Teach what you know

Years ago, I approached Ana Forrest at the end of one of her yoga seminars in Seattle. I was considering being a yoga teacher on the side, but I didn't feel ready. I felt I had a long way to go in my own yoga practice before I could start training as a yoga teacher. I expressed my concern and her response struck me. She said, "Teach what you know."

I am at that junction again. I'm at the start of a marketing venture, learning about network marketing myself, and knowing that I'll have to teach people about it.

But what do I know? Two months into this venture and I've read many articles and blogs and a book about network marketing. So many advice floating around, all saying the same things, all selling their own "system". All of them differentiating themselves by saying they don't do it the traditional way. And they claim that, if you buy into their system, you'll distinguish yourself as an expert. How can you be distinguished from the other "experts" if you're buying into a turn-key marketing system?

So far, all I've really learned are these things:

• I'm working with a very good company. Several people have told me so, fellow network marketers who are in other companies themselves.
• Network marketing is less about about marketing the company and the products, and more about marketing yourself.
• Network marketing is a highly competitive market.

However, I am sticking with this because I see the potential in network marketing overtaking traditional marketing, and I'll tell you why.

We've seen the power of the web. We've seen how blogging and self-publishing online is now threatening the paper-based publications. I think network marketing has the potential to do the same in the marketing field.

Certainly, network marketing has been around for centuries. But network marketing on the internet is a recent development and it's still a big jumble out there. I don't think people have really figured it out yet. If they have, it would be easy to teach and duplicate. However, that's a good thing. An industry in its infancy (in this case, again) holds great potential.

So, we observe and we experiment and we learn. And we teach what we learn.