5: The Day I Stole... - 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 Radio. And I have a question for you. We had to admit, but have you ever stolen anything before?

 

So, 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 down lines 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 Secrete MLM Hacks Radio.

 

All right, that might be somewhat of a tender subject, and I'm sorry if it is. And it certainly is for me as well. Now, when my wife and I first got married, we had $1,000 to our name. We were moving to a new spot, we were moving to a new area, and we had nothing. I mean, we had absolutely nothing. And neither of us had a job, neither of us had ... And living bare bones. We had this new apartment, and it was a little more on the expensive side, but we couldn't find another apartment anywhere else. I was going to college, she had just graduated, but none of us had a job. And we're living in this apartment that was a little more expensive 'cause we couldn't find anything else, and we had no jobs. We had almost no cash, living bare bones. I mean, nothing. There's no ketchup on the hotdog, you know what I mean? There's nothing. There's not even a bun, you're just eating the hotdog. Super bare bones living, there's no glaze on life at all. Our expenses were still $1,100 a month. So we had $1,000, our expenses were $1,100. We could not even survive one month.

 

And times were dire. I'm not going to lie. That was one of the most stressful experiences of my entire life and still has shaped me to this day. What ended up happening is ... My wife had already graduated, and I was still in school, and I was working hard. But I also knew, holy crap. How do we get money? And she starts going and babysitting for $3 an hour. I mean, way, way, way too cheaply. You know what I mean? And she's doing all the stuff, and I'm feeling bad that I'm sitting in classes and not contributing to our family finances, and feeling like a failure because of it. And I go, and I notice she started spending a lot of time in bed. And I would wake up every morning, and she'd be in bed. And I'd come back, and she'd be in bed. And I was like, "Hey, feeling okay?" And the first day I was like, maybe she doesn't feel good. What's going on?

 

And then she did it the second day, and then the third day. And I was like, what's going on? And I started asking her ... Maybe there's some depression? Maybe there's ... What is it? Trying to be sensitive, but also trying to help. So this went on for a little while, and I'm already feeling super bad. And she very reluctantly ... In fact, I think she started crying. This is ... I'm being really open and vulnerable right now, okay guys? Just so you know. She leaned over to me and she told me that she had only been eating one meal a day for the last long time, and it was so that I ... So that we had enough food so that I could eat while I was in classes, and feel like I had enough energy to do well in my classes. And ...

 

You guys, if that does not hit you to the core, I don't know what would. My new bride I could not freakin' provide for, and I felt so much like a failure. And I started feeling some ... Fighting really bad feelings and just emotional state. Things got really intense. And I go, and I was like, "You know what? Student loans. Something. What can I do? We have almost nothing." And I go and I start going over to the financial aid place. And I find out I can get student loans, but they're not going to be there for another four to six weeks. And I was like, "Oh my gosh. We're going to die tomorrow." You know what I mean? That was the mentality. And I will never forget this, I ended up ... It was a huge humble pie I had to swallow. I had to swallow the pride pill and get rid of all the pride inside my body.

 

I had to call my dad. I said, "Dad, look ... " I was trying to keep from bawling, to be honest. I was like, "Dad, we have nothing." This is five and half, six years ago ... Five and a half now. Anyways, I said, "Dad, we got nothing." And I said, "Hey, we got student loans, they're coming. They're just going to be four to six weeks away. And you know what? I ... Could you just float me like three grand and I'll pay you back the moment it comes? It's coming, we know it's coming. It's just not here yet." And there was a long pause on the other side of the phone. Almost kind of awkward, long, long pause. And deep breath. My dad took a deep breath and he said, "Son, I love you, but the answer's no." And I was like, "Oh." And he said, "The reason why is because if I give you this money, you will not exhaust resources that you didn't know that you had."

 

And he started ... He was trying to hold back tears. And I later talked to him about that, he's like, "That was one of the hardest decisions I've ever made in my life, also." And I was like, "Honestly, it shaped me." Because there was fire in the gut. I had a freakin' mission to provide. Get out of my way. I don't know how, but I'm going to figure out how to make this happen. And I started going ... I started doing real estate, and stocks and options. And I started doing all this stuff. I started with ferocious pace, going as fast as I could. Clawing for any answer, because I knew I couldn't really do well in my classes and work a minimum wage job. And so I was like, I need to be entrepreneurial here. I've always kind of wanted to be, but I'm being thrown into this. I literally am jumping out of the plane and I'm building the parachute while I'm falling.

 

And I've got to do that. And I don't really know how we figured it out, but we did, and we didn't die. But I just so love my dad that he said "no" to me. And I've got mad respect for him that he did that. And that's where a lot of the fire and the passion for me comes from. And I just was determined to figure out, to make it happen, whatever it was. And so when I ended up starting on MLM, emotionally, I was at this place like, "Gosh. I've already tried like 15 things, I feel like." That might actually been the actual number. And, "How's this going to be any different?" And I had to fight these feelings of, "This is going to be the same as the other things. This is going to be the same as all the other pieces. All the other things that I've tried and done before, why is this any different?"

 

And my buddy had to kind of talk me into it and I was writing an eBook at the time 'cause I was getting into eBooks, 'cause why not? And I didn't know the difference between marketing and sales. I didn't know the difference between products and offers. And I didn't know those things even really existed. I was just running with ferocious pace, barely sleeping, kind of killing myself to be honest, physically. Just working hard trying to make it happen. And definitely got my stripes, put my stripes during those first few years. And so when the MLM thing came around, like I said, I was kind of reluctant. I remember there was this time, I was trying to figure out ... We didn't really have hardly any money at all. And I remember, I started getting addicted to learning from these top people.

 

And it was exciting, and it felt good. It was cool to see what they were doing, and all the successes they were having, and all the things that they were doing. And wow, this guy says that about this. And wow, this other guy says something similar, but with a few tweaks. Interesting. And I, just with ferocious pace, started learning and consuming and reading and taking in all these things and doing courses and all this stuff. What was funny, when I first started doing courses, we didn't have any money. So I regret the fact that I did this, and I since have gone back and fixed it and attempted to fix it. But what I did is I went and I found a bootleg site and I totally bought this guy's ... I got this guy's course from this shady character that should have been several thousand dollars and I got it for like $50.

 

And I took that course and it was all about traffic generation and I was diving into all these things, and it was really cool. And what was funny is stuff started happening. I got into an internet marketing class, I wasn't really doing much with MLM, and I was trying to figure out what was ... I was just trying to figure out my path, and I'm sure you guys have been there before. You're like, "Why can't I make this work?" Or if you are making it work, you're like, "How can I make this better?" And this really interesting thing started happening. I paid $50 for that course. For every other course ... It was all free. It was just blogs, it was podcasts, it was all this other stuff. And I was consuming like a madman, staying up really late just consuming and reading and studying and trying to see the patterns and how people are actually doing stuff. And reading lots of different authors and lots of different people on the same topic so I could get a full picture. And it was really, really cool. It was very, very helpful.

 

But something really interesting happened when I paid $50 for that thing. I had not, until that time, ever paid for anything. And it was only $50, it's not very much money at all. And if it feels like to you, I've been there. It's okay. But something really interesting happened, though. So I paid that $50, and stuff started happening. Doors started opening. My attitude towards that course was different than all the others. I stayed up even later, I got stuff done, I took ferocious notes, I knew that I needed to learn it really deeply. And so I started teaching other people what I was learning so it solidified in my own brain. It was almost a selfish act and a selfish move that I was doing, but it was because I wanted to get good at it.

 

And what ended up happening was we started ... I grabbed a buddy, and I started teaching him this stuff. And he's like, "This is crazy." And we ended up landing a deal with Paul Mitchell, the Paul Mitchell, the hair schools. And we started driving traffic, it was a traffic course that I got. We started driving traffic for Paul Mitchell, billion dollar company, crazy. And building sites for their rising celebrities that were going on TV so the celebrity could say, "Hey, got to this URL," and there was a place there. You know what I mean? And really, really fascinating. And it was all from that $50 that I paid. And since I've gone back and I've said sorry to those individuals I stole their course from, and it's been ... I mean, it's been amazing what's happened.

 

So I always laugh. So, anyways, let me keep moving on the story quick here so you guys kind of get full picture. Well, I started realizing that there was somewhat of a link between me actually investing in something versus just getting free stuff. The way I approached it, the way it was different was ... It was totally different. The way I have treated it, the way that I actually executed on it personally, but also the actual material was better. Go figure, free stuff usually isn't as good as paid stuff. And I started reading ... I went and I joined the army, and I would sneak these marketing and traffic and sales book into the bases and stuff like that. And I remember there's this one time, I was reading this book that I got. It was like an $8 book, but I remember it changed my life.

 

I was laying down, I had my M16 in my right ... In the prone. So I was laying with my right ... I'm right handed. So in my right hand was the M16, I was in a prone, I was laying on a security line. It was in the middle of a training, so it's not like I was on an actual ... But it was for 10 days, I was laying in the dirt. And then in the other hand was ... I had this plastic bag that was protecting this book. And I went through it and I would kind of hide it from the sergeants as they would walk behind us and stuff like that. And I'd be laying up, trying to do my thing that I'm supposed to do. But I was just so curious trying to figure out how to actually be successful in this stuff. And I had this book, and I would ... With an M16 in one hand and a book in the other, marketing book, I'd lay in the prone and I read this guy's whole book.

 

And I was like, "Whoa. That's cool." And I remember it changed my life. And suddenly, things started coming together in my head. And all the other courses I'd taken before starting fitting in their correct places. And this whole puzzle started putting itself together. And it's not like it did it on its own, I was working really hard to have that happen. I was like, "Who, that's how you do that? That's crazy." And that's when I started launching my first successful company, and stuff with MLM started taking off. And I built this really crazy cool system and all these pieces started coming together. And I was like, "Interesting." And it all started with me deciding to pay $50 that I really didn't have for this course that I essentially stole. And like I said, I went back and fixed that and said sorry. And honestly ... It's funny, it was actually two courses and one guy just laughed really hard and he's like, "That's awesome. It's cool that it created all that success. Congrats." So, anyways, that's kind of cool.

 

And so, what I started doing, I was like, "Man, people need to have this material. My buddies, who were trying to also make companies and build businesses and be successful in MLMs and all this stuff ... Why don't they have this?" And so what I did, this was the foolish part, I went and I started just giving it to all of them. And I must have handed out 30 books, including to some of my professors and teachers, and I handed it out to them and I was like, "Hey, you're in the marketing area, but this books going to teach way more than what your class did." I didn't mean to be arrogant, but I was, and I was just excited. And I was like, "Listen to this book, listen to this course, or do this." And I started handing out these books like crazy, or I'd go buy the book for the individual and give it to them. Or I'd go ...

 

And what was funny is that ... You know how many people actually did something with those things? None of them. They didn't do anything. I must have handed out 30 books in one period. And I think maybe one guy opened it and read it. I think. I mean, maybe like one person might have actually done something, but it's crazy. And I started getting really frustrated. I was like, "Why aren't people actually using this content? Do they not understand this changed my life? Do they not understand that it can change theirs? What's the big deal?" And I heard this really cool quote around that time. I had this really interesting realization hit me, and it's actually from a person. I think it was from Russel Bronson, actually. And what he said was, "Those who pay, pay attention." And I was like, "Huh, that's fascinating." He said, "Those who pay, pay attention."

 

And I'm bringing this up because I recently have got many messages from people saying, "Well, if your thing's so great, how come you don't give it to me for free?" And the reason I don't is because every time I do, the person never does anything with it. What's funny is that I'm currently part of a project right now where we sell this course for $2,000. And every person who comes in there, rather than being where 30 people get the book and one person does something, it's totally the opposite. With a $2,000 course, guess what? Lots of people actually do stuff with it. There's only one or ... There's not that many that actually go back and do nothing with it. Does that make sense? It's unrelated to MLM, it's something else. But the principle's the same all around.

 

So, "Hey, Steven, will you give me your thing for free?" No. Because it will be doing you a disservice. At this point right now, it's not that I need that much more money. It's not like ... It's not that I'm ... This is because of you. If I deprive you of the option to pay for it, then the chances are of you actually being successful with it are so low. It's ridiculous. Absolutely ridiculously low how low it is. Anyway ... And I've done it even with my own brothers and my sister and my dad now. And really interesting stuff has come from me not buying the book for them, or not buying the course for them, or whatever it is. I give them the link, and they go buy it. And what's funny is that I know when somebody goes through that, they are having the epiphany on their own of why it's important to get it. And they usually do something with it. They'll start to go through it, they'll start to figure out why it's important, they'll obsess over it. They'll figure out how to apply it in their lives.

 

But every time it's the opposite, really, really sadly, most of the time people don't do anything. So to the individuals who continue to ask me, "How come I can't get it for free?" The answer is "no," and it's going to stay that way because you need to pay so that you'll pay attention. It is so sad for me to spend so many months on a product and see somebody get it, but not actually get it. And that's what I don't want to have happen to you. And so, I'm not going to ever make any of my stuff free except for the things that are supposed to be free. Like I've got the five videos that will go in more depth of the things that I'm teaching you guys right now. They're five videos, they're free, you can go get them on secretmlmhacksradio.com. And they're five videos that you should watch with your down line that will teach you more about how to actually setup marketing systems.

 

You'll never hear the name of the MLM I'm in. It's not a pitch fest, it's not anything like that. You're not going to ... Anyway. But that's why I get so passionate about this. So the answer is ridiculously "no" to the question, can I get this for free? It is a screaming loud megaphone-sized "no." And it's on purpose that way. People who are serious will raise their hand. They will self-identify with their wallet. They will say, "My education is important to me." And I used to think when people would say that ... I remember other marketers that came out and say, "You've got to invest in your education. Invest in yourself." I used to think that just like a gimmick for people to go buy. But I totally get it now. Every single person ... I personally went through that path as well. I know that my education and my success would have been sped up if I started buying and actually paying for courses earlier on rather than trying to find all of the free stuff and all the blogs and all the free material.

 

When I actually pulled my credit card ... You have to get good at what every entrepreneur is good at. Pulling their credit card out of their wallet and buying the course, buying the investment in themselves. Buying whatever it is. And if you don't do it, it's really, really sad because most of the time, it means that you're not going to move forward. And even for the people who only get halfway through the course, but they still ended up buying, for some reason, it does something different in their head. They take it more seriously. They might not even get more than halfway through it, they might not get halfway through it. But just the act of them paying ... Man, it's the weirdest thing. I don't totally understand it, but that's ... Besides the phrase, "Those who pay, pay attention," I don't really get why that was for me or the way it was ... Or why it is for other people.

 

So, anyways, I don't want to keep going on that. But that being said, if you do want the free thing, it's absolutely insane. I should be charging for it. It's usually part of another thing that I give away as a paid thing. But if you go to secretmlmhacksradio.com, you can download the five videos for free. And you'll learn a little bit more about what this is and this community and why I'm doing this. It means a lot to me. 'Cause ... Anyway. So, guys, hopefully this was helpful. That was the day that I stole that actually changed everything for me. I've gone back and since remedied that action and I'm so sorry that I did that, but the same time, powerful lesson that came from it. Hopefully that's powerful for you.

 

All right, guys. If you wouldn't mind, I would love it if you'd go to iTunes and please subscribe and rate the podcast. Leave me a written review. That really helps me a lot, helps others find it as well, and helps me understand more of the types of things that you want. If you have a question that you'd like me to answer on the podcast, got to secretmlmhacksradio.com. And all you do is you opt in for just ... All I do is I let you know when the new episodes are out. But there's going to be a little green box on the next page down on the bottom right. And literally, you can record a voicemail straight to me asking me your question. And I kind of like to go through and I like to kind of vet them out. Hey, which questions are going to be best for the community as a whole. And I put your actual question and you saying it on the podcast.

 

So, anyways, I love to hear from you if you've got any questions at all. You can get that and the actual videos, again, at secretmlmhacksradio.com. All right, guys. I will talk to you later. Bye.

 

Hey, thanks for listening. Please remember to subscribe and leave feedback. Would you like me to teach your own down line, five simple MLM recruiting tips for free? If so, go download your free MLM Masters Pack by subscribing to this podcast at secretmlmhacksradio.com.

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