I first got involved in network marketing in the early 1980s. As usual, I did it for different reasons to most other people. I was lecturing at Australia’s largest university at the time, in marketing, organisational behaviour, visual communications, graphic design and advertising.

I’d read about network marketing and thought that if even a fraction of the claims made about it as the future of retail distribution were accurate, we should probably consider including it in our curriculum. I’d had unique insights into the pyramid selling fiascoes of the late 1960s and early 1970s and, although I knew this was different, I wasn’t sure why or how. So I figured it was time to find out more.

I began asking colleagues and other sources about network marketing and was surprised by the emotional nature of the responses I received. They were long on opinion and notably short on facts. So I began inquiring internationally and found the same thing. In the end, I decided that the only reliable course was to go to the source, and I called an old friend whose regular invitations to look at his network marketing opportunity I’d just as regularly declined. I think it took him all of 15 minutes to travel the 35 km between us!

By halfway through his impressive presentation bells started ringing in my head. This business model made a lot of sense to me, and I could see the potential it had — if it were handled properly.

So I joined with him as my sponsor. His sponsors were very successful leaders who trained us very well. And we belonged to an organisation that didn’t embrace compulsory, monthly book and tape programs which, I realised down the track, was a BIG plus.

Lynne and I won just about every award it was possible to win in our first year. I spent a lot of time researching and testing ideas, especially in areas like retail merchandising and sponsoring approaches. Our team grew quickly and we achieved outstanding retailing results using the strategies we created based on our research.

But, in 1986, I became ill as a result of severe stress (unrelated to network marketing, I hasten to add… I was working as a freelance strategic and creative troubleshooter for no fewer than seven advertising agencies, handling difficult projects — and clients — and carrying responsibility for hundreds of millions of dollars of clients’ advertising budgets around between my ears. Not just certifiable… it was suicidal!)

Instead of our income continuing to grow, as expected, we found that our group was being raided by crossline distributors and others. Preoccupied with just surviving my illness, we decided to let it slide. Our business dwindled very rapidly. We weren’t particularly impressed, either by the failure of the concept to support us or by the less-than-ethical practices of so many other distributors and upline leaders and the blind eye turned by the company on all of this malarky.

Instead, I decided to set up in business as a management consultant specialising in the direct selling industry, including network marketing and party plan. Over the next few years I built a reputation for excellent results with a variety of companies.

In 1989, I decided to join network marketing again, but this time I wanted to build with a team of people who’d failed at it in the past. I wanted to test my theories and strategies with people who still believed in the concept of network marketing, but who hadn’t yet been able to make it work for them.

I took out full page ads in business opportunity magazines explaining what I planned to do, and invited people to contact me. I made it clear that anyone still registered as a distributor with the MLM company I’d chosen was ineligible. I received several hundred replies, but more than 90% of them expressed regret that we would be working with my chosen company, for several reasons.

I also received a letter from a distributor with an Australian-owned MLM company, inviting me to take a close look at that business on the basis that it was similar to my own, but with none of the perceived negatives. And it was 100% Australian-owned.

I was intrigued. I’d looked at this company when it first launched into network marketing in early 1984. I was unimpressed. The products were outstanding, but the compensation plan was a joke. Not even network marketing. I’d told the person who approached me to come back in five years time and, if it still existed, I’d consider joining because something very special must have happened to allow it to survive with that plan in the meantime!

Here it was, five years later, and the company was obviously still around. Plus, in my view, anyone with the gumption to write to me in this way deserved a hearing. So I called Terry and invited him over.

I was impressed, both by Terry and by the attitude and abilities of the company management. They’d quickly realised the problems with their compensation plan and had taken serious and prompt action to fix them. I decided to join this company instead of the other one, and I’ve never regretted that decision — except for my first few weeks in the business.

As soon as I received my distributor kit, I realised there was a serious problem. The materials were very, v-e-r-y ordinary. (‘Amateurish’ would be a charitable description.) I realised that, although I had the skills and experience needed to build a successful business without adequate tools, the people I sponsored, and their people, might not.

As a response to this I created my own tools, seeking the company’s permission to use them. This included an initial distributor training system which contained a manual and audiotapes.

Unbeknown to me, at that particular time, the son of the founders was in process of taking over the role of Executive Chairman of the company so that his father and mother could retire from active duty. He invited me to meet with him and an agreement was reached between us for me to re-create all of the company’s literature and tools.

I immediately put my building activities on hold so that I could focus on creating the best tools in the industry. I wanted anyone joining my team to have these tools to work with. Unfortunately, I didn’t realise at that point just how long the project would take.

Finally, in November of 1992, some 18 months later, those tools were ready, and so was I. By the following August, Lynne and I were into qualification as leaders, and we were presented with our company car in early December 1993.

I eventually resigned from this company in late 1999, and Lynne took over our business. I left because of a potential conflict of interest that arose when I accepted the role of launching another MLM company in Australia and New Zealand. I’d built a global reputation over the years as a result of my on-line activities and my best-selling books in the Asia-Pacific region. I really wanted to find an international network marketing business to build, since the one I was with was only in Australia and unlikely to expand overseas in the foreseeable future. That venture didn’t reach fruition for a number of good reasons, so I returned to management consulting in the direct selling profession.

In the meantime, an old friend had acquired the Asia-Pacific licence for a US-based nutrition and personal care company. Leigh was looking to improve the compensation plan for his international consortium running operations in New Zealand, Singapore and Malaysia, and I was retained to create a new approach, which I completed in late 2002.

I was so impressed by his approach to the business that I decided to join as a distributor, and began to build. But, no sooner had I done so than the parent company in the USA decided to change its focus to the USA and the US health system, effectively terminating its international operations, along with the staff of its international division. (Can you see why I list The Company as the FIRST criterion for evaluation when choosing a network marketing company? If the management screws up, or goes feral, everyone loses. This was later confirmed when the original Australian company I’d joined decided, in late 2006, to quit network marketing and Lynne lost her downline team and income almost overnight.)

There was also legal action taken against the company by a major supplier over alleged patent infringements, none of which were encouraging to the local operations in this part of the world.

So the decision was made to launch a new company, in association with the major supplier, with whom it had built a strong personal and business relationship.

The new company finally launched (in Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and Malaysia) in late 2005. The USA, Canada, European Union and United Kingdom are due for pre-launch in 2008, with other countries, including India, due to open in 2009.

I’ve now resigned my role as a management consultant to focus on building the best leadership team in the entire organisation, using the world-class facilities provided by the company, plus our own.

In May 2005 I launched www.FREEcoachingonline.com, a three-month training and support program for network marketers from any company, any distributor team, anywhere in the world. This is proving to be very popular with people struggling to grow their businesses, especially if they have sponsors and other upline leaders who neglect or abandon them.

Some of these people began approaching me privately to ask if they could join me, or if the Income Security Network operated in other countries. It became a serious frustration to have to tell them that it didn’t. So we began to explore other options in order to extend the full benefits of what we do internationally.

That led us to a well-established (1983), well-run Australian company with ethical standards that are impeccable. Excellent products, a fair and rewarding compensation plan (remember, there are NO perfect plans, just better or worse — and this one is better than most) plus pro-active management attitudes made it the obvious choice as a core program for the Income Security Network system. It currently operates in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the United Kingdom and the USA. Perfect!

So that’s my background in network marketing as at the date of updating this page (8 August 2008). I hope it helps you understand where I come from and where I’ve been, so that you can appreciate the value of what I’ve created in the way of training and support systems for network marketers everywhere.

John Counsel