Andy VanDyke on Online Attraction Marketing the Right Way
Andy VanDyke is an Entrepreneur, world traveler, scuba lover, and a network marketing attraction marketing specialist. Her unique story is below in our exclusive interview.
Wow! Thanks so much for doing this interview, Andy. You have a great story that I would love to hear. So, let’s get started with the interviewing questions!
Thank you very much for asking me Erik. The pleasure is completely mine.
Where were you born and raised, what was childhood like, and what did you want to be when you ‘grew up?’
I was born in the Netherlands and raised in Calgary, Canada and Santa Barbara, California. Times were tough in Europe at the time and my parents felt that they could build a better life for our little family in Canada and the USA.
Both of my parents had to work so at an early age I became very independent. Something I am very grateful for. I had a wonderful childhood. It was very adventurous!
Every weekend we would go exploring. From Calgary we would go bear spotting in the Rockies or horseback riding around Lake Louise.
In California we lived on the beach and I had my first introductions to scuba diving. We went deep sea fishing and we also headed to the Santa Ynez Mountains for horseback riding. And the best of all was of course visiting Disneyland in Anaheim!
What did I want to become? I think that changed regularly but a veterinarian was probably at the top of my list at the time.
My parents and I eventually moved back to Europe when I was in my mid teens. A pretty difficult time for me as life in California was a little bit different than life in the Netherlands (that is an understatement).. I considered the Netherlands very “backward” – but I survived.
~
What did your parents do for a living and was there any Entrepreneurship in the family?
When we were still living in the Netherlands my father owned a shop specializing in custom leather clothing for motor riders.
Starting a new life in Canada wasn’t easy and my parents took any work they could. It was tough but from what I can remember we had a good life.
Good friends of ours moved to California and wrote back that life was much better there and it was so much easier to get good jobs.
I think my parents took all of one week to decide that we were going to move to the USA! There my dad started his own house painting business which went really well.
My mother worked for a very classy Belgian restaurant where she started doing the admin and eventually running the whole place..
So yes, I would say my parents are entrepreneurs! And very adventurous.
~
What type of jobs or career did you have before network marketing and what were the pros and cons of working for someone else?
I have lived and worked in quite a few countries and have always been fortunate at landing good jobs.
In Copenhagen, Denmark and in Frankfurt, Germany I worked for Chase bank as Account Manager.
In the Netherlands I worked for large multinationals such as Mattel Toys, Memorex, Global Crossing as Site Manager.
The pros of my jobs were good income, stability, great fringe benefits (paid vacation, pension)..
The cons were long hours, demanding bosses, not much flexibility, no real “sense of freedom”.
Before I started in network marketing I set up some “brick and mortar” businesses.
In Malmö, Sweden I set up a temporary staffing agency together with a Swedish friend of mine. It was and still is hugely successful. I bought myself out when I moved to Germany.
In the Netherlands I set up a company offering smoke free environments to offices and other work places (smoking was still allowed then). Working together with a Swedish company that had developed incredible products to make the work space smoke free.
I also had a Marketing and Sales Training business. I worked a lot with Swedish multinationals as I was familiar with the culture and of course the language.
Unfortunately the recession hit and the first thing companies cut down on is training.. So I had to find another source of income.
The pros of having your own “brick and mortar” business to me were – doing things I love – choosing the people to work with (staff) – tax advantages. Also I enjoyed acquisition a lot (getting new customers).
The cons of having a “brick and mortar” business were having staff (I know, I just said it was great to choose the people you work with but having staff can give you headaches as well), all the (government) rules and regulations you need to follow, all the financial papers, etc. etc.
Now there is also another side to me. I am a PADI Master Scuba Diving Instructor and I worked as such in Thailand, Malaysia, Egypt and Belize.
Why I did it? Because diving is my passion. And I promised myself that I was not going to have any “what if’s” later in life! And I will never regret the experience!
Pros of working as scuba diving instructor: getting paid to do what you love in the most exotic places on this planet.
Cons – getting paid just enough to buy food and drink.
When did you discover network marketing, what was your first two years like, and can you tell us what you would change if you started over today?
I discovered network marketing in 2010. I had just closed down my Sales and Marketing Training company and was looking for a source of income.
I did not want a job. I don’t think I could ever work for a boss again. But I also didn’t want to invest too much money. Times were uncertain I did not want to take too many risks.
That is how network marketing came to mind. For a relatively small investment I could have a “business-in-a-box”. Products, training, marketing material, support. And it is very low risk.
So many network marketing companies have been around for decades and proven that their formula is successful.
But the thing that probably appealed to me most was that I could work internationally. I wasn’t limited to doing business in the Netherlands. As you have probably understood by now, I am pretty international.
The first two years I had my ups and downs. I could have made things a lot easier if I had followed the advice that seasoned networkers gave me. I was a bit stubborn.
What I would change today if I could start over? Forget everything I learned about Marketing and Sales. Network Marketing is NOT about sales. It is about finding solutions.
Also I wish of course I had not only listened to the advice of experienced networkers, but also DID what they told me.
~
What is the biggest mistake you see new network marketers make, and how can they fix it?
The biggest mistake I see is new network marketers make is posting and promoting their product and/or business all over social media.
Their FB profile turns into a sales page for their product.
They are contacting all their friends telling them they “have to see this – it is the best business or best product in the world”. Not only to their friends but also total strangers.
I call that repulsion marketing. The sad thing is that they are probably doing exactly what their upline told them to do.
They can fix it by removing EVERY SINGLE reference to their products and business from their social media pages. Then learn as much as they can about Attraction Marketing.
Learn how to provide value to others. Value, value, value.
Learn how to ask questions and find out if people have a need. And based on that invite them to have a look at their business and/or products.
~
I love your blog! How old is it, how many posts are on it, and what is your daily traffic like?
Thanks for the compliment Erik! I haven’t given my blog as much attention as I should have. I have had it for just over a year and I have 36 posts.
The past year I have been experimenting with different (Free) marketing strategies (Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube), and my blog did not get the attention it deserved.
Working with all these different lead generating strategies has shown me that my blog is more important than ever as it is the “home” where all these different social media strategies can meet up. I hope to double the number op posts in the next two months.
Traffic at the moment is nothing to be proud of between 2 and 10 people a day.
~
How important is attraction marketing for network marketers, and how do you brand yourself instead of spamming the product?
Attraction Marketing is THE MOST important thing for network marketers. I touched upon it already when you asked me about the biggest mistake network marketers make.
With Attraction Marketing you are marketing yourself. And there are several reasons this is so important:
Become a person of value and people will automatically want to join you.
People buy from people – not from companies. This was true 100 years ago and it is still true today!
Let’s say after 4 years you leave your MLM and join another. For 4 years you will have been marketing this business and products – for nothing! You can start all over again.. BUT if you BRAND yourself, it doesn’t matter if you switch opportunities.
Things to consider when you brand yourself:
Be more aware of YOU on Social Media. How people perceive you. Never be negative, never bash another person or business and steer clear of politics!
Create an association of value with your brand by consistently putting out value.
Engage and interact with those that follow and engage with you. Pretty simple, keep cultivating your best fans and engagers.
Invest in yourself to increase the value of YOU and your brand.
Ray Higdon speaks of Invest, Learn, Teach. Invest in more knowledge which you then teach to your followers.
~
How do you create duplication successfully in network marketing, and how do you get your new distributors started the right way?
Good question, Erik. Duplication is very important to me. With almost everything I do, I ask myself – can anyone do this? If the answer is no, you must find another way.
For example I don’t do presentations myself, but send people to YouTube to watch presentations (some of them I have done myself, but they are on YouTube for anyone to access).
I have FAQ’s on YouTube. Some were done by a colleague and he has done them really well, there is no need for me to do them over. They answer 99.9% of the questions.
The company I work with has a very simple 5 step system for new distributors. I like to take them through the steps myself and then “hand hold” them until they have had their first success. And once they have tasted success they become unstoppable.
And the great thing is that they do exactly the same with the people they recruit. Monkey see, monkey do!
I think this is a bit of a mistake a lot of network marketers make – they recruit someone, tell them to read this and watch that and call them back after a week to find out how things are going. I guarantee you that these new recruits will quit very quickly.
Giving a bit of your time at the start and helping new people is also great fun. I love it when people have success.
What is the hottest way to generate leads for you these days, and can you share a technique?
I have been doing Facebook marketing for some time and felt like a change. A colleague of mine told me he was doing very well with Twitter so I thought I would give it a try.
He shared with me some tips on how to automate Twitter marketing by using some free apps – I implemented it and wasn’t very successful at first.
I then started playing around with things like my header image and “about” text. And soon found what worked and what didn’t.
I never thought a header image could be THAT important. But I went from generating 10 leads a day to 30 or more. And since a week I am getting between 300-400 new followers to my Twitter account EACH DAY.
~
What is the best rags to riches story you have heard about inside network marketing, and why should we as network marketers never give up?
A very dear friend of mine had a terrible, terrible youth.
Parents divorced. Dad murdered mom’s new boyfriend and went to jail. Came out and becomes an alcoholic.
He eventually takes his own life.
The mother had to work 3 jobs to see my friend through college.
He went to work as a salesman and totally sucked at it.
Eventually found network marketing and didn’t do very well the first years. Then found a great mentor – and since then his life changed.
He is now a top earner in a travel company and an 8-figure earner (YES EIGHT).
He has a wife and 2 kids. He haas people all around the world. Travel to the most exotic and exciting places.
And he is the most generous and kind person I have ever met.
~
Who do you want to help and inspire and why?
I love to help and inspire people who are new to our industry.
New people go through a tough time because the people around them usually have a lot of misconceptions about network marketing. They get a lot of negative stuff thrown at them and that is extra tough on them.
I love to see how people’s posture changes after they have had their first successes – how much confidence they have.
~
What is your favorite book right now, and why?
My favorite book of all times is:
THE SLIGHT EDGE
By
Jeff Olson
It shows you how you can completely change your life but just doing small things every day.
It is very easy to read – very entertaining and if you apply the content all I can say is WOW.
It was an eye opener to me. And really I wish I had read it 30 years ago.
~
What are your goals for 2023?
I am expanding my business to Asia (Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore). These countries as the fastest growing countries in Network Marketing – probably due to the fact that Asians are very entrepreneurial.
Also I find that many Asian women are looking for opportunities to earn their own income and become independent.
So I am looking forward to building some enthusiastic teams there and of course traveling to Asia myself in 2023!
~
What is your favorite quote and why?
Everything you have always wanted, is on the other side of fear!
Brian Tracey
Fear is the biggest killer of all. Everything you have ever wanted is on the other side of fear. The challenge is letting go of it. It is as simple as that!
