Is World Ventures a good company?

I recently took a look at an MLM company called World Ventures based out of Dallas, Texas. This company looks to be pretty solid, although when I put a search on Google, I did notice that they did have quite a few complaints. I saw, their pricing wasn't as good as expedia or travelocity. I did like their pay plan as it seems to put money in the distributors pockets much faster than a traditional network marketing company. I'm still a little concerned about their pricing to become a distributor at over $200, puts in the tougher to recruit for category. I tend to find the best MLM Companies offer ways for their distributors to get started for less than $200. They do have a fast start bonus of 10% off each sale, which is very low compared to most MLM Fast Start Bonuses. They have implemented other bonuses based on your ability to recruit. With the average network marketer only able to recruit 3 people on average to any company - their model would scare me a bit, as you would really have to find go getters to build your business. Not a bad thing, as most network marketing opportunities require the same thing. The binary looks very good as it pays out about 16% on the weaker leg, where most pay out about 5 - 10% on the weak side. With all that being said, I would say that World Ventures could be a good opportunity for a sales oriented person. You got to keep in mind with World Ventures you are selling an intangible - vacations. I searched the industry for other companies selling travel in an MLM model and quite honestly it looked to be very low. So your competition would be much lower than with a nutritional company, which tends to make up the majority of network marketing.

The advantages of World Ventures:

Pay plan is good for the builder
Management Team has lots of experience in network marketing
Product seems overpriced, but travel is easier to market than a colon cleanser
they have been around for over 3 years (most MLM Companies go broke in their first 3 years)
I personally don't think travel will ever die out due to poor economic times, I mean everyone wants to travel.

The disadvantages of World Ventures:

Fast Start Bonus is lousy
Pay Plan only looks to be good for the builder (long term passive takes longer and pays out less than most MLM Opportunities, most commissions are paid on the initial orders)
Product doesn't fend as well as some of the other online travel companies

All in all from the looks of this company. I would certainly consider becoming a distributor with them if I was looking for a new home. I probably wouldn't recruit anyone who didn't have a sales background, as I think you really need to have some skill-set to be a part of this company. I also think you could build a business that would attract non-distributors. As I always say, if you can't build a business with products only, your biz will eventually fall apart like a deck of cards.

For MLM or Personal Development coaching contact me at john@sellingwithintegrity.net or visit my website at http://www.johnlowery.biz

Which Comp Plan is the best for network marketing?

There has always been alot of debate on who has the best comp plan. In this blog I am going to disclose what I think are the best comp plans based on skill-set and what I have seen after spending 4 years in the industry.

I'm only going to talk about 3 comp plans as from what I can see, most all the companies launching today are implementing one of the following. I will give you the pro's and con's of each pay plan. Before I jump into comp plans its important that your company offer a Fast Start Bonus for the first 30 days. This is critical, as your newest distributors who may have never done network marketing need to get their investment back quickly. It's not fair to bring people into a business where it takes 20 people in their downline to cover their monthly autoship. If companies got this, which most do, they can retain distributors at a much higher level.

Unilevel - Personally, I like Unilevel and have my best success in a unilevel, but they generally will only work well for people like myself. In a Uni-level pay plan there is no forced positioning. You can generally build it as wide as I want, and most distributors will not benefit from any activity above them, only below them. This probably would have worked alot better in the days before the internet, but now with so many programs out there allowing you to position yourself good, this is a tough build. I would only recommend a unilevel to a pro networker. The average guy, will always have difficulty here. Out of the hundreds I have recruited over the years, I have only seen a handful be able to build a unilevel. There are now 3 leg uni-levels, but still usually don't get the penetration for your new guy. The advantage of a uni-level is better pay outs overall as you get paid on your entire group volume. Disadvantage, you must build the entire thing yourself, unless you get a sponsor who is willing to give away a few people and help you build. (A capitalist pay plan)

Forced Matrix - This pay plan has become very popular lately, especially on the net. It's the WIFM pay plan "What's in it for me?" This pay plan works something like this: You have 3 people on your first level, 9 on your second, 27 on your third, and so on. This system allows for spillover. Once the matrix gets filled the people have to go under you. There is nowhere else for them to go. I like this pay plan a lot as it creates lots of synergy. The downside is that this pay plan generally attracts an individual who is more lottery minded, so you get a bunch of people in the matrix who aren't going to do much of anything and this is why most matrix's collapse over time. No reward for those that want to build big. And if someone gets lucky, they can get a check for doing practically nothing. (A socialist pay plan)

Hybrid Binary - I've never really been in a hybrid binary until recently, but I really like it. Here is how it works: You have 2 legs (a weak side & a strong side). You get paid on the volume of your weak side. So if you have 1 leg doing $10K per month, and the other doing $20K, you get paid on the $10K. Some of the newer ones I have seen are paying out up to 17% to infinity on your weak side. What does that represent in dollars? Well lets say you had $10K on your weak side and you were getting 10%, 10% of 10K is $1K. If you had $20K you would be getting $2K, $50K = $5K and so on. As you can see this is pretty easy to understand. The hybrid aspect of this pay plan is what I really like. Say for instance you sponsor someone and they end up on your strong leg. You still can make money on that strong leg, because you get what is called a check match of anywhere from 25% - %100 of that distributors monthly residual check. So let's say you sponsored 5 people who were all earning $500 per month and you were getting a check match of 100%, you would get an additional check of $2500 per month, just off the check match. I can dig deeper on hybrid binary, but I won't as many start to get different outside of what I have just described. This pay plan will work for the average guy, because it will allow for quick growth like a matrix "spillover" and it will also promote activity, "check match". The only disadvantage is you are not getting paid on the overall volume like you are in a forced matrix or unilevel. But unilevel's are difficult to build and forced matrix's don't force behavior. So today, I would run with a hybrid binary so you get the best of both worlds. Spillover and forced activity. (The Capitalist meets Socialist Pay Plan)

If you would like one on one training to grow your mlm business visit my website at http://www.johnlowery.biz

How to save yourself years of heartache in network marketing?

So you've decided to do network marketing. You went to the meeting you saw the images of sitting on a beach drinking pina coladas while your children play in the sand. I'm going to just say for a few minutes that these images are great, but they are not real. Not in the beginning, not in the very least. Network marketing is not easy. It really is not easy. It's taken me 3 to 4 years of constant study and making many mistakes to figure it out. I guess that isn't too bad considering it takes most people 4 years of education to earn a degree so they can get an entry level job that pays maybe $30 - $50K per year.

So how do you make money in network marketing? Here is how you do it, and it is so simple. Only work with those people who want to do network marketing. I'll say it again, only work with those people who want to do network marketing. Many people do not like network marketing and they certainly don't want to do it, so quit wasting your time with those people. Think of yourself like a miner for gold. Except your gold is highly motivated, coachable individuals who want to do this business. Don't convince, don't lie, don't jump through hoops, just put people through a simple system of showing them the opportunity and let them sell themselves. Your job isn't to sign people up, your job is to present and let people sign themselves up. This will save you years of grief and you will always bring in the right people. The wrong people will just waste your time and slow you down. Your job doesn't end after someone signs up for your business - it begins.

A Back Up Plan

Do you have a back up plan? No really, do you have a back up plan? I usually like to stay on the positive, but with all the businesses failing lately and people losing their jobs in The US, I cannot ignore this any longer. Do you have a Back Up Plan? If you were to lose your job or your current business were to go under, or worse yet your pension (yes people are losing their pensions), social security (the government could run out of money and deplete these programs), 401K (That is all I have to say) do you have a way to sustain yourself for a year or two, while you get back on your feet?

Why network marketing? Here is why I recommend network marketing as a viable back up plan, while you continue to work your regular job, or business. As a matter of fact, I would never recommend that anyone start network marketing full-time unless they have capital. This is a business folks. Below is why you should consider network marketing.

* Low start up costs (usually less then $500)
* Low maintenance (few hundred a month including products)
* Tax write offs (why give anymore money to the IRS than you are giving?)
* Improving People Skills (You will develop skills that will make you much more valuable)
* Immediate cash (Many companies now offer Fast Start Bonuses)
* Long term Passive residual income (This is the same income most of the rich have)

It's funny how most of us have been programmed that anything that shows up as an opportunity would be considered a scam. If our industry was a scam, I doubt very much that the Orlando Magic would be playing basketball in The Amway Arena. Or that David Beckham the worlds most popular soccer player would wear The Herbalife Logo on his jersey. But still everyday when I am talking to people they want to tell me how our industry is a scam. I think the main reason for this is people have either been burned in the past, or it has happened to a loved one. So rather than keeping an open mind like a parachute, they will continually miss out on opportunities.

Here is my final advice to help you move forward as the world's economy is now changing (duh!).

* Keep an open mind (The business landscape is changing)
* Get a back up plan (Even if it's not network marketing)
* Start learning tax laws (Most of the rich know them, why shouldn't you)
* Don't ever, ever, ever, ever quit (Try to step back and look at the big picture)

I don't care what anyone says network marketing is a great industry and I have many friends who have made millions in network marketing. If you feel like you would like to participate and make this your back up plan, contact me or another leader to learn how you can get started on your way to creating passive residual income.

Living The Life of Your Dreams?

Do you feel like your life is exactly where you want it to be at this very moment? If you answered NO, you are not alone. Most of us are not living a life beyond our wildest dreams. Not because we don't want to, but most of us have followed the guidance of those who weren't living a life beyond their wildest dreams. How can you get what you desire if your being taught how to be mediocre? This is why I choose to surround myself with mentors who have had great success, and people who only see the glass half full vs. half empty.

It's interesting to me how most of us spend more time planning for our family vacation then we do planning to achieve our goals. As a matter of fact, a latest statistic shows that only 3% of the public at large actually set their goals. It's no wonder that only 1% of the general public are wealthy?

So how can you get yourself to where you want to be - Starting Immediately? Here are a few tips to get you on the path to start living a life beyond your wildest dreams.

* Quit blaming others for wherever you are at TODAY - Take all responsibility
* Don't live in the past and dwell on it (Only reflect to repeat success or for what you learned)
* Write down your goals (30 days, 90 days, 6 months, 1 year, 3 years, 5 years, and 10 years)
* Never let someone else's goals and dreams define yours ( I know many who are quite happy in
their careers, being a stay at home mom, pastor, realtor, network marketer, etc...) You own your
own dreams, they only belong to you.
* Understand that you really only have complete control over your thoughts, images, and
behaviors. (try to recognize things that you don't control and accept that)
* Attitude is everything. (Remember, life is 10% what happens to us and 90% how we react to it)

Hope these tips have helped you gain more insight to where you are going and what you are doing to get there. Your letting go of the past, accepting full responsibility, writing down goals, accepting the things you cannot change, and keeping positive thoughts, images, and behaviors will be pivotal to whatever success you are looking for and living that life beyond your wildest dreams.

My Favorite MLM Leaders

We have leaders in every industry, and since I have carved out a niche for myself as an online marketing/social media/transformation coach for network marketers and internet marketers, I thought it would be a good idea to pay tribute to those leaders who have influenced me personally over the past few years. What's really cool is of all these leaders I am going to mention I have only not met 3 of them personally. So, here we go in order of influence on my career: Jim Lutes, Randy Gage, Eric Allen, Dave & Doug Vass, Eric Worre, Mike Dillard, Ann Sieg, Rachel Henke, Corey Citron, Jonathan Budd, Tracey Walker, and Katie Frieling. I would recommend plugging into any of these leaders if you are interested in building a career in network marketing.

Time Management on Steroids

I've recently learned about a law called, "Parkinson's Law", which states that Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion. How does this apply to your business? It's quite simple rather than working in tasks, you work in time frames. Most successful people use this law, as it makes perfect sense. Let's say you have a project you want to complete in 2 weeks, you simply change the date, even if it seems unrealistic. So you would just simply change the date to 1 week, or 3 days. By doing that, you have made an unconscious shift and filled the space differently. This can also apply to network marketers. Rather than saying I'm going to work until I contact 10 people today, you might say from 1 - 3 PM, I'm going to do all my prospecting. This is also great way to build your business, because you can always structure your day around time, but you cannot structure your work schedule around numbers or results, that usually shows up as a result of how you structure your time.

As you grow your business instead of saying this month I will sponsor 5 people or 10, or whatever, try making a shift to where every day you are setting your schedule around time. Block out windows of time for different tasks and see if that makes a difference. As you get better and better using this principle you will be able to many times cut your workload in half and get just as much done.

Passion

Today I wanted to share with you something I know you must have to be completely full-filled in your life. Passion is that delicious high lifting energy that births our ideas, our vision, and our inspiration into the physical world. It is the energy that drives us into action, so that our dreams can become a reality.

Nothing changes in our lives without the driving force of passion - whether that passion be out of love or need. When we are passionately engaged with life, we are constantly in a state of birthing, and creating on a physical level. We create new circumstances, opportunities, results and relationships. If passion is coupled with our creator, we can create truly live remarkable lives.

This is why some people are walking around with smiles on their faces and truly impacting others, not just themselves. While others just kind of cruise through life, unaware of where they are going, or how they are making a difference (so sad).

If you are missing anything in your life, this is the one thing you just cannot miss. Your passion doesn't necessarily have to be your career, it can be your hobby too. Taking time out of our days to pursue our passions, is so vitally important, that it is one of the first things I try to help people to disclose when coaching them.

Many of us are scared of this powerful force, our passion. As we go through life, we discover disappointment, unfulfilled goals, roadblocks to what we want ... and we learn not to want. We learn that "you can't have it all," or can't have it all at once. We are taught to put others first, to give rather than to receive, and that desire is the root of all suffering. And so most of us learn to suppress passion, to not let desire rise within us until we are practically incapable of discerning what we truly want for ourselves.

My challenge to you this week is to dig deep and make a list of things that drive you. It could be that golf game, teaching career you've always desired, basket weaving, poker, softball, or maybe you want to become a jazz singer. I always say, "If it's Sunday Evening and your dreading going to your job on Monday, that you are truly missing out on your passion." I know of many who have given up many creature comforts to go back to school, start a home based business, pursue real estate, write a book. Whatever it be, remember that life is short and that time is ticking away.

We engage with that vision out of love - love for Spirit, love for ourselves, and the love of serving others we will always win no matter what. So pursue your passion and rise to the top.

To your success,

John Lowery
http://www.johnlowery.biz

Your Calling

Have you discovered your calling? Most are searching for something outside of themselves. Few have truly risen to their full potential in their lifetime. I think the key to leading a prosperous life financially and finding true fulfillment is by finding your calling. The more value you give to society, the more the Universe will pay you in return. You see money, is simply a bi-product or your talents & skills. So it would make sense that the more value you bring to others the more that you will be financially rewarded. Some may say, "I'm too old", or "I'm not pretty enough", or "I don't have the right education". Let me just say, that unless you are aiming for a career in The NBA or The PGA, you can probably acheive most anything you put your mind to. And if you really had a talent for basketball and were a complete stand-out from the crowd, you might even be able to acheive that as well despite great obstacles. There is a great movie called "The Rookie" about a junior high school teacher who never achieved his dream of playing major league baseball, and at 38 years of age does the impossible and makes it to the majors. You see, your calling doesn't ever have to stop because of age, circumstances, or anything. If you really want something go after it.

Debt???

Is debt bad? Depends on how you look at it. Most people have to take out a loan to go to school, buy a home, purchase a car. If we didn't have credit we would all be living in shantytowns - ha ha. But how do you get out of debt on credit cards? We all know that credit cards are bad debt. But how do we pay off that debt. That debt is probably keeping you up at night. Your probably saying to yourself, "my life would be so much easier if I just didn't have all this debt." Are you seeing the picture yet? Attention goes, where energy flows. By constantly focusing on your debt, you are actually attracting more into your life. This is why so many people never truly get out of debt. Their focus is on debt. Therefore that is what they attract more of. Your subconscious doesn't understand get of debt as it cannot process a negative. So what I teach is rather than saying get out of debt is I say forget about it. Whaaaaat? Forget about it. If you ever want to get out of debt you must forget about it. Focus on more value from yourself, and the universe will provide you with the resources you need to pay back the debt and much more. One of my favorite mentor's Randy Gage has a brilliant saying, "Bills are invoices for blessings already received."

Everybody wants success or at least they say they do

If you could take a video of every successful person and watch them pursuing their dreams, you would be stunned at the amount of pain people go through to get the top. It would disqualify a ton of people from ever getting on that train. We all see the glamour of hollywood, professional athletes, olympians, realtors, business owners, motivational speakers, and think WOW! I want that too. But if you saw their beginnings and all the humility and hard work they had to go through to get to the other side, I doubt very much that you would bite at it. I learned recently that one of the top income earners in network marketing who now earns over $100K per month, never earned a dime for his first 5 years in the industry. I know of several movie stars who lived out of their cars, or went hungry trying to make it in Hollywood. Many athletes have to endure grueling training throughout high school and college to get to the pro level. As they say, "No Pain, No Gain". And of course there are those that hit the top and then have to bounce back from the very bottom. Two individuals that come to mind are actor Mickey Rourke and Billionaire Donald Trump. Did you know that Mickey was completely broke and trying to become a boxer before his comeback and academy nomination for the movie, "The Wrestler". Donald Trump was in debt for Billions and never took out personal bankruptcy a decade ago. If you don't believe me on Trump, read his book, "The Art Of The Comeback". Brian Tracy the famed author and motivator, claims most successful people he knows have been bankrupt more than once. So, just ask yourself before you get on the field the next time if you are ready to sacrifice. If not, you might want to just play it safe and stay where you are and follow those that are willing to put their livelihood on the line.

The Perfect Network Marketing Opportunity

Why can't you never find the perfect network marketing company? If I were to start my own company with a few investors, here is what it would look like: Affordable break-thru product with little competition, Hybrid Binary Pay-out, Pre-Launch that would allow everyone to come in for free for 60 Days (would have 150,000 in multiple countries), then I would compress everyone into the binary tree (immediate income for everyone at Launch date), my only requirement would be that every one personally sponsor at least 2 people. Any investors out there call me. If the product was good enough, I would consider starting my own MLM and guess what - it would be different than all the junk out there where only a small percentage make big money.