Robin Willson, my MLM experience

My name is Robin Willson and I live in Bothwell, Ontario with my husband and beautiful daughter who is my reason for everything. I work outside the home as a support worker helping individuals with developmental and physical disabilities with their activities of daily living. I absolutely love what I do and the staff, clients and management are better then you could ask for.

With any job I trade time for money and unfortunately time away from my family. After my daughter was born I was single again, not what I had planned but it happens. I had worked evenings so I could be with her as much as possible. I dreaded having a babysitter raise her and decided that I would like to work for myself.

After many different ideas passing by my mind I decided to buy a Pizza and Variety Store that was for sale in my town. I had experience making the pizza because I had worked there through high school and took some night courses at the college for the business end of it.

It was not an overnight decision, I had to learn all I could about business and developed a business plan that would work. This took me a great dial of time and then with both feet I jumped in.

I loved working with the public, the store was a success. I had amazing staff, family and friends that were there for me, most of all I had my daughter with me during the day.

As soon as the dinner rush came in she went home and I wouldn't see her again until morning. This went on until she started school, she was in school every other day which then defeated the purpose of having a business so I could spend more time with her. You can see where that was going, I had a successful business but no time again. As much as I enjoyed what I did I knew that I had to make another choice.

After two and a half years as a business owner I didn't have any more time than when I worked for someone else in fact I had way less time and my daughter was now in school full time. I had a buyer for the store, decided to go back to college and acquire my DSW diploma which was something I always wanted to do. I could get a well paying job to support my daughter doing what I loved which was working with people and helping them.

I now work part time as a support worker, even though I love what I do I knew I had to do more.

Trading time for money, there had to be an answer so I could have both time and money. I had heard of network marketing for years but never thought it was something I could do and be successful. Not truly understanding that it was everything I was looking for all these years. Network Marketing is your own business, you choose your own hours, you work from home and you can work with people and help them as well.

I was approached by someone about a network marketing business, of course I jumped in. I had my "Goals", I had my "Why" and I had my own business.

I did okay but went about it all wrong, I made some money but not even close to what I spent on my business. How was I suppose to make this work when I spent more time failing then succeeding. I did everything they said to do, I talked to everyone within three feet of me and told them about the product and the opportunity. I made the list of three hundred friends and family, I went to every meeting in the area and brought people to the meeting to hear the presentation.

I was frustrated that all the time and energy I spent working my business was not panning out. I still had more expenses then income and went through the whole list, yes the whole list of friends and family. Now what!!! I turned to the upline who at that time was going through the same thing I was, so I went to the higher up upline and asked what was I doing wrong. She had said my "Why" wasn't big enough and I needed to work harder, talk to more people and buy more tools to give away. I had done it all, everything they said, my team was dropping like flies. I would say to them, that is what they told me to do. It was not at all duplicatable for the part time person who wants to build a business and not spend a fortune doing it.

And then there was one. Me.

I wasn't about to give up on my dream of having time and money, it is what I was looking for all this time.

I was a failure, I was spending money I did not have and holding a dream that I can have time and money. Network Marketing was not for me I guess, I am not suppose to be successful even though I had seen myself up on stage with all the big wigs of the company in my dreams with my daughter there cheering me. I seen it, it was there but it was fading.

In my search for some answers to why I was failing I had looked at different programs and so called training on how to be successful in network marketing. As soon as I saw the price tag for this so called training I would look somewhere else.

After a while of searching for some kind of answer to my time and money question I came across a free ebook "Success in ten steps". Free Eh! couldn't hurt, I like free and that was all I could afford.

I downloaded the book and read it, it answered some questions I had about the MLM industry. But still was MLM for me?? Not that I was an expert on building a downline or even a super dooper marketer of these products but I had some insight of why I failed in the past and could I succeed in MLM.

There are a few things I had learned about the MLM business that I am glad I found out. First, that it is not for everyone. I found that out when I joined the first company. Even though they would say anyone can do this, no they can't. Not unless they are in the mindset of actually doing what it is they are suppose to do and not everyone is a prospect. You can have the best company, the best products the best tools and the best support but unless your heart is in it 100% you only get what you put in. That was not a difficult one to figure out. "Follow this sure fire system and you cannot fail". Yes you can, I did and it wasn't hard. Just step away from the "system" for a short while, have life happen outside the MLM business like family, work, your car, bills, deaths, births etc. Just have life happen and not have your heart in it 100% and you can fail like I did.

There is light at the end of this dark depressing tunnel. It wasn't MLM, it wasn't failing or succeeding, it was me. I had and am still finding out that in order to be successful in anything first I had to work on me.

Amazing that it took my MLM experience to wake me up to the changes I had to make in my life so I may reach my dreams.