh! This is just something where people hunt people down to make money,” and I learned the truth with regards to it. First of all, you’ve got to look at it with regards to what do we really do- we want to help people. With what? We want to help people make money, right? One of my mentors-she says there’s only two kinds of people: People who need money and people who want more of it so that they can do more good things, hopefully, with that money. For a long time, I think the myths that happen are that you go, and you hunt down every person that you know, and you get them to buy into an opportunity, or you get them to buy into a product, and for me, once again, I said that I had that belief, and what I found out was-(1) You’ve got to find something that really resonates with you. The company that I finally said “yes” to after 17 years, I’ve known the leadership. I have confidence in the leadership. The company had been around for 45 years. The people didn’t get paid on people signing up for an opportunity, they got paid by commissions or bonuses, but there wasn’t signing people up so you’re actually getting a physical product. I think that, one, do you have confidence in the industry? I mean, if you look at statistics of any kind of business, 96% of the businesses fail out there that are typical businesses, and so with regards to network marketing them, there’s a lot of network marketing or MLM companies that are here today and gone tomorrow. You want to look for a company that really has longevity, not in the red, really has a great leadership team, and has products that you actually believe in. I mean, people come up to me with every kind of opportunity, and people still drop stuff off or send me different things so you have to find something that really resonates with you and that you can feel 100% congruent with. For me, a big thing was, I love what I do. I’m extremely grateful for the opportunity that I’ve had for so long working with Tony. I’ve learned so much, and I’ve met amazing people around the world, but I’m still trading my time for dollars, and I was looking for a way to be able to have the lifestyle that I deserve. I love helping people. I love personal development, but until you put personal development into action, it’s just theory. This is an amazing opportunity, I realized, to help so many other people find their passion, and, wow, I just can’t even believe how amazing that it is. One, I think that a lot of times that people look and they go, “Well, it’s just not for me,” well, I think you’ve got to look at-do you have belief in yourself, belief in the product, belief in the company, and belief in the industry? One of the things I would highly-recommend to everybody, if they want to know a little bit more about multiple streams of income and looking at a network marketing company, is watching the video by a guy named Eric Worre. It’s called,The Rise of the Entrepreneur, and they talk about the future entrepreneur-or, it’s actually even happening now-won’t have a brick-and-mortar facility, they won’t have employees, it’s going to be mostly online, it’s going to be belly-to-belly and referral-based businesses. If you look, that meets pretty much all those criteria as well.
Right. You were just at an event-a conference, I believe, that was put on by Eric-is that right?
That’s correct. Just last week, he had a conference call, The Most Powerful Women of Network Marketing, and it was women from all other hundreds of different network marketing companies. You weren’t allowed to talk about your business whatsoever, you’re just allowed to share your golden nuggets of what you’ve learned. It’s pretty interesting because there’s this beautiful golden thread that went throughout the event itself, and it was talking about work ethic and a strong purpose. It talked about what you are going to do on a daily basis, your, basically, daily rituals that you put into place so it’s taking personal development and making it live-just as I said, putting it into action. I talk about that you need hunger. A lot of people, probably the most dangerous place to be, honestly, Stephan, is in a place of comfort, right? That’s like the most dangerous place to be, and a lot of people are just comfortable, and then you’re not growing. You’re not planting that beautiful garden. If you’re comfortable at what happens, after a while, the weeds start to show up. You’ve got to have that hunger. Hunger to be able to do more, share more, continue to grow, and that’s what I love about this industry. I’ve grown so much as a woman. I think, as a mom, being a great example my kids, seeing how I focus, putting together a 90-day game plan to really going for it. My eldest son, actually, has his own business and he’s like, “Mom, this is so cool!” He goes, “I get to choose who I work with. I don’t have to go to work where you have to get along with this person no matter what because I get to choose who I get to talk to every single day and I get to make their dreams a reality.”
Yeah, and you’re with multiple, different MLM’s. I know Juice Plus+ was one of them.
Juice Plus+ is the only company I’ve said “yes” to.
Okay.
Yeah. Definitely for me, I was looking for a company that was stable and had Jeff Roberti-he’s a number one person in the history of network marketing, and Jeff was the very first platinum partner. I would see Jeff, I met him in 1989, someone sold me a water filter, and I was working three jobs, staying above ground in Southern California because you need three jobs to stay above ground, and that was in 1989. Someone sold me a water filter, but they never shared the opportunity with me so I found out about eight months later that I could have been doing it as a business and I was like, “Oh my God! I could have been doing this as a business.” I mean, people that love personal development-it’s an extraordinary opportunity because it’s basically taking all that you learn from the personal development world and putting it to work. I mean, if you were to look at the leadership wheel that we talk about lots of times-to be a great leader, you need to be great at putting on events. Well, from Tony, oh my gosh, I learned how to do great events-how to move people emotionally in a room from the music to the staff to anything that was in the room specifically, or how to greet people so, basically, I know exactly what to do to put on a great event, right? Whether it’s a home event or a regional with thousands of people, I know what to do to put on a great event, but I learned that through personal development, then team building-did I learn team building? Absolutely! I was the crew director for 26 years and helping people find their gift and plug in was a great thing that I learned how to do. Knowing when to lead and knowing when to follow-same thing with this. Conflict resolution-do we all have to deal with conflict resolution? Probably one of the best DVD’s out there is the conflict resolution that Tony did, and I use that all the time to help people. The other thing is, asking great questions, right? Finding out what people really want. Finding out what the wound is-Tony talks lots of times about the wounds of people-and when you can heal the wound, you’re a hero. What I love about this is, for me, I’m really able to help people with their health wounds, their financial wounds, and their relationship wounds. To me, coaching skills-are you kidding? All I do is coach people all day long. That’s all I do-ever since, I want to be a coach. I mean, that’s what I get to do. I get to coach people to their independence, to create the business that they desire.
Right, so you’ve learned a lot of great stuff from Tony-how to do great events, team building, and all that-I’m curious, what’s the largest event that you put on yourself to your downline or to prospective downline?
One that I personally have put on-about a thousand people.
Wow!
Yeah. About a thousand.
That’s amazing! I mean, that’s awesome.
Well, I mean, I think that how you do anything is how you do everything, right?
Yeah.
I decided that if I was going to do this, I play full out. I look and I go-I mean, I live in Vegas-hello! Either you go all in or all out. No wishy-washy, dilly-dally stuff in the middle. I was like, “If I’m going to do this, I’m going to get all the excuses out of the way,” and when I started in the business, I was in the middle of writing Life Tuneups, Asher was just a couple months old, and I was teaching Life Mastery three weeks back-to-back so I had every reason not to say “yes” to this, but then I thought of something bigger-I forgot about me, and I thought about who could I really help. It freaking just make sense: Who could I help? I got to tell you: Yesterday, I got a call from one of my best friends whom I’ve known for 15 years. She really didn’t do anything for a couple years, but she called me yesterday and she said, “Loren, I can’t thank you enough because my husband’s going to be able to retire from the job that he hates,” and they bought themselves-when you walk in your house, a million dollar home, that your friends were able to buy because you had the courage to say “yes,” or when you meet somebody who tells you that their health is better, or that they were able to send their kids to school because of that extra $500,000 a month-it’s pretty addicting. For me, wow-to see my son who doesn’t have to go work at bell-to-bell job, but he’s getting to build an international team-that’s pretty cool when you see your 19-year-old son do that.
Yeah. That’s amazing! There are a lot of health-related MLM’s out there. There are different supplement-type MLM’s and ones that have different types of equipment or things. There are ones that are focused around weight-loss. There are ones that are more focused around vitamins. You chose Juice Plus+ because you had this interaction with Jeff Roberti-
Well, there’s a couple reasons. One, I had known the company was the company that created the first in-home smoke detector 45 years ago. For me, contribution is a huge and a very important part of my life-the part of giving back-so we’re very mission-driven. They’re the only contributors to the St. Jude Marathon. They give $8-million a year, and they’re active with the Boys and Girls Club and Volunteers of America so for me, I had to find out what really resonated with me. I knew that fruits and vegetables just made sense. Also, any child age 4-21 gets Juice Plus+ for free when an adult goes on the program so it’s a very abundant-focused, not that other companies aren’t, but I knew the leadership, like I said, with Jeff. I knew that the president of the company had been around. I’ve known him for all those years. I’d seen them. I love the longevity that people had been around with the company. They have hundreds of top-level people, and they’ve been with the company for 25+ years so I like that. That was super important to me. The research-the company has over 36 primary researches on the products specifically so that was really important for me. I needed to see that doctors supported it. I needed to know that the products work. I needed to know that I was going to have the support. For me, that’s why I said “yes.” I knew that Jeff as the top person in the company and Cheryl Cortes as the number one in the world. They were my up-lines so I know I’m going to have the support. I need to know that I can grow it anywhere that I want. I wanted to do make sure that I could travel and get my friends in other countries, if they wanted to do this. You’ve got to find out what really resonates for you. There’s a lot of great companies out there. It depends on what makes your heart sing. I mean, there are great travel companies. There are great financial companies. But what I love is that, they don’t spend any money on advertising. It’s basically from the company straight to the customer. I also love that you didn’t have to be a distributor-that you could just be a customer, and 90% of the people that are on the products are just customers so there was no pressure for some to go, “Oh my God, I have to be a distributor!” The other thing that really drew me to it to this was, I’ve been an independent contractor for 26 years. It was for a health insurance, and it was about $1,800 a month, and this company, we get health insurance for me and my family until my kids are 26 years old so I was like, “I’ll do that. I can add something to integrate this into my life for health insurance,” so that was a big reason why I said “yes.” I grew it quickly, but like I said, I mean, I’m either going to go all in or all out. That’s why I grew to the top position faster than anybody in the world at the time because that’s just how I do it. Trust me, I’m not the best of the best, but I’ll keep growing if I really gave it all of my all. I just know what I can do, but I like that variety too-like writing books, right? Like, being with my family. I also like being able to say “no” to some things. Before, I was always saying “yes” to everything, and I was exhausted. Honestly, Stephan, I was exhausted. Actually, when you were here in Vegas in 2011, I remember seeing you, and I remember just being, at that time, exhausted in my life, but I feel like I had to say “yes” to everything.
Yeah.
And I think, as women, especially, we have this whole guilt factor that we have to say “yes,” and what I’ve realized through this is that, I am enough. That I am worthy. That I do deserve to do well. I do deserve to help my friends do well. I do deserve to work with whomever I really want to work with. Honestly, I feel like I’ve finally become the woman I wanted to be. I also love the fact that everybody’s cheering everybody on. I mean, 70-80% of the bullying and harassment in the marketplace and in the regular workplace is woman-to-woman. I love that in an industry like this, the only way that everybody does well is if you’re helping somebody else. I mean, what an amazing feeling, right?
Yeah.
That’s pretty cool.
Yeah. Well, I remember you saying before we started the podcast recording that the conference you were just at, the agreement with everyone that spoke was, they weren’t going to pitch their products or their companies-
Nope.
That they were part of. In fact, you couldn’t even tell which companies they were associated with so you weren’t mentioning the word “Juice Plus+” anywhere in any presentation.
Right, and if you did, they kick you out of the conference. It was just all about what value can you add.
Yeah.
To serve people. Like I said, you heard that it was about a work ethic. You heard that it was about a hunger. You heard it was about getting your excuses out of the way. You heard it was about being grateful. You heard it was about putting other people’s needs ahead of your own. One of my favorite lines-my favorite line from an amazing woman, Lisa Grossman-she said, “Your job is to get up here as quickly as possible,” meaning, being a speaker at the event. I mean, I had the privilege of opening the conference. Eric and Marina asked me to open the conference. They said, “Your job is to get up here as quickly as possible, but then your job is to get off the stage as quickly as possible so that you can help somebody else get up there.” Wow, I mean, it’s great when you reach the top position, but when you see someone else do it, it’s even better. I’m looking forward to my son, Josua, reach top position and hopefully, be the youngest person ever in history of the company to do that. But even if he doesn’t, I mean, it’s a proud moment when I’m going to see my son standing up there, right?
Yeah. I mean, when you dream, you can achieve, right? If you’re just trying to make ends meet and you’re not seeing a bigger and more compelling future for yourself and for your family, I mean-
Absolutely!
It’s really hard to get anywhere. Let’s take just a few moments to define some of the unique terminology in the multi-level marketing world because we’ve thrown out a few terms like “upline, ” “downline,” and “distributor,” but we didn’t define those, and we should probably define how MLM’s work as well. A lot of times, you benefit not just from selling the product, but getting somebody to sign up as a distributor to sell the product to their network of friends and colleagues and so forth so you’re benefiting from your sales and their sales.
Right.
Let’s kind of define all this terminology and the structure of multi-level marketing.
Okay, first, I just want to be really clear that I don’t know a ton about some of the other companies that are out there of how they do it, we do not get paid with our company on just signings somebody up. Some companies, if they sign somebody up as a distributor, they’re going to get paid a commission from that sign-up fee. Our company is not like that. That’s a really big thing. They want to make sure that people are just products of the pride, but if somebody does want to be a distributor, it’s $50 for somebody to be a distributor. They want to share with other people. Your “upline” is the person-so Jeff Roberti-he is my “upline.” Basically, he sponsored me. He also knew that I needed a female role model so he decided that I’d get him, and he put me with to work hand-in-hand with a lady named Cheryl Cortese. There are lots of companies where they’re called binaries, which are just two lines, and it’s a person-behind-person that sponsors each other. In our business, you can’t sponsor as many people directly as you’d like so if I wanted to put on 200 people that I personally sponsored, that would be fine. We can go, basically, as wide as we want. They always say that, “It’s only time you can tell a woman that she should go wide,” because when you teach someone to go wide, what do they do? They tell people to go wide. What’s beautiful as well is that, I never have anybody join this amazing opportunity unless they’re product of the product so a dear friend of mine came up to me and she said, “I want to be a distributor,” and I was like, “Great, let’s get you signed up to be a product of the products.” She was like, “Oh no, I don’t need to go on the products. I can sell anything,” My belief really is that people need me more than I need them, and I wanted to make sure that people were congruent because it’s all about stories, right? We all have a story that we want to share with people about the results either that we’ve gotten or what the products have done for them. It’s like recommending something. You’re going to go to a restaurant, and if it’s a great restaurant, you’re going to tell everybody about it. It’s, basically, referral marketing. That’s what it is. That’s the most powerful way to share. I mean, I love talking about you as the SEO man, but that’s how it is, right? It’s all about-when we find something that we love, we want to share with everybody. That’s a little bit about why, for me, I needed to make sure that it resonated with me and that I was a product of the product.
It’s all about-when we find something that we love, we want to share it with everybody. Share on X
Yes, so what exactly does it mean for you? Being a product of the product? Does that mean your values and what you’ve created for yourself in your life resonates with the brand promise?
Absolutely!
Okay.
Absolutely! I mean, I have people-and I’m sure you do as well-people come up all the time and ask you if you’ll talk about their product or their services, and I’m like, “I got to make sure that it resonates with me.” I’ve got to stay true to myself, and I’ve got to make sure that I have great results. I mean, for me, what I love about our company is, there’s no contraindications so you can take Juice Plus+ from the womb to the tomb, as they say. We have vertical gardens where people can grow their own fruits and vegetables. I mean, that’s just makes sense to me. That’s what I mean about being a product of the product.
Right. What would be some of the secrets to your success in terms of things we haven’t spoken about? You have this kind of insider knowledge about how to put on a great event, how to motivate and inspire people from your work with Tony Robbins, but what sort of counter-intuitive tips, tricks, or unexpected things that we haven’t already discussed?
I think the thing it would be-one, you never know. You never know who it’s going to help so I always kind of have my snoopy ears up. People love to share what’s going on in their lives so I feel it’s really my responsibility to share this with people. I’ll be somewhere and somebody will be talking about how their kids have been sick all the time, and I’ll start to ask them questions, and then I’ll go, “Well, if you happen to know somebody who loves to inspire a healthy living, would you please send them my way? I’ll be glad to give them some resources that I have available.” I always get people curious. The other thing is, I’m always adding value. I think that the person that adds the most value-people want to come back for them. I mean, look at the value that you’re adding by these awesome podcasts. Maybe opening people up to see the possibilities of things that they never ever thought of, right? I’m always adding value. I love social media. I mean, I made a commitment years ago to Tony and Sage that I would never talk about Juice Plus+ in events, and probably the most proud I’ve ever been is when I see people respond to a video that Josua and I did saying, “Oh my God, I had no idea. She did network marketing!” That, to me, is the highest compliment because I know that I’m doing my job. I get really focused. I do block times of when I focus on my business so I’m consistent with my adding value on social media and really care about people-make them feel important and make them feel part of a community. People hunger for community. Celebrating people with their successes is just so much fun. And staying hungry. I mean, to be able to say “yes” is pretty, pretty great. I remember the time, not that long ago, after I went through my divorce, when I was pawning all my jewelry and eating ramen noodles. I mean, that got me really hungry. I’m like, “Never again!” I remember when I’m just going to have to take my daughter out of school because I had all three of my kids in private school when I was still doing well, but between my books, teaching at Robbins’ events, and all the other little things that I was doing, I was just kind of getting started with Juice Plus+, but I still have more months at the end of the money. It was hard, but that made me put on that song “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger” and that became my ring tone, and I used that to think of the future. To think about who I needed to become to really create what I wanted to create-not just to have more stuff, but to be able to say “yes.” Dr. William Sears, America’s pediatrician, says that the number one disease that comes into his practice are parents that are financially-stressed.
Hmm. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense.
I can recommend all the best things. I can say, “Okay, you need to go get this. You need to do this, and you need to do this…” but unless you have the money to be able to do it, it’s hard, right? To be able to empower people to go however they want-if it’s an extra $100, an extra $500, an extra $1,000, $2,000, $10,000, $20,000, or $30,000. One of my best friends was diagnosed with stage four cancer, and she didn’t have insurance, and to be able to buy her what she needed, to pay for two months’ worth of wheat grass, and to write a check for her GoFundMe account-that felt really good, right? To be able to just pay the money to create 2,500 homeless bags-that feels really good, right?
Yeah.
To be able to buy your mom a home when she’s 80 years old-that feels really good. To be able to send your kid to lacrosse camp or send your kid to a sleepover camp-that feels really good. I think everybody deserves that. I think that we, though sometimes settle for mediocrity just because is-what do they say? “The devil that you know is better than the devil that you don’t,” but we see it happen every day. I’m sure you have friends like this-I have friends who have worked their whole life to create an identity and to create a career. They turn 50 years old, and they’re making $300,000 to $400,000 a year, and the company goes, “You know what? You’re gone. We’re going to hire three kids at 25 years old, and we’re going to give them $100,000 each for what we’re paying you.” I’ve had it happened to at least four of my friends in the past six months-at least.
Yeah.
I think we need to kind of open our eyes of all of the resources that are out there. We talked about that the person who is the most resourceful always wins, and if you’re adding value, if you really actually-excuse my language-give a shit about people, you have to be open to all of the things that are available.
Yeah.
So…
Yeah. You have to open yourself to the world of possibilities, and-
Yup.
I did that in 1999. I decided, “You know what, I’m in the internet industry. I can do this from anywhere. I want to live in New Zealand.” I applied for residency. I got in. I’ve never even been to New Zealand-
Right.
And I applied, and I got in so I’m like, “Okay, let’s do it!” My wife, at the time, and my kids were all on-board, and we did it. That was amazing, and we were there for almost eight years. Most people, when I would tell them I was living in New Zealand, they’ll say, “Wow! That’s incredible. That’s crazy! I mean, I could never do that!” That’s always the response: “I could never do that!”
Right.
Of course, you could do that. You just make choices to be complacent-
Correct.
Or to put yourself in a little box, or to just have reasons, right?
And I think that the thing is, until you get your fears out of the way, or until you just justify why things are going to be the way that they are-I mean, I look at my dad-it was 11 years ago-just this past week that he passed away-and I mean, he was an optometrist for 52 years, and I think we get so locked into our identity with regards to our careers sometimes that we forget who we really are at our core. If I look at, “Who is Loren at her core?” She’s someone who’s always adding value. She’s someone who cares a lot about people. She’s someone who loves building team. She’s someone who loves coaching. She’s someone who kicks in the button and hug you at the same time. She’s someone who committed to being the very best-to walking my talk-and so for me, this was just another opportunity to bring more of me to the table. Does that make sense?
Yup.
And I think that I’m so glad I did. Jeff was very patient with me. He was always very elegant. He never pushed anything on me, but I always see him walking his talk. He was a platinum partner for six years. He’s always investing in personal development, but then he would take that personal development, and he put it to work and grew an amazing business around the world, and it has affected millions and millions of people. I want to do that. I want to be able to reach as many people as I can and not just leave a job-I want to leave a legacy. I think that’s what really allows people to do if they want it. I want to. There’s a book that’s called, The Prayer of Jabez, and the very first line of The Prayer of Jabez is: “God bless me indeed.” That means, we’re here to be happy. We’re here to have a wonderful life. The second line of The Prayer of Jabez is: “…And expand my territory.” That doesn’t mean it’s always going to be easy. I mean, we all know that the growth happens in the tough times. I needed to go through that time of eating ramen noodles and giving myself the leverage to go, “Never again!”
Yeah.
Never again. There is more of me to bring to the table, and could I have done something else? Yeah, but I was like, “Never again.” I mean, when I had to go to my daughter’s school and go, “Look, I can’t afford to pay for this month. Can I trade? Can I this? Can I that?” and they were like, “Nope, nope,” and I’m like, “Screw it! Let’s do it. I’m going to work, and I’m going to really commit,” and I had to say “no” to some things so that I could say “yes” to them later, right? But I think that’s part of creating anything that’s successful. You have to hunker down. You have to hunker down and just really go to work so I think it’s an opportunity to find out what part of you do you really need to work on. Is it your belief in yourself? Is it your belief in what you stand for? Is it belief in how you’re going to leave a legacy for people? I don’t know. I know that this is a great vehicle for me.
Yeah. Well, you got to have a big enough “why,”-
Yeah.
And then you make it happen. You take massive action as Tony says. One of the things that I find really inspiring and awesome about you is, you don’t just have the big vision, but you make it happen-taking those massive actions, and you lay out a road map. You mentioned earlier in the episode that you have a 90-day game plan that you lay out for yourself. Maybe you could walk us through what that looks like-how do you create these roadmaps or blueprints for success and then follow through?
Oh, it’s a great question. First, I want to say, yes, you’ve got to have that vision, and then, as I always like to talk about, you have to apply GOYA. You’ve got to Get Off Your Ass and do something. You can intend and attend all you want, but until you get off your ass and do something, it doesn’t matter. We always talk about starting with the end in mind so if I were to look, I always start with 90 days from now-what have you created? It might be a different position. It might be a certain money income. It might be adding a certain number of customers-adding new distributors with regards to it-so I’m always working in a 90-day game plan type of way, and then I’ll know what are the things that we talk about that are important to do on a weekly basis and on a daily basis, and then I just kind of lay it out from there. If I were to look right now, mine is right over here. If I can get to it, I’ll read you 90-day game plan. It’s a “chunking down” process with regards to it so let’s see-looking at my 90-day game plan-actually, this was one that I did based on just a month ago:My 90-day game plan started with June, so Josh is the youngest NMD in history of NSA so it is. He’s speaking around the world, on the Rack Pat. I know that there’s a conference I need to be out in Australia. A certain number of people that if they’ve reached certain levels, that the UK is rocking, where I see my check, that I can buy my son a car for cash, buy my mom-I don’t know what it is-my mom wants this crazy handbag, and she’d be able to attend the Starkey event. From there, I chunked it down, and how many events that I’ll do a week, that how much in volume, how many videos that I’ll be doing weekly, how many posts I’ll be doing, kind of getting ready for the summer-bikini ready posts that I’ll be doing. Once again, it goes back to what I do on a daily basis, events that I do, goals that I want, people to meet-that 90-day, one really has to do a lot with celebration so that motivates me, right? I know that if I put in the daily activities for the next three months, yet by three months I’m going to be able to do those things for my boys-buy my son a car cash, buy my mom this fancy bag, see Josua as t, e youngest NMD-all of those type of things. Does that make sense?
Yeah, so what is an NMD?
National Marketing Director.
And what does that mean?
It’s the top position-the top leadership position with the company. Every company will have, basically, certain leadership positions, and at that point, that’s when he’ll get the benefits with our company. We get college support. They give you $1850 per year for college. He’s going to get his own health insurance. He’s going to get the extra bonuses. He’ll have reached the-I don’t know if you want to call it status, but as being the top leadership position within the company.
And what is that leadership group called? Wouldn’t you have a name for the group of national marketing directors who collectively decide on different things for the company?
No, but that’s a good idea.
Okay, because I know that there’s a-I forget the name of it, but I know World Ventures has this group-they have a name for it-and they’re all the top earners. I guess they call them IMD’s or International Marketing Directors. Together, that’s a powerful decision-making group within the company.
Right. Well, in Europe, they have IMD’s and PMD’s, but what’s really beautiful as well, what I’ve led is that it’s not just with the richness with this industry-this network marketing industry-is, it’s not about just the people that I’m getting paid on, if you would. Some of my best friends are what we would call, “sidelines,” or people on other people’s organizations, and we we’re here for a common mission, right? We’re here to really inspire healthy living. I mean, the world is in trouble. People are getting sicker. People are getting fatter. People, unfortunately, their bank accounts of-what is it? The average 35-year-old doesn’t even have $3,000 saved? I mean, we need to find solutions for people.
Yeah.
Right, and we need to participate in our own rescue. I mean, I don’t know about you, but I remember 2007. Like I said, I live in Vegas. It was scary. People losing their homes left and right. People losing their jobs left and right. The first year, they were like, “Well, someone’s going to save me,” and then, “The government’s going to save me,” “No, the government didn’t save me.” “Well, someone else is going to save me,” “No, that person didn’t save me,” and then people just finally woke up. I don’t even know when they woke up. I wouldn’t say until 2010-2011 that people are like, “Dang! I guess I better figure it out, and I guess I better go to work. Gosh, the person who’s going to save me is me!” I think that we have to really wake up. We have to see all these great possibilities. I look at my son, Quinn, who I’m extremely inspired by, and you probably know a lot about Quinn. Quinn is 15-years-old. He started with Vine videos, and he has 1.8 million followers on Instagram. I mean, he participates in his own rescue. He’s got that entrepreneur spirit. It’s our responsibility as parents to teach our kids to be entrepreneurs. I just wrote a chapter for a book, and I’d say-someone’s asking about why I chose to do this, and I was like, “I think I’ve always had that entrepreneur spirit.” From the time I was nine-years-old, my brother and I made leather belts at the flea market, and we have to be down there at 6 A.M. to get our spot. We worked all day from early in the morning until five o’clock at night down at the drive-in movie theater, making and painting these leather belts so that gave me the confidence to know that I could do it. I think as parents-or aunts or uncles or whoever that we are- it’s our responsibility to teach that to our kids. That they can participate in their own rescue as well, and they love it-they’re proud of themselves.
Yeah. So, where the rubber meets the road is where you take the 90-day plan and turn that into the actions for the week, and then you follow through and do the actions.
Yeah, and daily too. What are your non-negotiables? We talk a lot about-we keep telling him, and one of my favorite things that he says is, “What are your non-negotiables?” For my business, there are certain things that are absolutely non-negotiables every single day, and then that becomes just part of my identity, and for me not to do them is harder than for me to do them, right?
Yeah.
It’s kind of like when you start to workout. After a while-after you’ve been working out for a while, to not go workout is harder than working out, right?
Right.
Whereas, in the beginning, it was harder to work out.
Yeah. That totally resonates with me. I do a thing in the morning where I plan out the day, and I figure out what are my three absolutes so, essentially, that’s the non-negotiables. I learn that from Mike Vardy, who I had on at my other podcast show, Get Yourself Optimized, and we talked about productivity tips and hacks-great episode, by the way, for you, listeners-Mike Vardy on Get Yourself Optimized, but the non-negotiables-that’s a great point there. Let’s say that one of those things that you’re going to accomplish for the day is home meeting or a meeting outside-where you’re going to bring people into some sort of event center or conference center, and you’re going to teach them something so you probably have to have with the kind of scale that you’ve reached where you’re making a lot of money-some number of meetings per week-not just once a week.
We do a lot-once again, maximizing resources. We love Zoom. We love Zoom calls. I mean, you can get 200 people on a Zoom call, and you get all those excuses out of the way where someone says, “I can’t go to that meeting.” “All right, okay, can you jump on a call for 30 minutes?” “Well, the baby’s crying,” “That’s okay, you don’t have to put your mic on. You can turn the video off. You can just jump on the call.” We kind of get all the excuses out of the way for people so we’ve got Zoom calls happening all the time. Another great resource is-because, I think, there’s a lot of family people, we make it fun, right? So, we’ll have fun like salad-in-a-jar parties, or wine and wellness, or bourbon, burgers, and business for the guys. Just making it really fun opportunity. I mean, my office is at the Coffee Bean. I meet everybody there. I like the one-on-ones. I think that it’s fun so any opportunity I can have a one-on-one with people, but I do use Zoom a lot just because I can reach so many people around the world. I’m up early, and I stay up late. I do have my husband, he’s like, “Look, from 7 to 11, you’re with me. That’s it. Computer, phone-all that’s off,” so what’s great about that is, people know that my time is-if they want to go to work, they know that there’s only certain times they can call me too so there’s a little bit of urgency there for them as well.
Yeah, and you’ve set some really nice boundaries. That’s great.
I do set boundaries, and then people don’t feel like, “Oh my gosh, my life’s going to suffer by doing this.” I mean, I gave everybody my schedule for the week. My son’s got lacrosse games, I need to be there. Those are non-negotiables for me as well, but there were times where I said to my kids, “Look, I need to hunker down. I’m going to be gone for two weeks. I need you to support me on this,” and it got fun for them as well. I guess they knew the payoff was going to be good for them too so it became a family activity, and that’s why I think I got Josua excited about wanting to do it-not just with me. He met his girlfriend through this opportunity, and they are in different organizations, but they still support each other, create together, and create campaigns. Josua has a whole identity for himself. I never knew that my son, after teaching Life Mastery for so many years, which is all about making sure the people poop, and in his hashtag, it’s “Let Josh help you poop,” and his customers send in photos of, “Josh helped me poop!” He loves it, and this whole thing is about, if I can help my generation-these young kids-create a better lifestyle, then I’ve done good. Now, he’s inspired. You just never know the processional effect of who you’re going to help.
Yeah.
You just don’t. You have no idea. I have so many people who come up and they go, “Thank you,” and I’m like, “For what?” and they go, “For saying yes.” What if-my whole thing, I have a video on YouTube, it’s called “What If?” What if I hadn’t opened my mouth and called my friend who had lupus? What if I hadn’t called my friend whose daughter had an open-heart surgery? What if I hadn’t called my friend whose daughter had spinal muscular atrophy? What if I hadn’t called my friend who I didn’t know that she was going through financial challenges? What if? You just never know. It might all look like a bed of roses on the outside, but you don’t know what goes on behind those doors.
Because Facebook’s not an accurate indicator of what their lives are really like.
No. Even now, as we’re here talking, my cleaning lady, I asked her if she knew someone who could come twice a week and she said, “My sister,” and I was like, “Oh gosh, do I really need to spend more money for someone to come every couple days a week to pick up my kids’ stuff and do the laundry?” I’m like, “Actually, yes,” because I need to be able to focus on my gifts, right? The lady came over, and when her daughter didn’t have school one day and Ashley didn’t have school, I go, “Oh, bring your daughter over.” Little did I know that her eight-year-old daughter had survived one of the most deadly cancers ever so I was able to get her daughter on even healthier and build a strong immune system, and I’m able to provide extra finances for this woman. That feels freaking good! I’ll work a little bit harder so that I can continue to have her working with me so that she can do great things for her daughter. I say, get yourself out of the way. Forget about you and think about who you can help. Think about who you can serve. Think about whose life is going to be better because you got out of the “I’m-too-cool” syndrome. That’s what motivates me every day to get up and go to work.
Yeah, because you’re helping people, and then just as a by-product, you are selling products. You’re getting people into your downline as just a by-product. It’s not your focus-
Right.
You’re out there helping people, and you’re sharing information with them that has nothing to do with your product and your company. You’ve learned amazing things from Tony and from doing the Life Mastery program, and you’re giving them tips on, I don’t know, maybe coconut oil could right help them in some way.
Right.
…and make any money off that.
Right. I’m just adding value. As long as I continue to add value-I don’t think people know who I am. They know that I’m there to add value to their lives. I’m not there to be a taker. I’m there because I actually give a shit about them.
Yeah.
They can join or they could not join.
Yeah.
I don’t really care. I hate to say it that way. It’s their business. I had a girl come up to me and she goes, “Oh my God, Loren, I’m so sorry I let you down,” and I go, “You didn’t let me down. This is your business. I’m still moving forward-with or without you. Love you, and you keep hanging around the flagpole, that’s all great,” I go, “But this is your opportunity to create this for yourself.” I’m a resource for you-how are you really showing up for yourself? Are you showing up at the level that you know you can show up for? That’s what I have people look at.
Yeah.
And I said, I hate to admit this, I don’t like using foul language, but I said, “Let me tell you my love strategy. It’s not ‘I love you, Loren. You’re so great and you’re so amazing. Oh my God, you’re so amazing and you’re awesome,’ my love strategy is ‘FU, Loren, I’ll show you!’” That’s my love strategy. Show me that you want an extraordinary life. Show me that you want to make a difference in people’s lives. Go out there, do the do, get in line, stay in line, and get your excuses out of the way. All excuses are equal. We can all find reasons why we can’t do certain things. I did not want to have regret because my crap was in the way. I can’t, with a conscious heart, “You know what, Loren, you did the right thing.” As I walk out my house every day, there’s a sign on the mirror and it says: “Do the right thing every doggone day of your life,” and when you’re doing the right thing, you’re doing good business, right?
Yes.
When you just do the right thing-if you’re saying, “Is this the right thing?” and if your answer is, “Yes,” then go for it. There’s a thing in Kabbalah that says: “You’re either adding light to the world or adding darkness to the world,” so every time that you have an interaction, go, “Am I adding light to the world or am I adding darkness to the world?” and see which shows up more. Hopefully, it’s all light.
Yeah.
I believe that we’re here to add more light to the world. Whether that be through your business, whether that be as a parent, whether that be as a spouse-I don’t know. Or, just a great citizen. Just add light. People need us now. The world is in pain, and we’ve got to be the solution for these people.
I love it, and what a great way to end this episode-on such a spiritual bend because Kabbalah, for one thing, really resonates for me. I love Kabbalah. I’ve taken Kabbalah 1, Kabbalah 2, and we’re halfway through Kabbalah 3.
Very cool!
It’s a 10-week long, one-hour a week classes so we’re at the Kabbalah center in LA.
Awesome!
Yeah, so you really are a beacon of light. You’re adding value for so many people, and you don’t even have any clue how many people you’ve touched. People who have read your book or one of your books, and they made a shift, and you saved their lives, and you’ll never know. That’s just who you are.
Thank you.
Let’s wrap up this episode with: How can somebody who’s listening contact you if they wanted to learn more about Juice Plus+, about MLM or network marketing, about, maybe, partnering with you in some way so do you have a Twitter handle you want to direct them to or a website or email address?
Honestly, the best thing to do is just to email me, which is [email protected]. That’s the best thing. I like to get to know people. I want to make sure that if I can answer any questions or direct you to some resources, I’d be glad to do so. I like to be known as the “ultimate connector,” and wherever it is, if it’s just wanting to know all about the world of network marketing, I’d be glad to give you some resources that way, or if you want a partner, or you want to know about other companies that are great, I’d be glad to support you, anyway.
That’s awesome!
Thank you so much, Stephan. I really appreciate it. I’m going to go pick up my little Instagram king right now.
All right, and then also for listeners, Loren has a website: LorenSlocum.com. All right, guys, catch you next time! This is your host, Stephan Spencer, signing off.
Important Links:
Your Checklist of Actions to Take
☑ Don’t be a taker, show people that you truly care and want to help them, and you’ll find more success.
If you get into network marketing, you will build a client base and team faster by adding value.
☑ Network marketing is an opportunity to create the life that you want for yourself. Look at how you are
showing up for yourself-are your goals and daily actions truly aligned?
☑ Loren loves to get to know people, help others, and can answer any questions that you have.
☑ Email her at [email protected] to connect or get some incredible resources from her.
☑ Get your excuses out of the way. We can all find reasons why we can’t do certain things, but if you
want something in life, you have to push past your excuses and just get it done.
☑ Your upline-or sponsor-will move on with or without you. When you quit on your goals, you are only
letting yourself down, and they can’t help you if you don’t ask. Use them as a mentor to guide you
to success!
☑ Decide on your “why”. Being an entrepreneur of any kind is difficult, and if you don’t have a reason to
succeed, you are more likely to give up. Remember your why every day, and work hard!
☑ Research the different types of network marketing companies available to find the right fit. If you don’t connect with the brand and their mission, you will have a hard time promoting it.
☑ Use Zoom to connect with your team. As a network marketer, an important part of your job is being a
leader, and you can teach your team all at once on a weekly call.
☑ What are your non-negotiables? Once you’ve set your goals, make a list of the things that you have to
do every single day to achieve them. Get in the habit of committing to those tasks.
☑ Social media will get you noticed and allow you to grow a nationwide client base and team. Stay on
top of your social pages and connect with new people daily!
About Loren Slocum Lahav
Loren Slocum Lahav is the CEO and founder of True Consulting Company, and the founder, CEO, and president of LoBella International. She’s the author of Life Tuneups, The Greatest Love, and co-author of Chicken Soup for the Soul: Time to Thrive. Her new book is called, The Courage to Raise a Gentleman. She has built an empire with multi-level marketing.
Leave a Reply