I know this might sound funny from an L4 member who has literally helped hundreds of people outside of my team but I wanted to be real and get this off my chest. I have been spending more time in a MLSP forum to give free information and I ran into this.
There is a member there that many of you probably think like or at one time did.
“Can I learn from leaders for free?”
I want you to think about this.
I help many mlsp members, and many more on this forums who never say thanks. That is okay and expected. I still continue to bring value and help whoever is here on a semi automated basis. Trust me when I say I screen your calls cause I'm not superman.
I work my business 4-5 hours a day and can NOT help everyone as much as I should. That's life.
So who has priority?
- God
- Family
- My Primary business team
- MLSP team
- My own learning
- My own marketing
- MLSP in general (you peeps) — But guess what… I'm still here putting in my own time to help the community.
Looking at that order and how much I spend with helping people can you honestly say that you should “expect” me to work with you on a completely free basis over phone/email/text?
Think about this. Wouldn't that be wrong to my own teams that I help someone outside my team more than those in it? I mean they are basically paying me to be related. The cost of learning was to join my MLSP team and on a deeper level to join my primary business.
So where does one draw the line?
I'm not perfect and still learning. Success came to me in a wave and I need to know what is the general opinion on this. I would love to hear your opinion on this. I want to be the best MLSP L4 Leader out there and I need to connect to what you think.
Am I being a prick and should I help ANYONE without want and without time constraint even at the cost of sacrificing my own business partners and my own business?
Where does one draw the line? When should someone tell another member
What Lawrence Tam's Students Are Doing
— Look. you have called me 2 times, you have emailed me multiple times for help. Obviously you need help in the worst way possible yet you are crossing that line to when your taking up more time than a normal person should. —
Am I off base? Am I greedy?
I'm just being real and want real comments and not half baked one.
If you were at the Vegas event Tracey Walker talks about NOT leaching onto your leader. Be it in your mlsp team or primary. The more you leach onto them the less they too can educate themselves and grow. You must EARN their time. One way is to straight up buy it. Another way is to join their teams. But in the end we are in network marketing which consists of massive numbers. How does 1 person train everyone yet still grow? It's impossible. And hence why you must EARN IT. Be it you teaching your leader a new lead method, you offering to help on calls, you offering your skill sets like writing articles for them or following orders without question.
Myself and many leaders LOVE teaching. We love great students who apply what they learn. But with 24hrs in a day who should get the most attention? Your internal teams or those outside of it? Where is the line in the sand?
This teaching is critical if you are to ever have a massive team. I'm not saying take money and run but what I'm saying is you can't nickle a dime your leader for questions found in public places. David Wood talks about NEVER being your $2 tech support. Guess what… no one ever asks him technical questions.
As a leader we are grooming you to be self sufficient and ONLY reach out when you have to. This is why we do primary team webinars to answer questions on an open platform vs calling 100 people answering the same question.
Jerry Clark says P.A.T – Point At Tools. You must leverage tools to save time.
There are always going to be people on this board who say I'm not leading with a big heart. I ask those people to talk to the hundreds I have helped that I never made a dime from yet still trained them.
So which side are you on? Is Lawrence Tam a money hungry junkie that shouldn't be on the boards since he has a line he draws in the sand to when enough free training is enough?
OR
Is Lawrence Tam teaching you how to reach out to people by interviewing them first. Is it a process of finding out if Lawrence Tam would even want you on his personal team? Cause I'll tell you right now I've rejected members from joining due to the fact they were super needy, questioned my trainings and never applied what I taught. Why in the heck would I want to be linked to a member who is that unproductive and destructive to themselves?
Be accountable to your own business.
I've spent thousands of hours and thousands of dollars in this industry and education over the years. I have paid my dues. Why should you get a shortcut to learning when I paid in money and time?
have you paid your dues to the industry yet? If so, think about what your saying when your not happy to why I won't call you daily or let you in on my protected internal trainings…. think about it
Thinking back I spent 90min with a local mlsp member NOT in my team or primary. I'm not sure if that was the best use of my time as that whole night was used on that person. I sacrificed my training to my personal team and personal development. I'm not sure if I should be doing that for free considering I could have been using that time training my new team members. Am I off base?
Voice your opinion below 😉 (I'm ready for positive and negative feedback alike. I'm human)
Lawrence Tam
PS. Make sure to graduate from my 7 day internet lead generation bootcamp. I don't want you asking questions like “where do you get leads” when I tell you plainly what I'm doing.
PPS. I wrote this article in mind to you Jesse. I want to spend more time with leaders like yourself and I have to be Blunt. Blunt as Heck! But in doing so I feel I can evolve into a kick butt mentor you deserve. I'm growing just like everyone else. I want to be the mentor you would travel the world to see. And my journey into doing so starts with real feedback. I want my teams to explode and exceed what I've done personally. I am one father, one husband, one marketer online making to change our industry for the better.
Lawrence, as someone who has personally benefited from you before I even joined your primary business, I can tell you that you are not off base. I believe there IS such a thing as free ride. It’s called the parking shuttle. But once you get to the door, you still have to pay to get in.
The law of reciprocity isn’t about giving away the farm for free. For those who understand the Law of Attraction, it is understood that manifesting what you want doesn’t happen through magic mental pixie dust. Your intentions work to align you with opportunities.
Last night, at MLSP’s “Live the Dream” recap webinar, opportunity presented itself for those who stuck around to the end. That there’s a price to pay to “get in” is inconsequential to me. Why? Because if you paid attention, you were basically “told” what you need to do to keep pace with the best and succeed. You don’t need to pay for any of it. But you’d be stupid not to when it will take all but the most skilled marketers and programmers an eternity to learn it all and do it right without flat out quitting when it gets a little too tough.
So no, my man, you give plenty. You gave me your personal playbook on a particular marketing strategy without even mentioning a single word about your primary business. And I was already an MLSP member under someone else. That’s why I joined you on the spot. So no worries. Your leadership is refreshing and welcomed in my book.
This really does help.
See i gave without want for 6 months. in 6 months i sponsored a LOT of MLSP people and generated a lot of affiliate income but ZERO sponsors. I was pulling my hair out. What am I doing wrong?
Now am finding the line to where to just tell people this is what you need to do to learn more or work with me. And of course I can’t please them all but It’s a business and there is no reason for me to hide my intentions.
I want to help. I do. But the more time I invest in you ( i mean really invest like multiple emails/texts and scheduled training calls) it gets to the point where do I ask cause if you keep coming back obviously I’m doing something right, right?
Some people get it, just like you Camilo. Others want you to train them every single week just because they asked and you should because your a leader. I lead by example and I don’t want anyone to be spending too much time (everyone has their own limits) to what they should give away for free.
Remember, we all spent money and time learning. Why should someone come along totally free? We are in business and not a non profit charity.
The ONLY entity I have EVER offered without want is to help my church with their online marketing campaign. I expect NO payment nor will I accept any if they did.
But MLSP members, MLSP members in other teams, even other numis reps…. there is a line I must draw. The more time I spend outside my team is the less I spend inside. I want to share how I sponsor by giving value but if the person doesn’t get it I will have to Cut the free training short.
Looks like you have good parameters around your time, but spending time with folks who aren’t in your direct business, even 90 minutes, IMO should be decided on a case by case basis. Maybe create some kind of time limit in your week to help those folks? That said, there comes a time when the hand holding must stop, couldn’t agree more.
As for my exposure to you, you are the third MLSP person that I’ve made contact with as I weigh the value this company can bring to my primary business. I like your freebies, helps me to know whether or not I can trust you and if you know what you’re talking about. These days, business online must be earned, you’re doing a great job.
cheryl, you just brought a smile to my face in my small little cubicle environment.
I’ve been trying to set up a 15min for external guests, 30min for mlsp members, and ~1hr for numis/soc teams. It has been working out pretty well.
This just came to an issue when someone in another MLSP team questioned why he must join my team to get help. I think I might have asked too soon and should have just pushed this member to someone in my team to get him working as he just had simple technical questions.
I am NOT your $2/hr tech help that is for sure. There are only certain cases I’ll go in and do some surgery and those are generally executive and long time members with me.
I bring value with automate features like my blog, forums, and facebook. But when I’m interrupted with text/email/phone those can only go so long before I must ask.
do you want to make money or do you want to keep spinning your wheel picking my brain. if you want to make money do business with me and stop with the free consultations. My wall of video testimonials should be enough to let you know I’m here to stay.
Well that was long! I think your list of priority’s is right on…although I honestly am not sure how you are able to keep God and Family at the top, with how much you give to others. I really don’t know how you do it!
I think there does come a point when a leader has to limit who they are giving their time to, and your family and your primary business and team should come first. And if you are training right, which I think you are in many ways, then there should be a lot of duplication (your team goes and teaches the new members of the team instead of you, and even do more and more of the prospecting for you whole organization so you don’t have to.). But that is one point this gets fuzzy for me though, where is the line between trying to bring people into your business and helping people for free? Because offering free advice and help is a really effective way to get people into your primary business. I mean that is why I joined you man because you invested in me without trying to sell me and no has ever done that with me before. You gave me hope and I saw leadership and sincerity, that is why I joined you. I would never have joined you if it was not for that time the you invested in me. And I hope to prove that I was a worthy investment and to become a big player in your team within the next yet.
But that being said, on the other hand, if you are still getting a lot of leads without having to connect with or help people at all, or if a large hand full is willing to pay for your coaching just by merit of your leadership and web presence alone, then it doesn’t really seem like a good use of time to be giving away a ton of free training.
So I am torn, I think you be smart to lay back on free training, but on the other hand I wouldn’t be here myself if you were doing that all along. It is all amount what is more important to you! Is it more time with your family? Is it seeing your primary business grow at all cost. Is it changing peoples lives? If you do care about changing peoples lives then you have to ask yourself you just want to change the lives of those who are already somewhat successful or does it mean something to help people who can’t always give back right away?
I mean I guess either way there are losers and users, so it is a hard discussion. There are people you can give to for free who will end up going to the top because you did (and will pay you a lot more later). There are also people you invest for free who will never go anywhere or do anything. Likewise there are people who can pay to join you or get your training who go really far and some, even after making an investment who still don’t go anywhere. I say, go with your gut, but don’t make any hard and fast rules. But don’t be afraid to say no more either, you really can’t help everybody. Well, that was long too! Cheers! 🙂
Aaron. I’m an imperfect being. I forget. and this is why I love my wife so much. She reminds me WHY i’m busting my butt. So then I screen calls and don’t talk to people during my time with kids.
I have have NEVER openly stated this but…. I am slowly decreasing my activity with the MLSP community as a whole as all other L4 leaders are gone to their own teams. I feel I must do the same as I’m hurting my time with my personal time with jesus. I don’t read enough and I’m gaining weight because I’m neglecting my top priorities. I always wondered why I’m one of the few left who help out and it’s because of people who want free handouts. sad but i’m only one man doing this part time.
that is the line I am pondering. do i invest more free time to those who have invested a LOT into themselves yet can’t quite get over the hump. There is a lady who I really enjoy working with in another team and she’s put in a LOT of time yet very little results. I would LOVE To work with her and i had to just come out and say it. But… not after giving her as much free value as I could so she could understand how I teach and I know my stuff.
More and more leaders are charging sums to speak with them. I mean come on. it’s like talking to your professor about your homework. The answer lies with the questions you ask! but the students who stay in class 24/7 with the professor will always grow faster.
My goal is to spend more time with family as I have worked harder than 99% of the people in MLSP. I want to dedicate my time to those i’ve built up in my team but with this thinking I would have never worked with you Aaron.
Man, hard decision.
one thing is for sure. When Brian says the majority of people you train will NOT do the work… he’s not kidding. I’ve trained over 450+ mlsp people in my team alone. I can say there are only a portion that actively took their business seriously. Others blamed the system, me not holding their hand, or complained about the environement… or best yet $100/month is too much to work a business from home.
I treat others like I treat myself. To a point many call me too blunt. But this is business. I’m here to explode your wallet. That won’t happen if you can’t run at my speed. I want people to surpass my own achievement so the teacher can now be the student.
Thanks for commenting everyone!
Hey Lawrence,
I have never asked for help from a leader yet, so I am going off of what my gut is telling me.
I know that in this industry the top leaders in primaries don’t really have the time to help the newbies, and most of the time new people can’t afford the high ticket for mentoring.
When a leader comes out like yourself and quite honestly I have not heard of any other leader since I have been in our community ( you and I are in the same primary and Mlsp) come out and say they want to help more than just their team.
I believe or should I say I would pay a fee to help me succeed. Only because i know beyond a doubt that this is what I want for my family and myself. You are not in the wrong, not a prick and have every right to speak as you have.
Now shoot me some numbers and let’s get Rollin brutha.
Phil Ruiz
i like. That’s what i’m talking about!
all students MUST graduate from my bootcamp first.
E.A.T
Education. Apply. Train
Then lets talk mentoring.
Great article Lawrence! And I agree with you…I used to ‘babysit’ my followers when I first started out…only to have them take hours from my precious time and they eventually quit…Sometimes it’s better to offer pure value for free, but… when it comes to mentoring, if prospects are really hungry to succeed, certain things which are pretty obviously found elsewhere shouldn’t ask you about them…If prospects are not ready to dig for obvious answers themselves, then I believe they are not worth the countless hours of mentoring.So I agree with you…share with all followers any stuff you find useful yourself for free, then if they apply it and are ready to move on, then yes, they deserve coaching for free.That’s my personal opinion and strategy I use on a daily basis. It helps separate dreamers from real wannabies :)Keep up the good work, my friend 🙂
I will see you at the top 😉
Hey Lawrence, great post you have here. You raised an interesting point and certainly your justified to start charging people who are not on your team coaching fees or what ever you want to call it. However, you seem like a humble person and I believe that if you continue to help people without charge your benefits would be greater than if you did charge people.
I don’t suggest spending that much time on a person all at once because you have your own team to train and your own business to run. I’m considering MLSP but the last time I reached out for help the leader tried to recruit me into their business and that was a turn off all I’m saying is to keep your trainings short and sweet for those who aren’t on your team..
I’m not here to sponsor everyone and want to attract leaders. is what I’m doing pushing leaders away by being blunt?
Hey Lawrence, I think your straight forwardness is going to attract the type of leaders your looking for..You have to let people know you like to have fun but at the same time, you mean business!!!!
yeah, i gotcha. all about attraction marketing. I was actually shocked another MLSP member didn’t want an interview with me in Vegas. she said I intimidate her. I’m like WHAT! I think i’m pretty blunt and open.
I know that I am reluctant to ask for help. There are times that I should, but I understand the load that you have on your shoulders. Having said this, I do attend most of your training webinars. I did attend MLSP’s webinar last night “mlsp.com/6module” and I read your email and comment on this program. This seems to be just what I need to progress in my business.
I missed you on skype, my mike was out of order.
Max Brand
max, hold on that. I will teach you 😉
Here’s my humble opinion. I have been around before mlsp was born. Those days called the mlm gold mine era. Pay it foward 4 protis system, spider web system, you name it… NOBODY offer sincere answers to me before. Then mlsp saw the light a couple of years ago. I knew about mlsp through two “not anymore mlsp members”. Let’s say they were first mlsp members… something like baby boomers to mlm… Never join with them because whether they like it or not, never felt that leader – student connection with them. May be that was a timing issue who knows but where they are now? I don’t know… Even some top numis and mlsp “leaders” never help me without asking for “show me your interest buying from me first” alpha leadership BS!…. lol. Less than 5 months ago I’m back to mlm and started to use mlsp following a leader with a similar background than mine.
I don’t know if this helps or not but I’m focused and glad to be working with someone (that I haven’t met yet in person before) who believes in a random “soon to be”… alpha leader.
That’s one little piece of my story and opinion.
Glad to be part of Lawrence primary and mlsp team.
Moises Colon
Puerto Rico
us engineers think alike. You will rock it online and offline brother.
Lawrence,
Honestly your bootcamp is more than you should even share for free. I have paid hundreds on ebooks and courses that don’t provide the same quality and seemingly hands-on aspect of your training. I am not just saying this to complement you, I truly mean it.
Marketers must focus on things that will provide growth, which is why I think you outsource certain things. Spending time with someone who doesn’t take initiative to go through your training is not the best use of time in my opinion.
Most people are trained their whole life to be employees and are accustomed to having someone tell them what to do, which is a big problem I see in this industry. I am not here to babysit anyone and neither should anyone else. We all create trainings and even the MLSP training center is one of the better free training resources out there.
Treating this like a hobby is wasting people’s time, whereas treating this business and industry like there was a million dollar investment involved is going to keep anyone focused.
Thank you,
Gabriel Johansson
my method is to show you without a shadow of a doubt I’m the real deal. I offer CRAZY value up front as a “filter”. If you don’t understand what I’m giving away for free your not ready to work with me. But those who get it understand the hours and dollars I’ve spent on myself.
YOU are an example of someone who gets it. I will see you at the top Gabriel
Hi Lawrence, You’re doing a fantastic job in training your team and even those who are not on your team. Your team will explode.oneday. I feel priveledged to be a member of your team. This is the first time that a team leader, promised to help me and realy did as he promised. So I am thankful. You get more blessing in giving than receiving. If God is at the top of your prioty list then you’re not a loser, you’re already a winner. The good you’re doing will be rewarded in due time.
As for me I need to realize that I have someone that I have not personally met who has my interest at heart. The sooner I realize tis the better it will be for me. So be patient with me. I was around long before MLSP. I am from the days when ‘Amway’ was king. When leaders only talk about helping their downline but it never happen, so you had to fend for yourself or end up getting frustrated and often times leave the business. So I say kudos to you . I just need to break bad habits of depending on mysel and ask for more help. I will endevour to do begining today. I did download the 7-day Bootcamp and is working on it. I promise I will graduate from it. I would like to know how to find leads, and you have the answers. So I must communicate more often. I listened to the webinar earlier this enening. You’ll be proud of me one day. Thanks, Joyce.
yes, you must speak up. Even if it’s not directly with me I have you paired with a dynamic duo in Ryan and Jesse. Don’t be shy on help but still of course do your homework first. WE are a team. I can only lead IF given good feedback.
The main reason for this post was to determine if I’m prospecting too much vs helping my current team. I don’t want to be those people who keep looking to grow outside vs promoting inside.
You will rock on very soon. absorb the fundamentals of what I teach and get going with your own 90 day 90 article marathon 🙂
I believe in exactly as you say, Lawrence. Continuing with what both Tracey and Nicole Cooper mentioned, they both PAID to find their mentors. Your leadership, Lawrence, is to show what you know, give out some of the knowledge you have, then let the ‘student’ either implement the knowledge or join you to learn more.
As students of Internet Marketing, it’s up to us to ‘feel’ out potential mentors and see which one we feel has the ‘goods’ to help us find our way. Once we get the free, upfront value from leaders, we can then choose who to join or who to PAY. Nothing’s free in life. To get ahead, there is a price….either our time to figure things out with small pieces of knowledge or a monetary investment to speed up our results!
see that is the situation I’m in. I don’t want a price tag on me but it’s getting close. I need to filter. I’ve had a LOT of people hit me up to the point of…. what am I sacrificing in the end? My traffic, my leads, my own education, my primary team, and my mlsp team.
But I was just like everyone else figuring it out. I too was lost and struggled and to a point still am. I have not made a Crazy amount so I too am still a student of the game.
But that is what is really bugging me. If I were to charge I know the small 5% of the people I mentored for free would have never taken the next step with me and who I REALLY wanted to mentor. it’s like a double edged sword. Some relationships took months to build and it was worth it in gold then I think back to the others who sucked the life out of me to the point I wanted to do strict Internet Marketing (yes I have and still am considering it after listening to Daegan Smith).
My team is big enough. Let them grow and move on to a people-less business? I struggle to find the comfort zone and just wished there were more people like me around who have that burning desire.
After thousands of leads, it just gets to you that so many will never make a better life for themselves even though I have told them straight up what they need to do.
Hey Lawrence, Great post you give more than take! Your free training is the perfect amount to get people started and going. Some people will be more needy than others, I get that. But when it comes to they are outsourcing you for free, then you just have to draw the line. It seems like pretty much everyone, or every true leader, runs into this at some point in their journey, and yours is right now. Your doing a great job, keep it up, or as P90X says keep bringing it! I’m just getting started and I wish I had your problem now. 🙂
i had to shut the door on someone I REALLY like. it just so happens she is in another leg of my numis team. deep down I feel like a bastard but come on. I bleed over my work. I earned it and I feel it’s the value to my team. It’s just odd to act like this but I need to set a standard. You either are working WITH me or your not. If your outside you will need to be consulted by me which is not free.
This industry has really changed my views on time and I’m still juggling. I’m imperfect and learning.
Paul, you will rock it – Go Go Go
A small business owner like me normally does not have time to follow up or catch up with the training camp as needed. What I feel like I found is the network marketing needs facebook, own website, Youtube, twitter, aweber, blog, wordpress, ezine, the myleadsystempro membership and time.
To catch up with the training, these things should already have been in my body to apply.
You see I have my own website, youtube account, blog, aweber account, facebook account and magnetic sponsoring and MLSP already. I think I brought home what I need. Yet, I do not know how to operate those things. It’s just like a old man brought a computer and does not know what to do.
He spends lot of time trying to figure out how to about those things. I understand it’s selling oneself being a leader. Making oneself a leader takes time. I need to get used using these things first.
It’s like running long distance and I have my own pace to make it. I think many old peoples like me has the same problem. I was born in 1948. I also understand network marketing is to leave those who do not follow and just take those who follow. I’m jus a slow follower.
By the way I hope I can take the webinar after the webinar was over. I wish I could attend the webinar on time. My business does not allow me that.
I like you very much and I’m learning though your blog. I wish I could run fast so I can catch up with you. Thanks anyway.
everyone runs at their own pace. This is my journey and hope you come along for the ride ;0
awesome post bro, Your blog is nice tam, I will be back for more bro.
come on back anytime 😉
Anything you do for anyone outside of your priority list can be termed “selfless’, and though by world standards, not necessary, if your heart prompts you to do it, it shouldn’t be more than 10% of your time. You will not have the leisure of spending this 10% for others, if you do not give the 90% for yourself in the first place. It’s also called “tithing”. God will bless and multiply your work in the other 90% of the time.
Be Blessed.
thanks… it’s just hard to take care of yourself when everyone wants help but aren’t willing to “commit” either by working for the long haul or with money…. my time is limited and it’s just a hard line to walk.
I totally agree with you. Your time and tips are intellectual property that has value because of the countless hours you spent figuring things out and building your business to the level it is at now.
Everyone is selective with their associations as they should be. Life is too short to spend any time on negativity or things that are going to drain your energy and not enrich you in any way.
I love your stuff, attitude and what you have to offer.
I am a newbie who has learned much from you and many others for free or very little. Once I saw that what you and MLSP have to offer is solid and quality, I have made the commitment to put my time and a chunk of money toward making this happen for me.
Thank you
yep.. it’s about leaving clues to what you did to make it happen. people pick it up and follow you from that point on.