Jason Lee on MLM Lead Generation, Leadership, and Marketing Secrets
Jason Lee was making great money in Corporate America, but most of it was taxed. He soon discovered network marketing and the rest is history. Learn more in our exclusive interview with him below about MLM mastery.
Thank you so much for doing this interview with me, Jason! Your blog is full of valuable content on how to build a successful MLM that I want to know more about. So, let’s get started!
You live in Washington. (I am originally from Port Townsend) What was your childhood like and what did you want to be when you grew up?
I grew up in a small town called Des Moines right next to Seatac airport. It was pretty cool actually. I am actually an only child, no brothers or sisters so when I was 7 my mom asked me to go out and make some friends.
I remember that far back and recall being extremely bored with an overactive imagination. So I jumped on my Huffy bike and went door to door around the neighborhood asking the adults that answered if there were any kids there I could play with.
It took 30 houses of rejection, but then I hit pay dirt and met about 7 other kids my age that remained my close friends for the next 15 years or so. I always think back to that time and recall that period of finding my first group of friends.
It makes me laugh when I think about how fearless I was going door-to-door, and then how much fear we build up through the years to adulthood being told how to behave, act, and what not.
Those new friends I made were super close though, we had a pretty big forest in our backyard and we did a lot of tree fort building, games like tag and whatever else kids play we played it. Eventually we even used those woods to play laser tag and paintball.
All of those friends liked different things, so I had a buddy I would go snowboarding with every season, another friend I’d paintball with, and so on.
Overall I guess I would have to say I had an epic childhood. The only negative thing I would have to say about my youth is the bullying I received, it was pretty bad early on since I was a pretty small kid.
That is probably why I act with a lot of emotion when I face the critics and naysayers in our profession; to me they are like bullies. I love beating them up.
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Your parents both drove commercial vehicles for a living. Did you ever want to drive a “big rig,” and what was it like living in the middle class?
First let me say I’m impressed about how much homework you did on my past, pretty cool stuff brother, you’re going to be huge in this business I have no doubt.
As far as the middle class goes I will say I always had plenty of toys, never worried about eating, had the clothes I liked to wear, etc.
But looking back especially after high school I realize the thing I really wanted the most was just more time with my parents.
They both worked like crazy so my grandparents pretty much raised me. I was closer to my grandfather than I was with my dad. It shouldn’t be that way.
I never wanted to drive a big rig. In fact, I hated the fact that my dad drove big rigs. I hardly ever got to see him and it’s one of the things I regret the most about my childhood was barely ever being able to do things with him. It’s why I spend so much time with my kids today probably.
My mom was a bus driver for a living for junior and high schoolers. And again, didn’t want to do that either. In fact, my worst nightmare in school was that my mom might switch school districts and end up driving the bus I had to take to school lol.
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You eventually went into the Navy and operated nuclear submarines and did contract work making $150,000 a year. What was that like and what was missing from that career?
To be totally honest the only reason I joined was because my parents didn’t have enough money to send me to college and I didn’t qualify for scholarships. Don’t get me wrong, it was a great experience but that’s because I chose to make it a great experience.
Funny story, a buddy of mine actually asked me if I wanted to join the Navy under the “buddy program.” Basically, you could join with a friend and the Navy would send you through all your schooling together and even station you at the same place. I thought that would be awesome and make leaving home a lot less difficult.
Well, I showed up to swear in, and he no-showed me! That was my first official no-show in life actually hah.
I called him on my cell and he said he wasn’t coming because his parents said they were going to cover his college.
He mentioned that they didn’t want him going into the military because they were worried about him getting killed in combat or something like that. It cracks me up today thinking about it.
I hung up on him and joined anyway into the Naval Nuclear power program where I started learning my craft of operating nuclear power plants.
My entire logic for joining was to go through the longest, toughest program I could to make my college path short on the back end.
The nuclear program at the time I joined put you within 6 classes of a bachelor’s degree. I think another reason I picked the hardest program I could was because I thought I had something to prove to everyone.
Turns out picking a career path for the wrong reasons isn’t the best idea…I never really was happy doing what I did for a living in corporate life even when I was making what most would consider “big bucks.”
Last thing… I knew exactly what I was getting in to when I joined since an older friend of mine had joined 2 years prior. He told me exactly what the Navy was like so I knew what to expect.
Funny thing is, 3 of the close friends I made growing up knocking on those doors also followed my footsteps and joined the military for the same reasons. It’s crazy how when you create a small ripple in a pond it spreads through the whole thing.
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When did you realize you had an Entrepreneur inside of you?
At the age of 19 before I joined the Navy I was offered the chance to startup a few coffee stands in the Seattle area in grocery store parking lots. That’s what initially got me thinking about business, but not leverage.
I just thought it’d be cool to do your own thing. I was more interested in looking cool at that time, and sense running a business was “cool” I was slightly interested. I had a massive need for acceptance and approval during those early years of my life.
I actually didn’t realize I had the option to become an entrepreneur until I was approached by what would be my first network marketing sponsor.
Once I understood network marketing was really about making friends it made me think back to how I made all my friends going door-to-door when I was 7. That memory is what made me feel I was “made” for the profession of network marketing.
When did you discover network marketing and how were the first couple of years?
I was 28 years old when I was shown network marketing. I met my then sponsor at Starbucks, he drew some circles on a napkin and I joined the next day. I remember saying “everyone is going to get this, this is genius!”
I joined a very old company and we only stayed in the profession for about a year and a half. It was brutal. Tons of no-shows, people quitting, and massive rejection.
I remember doing the math and thinking “if I can just acquire 300 customers I can retire on retail alone.” We rented a spot on a local motorcross track and set up a tent where we slung energy drinks for 3 months.
We sold a bunch of them, but were never able to retain customers as loyal buyers. Once buyers left the track they just bought however they liked. It was a massive struggle and very painful.
Nancy, my wife, was so supportive and went to every meeting, event, and race event to help me sell the drinks. She was a total rock, I would never have lasted in this business if it wasn’t for her amazing support.
We built up an income in that first company to about $1000/month before backing out and taking an extended break to reevaluate the profession and give it a more unbiased look. It was the best decision we ever made. Our sponsors were crushed at the time, but we’re still good friends with them to this day.
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What was the main lesson you learned from this period?
The only way to fail in this business is by quitting. If you don’t find a way in your current circumstances you can always change direction to get back on path.
Sometimes it may be necessary to go backwards to go forward again, and every struggle and failure you face is simply a great story for your future self to tell others in order to inspire and motivate them as they follow in your footsteps.
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Could you define what “Hybrid Marketing” is? Is this like Attraction marketing for MLM?
We define it as both online and offline marketing strategies used to build your network marketing business.
The definition is more granular than the definition for attraction marketing since attraction marketing implies the manner in which you employ your marketing strategy.
What are the three biggest obstacles for new network marketers and how do you overcome them?
In order from high to low: Fear, Leads, and Training.
For fear you simply speak belief into your people. By speaking belief into them they will adopt a mentality of confidence which is necessary when doing things like approaching their warm market.
Plug them into the live event program your company puts on, and get them on a personal development program as well.
For generating leads you just need to teach them an easy to follow active marketing technique that they can duplicate.
Don’t try teaching new people advanced lead generation at first or they won’t do anything. That comes later after they know how to get results without breaking the bank account.
Training is a tough one. Ultimately, if your upline doesn’t have a solid training program you’ll need to either develop one yourself or plug into a generic one. If you don’t have a platform to train your new people then you’re toast.
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I love your blog! I always see it on top of Google. How old is it, how many posts are on it, and what is the daily traffic like to it?
Thanks man! Yeah it took dedicated effort and learning some advanced skills to get the site to the point where I generated targeted traffic for it.
I started the blog about two years ago. I had a totally different blog before the one you came across, but it was a miserable failure! I was able to get visitors but they never converted, primarily due to design issues.
The current site has something like 50 posts or so. I’m not sure about daily but right now the month unique visitors hovers around 25,000. That’s not counting the traffic I control (my email list, etc.)
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If someone wanted to start a MLM blog to generate Leads, what would you tell them?
If you’ve mastered the initial skills required for a network marketer to succeed go for it. But you need to know how to qualify, invite, follow up, close, enroll, and train your new people first.
I’d also recommend having them approach their warm market first if they don’t have a “burnt” warm market. If those wickets are all met then absolutely go for it!
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You have a great Podcast. Can you tell us a little about that?
It’s called Unleashing The Alpha Networker, and it’s free on iTunes, Stitcher, and other podcast sites.
I started it after seeing the results other internet marketers were getting in their niches, and it was a natural fit since I was already blogging.
The podcast is all about interviewing other top earners in the profession and some in internet marketing on how they built their businesses successfully.
We’ve had some pretty cool folks on, guys like John Lee Dumas, Russell Brunson, Ray Higdon, Todd Falcone, and others.
What is the best way to get free leads these days?
Probably Facebook, I’d say that’s the first way. I also like LinkedIn. There are leaders on my team using Craigslist successfully too. Blogging is the best way long term, but it’s not a fast approach to getting free leads.
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What is your favorite social media platform right now and why?
Probably still Facebook. Quora too, that site is epic. Just spend a few minutes a day answering and asking questions there and you’re going to get a ton of views, traffic, and messages.
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I’m curious about one of your products on your blog, called “Rocket Recruiting App.” Sounds very interesting. What’s it about?
Awesome, yeah it’s really cool. Eric Tippetts reached out to me about a year ago and we formed a partnership to develop the second version.
It’s a social media recruiting tool with a built in CRM that leverages social media to expose people’s warm market to the tax advantages of home business.
The system then follows up with the leads after they opt in and sells them on the profession of network marketing as being the perfect home business they should try.
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What is your favorite book right now and why?
Gorilla Mindset: How to Control Your Thoughts and Emotions to Live Life on Your Terms
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What are your goals for 2023?
Financially speaking, our primary goal is team oriented for Rocket Recruiting. It is to help 100,000 network marketing professional make an extra $1,000 a month in their primary business.
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What is your favorite quote and why?
“There is no secret ingredient, it is just you.” ~Po from Kung Fu Panda (when he’s trying to explain to his arch enemy the meaning of the dragon scroll – who still doesn’t get it)
Po was looking for everything outside of himself to validate he was the dragon warrior. It wasn’t until he gave himself permission to be the dragon warrior that he actually became what he was supposed to be. It reminds me a lot of leadership in this profession.
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Thank you so much Jason! Wow! This has been incredible. I am sure our readers got a lot of valuable tips there.
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