Copy of 190 | Ask the Expert: Rob Sperry, Top Direct Sales Coach & Author of Built to Last, Shares His Biggest Advice for Network Marketing Growth
===
[00:00:00] Hey friends. Welcome back to the Called To Lead podcast. I am super excited for today's episode because I'm gonna be bringing back one of my favorite series, which is called Ask the Expert, where I get to share the stories and wisdom from someone who is one of the top coaches and experts within the direct sales space.
So get excited to hear from Rob Sperry and you'll hear the story of how we connected six years ago. And this is a really cool full circle moment because this podcast was supposed to happen about a year ago. And so I'm super excited to make it happen now. And I think no matter where you are in your network marketing business, you are going to find some really great feedback and value from what Rob has to share today.
So let's dive into this interview. Yay. Okay.
[00:01:00]
Hey friends, I am so excited for y'all to meet Rob Sperry. This guy has made a huge impact on my business. When I first heard him speak at Bob Heiligs conference about six years ago, I guess it was in Texas, and he was one of the keynote speakers. And I can remember just being so inspired by his real [00:02:00] wisdom that he shares to help build up leaders within the network marketing space.
And it's such a joy and a blessing to be able to have him share his wisdom with. You guys today. So he's now has a new book called Built To Last that's serving us as we build our field and corporate systems together. ~Um,~ but what's really cool is he's, he's married his blend of working with, I'm talking the tippy top leaders of pretty much every company you've heard of with partnering with the corporate side to make sure that we can elevate this industry together.
So Rob, thank you so much for being a part of this and, ~uh,~ for sharing your story and wisdom today. Well, thanks for having me on. I'm excited. It's fun. I know we were going back and forth on doing this, ~uh,~ a while back, and then we gotta circle back and we just gotta do a, just a personal zoom for the last 45 minutes with you and Roger.
And so, ~uh, ~I know we align with a lot of similar beliefs inside and outside this profession. And the great part about this is I don't know any of the questions, Heather just goes with intuition, ~um,~ and what comes to her. And so we'll have a lot of fun today. [00:03:00] Oh yeah. And I love that you kind of brought it full circle 'cause I listened to a podcast of yours.
You just started a new podcast called Built to Last, and I felt this immediate inspiration to invite you to speak on the podcast and when I went into the Telegram thread to send you a message. I had already invited you, I guess it was a year and, and some change ago. And it's just really kind of wild because that was actually the month before my listeners at the Called to Lead podcast will know this.
But that's the month before my life changed, where the job that I loved went a different direction. And so it's just really cool to be able to full circle finally get this podcast out here, ~um,~ for everyone to hear. So for those that don't know you, Rob, tell 'em just the backstory. Short story of your journey in network marketing.
I know you're sports guy, right? Tennis, yeah. I mean, short, short version is I was, I played college tennis, that's what I always did, and loved it. And then got married and decided to coach and teach tennis. And so my aspirations were to run a tennis club, which I [00:04:00] was very, very blessed to do it. Age 24, and came across some highly successful individuals.
Always wanted to be an entrepreneur about every small business magazine, every entrepreneur magazine. But I called myself a wannabe entrepreneur 'cause I didn't really act on it. And then I had an individual from the tennis club that was one of the legends of legends in this profession that approached me about personally mentoring me and working with me.
And I had said no to 11 different network marketing companies, but it was just, whatever you wanna call it, right person, right place, right time. Like all of it. And even still, there were, there were times where. It almost didn't happen, but the, the short of it is, I got started. I, I'm the opposite of most. I actually had crazy success and then got my butt kicked.
So I did $45,000 in sales selling skincare as a 28-year-old guy. ~Uh,~ no social media back then, right at all. And I generated a $15,000 paycheck, three [00:05:00] weeks, right? And again, I'm running a tennis club, so this is part, part-time. So then I decided I'm amazing and quit my six figure job and went full-time.
And that check went from 15,000 to 2200, which is still good, but not what I was used to making. And by my fifth month, I made less than $400. For the months. So when I say I went opposite, like started off great and then got my butt kicked and a lot of learning lessons, but I did end up becoming the top. A recruiter there out of a million distributors, built my business in 40 countries and, ~um,~ you know, now have written 18 books.
Almost done with book 19 podcasts, been listened to by 193 countries spoken in 23 countries. But I like to share the, the struggle because if we had time, I could spend. Not hours or days. I could been weeks on like all of the times where I'm like, am I gonna make this? What am I doing? This is so [00:06:00] hard.
'cause people always just hear the highlight reel and they don't realize all those struggles that everyone goes through. And my, my, myself included, I went through all of them. Oh my goodness. And I love that everybody that's listening, 'cause they're obviously on different paths and journeys. Some people might just be getting started in network marketing, maybe with Restore Collective or not.
We have a lot of people that, ~um,~ have joined us that don't have a background in direct sales. And so like you, they're, they're kind of figuring this out. Maybe they've said no in the past, but then we have others who've maybe have been a part of it for years and have not had success. And then we have additional people who have had big success in their business, maybe our top leaders at.
Maybe not even restore collective or top, ~um,~ influencers. We have a lot of, ~uh,~ social sellers that listen to the podcast, so I'd love for you to give your biggest piece of advice to each one of those groups. So maybe what's the number one tip from your experience that you would have starting with those who've maybe never done direct sales before, that, you know, have aspirations of having success, even if that looks different for each one of [00:07:00] them.
~Um,~ let's maybe start with those that are just getting started and then, ~uh,~ we'll go to the other two. What's the biggest piece? Yeah, biggest piece of advice is that I see in this is Walt Disney gives a, gives a great quote that says the best way to get started is to start doing. Mm-hmm. And we get stuck thinking we need to be the expert and we need to know everything.
And that's not true. Like think for example, do you know that when you turn the lights on and you just flip the switch that it works well? Yeah. Do you know how to really explain that in depth? 99.99% of people don't. You just know it works. So I look at it like that for starting in the network marketing profession of you just need to have a belief knowing that, hey, these products work.
Now of course, understand a personal experience is more powerful. But other times we can borrow from other people's experience of knowing that, hey, there's enough science, there's enough validation, there's enough sales, there's enough, right? All of these different [00:08:00] things of knowing that it works. That was no different for me at 28 years, 28 years old, I wasn't interested in skincare.
So I wasn't gonna get my own personal testimony of those products, right? Like I was, for me, I thought I was having a midlife crisis. What am I doing? Network marketing and skincare. Are you kidding me? But I knew the science was there. I knew other people had had the experience and all of that. So for me, I borrowed that belief and from that I didn't make myself the issue.
I got started and I understood my role was this, my role was to get people to take a look. Mm-hmm. So people are like, oh, you're not selling and everything in life. We're selling my wife. Right. I had to sell her on going on dates or getting married or, and. For for her. She asks me where we want to eat at night, and it doesn't matter where I list.
She's literally says no, and then she's selling me on. I'm like, why'd you ask me that? And then she's selling me on where she wants to eat and why. [00:09:00] Right. Like my kids are selling me on, you know, eating junk food every single day. Like we're all are staying out later with their friends from my, my 14-year-old last night.
So everyone's selling. The difference is, is we're not hard. We're not used cars salesperson, that the bad ones, there's really good ones. The ones that are trying to convince you to buy something you don't wanna buy. What we're doing is we're selling them on looking, either looking at the products. Or looking at the business that when I figured that out, that was my only role.
It took the pressure off me of feeling like so uncomfortable and imposter syndrome and I can't answer their questions. So what if you can't? Someone on your team can answer the questions as you go. And then the last thing I'll say on that, and I think this goes for all, all the other levels and we can, we can go on those is like think if you're going to a brand, a new movie.
And you saw the reviews. And the reviews say that it's amazing this movie, and it's the, it's the exact fit for the type of movie you like and your friends, you're thinking about telling your friends about it or you're [00:10:00] like, no, no, no. Hey, Julie and John, sorry. You can't go to the movie with me until I see it.
Let me see it and I'll tell you about it. Or save me to the restaurant. Amazing reviews about this brand new Italian restaurant. Sorry, John. Sorry, Julie. Can't come with us tonight. No. Double date night. We gotta test it out. It's laughable, but that's what people think in network marketing. It's like, no reviews are good.
Heard, it's great. Come try this out with me as you go. And so for the, for the newbie that has no experience, just simplify that conversation in your head. Right. Get that basic level of belief and then, and then realize what you're actually selling. And I promise you that that'll make a difference. That's what made a huge difference for me.
I love that. And I think let's move to the people who maybe are experts, because I know, and you will probably agree, that when you do know products, maybe you are a makeup expert, right? Or a skincare expert, an esthetician, or you've been a top leader, [00:11:00] you've built a massive business. Don't you think sometimes coming from that expert lens can almost be a.
You know, an issue in terms of reaching people like you who don't know, right. Or people who aren't experts in that field. So what advice would you give to those who have done big things in this business to realize that most people are not going to reach where they are in their business? They could, yeah.
Haven't been there. Yeah. Our, our greatest strengths are typically also our greatest weaknesses if we don't have the awareness, right? There's a reason why when you're driving, right, there's a blind spot. And that's our blind spot is our greatest strength, can be our greatest weakness. And so it, it is a strength, but you also have to understand the weakness of it.
So the strength is you got credibility 'cause you're the expert on the products. The weakness is, is, or a couple things. Number one, people are gonna think, well I can't do what you do. Mm-hmm. Right. Same thing if you're, you're the person with the best personality ever and you're thinking, I can [00:12:00] sell anyone, and they're thinking, well, I may buy from you, but I'm never doing this as a business because they're thinking I can't do what you do.
So understand that as you go of, Hey, this strength's incredible. Here's my blind. Spot. How do I protect the blind spot? So I look at it as an expert. This is kind of what I went through when we alluded to my journey, where I crushed it at the beginning and then I struggled The beginning. I wasn't the expert because I didn't know anything.
The more I became the expert and showed that the less success that I had, because I became a professional at only selling, right? But I had zero duplication 'cause no one thought they could do what I did. My presentations became so good. They were really, really bad. They were too complicated, right? And I could explain it and they're like, wow, that was great, but no one else wanted to do it.
So how I simplified that is I realize that it's great that I have all [00:13:00] this information and credibility, but people are asking themselves two questions. This is psychology, and everyone is looking at your business or looking at buying your products, right? They're saying, can I do what you're doing? Can I do it?
And number two is, is it worth it? So if you're looking from a business standpoint, well, can I do what you're doing? Can I present like you? And number two is, sure, I could do that, but is that worth it? Like, that's so painful. That's so hard. So knowing that I was always answering those two questions, that's why I think it's really, really important.
At the beginning, the best presentations handled the objections during the presentation, so I would let people know. All different personalities and styles can have success. For me, one of my weaknesses is because I've got this background, like people think they have to be like me, so I'm already telling them I'm already taking this away.
And then the second part to that is I would do third party validations, whether that is, you know, a [00:14:00] lot do the, the three-way calls, right? ~Uh,~ or zooms. But more often than now at the beginning, they're using. Either dms or a Messenger where they're doing quick voice messages. So if I'm talking to Heather, I'm gonna put her on right away with Julie.
And now she has a different personality and style where she realizes it's not just about me and this is actually what my mentor has made over $30 million did. He didn't need to put anybody else on. I mean, I was signing up 'cause he was so successful. But he did. He literally put me on right away. With somebody else because he understood that later.
He's teaching me the process of duplication and hearing a completely different style and personality and voice. So I didn't make it about I need to be like this mentor. So those two things are a big deal. Even though they're small, they make a big, big difference when you're building your business. Oh my gosh, that's huge.
That's such good advice and I know it'll serve, serve those well who are in that place in their [00:15:00] business. So for the last group, and I know that just with the changes in the industry, um, with companies making different directions and you know, people maybe changing companies, again, whether that's with Restore or not.
Or someone who's been rooted at a company for a long time and is maybe not seeing the same success that they once did, what's your advice to someone who's maybe feeling discouraged over what they hoped their business would look like? Maybe that expectation of something but life not showing up. How would you encourage them to kind of keep going?
Yeah, typically burnout is always vision in the story you're telling yourself. Because if you're burnout right now and all of a sudden you had two people join your business and those two people brought in 20 each, are you still burnout? You're not. So what you're doing is, is you're getting caught up in the exact moment and the exact results, the results are some feedback, but a lot of leaders would say, marry the process, [00:16:00] divorce the results.
I don't say that I say marry the process, date the results. 'cause they are some sort of feedback as they go. And I get it. The vision can get extremely foggy at times when you're building. And so. It's coming back to that and really just understanding what was that new energy you had at the beginning?
Because like you said, some had success and now they've fallen back. Well, at the beginning, their typically their knowledge, and this is a big training I do, even with leaders, their knowledge was all the way, like super, super low, and their energy was extremely high. So think of energy as like 10 outta 10, and their knowledge was one outta 10.
Yet they had success when they were engaged and then all of a sudden a year later they're like, well, my knowledge is 10 outta 10. I don't get it. Rob. Like, I know the comp plan. I didn't even understand the comp plan before. I can understand all these secret pending patent ingredients that we've got now, and I can tell you about the next this and that and [00:17:00] all these different things as you go.
They think when they stop having success, that they need to learn more and more and more. And so they get caught up in, and I'm a guy who's written 18 books and do podcasts in personal development. PD, can stand for personal development or procrastination development, and they get stuck in this loop of learn, learn, learn, learn while not taking any action.
And so their knowledge increases. But the less success they have, the more they think they need to learn. And it becomes this loop that never ends. And eventually they thought they worked, which they did 20 hours for the week, but in reality, they made maybe one to two new invites. And so their business is stuck by a process of typically their lack of action.
And if they take action, it's for a fleeting moment for maybe a week or a couple weeks. That's like planting a seed and saying, where's my tree? Right the next day. Or that's like the people [00:18:00] that just study, study, study, study, not taking action. That would be like Michael Phelps, the greatest Olympian of all time only studies and watches, YouTube videos, but never actually gets in the pool and swims.
And that's what we do in in network marketing. And so I look at it as, yeah, you gotta go back and give yourself a little bit of a vision. Right. You gotta figure out, maybe it's a little personal development in the morning. I think that's incredible. But it should be learn action. Action, action. Not learn, learn, learn, learn, learn, learn, learn, learn.
And a little bit of action as you go. And so it's being more deliberate in the action you're taking. 'cause think about this. I just did this with a large group, 500 people, and I asked them, if you spend an hour a day, what? How many people could you reach out to? You have crazy numbers all over the place.
Some said five, some said a hundred, the average was 30. So you're telling me. Whatever your number is. Those that are listening right now, you decide. You're telling me that if you worked four hours a month, not a week, you could do 120 new invites. [00:19:00] No one, I wanna say, no one. I know if some of you are, but pretty much no one's doing that.
And so they start, start treating it like net hoping net dreaming net. Looking around, right? Not net work. Marketing. And so I try to just give 'em a little bit of the mindset, perspective, the belief, and then I dive deeper after that of the deliberate action. And then we dive deeper into, eventually into their schedule and calendar, which is now your new boss.
You didn't have a boss be, you know when you start network marketing, you used to having a boss. Your parents tell you what to do, your teachers tell you what to do, everyone tells you what to do. Now you get to do what you want, when you want. You got a new boss now. It's your, it's your schedule, it's your calendar.
And so you gotta be crazy deliberate with that schedule and calendar. That's some good stuff. And I love your marry the process date, the results actually shared that wisdom with my leaders, with our founding partner, mentors with Restore. ~Uh,~ when you shared it recently in your Leader of Leaders Club, I'm still secretly hiding out.
Good. Hey, come say come like [00:20:00] it every once in a while. Oh, I'll, yes. So maybe I'll engage a little bit more, but, ~uh.~ Which I would love for you to kind of lead into, what are some of the ways that you are serving the field? The leader of Leaders Club I know is for its top earners, right? In, in any company, again, which we have people, ~um,~ listening, but what are some of the other ways, maybe some of your favorite books and tools and resources, ~uh,~ that you think would be beneficial for those to connect with you?
Yeah, so I have a, a podcast network marketing breakthroughs. ~Um,~ that's, I don't know, it's almost 300 episodes. That's great. Free content if you're a field leader. ~Um,~ my books, ~uh,~ built to last is, is one I just did recently. That's, that's more of a hybrid top leader. ~Um,~ and corporate perspective. If you want that vision.
And if you're building right now, and people ask me like, which order of books? I'll give you what type they are and you can decide where you're at. The one to start with is the game of conquering. 'cause that's mindset only to network marketing. I don't know what mindset book, that's just network [00:21:00] marketing.
I mindset books, but not just network marketing. Then after that, the game of networking and that's really teaching you to be a networker first. And a network marketer second. ~Um,~ so that would be the second one. And then after that there's, there's a couple of books that will help you out. Confessions of a Top Recruiter, ~uh,~ that one gives more of the skills.
And then your rank advancement blueprint is more of the leadership. So between those four, you have kind of like the. The compilation right to, to really help you out for your business. They're all on audible. You can listen to me at two times speed. It'll sound like a chipmunk, but you can, you can, you can listen on audible as well on it.
I love it and I love that your built to last book is a podcast as well. And you can look there too, right? Yeah, for sure. Yep. We're we're getting that thing going and that's been a, been a ton of fun. Or you have a lot of downloads there and, and, ~um,~ we don't have that book on Audible yet because I figured it's free on that, on that podcast, so eventually it [00:22:00] probably will be, but you can listen there.
Yeah, definitely. It's, it's been awesome. And for those of you guys who are a part of Restore Collective, I think get excited 'cause it's great that Rob works closely with corporates, ~uh,~ teams like ours, but also with the field. And so Roger and I had the best time catching up with him.
Rob, ~you've,~ you've already been such a blessing, but it's just great to finally officially connect with you. Well, excited to, to connect again online. I know we gotta meet briefly 2019, six years ago. So, ~uh,~ now full circle as we go. And all of you tuning in is always my takeaway for you is just figure out one thing, one insight.
You made a lot of notes, but one thing you're like, okay, I gotta improve on that. In my business. 'cause progress is the goal. Progress is my definition of happiness. When we're progressing, we're happy. And so we're always trying to look for different ways to progress right in, in all areas of life. And in this case, we're talking about business.
So find one thing you can take away that you say, okay, I can make a little bit of progress on my business to make a [00:23:00] difference. That's awesome. Well, Rob, I know I'm gonna put you on the spot here a little bit, but I, ~uh,~ I would love to invite you to pray, ~uh,~ with our listeners. I know you are a man of faith and so Yeah, absolutely.
But I'd love, ~um,~ just to just invite you to pray for, for those listening. Yep. A hundred percent. Our dear Heavenly Father, we're so grateful to be gathered together. We're grateful for all the many opportunities and blessings we have in this life. We know that everything comes from the, and we know that all of us are blessed with different strengths and weaknesses, and we ask you to please bless us that we may be able to utilize our strengths to the best of our ability.
Number one, we may be aware of what those strengths are. And that we may be able to utilize those to have, uh, an impact on this world. We know that we typically judge others by their actions and ourselves by our intentions. We ask you to help us to have a softened heart, that we may be able to see others [00:24:00] as, as thou would see us them, and we may be able to also focus on the great commandments of loving our neighbor.
And also ourselves, because we can be way, way too hard on ourselves. We're very, very grateful for, uh, this, this incredible podcast and the blessings it brings because of the boldness that we have of having Heather who's willing to share of her beliefs and her faith to, to make a difference in the world.
And we say these things humbly in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen. Thanks for, for letting me, me do that, but I know it's such a blessing and I, I think it's been about a, a year now that I always end every podcast with a prayer for the listeners. So it's a blessing to be able to have one of the first guests I've had in a minute to be able to do the same.
So thank you for your wisdom today and your time, and I'm just so grateful. Hey, honored to be on. Appreciate it. And it was great catching up with you and [00:25:00] Roger, and hope all of you that tuned in found something of value can apply to your business. Awesome. Thanks again, Rob.
