Hey, guys, welcome back to another episode of MLM Renegade. This is JR McKee. I’m really excited today. I’ve been trying to get this interview done for weeks and months really. I was able to interview yesterday, a gentleman named Rob Sperry. Rob is one of the world leaders in MLM training. We got him just after he got back from a training trip in Australia. He’s been in most of Europe last year training, and he’s a close friend of mine. He was originally a sponsor of mine in a network marketing company.
He is the author of a book, The Game of Networking. I’ve actually got a special offer for everybody. We can actually get that book free plus shipping. If you want to get that offer, I’m actually working on the funnel right now, but if you want to get that offer ahead of time, email me at JR@MLMRenegade.com and I can get that set up for you.
I’m excited about this because he breaks down some of the basics when it comes to networking. So often in network marketing, we forget both the networking and the marketing piece. We get a lot more sucked in to direct sales and sales is misunderstood. I’m a career sales guy. In direct sales, we ended up spamming people and just jumping down their throat. It’s like Dino on the Flintstones, he came barking after and knocked over Fred every single day because he was so happy to see him. In reality, we need to be more like that cat. If a cat ignores you, what happens? You say “Here, kitty, kitty,” so that’s the that’s the approach that we want to have. And in networking, you want to give without the expectation to get, and when you do that, it reciprocates, and it does so a thousand-fold.
Here’s this interview that I did with rob. It was fantastic. Again, if you guys want to get a copy of his book, the game of networking send me an email at JR@MLMRenegade.com and we’ll get that set up for you. Until then, check this out.
JR: Well, hey, thanks. I want to introduce you guys to Rob Sperry. Rob is an old friend of mine. He and I go back quite a way in the network marketing world, and he was actually originally one of my sponsors. Since then, while he was a founder of one of his own company lines and has become one of the world-renowned trainers when it comes to network marketing. He’s written a book: The Game Of Networking, which I highly recommend for anybody who’s listening to go pick it up. It’s on Audible, it’s on Amazon, it’s all over the place. In fact, I think we probably have something set up where we can get to listeners of MLM Renegade a great price on that book. Anyway, Rob, welcome.
Rob: Thanks, my man. It’s always fun to chat with you. I know we get to do lunch every so often. It’s always fun when you got friends in the wonderful profession. I’m excited to chat with you here, today.
JR: Yeah, it’s fun. I’m a member of your group The Game Of Networking on Facebook. Everybody should go check it out. But then, also, TGON Nation is your membership site, your membership group. I’ve been just thoroughly impressed with all the content that’s there. In fact, I haven’t even been able to consume some of it because I need to get through some of it twice so that I can unlock that greater vision, if you will, on some of that. When you were creating The Game Of Networking, help me understand your thinking behind all that and what inspired that move for you?
Rob: The book or The Facebook group? Which one?
JR: Let’s go with both.
Rob: Yeah. The book, long story short, is I’m a networker. I was always the little guy growing up. I was the guy that grew two years too late, or it’s never too late, but two years later than everybody else, I was held back in first grade. I was a little bit slower in school. I was the guy that naturally tried to make friends with everyone just because it gave me more confidence. I was a people pleaser in some aspects. I still am. That’s my nature. I’ve learned to be that bold version of me. And so how I win is by networking. I’m never the best at anything when I start.
I used to teach tennis, and I was able to run a tennis club and run my own tennis programs by networking, so I started the network marketing industry. I figured out a way to get better and just network team, not network marketing, networking. I bought every book I could on networking and there were a lot of great smorgasbord ideas, but there never was… For me, I’m linear, in the sense of like do this, do this, do this, do this. There was never like here’s everything summed up of the laws of becoming great at networking.
So I said, all right. I just kept buying more books and just kept accumulating notes and said, one day I’ll write a book, and it took me seven years is what I say in the book. Actually by the time it finally printed, it was closer to eight years. I just kept adding ideas to the point of I had way too many ideas, way too much content. I had to get rid of it at least a third of that content before the book went to print. My wife was the one that was brutal, and she’s like, “No, don’t need this, don’t need that, don’t need this, don’t need that.” I thought that was good. She’s like, “Nope.” I listen to her, got rid of that.
Then, right before the book came out, I thought, I might as well create a community where I practice what I teach. And so I thought there’s no real true generic place where people aren’t spamming each other in a Facebook group, but actually providing value and it hadn’t been done, and so I created that. We’ve had, at one point we counted it, 200+ million-dollar annual earners that had posted in the group The Game of Networking, and that was over a year ago. So who knows how many six-plus figure earners now seven plus figure earners are posting? It’s become a collaboration. There is no pitching. If anybody pitches, anybody else spams, there isn’t even me reaching out anymore. At this point, our admins and moderators just a block them.
JR: Booted.
Rob: It’s been fun. It’s been a great way for me to get to know a lot of other incredible, phenomenal leaders. And even though I’m teaching a ton, I’m learning a ton from so many.
JR: Yeah, I know. One of the things I appreciate so much about it is that focus on value ahead of sales and that opportunity to really talk with them and see point of views from every corner of network marketing. You’ve got people who are doing cryptocurrency. You got people who doing CBD oil. You got people who are lotions and potions. You got all kinds of stuff. What I love is the sense of mutual respect that’s there. One of those things that, as I move forward in my network marketing journey is, I’m trying to emulate and provide that value because, ultimately, I see that when you provide that value. People come to you. You attract that same sort of person, which ultimately, is very powerful. You’ve left the day-to-day working in the industry, and now you’re training all over the place. You just got back from Australia, right?
Rob: I did just get back from Australia. I’m trying to catch back up on life and work and, also, sleep. That’s not going to happen, though, until I go to bed tonight.
JR: Yeah. Well there you go. I heard a rumor, it’s a fairly reputable source. I think it was you that said you’re actually working on a new book, as well. What’s the scoop? What’s the new book?
Rob: Yeah, draft one is already done. I went and tested it out. I spoke in nine different countries this last year, and really just tested it out as a speech training. It was kind of test things out first and it was well received. It was my best receive speech. I’m like, “Great. Let’s turn this into a book,” so the first draft is done. Second draft’s almost done. The goal is as soon as possible, but for me, I want to make sure it’s done right. It’s not going to take me seven or eight years this time. I think it will be done by the fall because it’s already far enough along.
The premise was I really wanted to get deep down into fears from a different perspective. Fears can be cliché, but we all have different types of fears. I talk a lot about fears, and so share a lot of really personal experiences that I went through and give my story as well as famous people’s stories. I go into the three versions of you. This is a real sneak peek of it. Everyone always talks about: are you a victim or survivor? And in the book, I talked about how most people transition into survivors, but survivors aren’t the ones that are successful. It’s the first step, but it’s those that become conquerors that are successful.
The whole book is based on fears, and are you a victim on this fear or are you a survivor or are you a conqueror. We’ll see what it ends up that right now, it’s nine different fears that I cover and which are you. We can be victims, like someone could be a victim at their job, and someone else could be a survivor as a spouse, and they can be a conquer as parents. We’re not just victims, survivors, or conquerors overall on our life. It’s really a different aspects of our life when we can kind of shift back and forth.
It’s just getting a whole different perspective on everything. It’s going to apply to all industries. It’s not going to have any network marketing lingo in it, even though it’s going to apply strongly to, obviously, those in the network marketing profession, but just in life in general.
JR: More of a personal development book.
Rob: I’m excited. I’m nervous. I’m all of the above. I’m always excited and I have no problem admitting that and being real, because that’s just who I am. But you’re always nervous. I’m like, are people going to like it? Are they going to just be like, oh, this sucks? And if they do, oh well, I’ll move on to the next book.
JR: There you go. There you go, so more of a personal development type angle to it than…
Rob: Yeah, 100%.
JR: Awesome, which like you said, in network marketing is so valuable as we go along. In the book The Game Of Networking, you talk about 3 ½ laws throughout the book. I love the book. It was fantastic. I’ve got my copy here, my signed copy from you, sometimes knowing the author has its privileges. I’d love for you to expound a little bit on those 3 ½ laws and how they apply and how they can really apply to our audience as they’re thinking about building their network marketing company and using the tactics that aren’t stuck in the ‘90s in a lot of ways.
Rob: Yeah, certain things are always timeless, but then we have to make sure that we have modern day techniques. So principals are timeless, techniques, obviously, adjust. For me, personally, I wrote the book the worst way you possibly can. Typically when you write a book, you want to create the outline first. And for me, because it was years and years of information, I took all the information. Then I spent four hours with a guy that’s written over 40 books, and we just hashed it out. Basically, we just said, “Okay, what’s the first thing you need? What’s the first law?”
The first law was to have a lot of likability. We looked at it as getting referrals was the best way, we thought, best measure for challenging for networking, because it’s the ultimate compliment if you give a referral. Why wouldn’t you refer someone? Well, I don’t care how good you are at anything. If you’re not likable, there’s 0% chance. And so, the first one was the Law of Likability. After that, we challenged it and said, “Okay, what else is there?” And then we said, “Well, we all got that family member or friend. That’s crazy likable, but you would never refer them because they have zero credibility. You can’t trust them to do anything. They can’t even trust themselves.” So we said the second law is the Law of Credibility.
After that we said, “Are we done yet? Is there any other reason?” And this is when it got harder. First two laws were easy. This is when it got really hard. And we thought maybe we’re done, maybe we’re not. And I thought, “You know what? No matter how likeable or how credible you are,” JR, “if you’re doing business X, Y, and Z and I haven’t heard from you for 10 years, I don’t know what you’re up to.” So the third law is the Law of Recallability. Just think of, front of mind, think of visibility. And so we thought, you got to be recalled, we’ve got to be visible. And that’s where I go into some social media techniques. I’m not teaching people to be Spammy Pammy, Spamela Pamela, where you’re going on and all you’re doing is posting leaks in spamming. No, it’s social media done right is bridging that gap of trust and likability and credibility. You’re showing your life, you’re providing value. I go into that.
Then, I thought it was done. This author and I, we just thought, ”Okay, that’s it,” but we said let’s challenge it. We spend another hour to see if there was anything else. Went through all of my content, all my material, and this is why we call it the 3 ½ laws because the last one was almost forgotten. The last one was the Law of Profitability. So if someone’s extremely likable, if someone’s extremely credible, someone’s very recallable, why would you not do business with them? Well, if I go with you, JR, and you and I are providing equal value and I say, “Let’s do this business venture together,” and I say, “I’m going to give you a dollar and get $1 million”. Well, that’s not a lot of profitability. It’s not a win/win. You’ve got to create a win/win. A win/win isn’t always money, sometimes it could be the relationship, sometimes it could be the mentorship, sometimes it could be whatever that currency is to you as far as a win/win, it’s not always money that just give money because that’s an easy one for us to really resonate with as far as the wind goes.
In there I give different techniques, different things to do. One of the things I’ve done even before social media, social media has helped that, is I never reach out to less than 300 people every single month just to say hello, so non-business related, because it’s like John Maxwell says, “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.” For me, it doesn’t take that long, especially with voice messaging now. I just pull out that phone right there, just voice messaging real quick, I get to the gym 10 minutes early, I send out 10 messages. You do that every single day? It doesn’t take that long. I always try to reach out to somebody I haven’t spoken to in several months, at least. Sometimes they’re brand new contacts and all I knew is consistently making new connections and then of course figuring out who are the strongest connections.
You have to be deliberate in that. I would say I learned this from a really good friend that makes $1 million a year in real estate. He said, “Most people make friends with just whoever’s around them, their neighbors.” We know the power of the law of association. It’s the five people you’re around most of the people that it’s going to affect and change your life. Whether it’s money, whether it’s spiritual, whether it’s any aspect of life, physical. And so, why are we not more deliberate on who we want to make friends with? We should be deliberate on who we want to make friends with, because you can’t rely on the government, you cannot rely on your degree or lack thereof, you can’t even rely on your job number, how much you like it. You just don’t know.
Your skillset that you create, as well as your net worth, is one of the most important parts. And so in the book I say, build your ark before it rains. Too many people are like, I need, I need, I need. Now, for me, it doesn’t matter what I need. I’m constantly providing value in reaching out to people. I’m not reaching out. What can I get from them? No, I reached out value, value, value, value, and then the last example I’ll give you really quick so I don’t ramble on is I give examples in the book, they’re just non like I wasn’t seeking anything so I reached out to this guy. I play tennis with them for 10+ years, never asked for anything, 10+ years. Put that in mind, put that in perspective and I reach out to him.
Good friend named Jim and I say, “Jim, I’m looking at getting Mercedes.” He’s become the regional guy for several states. And I said, “Jim, can you hook me up? Who’s the best person I should talk to?” He said, “Oh, Rob, you’ve been so good to me over the years. You never asked for anything.” He said, “I get a friends and family discount. We get Mercedes and I get two of those a year. I’ve only used one of them.” He’s like, “so why don’t you use my other one?” I’m not even just talking network marketing. I’m just talking life. That’s how I got my kids into tennis lessons. Have an instructor that’s got a waiting list now of five+ years. That’s how I got my kids into the school that they said it was closed, nobody else could get into. I’m just talking in life in general. I’m a networker because I know it’s one of the greatest indicators for happiness. Those are the laws and principles that are taught throughout the book.
JR: I find it funny sometimes, but the title of your book MLMers Are Many, Networkers Are Few. And it’s so true because we get sucked into some of these MLMs, in their direct sales is probably more accurate for many of them, because it is all about sales. It’s so little about marketing, which is part of what I want to change about what we do because marketing is doing what you’re talking about, network marketing even more so, your networking. Like you said, I mean, picking up a Mercedes Benz at cost, that’s no joke. Obviously, that saved you thousands upon thousands of dollars in that particular purchase. Those are the skillsets that we need to foster and engender as we move forward into this 21st century where things are changing all around us so much.
You talked about sending a text or a voice text there, right? I mean that, I remember. You probably remember I worked cell phones to put my way through college, and at the time SMS text was a new thing. It was crazy. What is this? What are we going to do? It became so ingrained in everything. In fact, I remember one year I was still working cell phones. I carried a Blackberry–that was my phone–and I could pound out texts. I was single at the time. I was pounding out text. I think I went through 6,500 text messages that month. It was the month that I got that Blackberry. I was carrying on five conversations at once as I’m just talking with people, and now with Facebook Messenger and with Facebook and everything else, it’s become so easy and so difficult all at once because people have their guard up, people are wary of things that are too good to be true.
When you’re just wanting to reach out and make friends, that can be a problem because they’re wary. They’re not letting you network. Getting past some of those things, I think that’s where some of that credibility and likability comes into play. I know we’ve got to get you onto your next interview here, Rob, but I really appreciate you hopping on with me. Any last nuggets to share with us before we let you go?
Rob: No, just as I said, build your ark before it rains. I’ve got a really close friend that four years ago he lost his job. I’ve been telling him to do this, and he loses his job. He just said, “Well, I don’t know what to do now.” Luckily, I used my network and found him a job within a week, and now he’s in a situation where his job is actually good. At the same time, you never know what’s going to happen. I don’t care what profession you’re in, I don’t care what industry you’re in. I just said, look, why would you not consistently go to lunch once a week with new people and reach out, just in general, because that’s your best insurance policy is that network; otherwise, you never know. You just don’t know as much as the company loves you, things can change quickly.
I’ve seen it happen over and over again. I think it’s a life principle. There was a Harvard study done. It’s the oldest known study. What they did is they took–I may get it the number wrong but I’m close, within 10–270 undergraduates from Harvard, and they studied them over the course of their lives. It’s about 70 years. They found that the greatest indicator of happiness wasn’t their degree, wasn’t their job title, was in their financial success. It was the amount of warm relationships that they had. It was the quality of those warm relationships. I look at that, and it’s like we’re all striving for more money. Jim Rohn says, “Money’s like oxygen.” I get it, because if you want to go change the world, you’ve got to have money for humanitarian trips, so get that out of the way, make the money, so you can get that out of the way.
he thing is if we really focused on value, value can make a lot more money. We hear that over and over, but it’s almost like people think that’s not true. When I started focusing more on value rather than just money, money, money… Of course, I wanted to make as much money as I possibly could, because to me, that representative last year I won seven family trips. It’s not about how much I make, it’s what it represents. I get it, but I’m just telling you when you can actually really understand it. That’s why I appreciate you, JR, doing this podcast. You’re focusing now on contribution. When you could focus on contribution and value, you’ll find compensation always catches up to skillset and effort.
But you’ll also find it’s almost always massively delayed, that’s the part that’s not talked about. Everyone’s always like, “Oh, you’re the level. Your personal moment is the amount you’re going to make.” The part they miss is it’s almost always massively delayed the test right before the testimony. It’s not like, “Okay, I’m worth $200,000 a year personal development-wise, where’s my money? I’m checking the mail. I’m checking my bank account.” It’s not how it works, not how it works, and that’s the hardest part. Insecurity-wise, we just don’t know, is it going to be two more months, is it going to be two years, and so our brain districts freaking out with fears. I would just say that, and I appreciate you for the contribution that you’re giving, the value you provide, and for being such a such a great friend and great human being. I look forward to getting on again.
JR: Yeah, I look forward to having you, man. Hey, great talking with you, Rob.
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