February 1999
Success Story
Are You Wishing or Doing? - Emma Lyman of FreeLife
After her divorce at age 55, Emma Lyman had to rebuild her life. She married young without finishing high school, and had never worked outside the home. She'd spent her life so far raising six children and teaching Sunday school. Her dream was always to travel, but the grocery store and the school were as far as she'd gotten.
Fast forward to the present-- Emma is 67, a Corporate Director with FreeLife, and has traveled all across the United States and around the world. Finding Network Marketing, says Emma, is what made her life today possible....
I needed to get a job after my divorce, and found one as a receptionist. I was responsible for answering a 60-line switchboard, and while it was stressful and I hated it, I was taking care of myself, earning just enough to get by. Then I heard about Network Marketing from a friend-- I was excited by the possibility of making great money, so I got involved and in a few months was making four times what I'd been earning as a receptionist. I happily resigned-- I had my own business!
I remarried in 1991 at age 60 to a wonderful man, Carl; had some experience in another company, and in 1995, found FreeLife-- the company I'd been looking for-- and began to build an organization from scratch again. Three years later, I now have 7,000 people in my downline, including my daughter and son-in-law-- Brenda and Andy Willoughby who are Presidential Directors and trainers of the year-- and their daughter, Alisa, and her husband, Gregg, who are Directors. My son and his wife are involved, too, soon to be Directors, so it's become a family affair-- we have three generations of Directors in this company!
The biggest challenges for me was believing that I could be successful. I'd never been in Network Marketing before, so it was a whole new ballgame. It was such a joy for me to learn that in Network Marketing, it didn't matter what experience I had or didn't have-- that I could really succeed just on my own merits.
I didn't like hype, so catching on to the industry was also a challenge for me. I liked what I was hearing, and the business model made sense to me, but at the beginning I thought just any company would be okay, I didn't know about being selective and what factors make a company strong. I learned along the way, though, as we all do, and the more I heard, the more I liked and knew I was in the right business at the right time. I've never looked back.
I think team effort has done more to build our group than anything else-- support, support, support. I don't feel that people have had the support they're looking for in Network Marketing, and we are trying to fill that gap. We begin by helping new distributors make a list and working through the list by doing three-ways. I'll often call people for them who they've spoken to already-- particularly someone really interested in the business. When I look at my downline report and I see people listed who I haven't talked to yet, I pick out some key ones and give them a call to welcome them and offer my support.
I see this as absolutely a team effort, it's not about upline and downline. We're all building the business together-- we even have lists of crossline people who are willing to do three-ways with each other if their particular story will help. The more you help and teach people, the better off they are and the better off you are.
I know who's building under me because my phone's ringing. My advice is find a few good leaders, find out their goals and stick with them until they reach those goals. Teach them how to do three-ways with their people and be an accessible leader to them-- what is that? Duplication, duplication, duplication.
Remember that you don't need to sponsor very many people to be successful. I found that I'm more effective working with three to five than a team of 20. It's hard to do a really good job of teaching and supporting that large of a group. You can sign up a bunch of people, but unless they are trained and taught how to be leaders, they're just a name-- they'll die on the vine. Teaching three to five, who teach their three to five is something anyone can duplicate. My group of 7,000 is under three frontline leaders.
I'm always actively prospecting; I'll never quit. You never run out of people-- I'm still working through my own list! There is maintenance now, too, but I love prospecting-- I love sharing with people and getting them started. It's a delight of my heart to do that, it's what keeps me "keeping on." Then they call me later, and say "Oh, Emma, I made $500," or "I made $2,000." They're thrilled! For me, that's what it's all about-- helping people achieve what in many cases they never have before.
My success philosophy for this business is simple: don't stop, never quit, keep on keeping on, persist. Another way I like to put it for fun is "Late to bed, early to rise, work like crazy and advertise." Always be ready to share. Whether it's somebody who just wants product, or someone who's really out there looking for a business, always be willing and ready to share. You just never know who that next person will be. To me, that's exciting.
Ask yourself, what are you willing to give to get? And are you willing to stick with it? Commitment is the line that distinguishes wishing from doing. Which side are you on? Be the person who moves beyond wishing, makes a commitment and takes action.
I love Network Marketing-- I love the financial freedom, working from my home, not having to answer to anyone but myself-- it's a dream come true. Traveling has always been a dream of mine, but before Network Marketing, I never went anywhere. Now I've been to 14
countries overseas, I take cruises-- I leave when I want to and my checks are bigger when I get back. I never knew I'd accomplish that. I
challenge anybody-- whether you're young, middle-aged or older, age doesn't matter-- you can if you want to.
EMMA LYMAN is an Independent Marketing Executive and Corporate Director with FreeLife, Network Marketers of health products. She's been with the company for three years and has served two terms on the Executive Leadership Council. Emma has six children, 14 grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren. She lives with her husband Carl in Kansas City, MO.
Reprinted with permission from Upline, Lyman-Success Story-February 1999, 888-UPLINE-1, http://www.upline.com
