Miguel Fuentes on Being the Best Instagram Marketing Mentor for MLM
Miguel Fuentes is part of the dream team and Instagram marketing experts who help home-based business owners generate leads online. Here is Miguel’s story in our exclusive interview below.
Thank you so much for doing this interview, Miguel! I love your blog and know you have some exciting value to share. So, let’s get started!
What was childhood like and what did your parents do for a living?
Most people like to say they came from humble beginnings, I like to say we lived in gratitude.
My mother worked very hard to raise 4 kids on a single income. She did everything!
My earliest memories of her work was at a paper distribution plant. I’m not exactly sure what she did there but it provided for our family.
When that job moved to Houston Texas, we did as well. She worked nights for the 5 years we spent there. We returned to live and stay permanently in Denver Colorado. This is where I live today.
Eventually she settled into work at a medical products company in town, after many other odd jobs that included 7Eleven.
Despite all the challenges we faced financially as a family, we never wanted for much. My mother taught me the value of hard work and family, she is my personal hero. My childhood overall was fun.
I grew up with 3 siblings… So there was never a dull moment. Even though I’m closest to my younger brother. My teen years and into my early twenties was a very rough period, but I am grateful for the lessons I learned there.
I did go to college and it took me about 7 years to finish and enter the workforce.
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Was there any Entrepreneurship in the family?
Sadly no.
I am extremely grateful for the work ethic my mother taught us, but when it came time to be adults.
Being an employee was all we knew how to do. To this day I believe that this is one of the biggest hurdles in the Network/Affiliate Marketing space.
Making the transition is very difficult, but not impossible.
I acknowledge and commend anybody taking the steps necessary to make it happen.
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What were your plans for when you “grew up?”
I can honestly say I had no plans for growing up. All I knew was that I needed to go to college and that was my goal since I was a boy.
Little did I know that there was so much life left after I completed my degree in Sports Medicine. I worked a full time job and went to school full time leading up to graduation.
If I had any kind of advice for younger people in a similar situation I would say to focus solely on school. Working and going to school both full time is not only difficult, but you never get the full reward of doing either one in a dedicated manner.
It wasn’t until I entered into the Network Marketing arena that I began to have real goals. In fact I was in a company in my early twenties and really didn’t understand it, but my buddies where doing it and it seemed like a good idea.
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When did you begin internet marketing, and how were the first two years, and what kind of struggles did you experience?
I started marketing on the internet in 2012. The first two years were very educational!
I didn’t realize it at the time but I had a lot to learn before I could make any significant progress.
At that time I was the sole income in the home and my mother had just retired to our house. She was living with us, my wife was in college and my son was years old at the time. There was a lot going on and I had the feeling that I needed to be more and have more in life.
I came into the industry knowing exactly nothing. No credibility, no influence and certainly no skills to speak of. This became abundantly clear when I started my business.
I spent time messaging all my Facebook friends with crazy spam messages. It’s so embarrassing when I come back to one of those conversations.
Still, I couldn’t understand why nobody would join my Network Marketing company. It was a really good deal after all!
In the beginning, I was like most people. Failing to get any traction and searching online for answers. I just knew in my guts there was a way to leverage social media.
I found MLSP about in early 2013 and did absolutely nothing with it for months. I think I was still holding onto the idea that I could build it offline.
When I finally did settle in and get committed I started to finally get results. Not the results I ultimately desired, but enough to hold my interest and keep me moving forward. Which is so important! Get yourself and everyone you work with results fast. Even small victories carry enormous weight, for those who have never gotten a result period.
In the beginning all I did was learn, until I picked up a few skills that would become my niche and specialty. Instagram quickly became my home and I fully committed myself there.
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What would be the most important advice you would tell new network marketers?
My advice to a new network marketer would be to focus on your mindset and understand why it’s so important. People pick up on your energy if you want them to or not.
So focus on making yours better. Focus on improving yourself while doing the activities. There is one tragedy when someone quits network marketing. They missed the gift of mindset that comes with it. If you never made any money…
If you only ever improved your mindset, you would become a better father or mother. You’d be a better employee, you’d be happier and more self determined. This alone is worth the effort! This alone is what people are seeking in the first place. They just don’t know it.
From your mind a better life will bloom, no matter how much money you’re making.
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I really like your blog! How old is it, how many articles are on it, and what is the daily traffic like to it on a daily basis?
Thank You! It’s a little over a year old. This is not my first one however. I had another that I built myself, but I chose to let it go when My Lead System Pro, introduced its native blogging platform. That was easier to create and use. When I found out it was rolled into my membership for free, letting go of the old blog was a no-brainer.
I have about 70 posts there, and am looking to do more blogging moving forward.
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When did you discover the power of Instagram, and is that your favorite media platform for generating Leads?
Instagram is my favorite marketing strategy by far! It’s where I spend the most time and it’s where I’ve made the most money.
I’d say I got started on Instagram in May of 2014. As a full time employee with a family to take care of Instagram really made sense to me. It was mobile, easy to use and had a tremendous upside.
It is my favorite place to generate leads, using my 5 accounts. I’ve noticed however the more I talk to people the more my lead flow increases. It’s like people discover that I’m a real person and that surprises them.
What are the 5 Instagram mistakes people make?
This is one of my favorite topics, and it has changed a lot since I got started. This is so important to understand, and it changes as the times and the platform changes. I put this into my personal newsletter as the first piece of value I send out. You can grab my newsletter here if you like.
My top 5 Instagram Mistakes
- Branding your company and not yourself. This is a huge mistake, especially on any platform that relies heavily on hashtags. When you’re the leader, you attract followers. When you give your power away to a company through your tags and images, you send them away.
- Over automation – Some marketers have forgotten to connect with other real people on Instagram. They get a few bots going and forget to check on them or respond at all. So many times I’ve gotten automated messages that nobody will respond to when I respond. You might be leaving money on the table if you never check your messages or respond to anything. The purpose of automation should always be to start a conversation only.
- Hashtag research – The wrong hashtags can put you in the wrong niche, which will make you 0 dollars. Do the research on your tags. Make sure they’re not broken and are relevant. If they have no traffic to them then you’re wasting time using them.
- Not taking Instagram seriously. Small numbers never produced anything in any niche. Take it seriously and you will get serious results. It’s not something you can set and forget, especially with the algorithm changes. Spam pages that have 10K followers and 5 posts will stop existing. They won’t stop existing, you just won’t see them anymore.
- Profile Profile Profile… I don’t think I should have to tell anyone to put their name in the profile, but I see this all the time. No name, with an extremely vague profile all leading to bitly link that could be anything. Take the time to make it look good! You have about 3 seconds to catch someone’s attention, so make it count. I have training on all these topics on my blog or just reach out to me.
How many hashtags is enough these days, and how many is too many?
This really depends on the size of your account.
If your account is small I recommend using the max number of targeted tags to get the most attention and followers.
Larger accounts can use less as this comes off as slightly spammy and you want to reach the highest number of real followers you can. I still use the max number of tags on my larger account mostly when I’m promoting something important.
This is also why hashtag research is so vital as well. The wrong tags will attract the wrong people and all manner of bots if you’re not careful. Make sure you know where your tags are linking to and why.
I go all in or not at all with tags. My smaller accounts use more and my larger account is zero or very few.
Do you suggest multiple Instagram accounts, and how do you automate Instagram with Crowdfire?
I was once asked “Why do this?” and my answer was “WHY NOT!!”
Here is the reality of the situation. The technology exists and Instagram is fully on board with any user activating this free feature. I simply asked myself how I can leverage it.
As far as posting is concerned, I highly recommend you start a library of personally branded images and integrate borrowed images from Google Crowdfire.
I rotate my images daily from one account to another, nearly every day.
However I am pulling from a library of several thousand personally branded images I have created through time. I did an Instagram course on how to do this specifically.
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Now, how do you get Leads from Instagram. Is it just people clicking on the link in your bio?
Yes and yes sometimes. One fact has never escaped my attention, when it comes to leads on Instagram. I get passive leads nearly every day, but that number increases substantially when I actually talk to people.
It’s like they’ve discovered that I’m a real person with a real personality and that make the conversion so much easier for them.
I spend time nearly every day messaging my new followers and engaging with their pages. This will increase your conversions like crazy. Just reaching out as your genuine self seems to activate people.
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What is the “Dream Team?”
The Dream Team was a weekly web series my buddy Scott and I started in 2015 just after Live the Dream V. We set it up to help the new entrepreneur get valuable free weekly training. We started out with only 6 members in our group. That number has jumped to more than 90 over time.
Since then we’ve re-branded and transitioned to become The Influence Tribe. You can subscribe to our YouTube Channel.
We chose to rebrand at the one year point after about 48 Weekly episodes which we interviewed so many leaders and asked them about their results.
We’ve had some heavy hitters in the space, who weren’t heavy at all at the time. Good stuff, I’m excited about the future.
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Do you have any good free Instagram training for my readers?
I do indeed.
I have a free Multi Instagram account training that will give the specifics on how to set up, and execute the strategy.
I have also done several valuable webinars where I’ve shared my best stuff. You’ll have to message me for those!
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What is your favorite book right now and why?
I’m torn between to right now… The Motivation Manifesto by Brendon Burchard and The 10X Rule by Grant Cardone. I am a huge believer in personal development and these two books definitely help there.
I’m always blown away by the insights that Brendan shares. As well as the construction of this book is beautiful. It’s like a 300 page poem that will change your life. Love this one!
The 10X Rule is a challenge to me, and it makes me uncomfortable… I like that! Grant is no nonsense hard core let’s get it done! This was the book that inspired me to run multiple Instagram accounts with no excuses, and to create my own course about it.
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What are your goals for 2023?
One goal is ever present for me. Have my name synonymous with Instagram and Instagram training. I want my accounts so big that you will not be able to log in without seeing my face. This is my target!
I honestly feel that when I accomplish this all my other goals will fall into place around this one.
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What is your favorite quote and why?
This is a tough one. I have so many great people in my life that I study, and this answer may surprise you.
“Mother is the name for God on the lips and hearts of all children. ” – Brendan Lee – The Crow
This quote like so many other things in my life reminds me of the importance of my work. Not only because I have an exceptionally strong mother, but this quote reminds me above all else to care about people and their struggles.
I am not saying waste time, with those who have other priorities. I am saying be aware. We are nothing if we cannot serve others. This is what gives life meaning. No normal person was ever happy to be alone in his finest moments. We have got to care for those we wish to help.
Thanks so much for this interview, Miguel!
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