“No friends with benefits”

Hello my friends and Happy fun day Sunday! I hope your week was great and that you are having a wonderful weekend so far. I’m just getting used to posting here on Sundays. The reason for the change is to free up my time on the weekdays for other online activities including reading and monitoring my emails, surveys and more. So far, things are working out just fine.

My topic today is a little different, but it is questionable. You may be asking yourselves. “Where the heck is he going with this?” I believe I just got your attention. “Friends with benefits” are based on those who are in need of companionship without ever being wanted to fully commit in a relationship, to say this mildly. I’m borrowing this phrase as a way to further explain what my reason for sharing my blog and my other activities online with you.

Let me start by saying that I have come a long way in affiliated marketing. I remember sharing with you my start even before the internet became mainstream. I remember that in order to grow my business, recruiting friends and acquaintances as in coworkers and family was the norm. Meeting random people was also a practice I used to get people to join in with me as business partners. I had to get people to my business. I knew that without people investing in my goods and services, my business would fail to exist.

How did I do then? Well, it was better than not trying. This is what I found out during this business recruiting campaign. This method may work for some but not for others. Why? My friends and family know me. They don’t know me as a business owner. It was a tough sell, of course. You get the finger shaking and every reason why whatever I’m doing would result in failure. I am speaking this on behalf of those who went this route when they believe that they have the best and most interesting business model on this planet.

Here are some of the backlash I received during those times. I was told that my business model was a pyramid scheme. I am making money from friends and family by recruiting them. That my business was too saturated, meaning too many people are doing it.

I had coaches. For the pesky family and friends who couldn’t seem to understand why I was going into business in the first place, I used to bring them to my coaches or programs to further explain what I was doing. Those were the good old days. Lo and behold, I finally had my first website and toll-free number as the years rolled by. So. How are things going these days? I am still in affiliate marketing. I just work for me now. I still randomly promote my business offline, including this blog site, to those who are curious about what I’m doing. I still travel with contact cards, an old school habit.

Back then, my strongest supporters weren’t close friends, coworkers nor family. Even to this day, my strongest supporters are reacquainted friends and random folks whom I learned to appreciate so much. These are like-minded people who helped in my growth in learning and then sharing with others.

If I hadn’t learned anything from the past, at least I learned a few things. Always use your products and services. Get to love them. Be happy with them. Think they are the greatest things on the planet. People will follow your excitement and embrace you the most. Next, people do not want to be told what to do and how to do it against their will. If they need your advice, they will contact you. Let them be. Next, not because they join you, they will be doing the work. Don’t forget, the excitement is yours, not theirs.

In conclusion, I don’t need to have friends to benefit my business since everyone is doing exactly what I’m doing. They surf the web. They invest. They watch videos. They play games. They read emails. They shop. I just do them differently. My job is to promote my business to benefit everyone. Locally and worldwide. Because of that, my life is already better. I just seek friends. Friends, without the benefits.

To your success!