The Networker Zone

How network marketing events grow your business, real life stories

• Keith Schreiter • Episode 232

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SPEAKER_00

You enternetworkers.com, the ultimate podcast for networkers and direct sales, network marketing, MLM, or any sales side of. You'll learn the skills for the how-to and the mindset to make it work. From the author of over 20 best-selling books and over 25 years in the business, here's your host, Pete Strider.

SPEAKER_01

There's an old saying in network marketing, decisions are made at events. And of course, habit number three of the three easy habits is promoting events. I've covered the basics in episode number 23, and of course I'll link to that episode, but I wanted to share a recent podcast that I was featured on where we take a deep dive in the magic of events. There are, of course, several stories from my 30 plus years of experience in the industry, and I had an amazing time being interviewed from Andrew King, who is the host of a brand new podcast called MLM Growth Podcast. If you recognize his name, I interviewed him on episode number 206 early this year, and of course I'll drop a link in the notes as well. Also, make sure to check out his podcast, MLM Growth Podcast. I'll put a link in the notes. Let's get into this week's interview episode.

SPEAKER_04

You're listening to the MLM Growth Pod, the show where top leaders share their stories, their lessons, and the secrets to building a lasting business in network marketing. Hosted by me, Andrew King, guiding you through real conversations, proven strategies, and powerful ideas to help you grow. This is the MLM Growth Pod. Let's get started. And good day to you all. So, this episode of uh MLM Growth Pod, uh, we're talking about events, events that build belief. So you can't build belief in a vacuum. Zoom calls are great, books are amazing, but nothing compares to being a room full of people who are actually doing it. Events are where belief gets borrowed, stories stick, and where leaders are born. And our guest this week, uh someone who I met about a year ago, uh, who's a superstar of our profession. Uh, he hosts my favorite pod, uh, The Network is own, and he's co-host of Big Owl's Masterclass and author of more than 27, 20 best-selling books, and I've got them all. Uh, so without further delay, I'm really chuffed to welcome Keith Schreiter.

SPEAKER_01

Hello, hello. How are you doing, man? Terrific, terrific. Always great to talk about the industry, have some fun, hopefully change a couple of lives, if not hundreds of lives, and let's hey take take what you can get.

SPEAKER_04

I think that's one of the really cool things about this profession, actually, is the is the uh the desire and openness to support other people, irrespective of whether they're in your team or your network. Um really struck me. So uh Keith, tell us a little bit about how you got into MLM.

SPEAKER_01

Well, I was actually born into the industry, so that's probably not a lot of people can probably uh you know resonate with that. Um you didn't have a choice. No, well, well, that was one thing is I actually did have a choice, uh, which is actually the best thing to do uh for anybody. So born in the industry, so I kind of know that things are possible, not just in traditional career paths. Sure. Um, you know, things were very traditional back, you know, 60s, 70s, 80s. It was easy, you know, get an education, get a job, retire in 40 years, get a watch, you're good to go. As we know now, things change. Everything's extremely different, and there's so much more opportunity than even when I got started because you know, the internet and phones and everything else like that. But yeah, I was born in the industry, so I kind of knew that things are possible, and that's kind of the biggest mind shift, mindset shift that people need to figure out is there are other things out there, you're not just stuck on one path, or you can supplement what you're already doing, or you can change altogether, you can do whatever you want in life. It's just amazing how many opportunities are out there, and it's just it's so great to be involved in an industry that does it. But uh yeah, so when I originally wanted to start building, this was 30 years ago, so there you go. I made the decision, but I was not successful right away. You figured, like, born in the industry, how hard could it be? Well, it was actually a lot more difficult than I thought it was. But and I'll give you I'll give you the the best nugget at the very beginning, so you get some information, so you just get some value right away.

SPEAKER_04

All you have to do the course right after that, right?

unknown

Exactly.

SPEAKER_01

Hopefully you get more value. But the first one is all you have to do is do the right things consistently, and that's it. That's in anything in in life, whether you're learning any uh skill, hobby, profession, just got to do the right things consistently, and that's really hard to do. I get it, because some people will say no, or we get distracted, or we we run out of time, or uh you know, just life throws us curve balls and stumbling blocks and everything else like that. But if you just continue to do the right things consistently, you're gonna be successful in anything. The hardest part is what is the right thing and can I be and how can I be consistent? And once you do that, you are golden. So yeah. Hopefully that was a uh a weird way of answering your question, but it's not a weird way. So it's simple.

SPEAKER_04

Was there was there any extra pressure on you? And this would have come from you, not anyone else. Was there any extra pressure on you to be good at this given who your father is?

SPEAKER_01

Oh, absolutely. To myself, yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, and uh he is introverted, and so am I. So we're both you know green personalities. Yeah, but we like the results. So the results, if we do the right things consistently, we like the results of, and that's what gets us exciting. We like the results of if we do this, good things will happen. We could leverage our time, we can leverage our efforts, we can not have to uh stress out all the time and have to work all the time. We could do things once the right way and continually get paid, just like you know, movie stars and rock stars and everything else like that. But yeah, the pressure is all me. And I think everybody falls into that trap. People are so worried. There's so much content out there about imposter syndrome for everybody. And guess what? As long as your heart's in the right place, it doesn't matter how good or bad you are, as long as your heart's in the right place and you're you're doing things for good, not bad, you're golden. You're good to go. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_04

Cool, nice one. So um our main topic here is about uh events. And before we get into a deeper dive about events, I just got a few questions for you. So you would have been encouraged, I'm pretty sure, from your outset uh in in this profession, um, to to attend events. So so tell us about the first event uh that you went to and what it was like for you. Oh, I don't know if you wanted to know about the first one. They're often the funniest.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Well, let me kind of give you the first couple ones, I guess, then kind of explain why I'm kind of laughing at myself here. Yeah, the first one I went to, I live in Houston, Texas. Uh it's if you know Galveston, Texas, it's you know, it's it's right there. And the first kind of like regional quarterly, what they used to call them events was in Dallas. So it's four hours, you know, door to door. And so the first person I sponsor was my best friend. Okay, okay, great. Let's go to the event in Dallas. That's what they say said to do. You know, we'd get an audio cassette in the mail with training, and you know, you pay 25 cents per minute for conference calls, you know, go to the event. Okay, no problem. We go to the event, get totally jazzed up because how could you not get jazzed up in events? You got to remember this was back in the 90s, so we didn't have YouTube, we didn't have uh other stuff, we just had audio cassette tapes, conference calls, and then when you go to an event, it's like it comes alive. And they're like, Okay, every 90 days in three months, we're gonna have the next event. So, you know, they put it on the calendar, you register right away, and we're like, oh man, we're gonna kill it. I mean, this is gonna be amazing. And 90 days later, at the event, we had a total of zero people with us, so which was kind of weird, but uh we're like, okay, you know, we got distracted, of course, we weren't doing the right things consistently enough. That's just how it was. And then 90 days later, we still had zero, but we just kept plugging away. And eventually something sticks. And eventually you kind of put the the thing out there, like, you know, I'm gonna attend the event, not just to attend the event, I'm gonna go to the attend event to learn the specific skill, to meet a type of person that's just like me, or that that they have the results of the activity that or in the activities that I want to do. Like, okay, this person's a uh a master recruiter, this person's a master retailer. And you start putting those things out there into your subconscious mind, then you get better results. So we kept plugging away. And the weirdest thing was in uh exactly it was a little bit over a year, that I remember being on a conference call, and of course we had it, we had started to build the team and everything. I said, anybody that goes to the Chicago event, I will pay for a lunch because they always have on Saturday. We can always have like a two and a half hour lunch. And I set it up at the Hyatt in Rosemont, Illinois, right by the O'Hare Airport. And yeah, I called them ahead of time. I said, you know, it's probably gonna be about a dozen people. You know, what you know, what am I looking at? They're like, oh, you know, our entrees back then it was a lot of money, you know, $10 to $12 for lunch. I was like, oh, not a problem. 10. I'm at $100, $150. Okay, tax tip, whatever. Well, over 60, I believe it was 65 people showed up. Again, you know, there's no email list, it's just conversation. 65 people showed up, and uh finally I get the list. I I go to, I'm like, okay, there's gonna be a lot more people. Okay, we have this room for you. We're not gonna charge you for the room, just pay for the event or pay for the the food. And I'm like, okay, 65 people times okay, $10, $12. Okay, it's under a thousand dollars. Well, what I didn't find out is that, well, then people start ordering beverages, whether it's soda, iced tea. Some people ordered alcohol for lunch, whatever, uh, dessert. So the bill comes out, it's like $2,300. Cool. I'm sweating. I'm like, well, you know, what's my credit card limit? Like, I don't buy, you know, I'm cheap. I uh yeah, luckily it went through. Um, I don't think my limit was that high, but you know, hey, it was swiped, so it's a legit charge. Uh, I did have some upline members that showed up and um, you know, gave their five minutes, and that that made me feel really good. Uh, but yeah, the the it was a sticker shock. But from there on, like everything exploded because number one, people felt connected, people saw other people that were just like them. Or, like, oh wait, that person can do this business and they're they're making that amount of money, or they're that pin level, and they're not as outgoing, they're not as talented, they're not a people person, they're completely socially awkward and they're making it work. Like people just started bonding and like you know, conference calls were getting bigger and bigger. Um, and that's really what would launched and just uh exploded from there because people just felt connected. And that's the one thing, like if you don't have to spend a lot of money, you just have to make people feel included, and that's of course the right thing to do. So it doesn't have to be a lunch, it could be hey, we're all gonna go to this coffee shop for at one of the breaks. We're all going to go, um, you know, even if you have a just a small group, you know, the you rent a suite. Well, you can rent a suite and get some food catered in a lot cheaper than go off to dinner. People feel excited to be in a suite uh for a hotel. There's so many things you can do, but the big thing is just have gatherings. I mean, I've done gatherings where we've rented out uh where it's uh it's a bowling alley, and you can rent out like a pool table and like a whole room. Not a lot of money. And it makes a huge difference in this business. Um, so yeah, you can do a $2,000 lunch, but you don't have to. You can do just anything to make people feel included, and that's what's going to explode your business. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_04

Because we can describe an event in many ways, right? You know, it it doesn't have to be this large kind of semi-corporate uh type thing with thousands of people. An event could be just as you're describing there, you've invited 20 of your team to a thing, um, you know, to get them to help build belief, to talk to other people, uh perhaps hear something different from someone that resonates better with them than what they might hear from you, all that kind of stuff. So um your answer actually answered my next question, which what surprised m surprises you most about these things, and yours was you've got a massive bill. Uh and of all of the events that you've attended, if there was a single moment that stuck with you, which was kind of like a Eureka thing, what what would that be, do you think?

SPEAKER_01

Oh, that's a lot. Um, that's a lot of a lot of options. Well, should we go with uh money or mindset or you know, uh limited down? Throw something like that.

SPEAKER_04

Let's go mindset. Let's because I think because I think this business is mindset.

SPEAKER_01

Okay. All right, well, well, yeah, here's another one. Um, I remember being in an event, and I remember exactly third row to the left of the stage. It was recognition time. And my thing at that time was like, well, you know, I'm at this level. It was called three-star. Like, I don't know, it was maybe it was a military term. I don't know. When you look back, you're like, what were we thinking here? But it was it was you know, three-star. And you know, my thing was, well, yeah, I'm just I'm young, and everybody that's four-star is older than me. And of course, guess what happens? Uh a guy named Joe is up there on stage as four-star. He is just a little bit younger than me, but close enough. I mean, so he's younger, not even older than me, and he's more successful than me. He's making more money than me. He has uh a better stage presence. So, you know, my excuse goes out the window. And there's so many of those that, and of course, I propelled from there. We just have these limiting mindset blocks. I don't know where it originated. Well, it does originate from survival programming, but as long as we continue to learn, whether it's books, audios, zooms, uh, everything, and events just it events just so much easier because it's it's four-dimensional, right? I mean, it's you're you're there with people uh shaking hands, and you're we're not on our phones. We're actually you know tuned into life, and we're tuned into the speakers, and you know, we're setting intentions on what to learn. It just explodes uh from there. But you don't have to go to events now that you're probably thinking, oh great, there goes my uh there goes my podcast. And I and absolutely I mean you don't have to go to events. You could you could build a business with um you know a podcast and YouTube. If you go to events, it's just gonna build a lot faster.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_01

Because I get it. There is some monetary uh time and money involved, but it's going to build a lot faster. For example, you live in the UK, I live in the US. If I said, okay, Andrew, let's go out to lunch, I'll be there in about five days. And you go, okay, well, maybe he wants to not get a last-minute ticket, it's a little bit better pricing, uh, etc. And I go, well, what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna buy a boat for about uh $30, like a canoe, and I'm gonna row. Oh, I guess I gotta buy a paddle, so it's $35. So I'm just gonna row there, right? It's is it possible? Probably not. In my mind, it's possible. Oh, really? It's just gonna it's gonna take more than five days. I'm probably gonna get hurt, I'm probably gonna get dehydrated, I'm probably gonna get um lost at sea, uh, I'm probably gonna lose self-service. Like, it's not gonna be a good idea. So if I just spend a little bit of money on a flight, or a little bit of money, uh I you can still go by boat, I believe. Like, do that. That's what events are. It's just costs a little bit, but it's so much faster. It's so much easier, it's so much less stressful, it's so much less friction. Um, yes, it is an investment, but everything's an investment. Food just for us to survive is an investment, right? It's just how it is. I'm probably not allowed to use the term investment, but we have to invest in ourselves, absolutely.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, yeah, for sure. I mean, um you're absolutely right. People don't have to go to events, right? And I and in this type of uh profession, we're we're trying to build, in effect, volunteer armies, right? So we're not we're not people's managers, uh, we're just uh uh upline, you know, uh kind of trying to provide leadership and information, that type of stuff. Um but events do make a tremendous difference. Because events give people something that they just can't get in a in a brochure or a pod in a Zoom call, because you don't get the energy that that comes uh from within the room, you know, and you've got the opportunity to listen to dozens of different success stories, not just the usual one that we as a leader might give or other members of our team. They get to hear other teams and other businesses talk about their success. Um, sometimes when we go to events, you should get someone new, they possibly don't have the belief in the business that they need in order to get themselves going. Uh, so you can go and borrow someone else's belief, right? Uh uh, you know, and you can get the well, that person's just as ordinary as I am, and they're able to do it, so perhaps I can. There's the the there's the atmosphere that that you get, you know, some of the happy clappy stuff I'm perhaps a little less comfortable with because it's not quite my seeing, but I see it as valuable. Um, but also we have recognition aspects of uh of our industry, and I think recognition is so important and is so overlooked in the corporate space. Um, but you get that sense of community. And another thing that I guess we can get is that where we suddenly realize that we're part of something that's much bigger, something much bigger than ourselves, um, which is crucial in terms of that taking a step forward. So uh Keith, is there a particular story at an event that really hit you where you thought, wow, that person, that could be me. I I could do that, you know, if you perhaps had less belief.

SPEAKER_01

Well, yes, being a more introverted green personality, uh kind of go back up to the to the the clapping and and and the rah-rah stuff. Uh yeah, I'm not that kind of guy, but sometimes I you still feel the energy of the of the blue personalities going crazy. So that's always that's always interesting. So yeah, the majority of the people that go on stage are are more outgoing, right? Because they just talk to more people. Their chances are they they have a a bigger network or uh more influence and and things like that. But there's so many times uh I'll think of one when you see somebody on stage that is at the the top pin level or a top uh 50 distributor or you know someone that massive success monetarily, I should say, and you realize that they're so uncomfortable on the stage, you know they don't want to be there, you know they're they're sweating from every four on their body, you know they just they're counting down the seconds, and hopefully the the uh the person that's interviewing will not ask them one more question, like they're so uncomfortable, and you're like, Wow, I'm uncomfortable, but I will never be that uncomfortable, yeah. Um, and and you just realize like you can see them pacing, you can see them, you know, clenching their fists and everything else like that. And you're like, How in the world did this person build a business? And you realize as much as they're introverted, they just had a bigger reason to build. Right. They just they just said, you know what, I I need this for whatever reason it is. You just you never know, you know, you never know what people are going through. Um you know, in my podcast, I just interviewed a lady that was, you know, super successful, um, you know, had the big cars, had the big house, had the big corporate space, you know, was working, she said 60 hours a week. Like, and then you realize in and from an outside, you're like, wow, that person has it all. But inside, they're they're hurting, right? Yeah. So you just you just look at people and you're like, you just never know what what people are going through with prospects. You never know what they want, you never know if the timing is right, but you realize like I can do this. Like, if if they can do this, and it's all that success and they're still uncomfortable, like yeah, uh I'm okay. Life will go. I I can build, I can do this.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, yeah. They can, so I can. Yeah. So we quite often see people join uh our team. Who are resistant to attending events, you know. And there are all sorts of reasons why people don't come. There's cost. It could be they're too busy, their time, uh, or they're skeptical, right? They haven't quite got the belief that they need to do. We know that we need to get them there because it would be because it changes a lot of um uh people when when they go to an event. You know, I went to Mastermind last year um for the first time in Sophia. Um, and that was career, that was this profession career changing for me. So I had some real kind of light bulb moments and completely changed my thinking, you know, listening to the likes of um your dad, Big Al and Jordan Adler, for example, Dana Collins, you know, they really did hit home with some really strong messaging to me that's like, okay, I need to change what I do. And I guess when we're talking to our teams, um, you know, we frame it as an investment often. Um, you know, and we know historically that people that attend events build their teams quicker and more successfully than people that don't. So we'd carefully position that as an investment, not an optional extra. You know, this is something that you can and we understand that life gets in the way sometimes and there'll be a family thing that means you can't go. So no, they're not compulsory, but they're really are vital. If cost is an issue, perhaps help people in terms of car sharing, uh, you know, room sharing, um, attending virtually if possible, all right, you lose a bit of the the atmosphere stuff. Um, but I guess uh positioning it in the spirit of, but being careful with our terminology, but in the spirit of if you're serious about growing this as a business, you really need to get here. All right. So uh, Keith, what would be your approach to encourage someone to an event if they're sat on the fence?

SPEAKER_01

It depends on their personality, and you don't have to study the personalities. Uh, you just have to figure out like what's a really hot button? And how did you find out their hot button? You you ask them. It's pretty simple. You know, you know, uh, you could ask, you know, kind of a level one, you know, why are you building this business? It could be a little confrontational. Uh, or you know, hey, when you get your next $500 a month, what do you plan on doing with it? And then it gets them thinking. It's an open-ended question, it gets their mind moving uh versus a you know, yes, no, right, wrong uh things like that. So just by asking questions, sometimes you can clarify. So, well, you know, when you get your next thousand dollars per month in income, what do you plan on doing with it? Oh, you know what? I always wanted to go travel here, or I always wanted to just not have this lingering debt that one more debt that I need to pay off. Or, you know, I always like that then it becomes emotional, becomes experience versus dollars and cents. And then it just kind of becomes uh a clarifying, like, you know, uh, when would be a good time for you to do this? You know, is now a good time for you to build a business. Because sometimes it isn't, and most of the time it is, they just haven't really thought about it or it's not fresh in their mind. And a lot of times you just never know until you ask, because we assume a lot of times when we first get involved, we assume people want the exact same things that we do we want, and as we know, it is not uh the same. In fact, the things that I wanted in my 20s are completely different than my 30s and 40s and now 50, like it's totally different. So we just have to kind of ask hey, when when you get your next $500, you get your next uh 1,000 pounds, whatever. You know, what do you plan on doing? And just by gauging in conversation, it becomes a lot easier. And then, oh yeah, by the way, uh just want to let you know at the event we're going to have a couple of social gatherings where we're gonna do a deep dive in the comp plan. Like you figure out like, are they agreeing personality, the more social personality? Or you know, we really wanted to focus more on helping the specific demographic that they like, but specific demographic, like they they may have been a uh a single parent uh back you know 10 years ago. They want to help other single parents. Okay, we're we're gonna focus on that. And that's you gotta be truthful too. Like you want to focus on that, but you want to focus on those different things. So it could be on the helping, or it could be a very red direct personality, like, hey, if you know what top leaders go to the event, are you gonna be there? Right? So you never know. But the big thing is ask, engage people in questions, absolutely.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, yeah. So having had my uh epiphany, I guess, in uh Sophia last year, and you know, I picked up stuff, particularly from our Jonak and Jordan Adler, about accepting that the vast majority of people that you bring into your team aren't going to do anything, and then stop stop trying to encourage them to go and letting go. So um, I've become much better at building my team. But one thing that I've not yet mastered is making sure I get my team to events. So I do communicate with them uh on a weekly basis, all the events that we've got. I encourage them to support them, I explain to them why they're important, I speak to them one-to-one, but I've still not managed to translate that into a higher amount of my team members uh coming to events. So I'm gonna be really interested in your answer to the next question. So um attending myself grows my belief, right? But if I were able to get more of my people, one, it would grow their belief, but also builds my team momentum. So whilst I can get um fired up myself and motivated, because my team's not been to that event, they've remained unmotivated and less inspired. Um, and I guess with a team, we're trying to duplicate um belief. Uh so I don't have to be continuously doing a sales job uh with with my team members. And I guess the shared experiences that we have together helps bond um our group. So my question to you is do you remember the first time you brought a group with you and how did that change the game?

SPEAKER_01

The I guess the biggest group, meaning more than just me and my friend, you know, would be the would be the Chicago uh event, uh, which was great. And and we we I guess I've kind of uh mentioned that one as well, but there was another one where I remember walking in and there was literally 800 people. And I look back and I go, what in the world did I do? Like, what did I do to to deserve this? Because it was you know, it was 95% my team. So and you want to talk about being nervous as an introvert. That was one of those things, and I I I I kept thinking about it. I couldn't sleep, you know, there was a I traveled to it, it was a it was in the UK, it was a time change thing, everything. Like I just was like, what in the world is happening? And I I just remember going back and going, what what was it that made the biggest difference? And there's a lot of things, but I think the biggest thing was just bonding with the leaders. So, in other words, uh, you know, the events leading up to that one, you know, I would take them individually uh out to eat when they'd go to other events. I would, you know, send them postcards every time I would travel somewhere. And let me tell you how lazy I was. I would actually print out labels, like I won't even handwrite the address. Um, I would handwrite the note, but that's not lazy. That's working smart. Yeah, exactly. My handwriting's really not that good. But you you then you would go to their house and it's like they would have a postcard up there from from previous. Like, I'm up there with the kids' horrible crayon drawings, you know, is my postcard with a label on it. Uh I joke about the the crayon drawings because that's just a big thing uh here is having you know junk on the fridge, uh magnetic fridge. But it's just those small things of just bonding with people. And yes, some leaders quit, which is the weirdest thing to me. Like, we'll like quit the business, like deactivate. I don't understand it. You know, leave money on the table. But the ones that stick just they make a massive difference in your business. In other words, if you're working hourly at a job or even some salary at a job, like in order for you to continue to get paid, you got to continue to work. So instead, once you just build a leader, and yes, some leaders will quit, but the ones that stay will continue to pay you every single week or every single month or every single year, however you want to look at it. And that's just huge. And all you have to do is, you know, engage them in conversation, take them out to uh to dinner, spend personal time, get to know the reason why they're building this business. Not so you can turn it against them, but just to figure out like, okay, this is where you come from. Now I see your reason. Okay, this is this gets me excited to work with you. Um, so yeah, a lot, yeah. I just remember walking in, you know, with 800 people and just going, What did I do?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

And then you start realizing when with during recognition, they would they would talk about the personal time, they would talk about when we went off today, we talk about when we went to you know, uh the ballet, to the hockey game, to the the soccer game, all the cool things that we do with the leaders. That's uh what they would um remember. And then it's it's that personal touch. Like I back when massage chairs first came out that were really popular, I guess early 2000s. Every time a leader would uh get a certain level, I'd buy him a massage chair. Like, talk about a conversation piece, talk about an experience, talk about you know, a thousand dollars that went a long way. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That is the thing to do because people just love massage chairs and people come over, like, oh I th I guess I guess they're more popular now, but it just became a conversation piece, like yeah, and every time they saw it, they thought about me. Well, not in a weird way, but you know, they just thought I've got a cool leader.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, what what they do with a door closed is up to them, right?

SPEAKER_03

Brilliant, brilliant.

SPEAKER_04

So I'm gonna talk about a time where something completely shifted um our business. So this happened to me, as I said. I know I've said a couple of times already in this chat, but um you know I know that there are people in my wider teams, so they're not in my downline, but across uh from me, that I know that there's some girls uh in that team, both uh well, two in particular, who were on the verge of quitting this business. And then via chat with their upline, who you know, uh Claire, Claire Hangot, um, she managed to get them to an event. And both of those girls are now senior group leaders in our business. Um, and you know, some of the you know greatest rock stars that we see, right? Um, but coming millimeters away from giving up. Um meeting um mentors, it helps change the mindset, right? So it's it's no secret between you and I that I'm one of your dad's biggest fans and uh getting to meet him at um Mastermind. I did make him laugh when I went to see him. I went and said, Hey Tom, and he looked at me, I said, I've just found out. And he and he looked at and I said, most people really enjoy coming to events like this. And he started laughing, and we hit it off straight away from there.

SPEAKER_01

See, people remember that, you know. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04

I've just found out, yeah. Um, but I did, you know, listening to uh you know, listening to your father, you know, uh Art Jonat, Jordan Wes Linden, um Steph Longworth, uh Claire Heng, Dana Collins, you know, and I I I know some of those people very well because they st because they work in my network, but um to hear them from a different perspective in talking in generic terms about our profession rather than our network specific made a big difference to me because it started to make a lot more more sense. And there were certain stories on stage, you know. Um Jordan Adler and Dana Collins, a couple in particular. I won't retell the stories, I'll encourage everyone to go and find their their literature and read themselves. But it made a big difference to me, you know, in particular about how I support new people coming into my team and when they don't get going, what I need to do, you know, and I've become quick to not spend too much time and energy trying to encourage people to know and you spoke to a point earlier, which is about you know, we we try and give them what we want, um, because we look at people and we perceive what they need, not what they want, you know, in a classic needs versus wants uh perspective, right? So we think that this is a single parent supporting two children, well, they must need more money. So therefore, the solution that I've got in place is come and join my business, right? But if they don't want to, there's no point. Uh so I guess if you could look back at a single event that you went to and say that moment was when everything clicked. It might have been it might be a sound bite, it might be a person, it might just be a collective of there were so many people there, it made it amazing. So give us that. This is when it clicked.

SPEAKER_01

Um well, there's probably a lot where where it's clicked for me, but um, you know, that was probably you know, as I said 30 years ago. But uh here's one that that I hope I don't burst their story because it's been a while since I've told it. And it it's where it clicked for somebody else that was about to quit. Okay, as you mentioned, so there we go. And this this is I sorry, I use this when I promote events as well. Um I call the three easy habits. Number one is personal development, number two is meet someone new every day, create a contact, not a not a presentation, just create a new contact every day. And third is promote events. If you do those three, they're all they all have to do with consistency, don't they? So there you go. But uh it was okay, so this must have been 2007. And there was an event uh in my group, so a leader had uh uh was putting on an event in Atlanta, Georgia. For reference sake, it's like a two and a half hour, maybe three hour flight at the most for me. And they asked if I could be at the event, and I said, Well, you know, probably not this one. I love going to events, but it's um you know, it's my sixth anniversary. My my daughter is gonna be like five months old. Um, I'm probably not gonna go to the event. And he goes, Oh, okay, we really kind of want you there, you know, the upline, et cetera. And I kind of thought about it and I was like, you know what, might as well just go. You know, it's wife will understand, kid won't remember, you know, I'm only gonna be gone for two nights. And what's the big deal? Now I'm not advocating for you to skip your anniversary. No, my thing is always like we can celebrate the anniversary at any time. And of course, she's very uh to this day, very supportive. It's just you can celebrate anything any any day that any day of the week or or the day of the month, gear, whatever. And so I I go to the event, you know, spoke at the event, you know, was about to leave. You know, it was it was actually a really good event. About to leave. And as I was walking uh at the back of the conference room, a lady had stopped me. Her name was Ruth. How do I know her name was Ruth? Because she was so nervous to talk to me. She goes, Hi, my name is Ruth. And I go, Hi, I'm I'm Keith. She goes, I know, I just want to meet you. Now she didn't go to them to the event just to meet me. She went to the event to meet all the leaders. So I'm not gonna you know pat myself on the back too much. She goes, I really wanted to meet you. I'm from Dallas, Texas. I took a Greyhound bus here to get here, which is 18 hours. I'm I'm leaving, it'll be 18 hours home, but I just really want to be at the event and meet all the leaders. So I told myself, and like she's talking really fast and super excited. And I go, I was complaining about spending $200 and flying in and out. Uh back then, you know, they always they'd always upgrade me to first class, anyways, because I flew so much. Like, I'm complaining about that. This lady's going on a Greyhound bus, having to sleep on a bus uh to go to an event. Like, what in the world? So I'm thinking about this as she's talking frantically. And she goes, Oh, I'm from Dallas, Texas. And I go, Oh, you know, I'm I'm from Houston. She goes, I know. I go, Well, can I get your number? And the next time I do a meeting in the Dallas area, I'll uh I'll give you a call. She goes, Okay, great. So I wrote it down, put it on my desk because I knew I had a Dallas event coming up for another group. And I think it was about two and a half months later. I go, Oh, uh, like the week of the event. I just remember, oh, I forgot to notify Ruth because again, we didn't have Facebook groups, we didn't have all these cool things that we could do and email. Well, we had an email, we didn't really email blast correctly. So I called her up and I go, Hey, Ruth, it's Key Schreider. Remember, I met you in Atlanta, Georgia. She goes, Hi. And then there, like, it was a two-second pause, but it felt like two minutes. If you ever had one of those conversations, like, uh oh, what did I was I not supposed to call? Did I call the wrong number? Was it you know did something happen? Uh, and so forth. And I go, Oh, I just want to let you know I'll be in the Dallas area. It's gonna be in Garland, Texas. I believe you're uh in Garland as well. Or, you know, Garland's a big town, but I said, you know, here's the address. Uh, we're gonna do uh a meeting and then we're gonna do like a little bit of a training. I'd love for you to come as my guest uh for the training, etc. And then again, another two-second pause. It felt like two minutes. I'm like, oh my goodness gracious, um maybe she didn't remember me. You know, I'm not sure what's going on. She goes, Yeah, you know what? I'll be there. I go, okay, great. Um, excellent. Uh, look forward to seeing you again. And when I got to the event, she brought, I believe it was nine guests. I don't know about you, but I've never been able to bring nine guests personally. Yeah. She brought nine guests. I think they all joined, they all stayed for the training. And after the event, she goes, you know what, uh, I'll be honest with you, uh, I was having a really hard time. You know, uh that week my father passed away. Um, I didn't really have um the time and energy to promote or to, you know, build my business. And I was actually gonna quit or you know find something else, uh, you know, because I'm about to lose my um, I gotta do early retirement at the post office. And it was just like the talk about a lot of things thrown at you at once. She goes, but you know what, I just kind of decided just give this one more try. And I was like, Oh my goodness, I'm so glad you made it. I can't believe you brought all these people, and uh, you know, I'd love to do more events with you in the future and so forth. And things went on, and of course I gave her my number so she could, you know, keep in contact. And or later that year, I get a voicemail. Uh didn't pick up my phone. Hey Keith, uh, do you know French? That's the weirdest voicemail I've ever heard in my life. I called her back. I go, uh, I've lived most of my life in Texas. I barely speak English. Uh, so you know, I don't really, I can't even fake an accent. I don't know. Uh and I go, what do you mean? She goes, well, someone from France called me as we were expanding, and I I kind of put some feelers out. And I go, Well, did she leave a message in English? She goes, Yeah. I go, well, she probably has enough to, you know, go on a conversation. I said, uh, let's figure this out. So I got someone else just in case that kind of knew French when they were in high school 30 years ago, uh, and so forth. And that person ended up joining the business. And so you go from someone quitting to now uh building their team internationally. Well, it got even better. This person that she did sponsor turned out to be a huge rock star. I mean, we're talking exploded uh the business. I think for trying to think here, over 10 years, it was two million dollars in volume just from that one leg. Wow. From someone that was pushed into early retirement, that was about to quit the business, that was shy enough not to call someone back because it was a French number, but they they spoke in English and just to have her business explode, you know, two million dollars per month, every single month for at least 10 years. I think it's a little bit lower, but for 10 years of great volume. Now, since that, she had never traveled out of the country before, she never got a passport before, right? Because we had an incentive trip. So she'd go on the incentive trips. How do I go on incentive trips? I need a passport. How do you get a passport? Like all these cool things started happening to somebody, and had it really had nothing to do with me. It had to do with her saying, no, I want to go to this event. I can't afford the plane ticket, or it's too late to to pay for a plane ticket, or you know, it's too expensive to pay, whatever. Took a Greyhound bus for eight for 18 hours each way. That's what made the that's what made the the biggest thing. Like to me, I I was just kind of encouraging her and and doing the right thing. It was really her. The internal motivation just to go to um that event. So yeah, it it made a huge difference in her career. Of course, yeah, it made a huge difference for me too. Of course. There you go. Even if she was on my fourth level, it was still pretty cool. Uh and I just Like to me, that's exciting. Like, after a while, more money's nice, but the stories of having some change their life gives you more fuel. Um, yeah, it's just it it's so cool to see someone. Uh and yeah, there's there's a lot of stories. That's just one that that stuck out because um I just remember like interviewing her for it wasn't even a podcast. I used to do interviews and send them out on cassettes, okay. So even though we had CDs, like cassettes were uh easy to duplicate, and then we had to dupe it, it was just a mess, but um yeah, I just remember just getting her story and go, I had no idea you're about to quit. Like she never really gave me all the things that she was going through because there was even more, but you know, um the just those stories like that just uh to this day, I'm like so glad I I I went and so glad she went to the event.

SPEAKER_04

Cool. All right, so final point on this deep dive. Um, we've spoken about people who are hesitant to attend events and they're likely to be newer people in our team. Um, but we do have a group of people that say they don't need to come to events, right? Uh and I guess sometimes these are more established distributors uh who say, I've already heard it all, I don't need to hear it again. Yeah, yeah, right. And I think I think the point about that is yes, you might think you've we've heard it all. And and I understand that as a sentiment. Um, but events aren't just about the information that's given at that time, it's about additional belief transfer, right? You know, some even if you, you know, I've been in my business nearly four years now and I'm still learning stuff every single day. I can still have conversations with someone else in my network where I can learn something, you know, and they may be further up the pile than I am or lower down than I am, it doesn't mean to say that I can't learn from them. Um, and I guess whilst the individual might not feel that they need it, the team does, right? So the team needs to see you as the leader going to events so they come along too. And even as leaders, we still need a fresh uh perspective and renewed energy, right? So I've been really tired the last couple of months of struggling to keep going. I'm really excited. You know, tomorrow I'm jumping on a plane, going to Sophia. I've spent the next four days, you know, in a in a rock star event, you know, mastermind. I know it's gonna do the thing that I I need it to do for me to help. So what's the most powerful way that you've reframed events for someone who thought that they didn't need them?

SPEAKER_01

A lot of times it's the experience. So, you know, back before we'd have to talk about the experience on a conference call, and now we could talk about it um on Zoom. But now everybody has their phone within a reach. And if you text somebody, they want to see it. They want there's a little bubble, got to know what's going on. And the the easiest thing you could do is if you know their hot button, you could send a photo. So, in other words, if they're like a big car person, um, you know, and uh one of the leaders uh has that particular car or uh that particular um type of sports car, or they're big into houses or whatever it is, you can send photos. The selfies are the best, but even if you have photos, it just kind of pokes them just a little bit in a fun positive way, because like, yeah, if they go to the event, they're obviously going to uh mathematically they're gonna increase their odds of of building um a business. Um, and sometimes it's like, well, you know, they're kind of a yellow personality, they're kind of a um, you know, they're really not in it for the money, they're in it for helping other people achieve money, uh, that type of thing. So just the fact that, like, hey, I'm thinking about you. Uh, I wish you were here at this event uh because I think you get a great value in it. Uh, hope to connect with you when I get back. And sometimes those personal calls, I don't have time to call every single person. It wasn't at the event to try to give them a recap. That's what the zooms are for, and it's not the same. But for those particular ones that you you know can make a huge difference, yeah, connect with them after the event. And then you have something as long as you have the next one scheduled in or the next one you're promoting, you're good to go. And even if your company doesn't have one or you don't have one on the schedule, create your own. Like it's it's it could be a virtual event, just something that you have that you have to be able to promote. Um, you know, those things just really the it's the personal touch, really all it is. You know, texting, you can even copy and paste uh your message to people, but people go, Yep, I uh I look I look forward to uh you know I look forward to connecting with you. And it's just those personal touch, and that's what people are missing. You know, if you think about all the things that people I'm not saying social media is bad, but if you consume more than you create, well, you may have to take a look at yourself.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

And everybody's guilty of it. Meaning, like it's so much one-way communication. A lot of times that we're just fed more and more of what we want to hear, uh, more and more of and you can start creating your own algorithm algorithm by you know thumbing up and double, you know, commenting on things that are positive in your life, and that then it'll continue to send positive things to you. But either way, most of the time we're just fed information. So when you engage people in conversation, you stand out from the noise that that they normally have, which is just feeding uh information to you. So it's it's the personal touch, and that's that's it's so much easier with a phone. You know, back in the day I have to call people, leave messages, hopefully they answer. Um yeah, people are always good on email, but texting is definitely the way to go.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, or whatever app you use to or voice notes is very powerful because they get to hear it's you and they can hear your excitement, right?

SPEAKER_01

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_04

Okay, so it nearly time to wrap up. So I ask about the top threes, the top three things you should do and the three things that you shouldn't do. So in one to three word answers, uh what three things should you do with regards to events?

SPEAKER_01

Uh I don't want to mess this up here. So like three word answers, uh just short, just short answers, you know. Yeah, yeah, top three things you should do for events. I just want to make sure I get this right.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I like how I take this part serious. I haven't taken this for the last few minutes here. Um number one, attend, promote, and encourage. You know, personal touch, all those things. It just the personal touch. That's just gonna make a huge difference.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah. Okay, so my top three is committing to attend. Make sure you bring someone uh and take notes and use what you took notes on.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, absolutely. You know, you know, I didn't really talk about uh sending in an intention to learn. So I think I'm possibly glazed over it. Yeah, but just by doing that, it and that's not it's not woo-woo or anything, but you tell your subconscious, like you're looking for this. So if you're looking, it's like you know what, I I need to increase my customer base. Um, ethically, legally, the whole works. I'm gonna find someone here or listen to someone, or I'm gonna seek the information out to turbocharge my customer base. And by doing that, it could be like, oh, I was talking to Matt, who knew Mary, who knew Jessica, who knew Alex, and they had mentioned and like the next thing you know, you've connected with somebody that said, Oh yeah, the easiest way to get the easiest way I found to get customers is this. You're like, I could do that, you know, those things. So I guess intention as well. I'm just gonna throw, I'm just gonna keep throwing stuff in.

SPEAKER_04

That's all right, that's cool. So we had top three do's, and now what are the top three don'ts? Things you mustn't do in r in relation to events.

SPEAKER_03

Um I would say there's gonna be times where the event doesn't serve you. Um but that's just how life is.

SPEAKER_01

Like you're not gonna enjoy you're not yeah, you're not gonna enjoy every meal, you're not gonna enjoy every cuisine, you're not gonna enjoy um every every day uh as much as the previous day. Like, there's gonna be ups and downs, but you're gonna receive some value. It may not be the value that you paid. Um, so let's say for this year, you attend three events. Uh they could be in person, in virtual, whatever. So three big events, I should say. Um, and two, we're like, eh. But the third one made a huge difference that paid for the previous two events and we'll pay for the for the next events, we'll pay your business and we'll pay uh for your lifestyle, it'll for pay for your vacations. You just never know. So if if one um stinks, it's okay. Life will go on. So I guess don't discount every event. Uh the second one is don't keep a closed mind. Yeah, a lot of times I've fallen into as well, where you say, Oh, well, you've been to one event, you've been to them all, and then you've basically told yourself not to listen. Or you've basically told yourself you could scroll on your phone uh when you don't agree with 100% of what this one speaker says. Well, guess what? Uh I never agree with 100% of what anybody says, right? But I look, I look, I look for the good, some people look for the bad. So I guess that's the last one is look for the good, ignore the bad. Uh, you know, there's gonna be stuff that you don't agree with. There's gonna be stuff that don't pertain to you. There's gonna be stuff that there's no way in the world I would say that or try that. Doesn't matter. That particular speaker may have something else of value to you, even though they may not build the exact same way. So I don't know if there was that three and a half, I have no idea.

SPEAKER_04

I'll think so. Something like that. Yeah, so I've got um don't treat them as optional. Treat them as you should get there if you can, right? Accepting that life can get in their way sometimes. If you do go, try and get involved, don't sit there in silence. You know, go and talk to people if if there's Q ⁇ A sessions, get a question in. Um and then if you've made some connections, don't fail to follow up. You know, where where I'm at. So I think what we've spoken about really is that events aren't just about they're not they're not just meetings, are they? They're uh they're they're belief moments, their learning moments, uh, their inspirational moments. And if you miss them, you might miss something that helps you grow your team or grow your business. So this is a segment I don't usually do, but it's one that you always do uh on your pod. So we're gonna do a lightning round. Let's do it. All right. I'm gonna ask you the same questions that you asked me. So recommend a book that everybody should read without your family surname as an author.

SPEAKER_01

Uh how to win friends and influence people. It's it's probably one of the top 10 most recommended for most people. The big thing is to just use their name, remember their name, which is extremely hard for me at the very beginning. There's different tricks, but the big one is is to write it down, remember it. Uh, even if you're getting getting their contact info, you know, write a little description in your notes, all those things, the name makes a huge difference. And if you forget their name, just be super excited that you see them at the next minute. Like, wait, was that Andrew? Oh, hey, what's up? How you doing? I'm like, that's what's like just be super excited if you forget their name. So that's that's one of the favorite. And there's a lot, you know, think you go rich and and things like that. But uh you do how to win friends and influence people. And there's there's multiple versions of it as well. There is, yeah. I've got a few of them up here, actually. Yeah. Yeah. So and again, I may not agree with a hundred percent of of everything, but the base, the the I guess it's it's all the same as far as you know, treat people, give people value, and good things happen because you're putting value versus money uh in your forefront.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, okay, cool. Favorite place to travel or a bucket list place.

SPEAKER_01

You know, it's interesting. Um, I guess trivial that people don't know is I've actually traveled to all seven continents.

unknown

Okay.

SPEAKER_01

And as much as those I don't like to use the term, but I'll use it anyways, once in a lifetime experiences are cool. To me, at this time of my life, what's fun is just being able to hang out with the people that like the destination isn't important. Like, yeah, I would love to go to Antarctica uh once a month. I'd love to go to an African safari uh all the time. But what we did, and we started this when my daughter was in sixth grade, is every year we'd go to the beach. And it's those memories of doing the bodyboarding. Um, you know, in South Padre Island, you're we're gonna go to Cancun, and of course, you know, the whole COVID thing, and you know, all sorts of things. It's it's those experiences. So make it an experience. So some of the experiences we've done is like when we go hiking, like make sure to take photos. Um, even if it's just for personal use. Like, I barely ever post, ever. Um, you know, it's those things uh uh of hiking and going um, you know, whitewater rafting, it's really who am I with? And that doesn't have to necessarily mean um it can be different people at different times, but it's those experiences. So really to me it's it's a beach that I can bodyboard um uh or hiking, um, just because it's totally different from where I live where everything's flat.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, yeah. Cool. And you finally your culinary guilty pleasure.

SPEAKER_01

Um pizza. And the reason pizza is it's kind of like pizza's pizza should be its own food category. You know, there's 10 crust, there's there's Are you a deep dish kind of guy?

SPEAKER_04

Because you you did you did did do Chicago in your early years, didn't you?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, yeah. So I celebrate the entire food category.

SPEAKER_04

Oh, portfolio of pizza. Okay.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, yeah. I mean, it it's it's crazy. Uh like even now, uh, I'm just starting. I when I got back uh last night, I restarted my sourdough. So I'll do sourdough pizza because it takes three days for my crust to mature. I mean, I celebrate it all because it's completely different. There's no favorite type. Um, everybody can do something different. The best part is it's very um social. So a lot of times when we go to an event, someone says order pizza, they ask what I want. I said, Whatever you want. Because if I order, it's gonna be the exact same thing. If you order, I get to try something new. Uh, thick or thin. I don't care. I want to try what you like. And it creates it creates an experience. Um, and uh yeah, I just I love making it, I love going uh to eat it. It's just uh and there's absolutely no way it could ever be healthy. So let's just feel yeah, get over it.

SPEAKER_03

It's nice.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, I share. I share your love of a um a flower, a uh a sourdough starter. Yeah. Oh, excellent. Yeah, yeah, that's all cool. Look, look, Keith, brilliant. Thanks for um for coming on. Um, if everyone wants to touch base with Keith, you will find his contact details on the Networker's own podcast. If you don't listen to it already, suggest you subscribe and do. It's uh it's regular listening for me when I'm in the car or lying in bed trying to learn some more stuff. Um, you'll even find an episode with me on it back in January. Um this is a return meet. So, Keith, thank you so much. Uh and folks, if you like this podcast, um please subscribe and listen. Uh, share it with your friends. And next week we're going to be talking about the power of duplication. So that leaves it just to say thank you again to Keith and goodbye. Have a great one. Appreciate it. Thanks for listening to the MLM growth pod. I hope you found today's conversation useful and inspiring. If you did, please subscribe, leave a review, and share this podcast with others. It really helps us grow. And if you know anyone in the MLM or network marketing world who'd benefit from what we talked about today, send them this episode. Got questions, topic ideas, or a guest you'd love to hear from, email us at connect at mlmgrowthpod.co.uk. I'd love to hear from you. I look forward to sharing next week's episode with you. Until then, keep learning, keep growing, and keep building your future.

SPEAKER_00

Thanks for visiting the Networker Zone. To get awesome networking tips delivered directly to your inbox, or for more information about books, audiobooks, online training, including Zooms and masterclasses, make sure and visit bigalbooks.com.