44: My Low Information Diet... - a podcast by Steve Larsen: Automated Downline Recruiting

Hey, what's going on, everyone? This is Steve Larsen, and you're listening to Secret MLM Hacks Radio. Here's the real mystery. How do real MLMers like us who didn't cheat and only bug family members and friends, who want to grow a profitable home business, how do we recruit A-players into our downlines and create extra incomes, yet still have plenty of time for the rest of our lives? That's the blaring question, and this podcast will give you the answer. My name is Steve Larsen, and welcome to Secret MLM Hacks Radio.

 

How you guys doing? It's been a little while since I've published, and I apologize for that. A combination of the holidays mixed with a lot of the stuff going on. I have been, and this is not to beat my chest or anything, but I've been recruiting a lot lately, and there's been a lot of my time and attention focused elsewhere. Also, what I was doing this morning is sitting back and thinking through what's happened, what can I tell you guys about that's been going on.

 

I have this funnel, this sales funnel that automates. It's been automating a lot of my recruiting, about 75% of it. There's still a last 25% that I haven't finished almost totally automating. It won't be completely automated. It'll be like 95% automated, but what ends up happening is somebody goes through, and they say, "Hey, look, I want to join your downline," and then they go through and ... See, last episode, I talked about getting material for my auto-closing script. What I do is I let the market tell me what I should be saying in that script. Does that make sense? It's what you should be doing too in your own MLM.

 

Today, what I wanted to tell you a little bit about, though, is what always ends up happening every time I see a new person in MLM come into this world. It's the cycle. It's the same thing that happened to me, honestly, until I realized what was going on. It kind of goes like this: Now, imagine with me, you just heard about MLM, you just, for the first time, you're bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. Let's say you've never done anything else business-wise at all, ever. Your only perception at that time is whatever your upline has told you about. Whatever ... I think a lot of you guys agree, and a lot of you guys know that, kind of my take on how MLM recruits. I feel like they're very, I would say I feel like they're stuck in the '90s. There's still very much the friends and family thing, which is a marketing tactic. It is a method. Not the only method, but for some reason, since it is an easy method, it is the only one is typically taught. Does that make sense? Anyways, let me go back to the story though.

 

It goes like this. It goes like this: You're brand new. You're just barely starting out in business. You're barely starting out in MLM. You don't know, let's say you don't know much. You're, go back to that spot where you're like, "I want to get into this. I am excited about MLM. I really want to make this happen," but as you go and you start moving down the path, you get excited, which is natural, of course. You get excited, you accelerate, you start consuming vast amounts of information, whether from your upline or you're buying books and tapes and CDs and you're learning from other greats.

 

Whatever it is, you're learning and learning and learning and learning and learning. You should be, and that's great, and you're drinking deeply, but all of a sudden, what ends up happening is, this tends to be the thing that happens in almost every single person's head as I've noticed it. What always happens is usually someone will start reading a book, and then they'll go to book number. They'll take 10 things or some lessons from book number one, then they go on to course number three. Then they go on to CD track number three. Then they go on to presentation or live event number four.

 

What they do is they end up creating this map in their head of everything it takes to be successful in this. Everything it takes to be ... What they start doing is they start creating these massive checklists inside their head. That's fine, that's great, that's dandy, but ends up happening is the person starts to experience overwhelm in a huge way. It starts to become crippling. They start to get analysis paralysis.

 

As they're accelerating, as they're on this upward trajectory, eventually, they start leveling out. They level out just a little here and there, and their progress slows because they think, "Oh my gosh. I gotta have X, Y, and Z done. I need to have this, this, and this done. I need to have one, two, and three done. I gotta have these things. Look at all the pieces here. Look at all the players there. Oh my gosh. This, this, this," and then they actually, they corner themselves, and they paint themselves back into a corner of complete paralysis because they've, there's too much to do in their perception. There's too many things to get done in their perception. How do you protect against this?

 

This is the same thing when I first started learning marketing in general. I was super excited. For years, I was studying, not just studying, I was literally, I was building businesses. It seemed to be in these three-month cycles. Since I'd never done it before, I was practicing and practicing and practicing by actually starting companies. If I hit a wall here, I found something that was more lucrative or better here or there, whatever, I would move on to the next one, and it was like these three-month cycles that I was in.

 

I was telling somebody the other day, I was like, "Yeah, I'm like a seven-year overnight success story of figuring out what didn't work and eventually stumbling on the amazing things that do," but I started learning, studying, drinking deeply. As I was doing that, I remember one day, it was in college. I was riding my bike home. A peddling bike, not motorcycle at the time because we didn't have enough money for another car. I was riding my bike home, and I was thinking to myself. I was listening to a podcast of somebody. I think it was the Pat Flynn Smart Passive Income Podcast. Love that podcast. Totally got me running and stuff, which is great, but what I realized is as I was biking home, there was this moment of frustration. I remember talking to myself, and I talk to myself a lot, but I remember talking to myself, and I was saying, "Why isn't any of this working?" That was my big question. "How come I can't seem to actually get off the ground with this?"

 

It was frustrating. It was maddening. I actually, it literally made me mad about it because I was like, "Man, I'm seeing these other people. I know the business that they're in. I know what I would do if I was in that scenario. How come I can't do it to my own? Oh, wait. It's because I don't have a business. Oh, I don't have a business. How many times am I actually asking for someone's money online? Oh, I don't even have a credit card form that's up. Why am I getting mad about this?"

 

I had to stop. I remember at that exact moment, I did something that was, it's honestly the key, I feel like, to being successful when you're brand new, or even experienced. There's an element to this, but it really helped me, it helped clear the noise in my head, thinking that I had to have this done and this done, remember this strategy, remember that, remember this piece over here, remember this over there, remember this, all these things and all pieces and all these gurus, which is great, which is great. You should learn, which is awesome, but if you don't have a business in the first place and you're not learning for a problem that you actually have to solve, what are you learning for?

 

What I did is I, on purpose, cultivated what I call a low-information diet. It's actually from Tim Ferriss. It's a low-information diet. Now, I'm not telling you to not drink deeply. Any time ... It's a learning cycle. That's actually what I call these, personally. It's my learning cycle. I can tell, I can feel right now, I am in an execution phase, meaning I put the books down. I put them down. I stop, on purpose, learning. People are like, "That's preposterous. Steven, oh my gosh, what are you doing?" I bet a lot of get, people might get kind of mad that I say that, but understand that it was the biggest thing that started leading me to my success when I was in college was I stopped learning. I stopped learning broadly, I should say. I started learning, I started learning very, very narrowly.

 

Now, I needed to learn broadly at first because I didn't even know what existed out there. I didn't know that there was thing called SEO. I didn't know about uplines and downlines. You know what I mean? I had to drink deeply. I call it the age of exploration. I go through this age of exploration where I'm just playing around. I'm learning about this, this, this, this, this. There's no rules on my learning, and then what I do, though, is I put heavy rules on my learning. It's the reason why I have some, quite a few books on my book shelf right now that I have not read because I don't have the problem that that book solves. I don't have that problem directly in front of me so why would I read the book right now? Why would I take the course for a problem that I don't need to solve right now.

 

Does that make sense? It's this execution phase that you have to hit. It's this execution where you put the book down, where you put everything else down because what ends up happening is the person experience overwhelm, then they go through overwhelm, they ... But I had to be very, very careful on the information I started consuming. What I did is I basically chose one or two podcasts because those were easy for me to listen. Tony Robbins calls it N.E.T. time, no extra time, meaning I can listen to while I'm driving, I can listen to while I'm at the gym, I can listen to ... It's stuff that you can do while you're doing other things. It's no extra time, N.E.T. time. Does that make sense?

 

I chose one or two podcasts, and that was honestly pretty much it, so that I could stay connected to the industry, but I went into this heavy execution phase applying all the stuff I was learning because what ended up happening was I started distracting myself thinking that I needed another book to be successful. I needed the other strategy. "Oh, there's something else that's out there. I'm not going to be successful without it. Let me go distract myself and blame the fact that I'm not being successful on the fact that I've not read another book."

 

Now, while at the beginning, that might be true because I hadn't gone through that age of exploration like I talk about, but eventually, though, I have to put everything down. Stop distracting yourself from your own success by picking up another course, another book, another guru, another ... Does that make sense? That's what ends up happening. I'm not telling you to not be ever learning, but what I am telling you to do is I'm trying to tell you to start tailoring, tailoring your learning to whatever problem you must solve in front of you right now.

 

Imagine this, do this right now: Emotionally put down the book. Do it right now with me. Put down ... I'm not telling you that it's not good. I'm not telling you that it's not amazing. I'm not telling you you can't learn anything. What I'm trying to do is I'm trying to help you understand what honestly extremely successful people know. There's an interview that was, well, there's a lot of people that say this, so I don't know if I can quote a specific person, but the difference between a millionaire and someone who's not a millionaire is someone who's learned to say no. Someone who's learned to say no. Someone who, the difference between someone who is successful and someone who is extremely successful is somebody who has learned to say no 99% of the time. Not yes, and that was my issue. "Yes, I'll take another course. Yes, I'll read another book. Yes, there must be something else out there that I'm looking for, that I'm searching for. Because I'm not being successful yet; therefore, I can't be the problem. I must not know enough." You know what I mean?

 

No. I wasn't taking the time to execute, which takes way longer than it does to learn the strategy. Does that make sense? I hope things are clicking in your head about this because this one thing has completely changed my entire life. I'm not saying that to be all mushy-gushy or whatever. It's true, because I stopped learning random stuff, and all I do now is I start executing, and I execute, and I execute. I come up with a plan, and I execute on it. I put a deadline to it. A close one. One that is ridiculous. One that seems slightly far-fetched for me to even get done, and then, in my brain, I believe that I have to get that done, or I will die or get sick or something and, you know what I mean? It's not like some willy-nilly little deadline out there. I put the deadline out there, and I'm like, "Hey. I have to hit this. I have to this, or ... " I know this is kind of extreme, but it's part of what gets me moving.

 

"Look. I must get this done, or my family will not eat." You know what I mean? That's where I go. That's where I go mentally and emotionally. When I get to that spot, when I do that, what always ends up happening is I actually do get the stuff done the majority of the time by the deadline, especially when I've promoted it to the public. Does that make sense? When I'm like, "Hey, this next thing's going to be done here, here, and here," I have to get it done. I've done other people about it, so my holding my own feet to the fire. Does that make sense, but I'm starting to tailor my learning to whatever's coming up next. As I do the pieces, I hardly ever, ever see the full picture of where I'm trying to go. I see the top of the mountain. I see the three steps immediately in front of me. I do not see the path on the way.

 

What I do is I know where the peak of the mountain is, I know where I'm trying to go, I see the three steps in front of me, I take three steps. "This is all the pieces I can figure out right now. I better just do them." What ends up happening, though, is that people will step back and will go, "Hey, I don't want to do these three steps because I can't see the other thousand." It's the wrong approach.

 

What you do is you say, "Hey, there's the peak I'm going for. I see the three steps in front of me. Let me take these three steps." What's funny is when you take the first step, there's another third step that appears. It's the weirdest thing. You'll see what's immediately in front of you. If you're like, "Ah, I can't execute on this. I can't get this done. I can't get these ... " A lot of times, it's because you psyche yourself out, and you start thinking, "Oh my gosh, I have to know the whole path."

 

I have never in my life ever launched a product, which I've launched a lot products, where I've actually seen the beginning from the end, or the end from the beginning. However you say that. Does that make sense? You take three steps, and somewhere around step two or three will be a problem that I was not anticipating. There will be something that I don't know how to solve.

 

Now, I have two options: I could go hire somebody. It could be freelancer.com, it could be upwork.com, it could be really cheap. Most problems can be fixed for like 20 bucks and a freelancer, in my experience. Or I might actually need to learn something to get past the issue, or learn just enough so that I know how to hire correctly to get past that issue. Does that make sense? I've never met a successful solopreneur. Eventually, it takes a team, you know what I mean, which is why you grow your team, which is awesome.

 

I'm ... It might feel like I'm bouncing all over the place with this podcast. I hope that it makes sense. I just, I have been through what I'm trying to describe to you where you distract yourself to such a huge degree, massive degree that you literally don't ever do anything. You don't do, you literally overwhelm yourself. Make no mistake, you are the culprit. I've done it to myself a ton of times. Whenever I get out there ...

 

Now, a lot of you guys know that I'm about to leave me job because MLM stuff's going well, which is kind of crazy, and it's slightly nerve-wracking here and there, but it was always amazing to me how well my boss Russell Brunson, CEO of ClickFunnels ... I was his right-hand guy, sat in his office with him for the last two years as his lead funnel builder, which is fun stuff. I've really enjoyed doing that, but it's always amazing to me his incredible, incredible skill of keeping things simple. That's how he and I were able to launch stuff so quickly. My brain loves or tries to marry or romanticizes a little bit of complexity. I think most people's do.

 

It's funny enough, this whole game of success, it's not complicated. Don't complicate it by constantly be thinking that you gotta know another book, another guru, another course, another this, another that in order to execute. Now, it's not that you might not need to know those things later on in the future, but right now, right now, can you do something without picking up another book or studying or learning something else? Can you do something else without actually going and learning something else?

 

My guess is, the answer's yes, and that's exactly what I'm talking about. You don't need to pick something up in order to go be successful again, and you might need to, though. Start mapping out where you are in your path. If you're brand spanking new, if you've never done anything business-wise, if you never turned a dollar whether online or offline, then yeah, you might need to study a little bit just so that you know what is out there and how to talk a little bit, some of the vernacular, some of the vocab. You know what I mean? You might need just a little bit of awareness, but my guess is that applies to much smaller amount of you, a much smaller amount of people out there because I was the exact same than we like to think. Don't group yourself into that category automatically. Most of us can just go choose.

 

Here's my invitation to you. This is literally how I do what I do, which is pretty awesome. Here's a little gold nugget value bomb. Here it comes. I try and make three moves a day. That's it. Three moves per day. Now, that is how many moves I was trying to make when I was working for somebody else. I imagine if you're in MLM and you're just getting started, you're probably working for someone else still also, which is great. That's fine. I did it too for a long time, but I'm going to chance a spot where I'm leaving my job over there, and it's awesome stuff.

 

Someone asked me, "Hey, Steven, are you going to go and you going to, are you just going to teach MLM or are you going to do it?" I said, "Well, please understand the analogy here. If I want to go become really buff and ripped and looking really, really strong, I will hire somebody who is already there also. Does that make sense? I do not hire somebody who is not there and looks like they can't take care of themselves. Now, while I don't tell you what MLM I'm in, I am definitely in one because it's not my goal to just talk about it. It's my goal to report what I'm doing and how I'm actually doing it."

 

I've got that cool automated thing, and we got, but how got to this spot was by controlling my information diet. I don't learn just for the fun of it anymore. I did for a while, and it's great, it's awesome. It was good for the awareness, it's good for, but now, what I do is I just solve for the immediate problem in front of me.

 

Here's my tip. Here's my challenge to you: Please identify the three moves that you will make today. You'll know what that is. For me, my three moves today, I'm going to make this podcast, I'll probably make another podcast, and I've got to go complete this other funnel that I'm going and building that'll help me hire better, hire good people. Does that make sense? Those are my three moves today. Tomorrow, there'll be different moves, but what moves I get done today will depict which moves I do tomorrow. Go choose those three moves, and then before tomorrow starts, choose your three moves for tomorrow. Does that make sense? You're planning one day ahead.

 

Now, know where you're driving the ship, know where you're going, know where that peak is, and control your information diet to solve and place those three steps as perfectly as you can today so you can do the next three and build on the three tomorrow. Does that make sense? That's all it is. Three moves a day, low-information diet. You'll find really, really quickly, even within a month's time, you'll turn around and go, "How the heck did I get that much done? That's amazing."

 

I just had that experience happen to me again. I was like, "Holy crap. Wow." I have a three moves a day, even just in the evenings. Fascinating. Fascinating. Don't overwhelm yourself of all the things you could be doing. Even some of it you might, should be doing, or maybe should be doing, but if that doesn't have anything to do with placing those three perfect steps in front of you, then don't worry about it. Make it simple in your head. Keep it simple in your head. Control what information you have coming in, focus on just making the three moves a day, and I promise you, you'll be shocked at how far you get in even a month's time.

 

All right, guys, that's all I got for you today. That, right there, has been one of the greatest keys to my success to this date, and so I wanted to reach out and let you know about that because I see some people starting to drowned from the stuff I've put out. What, this is episode like 44 or something like that? 43, 44, 45, somewhere around there? I've noticed that some people, they start drowning. They're like, "Steve, you mentioned this book, and you mentioned this book, and you mentioned this course, and you're ... What was this? What was this? What was this, this, this?" Gah, I'm like, "No, stop it."

 

What are the three moves that you, don't compare yourself to me, what are the three moves you have to do next, and then what are the three tomorrow, and then the three after that? Keep it just to that, and only solve the problem in front of you. Only learn for the problem that's in front of you, and that's it. It's amazing what that's done.

 

For fear of repeating the same thing over and over again, I should probably stop this episode. Hey, you guys have a good one. We just had Christmas here. Merry Christmas to you.

 

Hey, thanks for listening. Please remember to subscribe and leave feedback for me. Do you have a question you want answered live on the show? Go to secretmlmhacksradio.com to submit your question and download your Free MLM Masters Pack.

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