104: Teresa Harding - Queen Of Offline Recruiting... - a podcast by Steve Larsen: Automated Downline Recruiting

I have a very special guest for you today!

Frankly, I'm very shocked that we are able to get someone with such incredible stature in this show.

SHE’S AMAZING! She's an incredible individual and we're all very lucky to have her here.

I'm not gonna say the name of her MLM. I wanna keep it very company neutral so this remains a PURE marketing knowledge place.

She…

• Has helped open 40 countries for the network marketing company she's a part of.
• Has a downline of over FOUR AND A HALF MILLION people!
• Is an INCREDIBLE person and she has a podcast called MLM Game Changer.

We're VERY privileged to have her on here today. Teresa, welcome to the show.

THE QUEEN OF OFFLINE RECRUITING

Teresa Harding: Thank you!

I am REALLY excited to be here and I honestly feel really honored because you’ve been a mentor for a lot of the things that I've learned.

Thank you for having me!

Steve: That's awesome, thanks so much.

People may not know you yet or have listened to your podcast yet…

How did you get started in this game?

Teresa: Oh, my goodness, I HATED network marketing.

I thought it was almost EVIL.

There were experiences where people tricked you into coming to a meeting at their house…

They invite you to dinner, that whole thing, and I couldn't stand it!

I was not interested AT ALL.

https://youtu.be/aqn-PxmrYGE

My sister invited me to a class, and I love my sister. We're very close.

I knew I was going to go support her but I told my husband, "Look, would you please come with me? I have to go to this thing because I have to support her."

So I went and I was SURPRISED by the product. As you guys all know… Network marketing companies often have pretty amazing products.

Steve: Amazing products!

Teresa: I didn't know that at the time…

Ours is a health product. My niece at the time was two years old…

She started having some pretty serious neurological problems that were pretty scary, and someone told my sister, "Oh, you should try this product"...

And I thought, "Oh, brother, are you kidding me?"

The support and what I saw was actually UNBELIEVABLE…

So I started researching and looking into it and ended up WANTING the product but NOT gonna the business.

I started using the product and helping people with the product and I started getting a little paycheck but I WASN’T trying to build.

BUILDING AN OFFLINE RECRUITING BUSINESS

So, I thought, "Fine. I'll do this for three months. I am not talking to my friend and I am not talking to my family."

Steve: Right!

Teresa: In that, I think we're kindred spirits. I have heard SO MANY of your trainings!

That's how I got involved, fell in love with it and now, LOVE…

1. Helping people
2. Network marketing

Steve: When did it start becoming a REAL thing for you?

You're like, "Man, this is actually something that I wanna go full-time into and get four and a half million people"?

Obviously, it didn't happen all at once… But what did that look like?

Teresa: And of course, it doesn't happen by yourself.

It really takes A LOT of people working hard together and I have a lot of amazing leaders on my team, as you can imagine.

Once I decided I'm gonna do this for three months… I'm kind of a go-getter and I always reach my goals.

My goals are always crazy high where I constantly have naysayers telling me it can't be done, and I just go ahead and do it anyway…

I don't always reach them as soon as I want.

I decided to try it for 3 months and then I went after it…

It was working and it was UNBELIEVABLE!

NETWORK MARKETING IS HELPING PEOPLE

I quickly discovered that it really IS about helping people.

I built mine offline at first and it's just been amazing.

And I absolutely that you don't pressure people. It's not about chasing, hunting people down.

We are not the hunter and they are not the target.

Steve: Yeah, absolutely.

One of the biggest questions I get, and I'm sure you get it all the time, is… “How long have you been at it?”

And I feel like the thing that they're asking is, “Is it really worth it for me to go after that?”

And they're trying to find some logical reason to release themselves from the pressure of moving forward.

With that backdrop, and everyone now knowing how I feel about that… How long have you been at it?

Teresa: I've been doing this for 11 years.

At first, I was doing it part-time because I was a stay-at-home mom.

I'd never really been involved in business before.

Of course, I had skills and I had been to college… But I wanted to raise my own kids.

So, I did that and this came about right as my kids were getting a little bit older.

I would only do it part-time while they were at school or at their sports practices and things like that.

NETWORK MARKETING PART TIME

For the first several years, it was very part-time… But I'm an overachiever, which is fun for me.

I would get A LOT done in the time that I had but then… As it got to a point where I could spend more time on it and I was able to do it full-time, I remember the day thinking, "Okay. Now, let's see what we can do."

At that point, I was a pretty high rank (third from the highest rank that you could achieve in the company).

I'd achieved A LOT…

Steve: That's so awesome.

Teresa is 100% the queen of offline building.

You have this down to a SCIENCE.

You're so good at it, you're known for it.

You have your own programs on that as well!

Did you learn those things? I'm sure some of it was discovered along the way…

Better tactics and methods on recruiting...

How do you start getting really good at that? Because MOST don't.

Teresa: First of all, you have to know… I am EXTREMELY opinionated about how it should be done.

The way that people pressure and try to approach all their friends and family… I did not agree with that AT ALL!

We DO have people make their list… But the way they approach is absolutely about WHAT they know that person actually NEEDS.

The thing I fell in love with when I found your online stuff was that we had been trying to figure out online for the last four years and we HAD figured it out… But not to the extent that you had.

NETWORK MARKETING ONLINE

When I found your stuff I freaked out because I was like, "Oh, my goodness."

We HAD figured it out, but that was the icing on the cake!

We've geeked out over you… Over ClickFunnels… All of that.

The way that you teach online, that's exactly how you should be doing it offline.

All the things that you do…

• Attract the people who are interested
• Don't go after the people who are not interested
• Not trying to get every single person on your team

If you're worrying more about the other person than yourself… You're meeting their needs and solving their problems.

If you can solve their problems, you'll continue that journey together.

But if you CAN’T, you can still be friends. You don't need to bring up that stuff all the time.

The best compliment I ever got was when a neighbor of mine came to me needing something for a health situation.

She didn't use our product, but she knew of our product. She needed to find something for her daughter and asked if we had anything.

I told her “Yes”, I was HELPING her.

She said, "There are a lot of people in our neighborhood who do your business… My husband said, I don't want you talking to anyone else, I want you talking to Teresa because she won't hound us, and she won't bug us."

Steve: WOW!

Teresa: That's probably the most powerful compliment because that is EXACTLY how you build offline…

NETWORK MARKETING ONLINE VS OFFLINE

You do the same things that we do ONLINE…

There are just some tricks to figuring out how to do it online, in the same way there are some tricks to figuring out how to do it offline…

It's just it's faster online, which is so exciting as we've gotten into that!

Steve: It's funny because the way I think about the Internet… There are a few very easy plays (like little football plays) that I think about.

"I'm gonna run that play, I'm gonna run that play."

And I just know it just works because it adds value before you go follow up with asking them to actually join.

What's one of your favorite methods for offline growth?

Teresa: We actually have some scripts that we give people for different types of situations…

So many people say too much, or say it wrong…

The nice thing about online is you write it in the funnel, then it's there and you don't mess up.

The hard part about offline is you need to LEARN how to say things… Ultimately it’s about:

1. Asking them questions
2. Finding out what it is that they need

In the online space, we try to touch those emotions that make them feel like we are talking to them… That's the exact same thing we're doing OFFLINE where we're finding out WHAT their needs are.

That's ONE thing that we do…

OFFLINE RECRUITING TECHNIQUES

The second thing we do is, any time I meet someone… I am not trying to bring up my MLM. I am trying to get to know them, making new friends…

It's fun for me! I make new friends!

I travel a lot internationally and I make new friends. When we're talking, two things ALWAYS come up…

1. Your business or what you do for work
2. Health

If I saw a movie that I wanted to tell you about… I'm not gonna make any money off that movie.

But if it was so awesome, I'm going to want to tell you about it.

"Steve, oh, my God, have you seen that movie? It's awesome, you have to go and see that movie."

I would do it the same way whether or not I'm gonna make money off of that.

If it's really something that I feel that way about and I could help people with, then that's how we approach it.

Steve: That makes total sense, it is very natural with that approach. That's very cool.

One of the reasons why I started doing MLM on the Internet is because I was so afraid to talk face-to-face with people.

In that four and a half million you must have someone who's fearful of talking face-to-face?

So I was like, "Well, I'm kind of a nerd. I'll go create a system, but that's really nerdy and most don't go do that."

For all the people who are like, "Alright, Teresa, how do I go do it? I've got Steven's stuff but I still wanna talk face-to-face."

What do you say to those people who are just super scared of talking face-to-face, how do you get over that fear?

OFFLINE RECRUITING = FACE-TO-FACE

Teresa: There's at least ONE person in four million… Probably every single one has been there…

Even when I was super confident and had been presenting in front of tens of thousands of people… I would still get in front of someone on the airplane and all of a sudden something would happen and I would wanna be careful not to make it awkward.

Steve: Yeah, just clam up in the air…

Teresa: That's ALWAYS a thing…

We:

• Teach people
• Do role
• Have a script that is super simple and not awkward, that anybody can use

… You could totally use it for your company.

It says HOW to offer the sample (or whatever you're gonna do) and it's so powerful.

IT WORKS. Our numbers increase significantly when we use this script.

It tells you what to say to them if they had a:

• BAD experience
• GOOD experience

We have spent so many marketing dollars on figuring out HOW soon should you respond to someone.

For example, with your email sequence, you know EXACTLY what days you're sending those out.

Steve: Boom, BOOM, BOOM!

Teresa: It's the EXACT same thing!

You give them the sample, and three days is waaay too long.

If you do it the next day, they feel like you're hounding them.

They're like, "Why won't you leave me alone now?"

FOLLOWING UP WITH PEOPLE IN NETWORK MARKETING

TWO DAYS is perfect, and you warn them ahead of time.

For example, I always tell them I’m going to contact them, tell them why, and tell them how.

That sounds like it can be so dramatic, but listen to this, it's super simple…

So if I said, "Hey, Steve, you've got this thing, okay? Try it like this and I'll give you a call in a couple of days to see how it's going."

Steve: So it's seeded… I don't feel pressure.

Teresa: Now when I do call you, you're not going. "Why is she calling me again?"

You're going, "She is taking such awesome care of me. I can't believe she's taking the time to do this with me."

Just little things like that. I've seen your trainings on sales pages and the wording that you do. It's exactly the same thing, it really is.

Steve: That's so cool!

Yeah, many people have asked how do they do offline.

It's the same...

I'm not going to build a funnel, I'm just gonna do it my way. That IS a funnel.

It doesn't matter whether it's online or offline.

Funnels existed when the first caveman traded a rock for a piece of whatever.

Teresa: That's why I was so excited when I found your stuff.

You took the real way to do network marketing that is truly helpful, not pressure… And you put it online.

You didn't change it and mess up the system.

THE BEAUTY OF ONLINE RECRUITING

The beauty of online is you can do it faster and reach more people.

If you can spend ad dollars, that's even better.

I have made more stupid mistakes than anybody network marketing… I am quite sure.

So I know my stuff inside and out.

I was learning the online stuff and digging even deeper, and going, “How fun to connect the two, how fun to put it together and go, wow, this is honestly moving into the 21st century!”

Steve: It's taken FOREVER!

We’VE got a lot of up-lines that are AFRAID of it…

When did you start reaching out for assistance and help and growth?

Were you consuming books and CDs and courses?

What kind of training did you consume at the beginning?

Teresa: When we first started, I'd never done this before…

I didn't have any connections in the industry and I had not had any success myself because I was BRAND NEW…

So I went to the owners of our company (who are pretty renowned) they're amazing in the industry.

But they're not used to doing what we do... But they were EXTREMELY helpful.

I learned as much as I could and I basically went to them and said, "Okay, you tell me who's making the most in network marketing and you tell me what they're doing, and then I will try to mimic that."

NETWORK MARKETING BOOKS

Then started reading tons of business books, tons of network marketing books…

I can't even share my gratitude enough for the people who come before who spent their lifetime learning all these things so that I can learn in a book what it took them years and years to learn.

There's always great information… But I'm pretty opinionated about that whole pushy network marketing attitude.

And there are some books out there that are very much that way.

You will NEVER hear me advocating that. I absolutely don't think it's necessary.

Obviously, it's not.

I believe that that's ONE of the reasons our team is so massive… Because it doesn't feel that way.

I devour books and I read like crazy.

I was on Goodreads, and they had this reading challenge last year where they said, "How many books do you wanna read?"

We were living in China and I thought, “This is a busy year, so I probably better just say one book a month, even though I know I read a lot.”

By the end of the year, I had read 40 books.

Steve: What happened to your team growth when you started consuming all that training?

Teresa: Oh, my goodness!

What happens is, your team grows exponentially!

OFFLINE RECRUITING TO ONLINE RECRUITING

Not just in relation to how much you're learning, because you know what it's like…

The more you grow your business, the more you have to face things about yourself that you didn't necessarily wanna face.

Steve: And it sucks.

Teresa: It's weird… It's like you hit these lids that you don't realize you're hitting until you up-level your skill in that area…

You become a better leader, you learn something more that allows you to lead better, grow bigger, and progress more.

Steve: I think of it like those rock tumblers that we used to have growing up…

Did you ever have those?

You put all those rocks in and it’s super loud, really annoying…

Then you pull it out and you're like, “Oh, that was awesome.”

The nastier the rock, the more beautiful at the end.

Teresa: Smooth and gorgeous and a color that you didn't even know.

Steve: So you started building and building and building offline (obviously) and then… And then did you start taking that offline-to-online growth?

Teresa: It's never perfect… You always have things to learn but we knew how to do that offline building, no problem.

I started trying to do live seminars about six or seven years ago because I thought, “We know how to do this, we are good at this.”

If we can get MORE people in the room, we go BIGGER, we can go FASTER.

It worked and we were starting to figure it out… I actually partnered with some people who had run massive events for people like Zig Ziglar…

But it takes A LOT of capital and you're flying the whole team out to the area, going to Colorado and all of a sudden, it hit me…

FIGURING OUT ONLINE NETWORK MARKETING

You think I'd have figured this out sooner, but I was like, “Duh, if we're gonna do this, why do it live? Why not do it online?"

That's when I started going, "Dude, we figured this out online and then, of course, we can go do live events and people will come,"

It has been so fun and so expensive until I found you guys.

We had gotten the cost per acquisition down pretty low… Lower than anyone I know aside from the people that you train.

AND THEN, I found your stuff and it was so exciting.

And in fact, we brought a little gift for you.

Steve: Oh, yeah?

Teresa: Can I share this little surprise?

Steve: Absolutely.

Teresa: We made this for you.

Steve: Oh, yeah?

Teresa: I just have to tell you that my office team, my employees have been really excited about this and they've been sharing this all over the office over and over again.

We have a segment… I won't share the whole thing here because it's too long.

The one that we're going to give you is four minutes long, but this one is just 15 seconds…

Steve: I'm so excited!

NETWORK MARKETING MAGNET

Teresa: That's part of what draws people to you and to what makes you a magnet.

We have a four-minute segment that is just super-fun and I'll just tell you… We didn't have time.

We're gonna give you this and you can use it for however you see fit. It might just be fun to have as a sound on your phone.

I'm gonna turn that into my ringtone for you.

Steve: Oh, it sounds good. That's awesome!

I was speaking at an event once and there's a Q&A section at the end…

This lady stood up and she said, "I know you're thinking about apps. Will you ever make an app for all the sound effects you make?"

And I was like, "I think I'm flattered."

Teresa: That was awesome!

Steve: It's so funny 'cause I never realized I was doing it!

Teresa: It's what makes it engaging because you're so fun.

You're so YOU and you just draw people in!

Steve: That means a lot. I'm very excited about it.

Teresa: It's really fun. I hope you like and I hope you take it as a compliment.

Steve: It's a huge compliment, totally.

I will take that and blast it EVERYWHERE!

Thank you SO MUCH for being on the show and thanks for walking through this.

OFFLINE RECRUITING ADVICE

Could you just give ONE MORE piece of advice for somebody who is just starting out and they're seeing this road and they're like, "Oh, man, she's been doing this for 11 years."

Teresa: I would absolutely look to the masters WHO knows what they're doing and do what they do.

Steve's trainings are phenomenal, that MLM Hacks… Oh my goodness!

The thing I love about your training is people can do this very low level.

You DON’T have to be techy and you DON’T have to be a coder.

You have trainings that allow you to go slow, but then, you take people up the ladder to go into something that is bigger.

The people who wanna go deeper, like me… It allows us to geek out over that stuff and you guide us through the process to make sure that we do it right.

NETWORK MARKETING FRONT LINE

I've done this for 11 years, and I have people who wanna be on my front line…

I say, "Okay. So, if you're serious about this, I gotta know," and we go through the requirements.

The requirements are basically...

• You do it the way that I teach until you hit *THIS* rank
• Once you're that rank, you do whatever you want because I've seen it, I've done it, I know what works

I love the Secret MLM Hacks because you take people through the process without them having to go figure it all out for 10 years by themselves.

You've been doing this for a long time, you truly are the guru.

You deserve kudos for that, because you are helping people all across the industry and I know that this is starting a wave that is changing the MLM industry.

In answer to your question, I would say If you only wanna build online, build online.

If you only wanna build offline, build offline.

But if you wanna do both, I would recommend that you build the way you want, but make sure you incorporate the best pieces of BOTH of those sides so that you can reach ANYBODY.

NETWORK MARKETING GAME CHANGER

You're gonna come across people who simply say, "I wanna be on your team."

Steve: Yeah, a lot.

Teresa: You don't build offline because you build online… But you end up having to handle it offline and you're just good at it.

This might sound weird but… One of my tricks is to belittle the goal so that it's not so massive in my mind that I'm like, "There's no way I can go pull that off."

If I try to consume and understand and plan for all of it at the same time, there's no way! You get stressed out.

At the beginning, when I first started this, there were no podcasts.

No one was talking about this angle of it and it's cool to see how 180 degrees that is now.

I have bought your packages, I know your stuff and I'll just tell you… It changes the game.

Steve: That's awesome, thank you so much.

Thanks for being on here!

Where can people find you? Besides MLM Game Changers ?- Everyone go look at the podcast.

Teresa: The podcast, MLM Game Changers and we also have teresahardingmasterclass.com.

We have pre-registration there for a FREE Master Class that we do, teaching people how to combine the online with the offline.

I give shout-outs to Steve all the time.

There are certain people online that are THE BEST OF THE BEST.

Steve is one of them.

Steve: Thanks so much!

Teresa: Thank you for having me on.

Steve: Thanks for being on the show!

Everyone go check out and follow Teresa Harding. She's amazing!

She's the Queen of the offline bill.

TO RECRUIT ONLINE OR TO RECRUIT OFFLINE…

To recruit online or to recruit offline… That is the question.

By now if you listen to the show at all, you know I focus heavily on methods to recruit online in largely automated ways.

But what if you don't know what to do with speaking to somebody face-to-face who's actually interested?

• What do you do?
• What do you say?
• How do you keep the conversation moving?
• When should you follow-up and how often?
• Who should you pursue and who should you move on from?

Frankly, and totally honest, I'm good at all that online stuff.

But if you're like me, you might be a little bit of an introvert in the real world.

Whilst sales and marketing online is still sales and marketing offline, the mechanics are a little bit different.

I'll be an expert in what I am loudly, but I can't pretend to know all of these offline methods because I don't.

Who better to introduce you to, than the Queen of offline recruiting herself, Teresa Harding.

Teresa literally has MILLIONS of people in her downline as you listened to this. She's an offline recruiting EXPERT.

However, several months ago, she ran into my programs online and said exactly what you heard in my interview with her. "Steve, you did what we've been trying to do for 10 years."

If you wanna check out the same programs Teresa Harding has, go to listentoteresa.com and watch the free web class now.

Kind of like salt and pepper, Teresa and I are excited to finally collaborate a little to show you your individual strengths.

She'll teach you OFFLINE recruiting, I'll teach you ONLINE recruiting.

If you're ready to learn more of what Teresa did from my programs just type in, listentoteresa.com.

Further episodes of Secret MLM Hacks Radio

Further podcasts by Steve Larsen: Automated Downline Recruiting

Website of Steve Larsen: Automated Downline Recruiting