Transforming Network Marketing: A Journey Beyond Wealth with Richard Bliss Brooke

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Join us in this eye-opening episode where Richard Bliss Brooke, a seasoned network marketing guru, takes us through the ethical dilemmas and personal development paths in the industry. With over four decades of experience, Brooke offers a unique perspective on building a meaningful career beyond the allure of instant wealth. He highlights the importance of community, personal growth, and the true essence of success in network marketing. This episode is a game-changer for anyone seeking to make an impactful and ethical career in the field.

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Patrick Shaw:

Today, I have the great pleasure of being with Richard Bliss Brooke, who wrote a book, Richard, that I read so many years ago, I can’t remember anymore, but Mach 2 with Your Hair on Fire, you’re the author of The Four-Year Career. You have had a career in network marketing that spans more than 40 years, and it is a pleasure to have you on the phone today. And I think we’re going to talk about some really interesting stuff. Thank you, my friend.

Richard Bliss Brooke:

Thank you, Patrick. It’s an honor to be here.

Patrick Shaw:

So we’re going to talk about kind of a dichotomy, a paradox, something that may unsettle some people that listen to this, because unfortunately, it’s the mass of what is being taught in network marketing. And it revolves ultimately around, like most things, at its root, it’s about ethics. It’s about who we are in this business more than what we earn. Now, often those go hand in hand, Richard. I’d love to dive into that subject with you and for those leaders out there that are making that want a real career. I think this is such an important subject.

Richard Bliss Brooke:

Yeah, I mean, it’s one that’s dear to my heart. And it’s not one that everybody wants to talk about for sure because I’m just kind of reminded of the culture in our country. So just last week, President Biden entertained President Xi, the president of China, right? And he entertained him over a very political and delicate negotiation over, hey, these are two countries that they’re not at physical war, but we are at war for the future of our principles and how life’s going to be lived. And yeah, for sure, right? And so Biden is like walking on eggshells and, you know, he’s like, you know, and they reported, hey, we made some pretty good progress, but there’s some serious issues.

Patrick Shaw:

Certainly a philosophical war, right?

Richard Bliss Brooke:

With these two countries. And then the president of China, you know, went down the street and he went into some reception with a whole bunch of business people, you know, Apple, Tesla, right, everybody. He got two standing ovations from all these billionaires and CEOs, right? So what’s the point of that story is, hey, money talks, money rules the day, right? And I think that’s the biggest challenge we have as a profession is there’s a lot of trainers and coaches and company owners and promoters and whatever that uplines that they know that they know that. Hey, the bottom line is how much money people can make and how fast they can make it. And I think that is creeped into our culture as a profession and it’s not done us any favors as a profession. And.

Patrick Shaw:

You know, you almost think the ultimate question is if you said to somebody, hey, you know, you can, you can jump into this business and you can make $5 million really fast or, hey, you can make 300 grand a year, change a lot of people’s lives and you can do that over the next 15 or 20 years, what would most people pick? And then unfortunately it’s sad, but I think a lot of people would say, well, I’ll just take the cash upfront. Thanks.

Richard Bliss Brooke:

Exactly. I’ll go buy that Ferrari now. Right? Yeah.

Patrick Shaw:

Mm-hmm only to discover, you know, hopefully that they find out it doesn’t really make them happy and that’s where the ethics comes in right is that is the That is the real question is what is success in network marketing and you’ve spent a lot of your career selling that dream. It’s a different dream than is being sold today. Can you talk a little bit about that?

Richard Bliss Brooke:

I think, you know, what it does is it actually crosses over from ethics into a much deeper subject, which we are supposed to be as a profession, you know, the band leaders of, and that’s personal and leadership and character development. And anybody that’s on that legitimate deep journey knows that $5 million upfront, as tempting as that is, right? I don’t, you know, don’t tempt you or me with it.

I don’t want to be tempted with it because it’s legit. But those of us that are on the journey of personal development, we know in our heart of hearts that does not produce happiness. And what does produce happiness is a lifetime journey of serving people, of supporting people, of coaching people, of leading people. And so if the option is 300 grand a year for 15 or 20 years,

You don’t have to be a math genius to know the 300 grand a year guy or gal is going to make way more than 5 million. You don’t have to be a student of history very much to know the person who takes 5 million is probably going to blow it and be broke five years from now. While the other person can be making 300 grand a year for the rest of their life and investing in real estate and having a beautiful life. And why, why isn’t that other road more prominent?

Patrick Shaw:

Yeah.

Richard Bliss Brooke:

And why isn’t it portrayed and educated and coached and led and put out there as an example? I think that’s what’s missing in our profession. It’s kind of like the clickbait is, let me show you how many seven-figure earners our company has. Let’s parade them up on stage. And then we don’t even leave it at that. Then we say, oh, this person got to seven figures within.

I was at a generic event a few years ago, which I, after I saw it, I said, this is the last time I’m coming to this event. This person was put up on stage as a seven-figure earner and she said she got to seven figures a year in 13 months.

Patrick Shaw:

Right.

Richard Bliss Brooke:

And she was heralded as a role model in our profession. And yeah.

Patrick Shaw:

That’s the bigger problem, right? It’s not, and maybe she actually did it, but that’s the problem: who are we calling the role models? And I don’t mean to be devil’s advocate, but we live in a TikTok attention span society. Unfortunately, you know, you told that whole story about China and everything else, money rules the day. People are looking for the quick fix. And then on top of all of it, you have internet marketers that are now teaching network marketing and it violates all the fundamentals. Is there any solution? Like, can that be overcome? You know, or is it more of the same always in society? Do you have to go in the opposite direction of the masses? I mean, what’s the answer?

Richard Bliss Brooke:

You don’t have to call anybody.

Richard Bliss Brooke:

I don’t know.

Richard Bliss Brooke:

Some of my best friends in this profession, I mean, people that I respect and admire, and I like them a lot. And they’re very bright. And what they promote almost every day is this internet model of network marketing. And the person they put on stage as their testimonial is, “I enrolled 1700 people in the last three months and I didn’t prospect anybody and I wasn’t on social media.” And okay, that’s pretty good clickbait. Everybody’s going to sign up for that, right? That sounds like, “Oh, I’m going to recruit 1700 people, I don’t have to do anything.” The reality is something different, right? And you know, I think that’s just the challenge, Patrick, and I don’t have the answer to it.

Um, you know, obviously, our country doesn’t have the answer to it. Everybody’s all over TikTok. It’s really the only social media channel that works, but yet. Hey, do your homework, folks. I mean, you’re promoting the enemy.

Patrick Shaw:

Yeah.

Richard Bliss Brooke:

That is not a neutral, I mean, that’s China’s destroyer that’s floating around the United States.

Patrick Shaw:

And be.

Patrick Shaw:

Well, is the solution, then, you know, just as leaders, we have to be. Hopefully, we understand what is of value in the industry. And then we just have to speak more to the real dream that you and I know exists in network marketing. I mean, I was with one company for almost 25 years. I still have a multiple six-figure check. And honestly, I’m not focused on that business. I’m focused on building RapidFunnel. That’s where I’m at, but I haven’t jumped around. I didn’t jump into another company. I didn’t do anything else, you know, and I still support the people that call me. But that’s the dream. I mean, that allowed me to do other extraordinary things. And I don’t think you, you were talking before pre-call here, you were talking about that’s the dream. What do we have to do to sell that dream?

Richard Bliss Brooke:

That is.

Richard Bliss Brooke:

I think we have to, as I mentioned before, I love the quote by Jim Rohn, “Don’t wish things were easier, wish we were better.” And I think we’re just a little bit lazy, which is ironic, right? We’re not supposed to be the lazy people. We’re supposed to be the personal development, leadership development. We’re supposed to be the people that get out there and grind and create. But I just think we’ve been lazy as a profession where we don’t want to get better at selling.

Patrick Shaw:

Mm-hmm.

Richard Bliss Brooke:

You know, our profession and selling the dream and educating people about, “Hey, what would you rather have? A million dollars cash or 10 grand a month for the rest of your life?” I mean, if you have half a brain, the 10 grand a month, that’s the ticket. Right. And then, the whole

 study of happiness, I think we have to get good at putting that on stage and promoting that because all the evidence is there. It’s not money.

Patrick Shaw:

Right.

Richard Bliss Brooke:

It’s not the home, it’s not the Ferrari, it’s not the jet. Although, give me a jet, I think that’ll make me happy for a while, right? I get it. But we know that what makes human beings happy is being in service, doing something that we absolutely love doing. And what that gives us, Patrick, is that gives us longevity in our profession. And I think one of the things that all of the leaders that are pursuing everything they’re pursuing, they don’t have the benefit of history. I have some benefit of history. I’ve been doing this full-time for 45 years. All time, 50 years part-time. A couple of goofy things I did in high school. I didn’t even know I was in direct sales, but I was. Best line and Electrolux. But 45 years full-time, either as a…

Patrick Shaw:

Mm-hmm.

Patrick Shaw:

Bill Bailey.

Richard Bliss Brooke:

Or as a company owner. And the perspective that gives me is, I look around, now our profession has been around for 70, 75 years. California Vitamins invented it in 1946. I look around and I ask, where are the other 30, 40-year veterans in our profession? Now, there’s a few, but where are all the people that spent all those years pursuing your dreams?

Patrick Shaw:

You know, I got to tell you though, I mean, we’ve got a lot of clients in that space. And we were talking earlier that are, that are second and third generation, but here’s the crazy thing. You’re not going to find them on TikTok. Like that’s the crazy thing. And they don’t, they’re not running around. They’re not going to the events. They’re not telling the story. They’re building their team and they’re building it with authenticity. And that’s part of the problem is that the very best stories…

Richard Bliss Brooke:

Yes.

Patrick Shaw:

It’s like the best marriages, right? They’re not on TikTok telling everybody how to do it. They’re doing it. They’re busy doing it, you know?

Richard Bliss Brooke:

Right. Yeah. And that’s one of the beautiful things about our profession is this is a build-it-once-get-paid-forever model. If you pick the right company and the right product, and you and I were talking about before the show, I mean, you got, I don’t know what companies they represent, but you got a lot of clients that are third generation and I’ve got some coaching clients, you know, I got quite a few in Shaklee because it’s 60 years old. The grandkids are earning the income created by the grandparents and everybody else is gone. They’re all passed away. And that’s the beauty of our profession. And it’s that income, but it’s also the journey of personal and leadership development and serving and helping people. And I just think we have to figure out a way to bring that goodness of our profession to the forefront and back off of…

Patrick Shaw:

Yeah.

Richard Bliss Brooke:

The TikTok success stories, the seven-figure-in-13-months success stories. And we have to take a look at, I think everybody just has to take a look at your own personal ethics. You have to just ask yourself, right? Like how much of your build has ever been at the expense of your former company or your former team or some other company because you raided or you promoted. And you know, it’s just not healthy for our profession. It’s not healthy for your reputation.

Patrick Shaw:

That is interesting, right? You almost think like, I think about some of the events I attend and I almost want to, what you’re saying, I almost want to call the leaders and the host of those events and say, listen, instead of putting the guy on stage that did the million dollars in 12 months, because you and I have been there and half the time you watch him and you go, maybe nice kid, maybe whatever, but he doesn’t know enough to even know what happened. And he’s spending it…

Richard Bliss Brooke:

Right.

Patrick Shaw:

In a manner that proves he doesn’t know enough. Because you know how fleeting that can be. What we should be recognizing is who’s been in the business for more than a decade and who’s generating more than five or six or $7,000 a month. And that may not be the story that everybody wows over, but if they’ve got a passive residual income and they’re doing something they love, right, what’s the value of that?

Richard Bliss Brooke:

Right. And you know, Jeff Olson, he’s one of the smartest guys in our profession and he’s just invested $23 million in the last seven years to fight the Federal Trade Commission. And he just won the lawsuit against the Federal Trade Commission, $23 million of his own money. We owe him a huge debt of gratitude. But one of the things that I learned from him a long time ago, just in passing is…

You know, he talks about a grass fire. If you look at a grass fire from above, how does it burn? How does it grow? And it’s always the perimeter, right? The heat is burning new fuel at the perimeter. And the perimeter in network marketing, the grass fire burns the network marketing from the new people, the brand new people. Looking at our opportunity, and they don’t need to hear about somebody earning seven figures. They need to…

Patrick Shaw:

Mm-hmm.

Richard Bliss Brooke:

Hear about somebody making 700 bucks a month. You know, how does somebody get to $700 in income in the last 90 days? Tell me that story. Because that’s going to bring the hundreds of thousands of people,

 the millions of people into our companies. And that’s actually how you make seven figures, right? Get 100,000 people to join your team who are looking to make 700 bucks a month. And…

Patrick Shaw:

Richard, did you always beat that drum when you talk about the value proposition and motivation or some of the words that you use? Was that a drum you always beat in your presentations, in your one-on-ones, on your three-way calls? Was that the dream that you found yourself selling that created the right kind of culture?

Richard Bliss Brooke:

I think so. I’ve always been like kind of a problem solver. Like the way I get criticized sometimes because I look at a situation and what I point out is what’s missing or what’s wrong. And of course, it’s very popular to, oh, don’t point out what’s wrong. Just let’s look at what’s right. And I get that. I’m all for that, right?

If you just point out what’s right, well, what’s right is already there and it’s already working. But if you want the thing to get better, you might want to have the courage to look at what’s wrong, right? So I’ve always looked at what was missing and, hey, let me figure out how to solve that. And when I was recruiting two or three years into my build, I really had a challenge with getting people to see the value of what I was doing and what I learned intuitively. I just…

Patrick Shaw:

Mm-hmm.

Richard Bliss Brooke:

Sort of got it was they were seeing my opportunity as an income opportunity. That let me make $500 a month or $1,000 a month. And like long-term, like sales, like direct sales. And the problem was, they already had a job. They were already making money. And a lot of them could have earned another $500 or $1,000 a month just by working harder.

Patrick Shaw:

Mm-hmm.

Patrick Shaw:

Mm-hmm.

Richard Bliss Brooke:

And face it, right? Everybody on the planet can make an extra $500 a month. Just go be a part-time greeter at Walmart or just go sit on your butt in your car and do Uber. There’s a million ways to make $500 a month, but there’s not a million ways to two things. One, build something once and get paid forever. And that’s where I created the Four-Year Career. And the other one is there’s not a lot of ways to be part of a community…

Patrick Shaw:

Yeah.

Richard Bliss Brooke:

That’s all about personal growth. It’s all about character development. It’s all about confidence. It’s all about self-esteem. The number one communicable disease in the world is low self-esteem. That’s the source of all of our problems. If you look at all of our politicians, whoever you hate as a politician, as a leader, and you look at them and you go, what an idiot? Like, how could they possibly do or say that?

Patrick Shaw:

Yeah.

Richard Bliss Brooke:

What’s the source of that? Low self-esteem. That’s a five-year-old in a suit. That’s what’s going on, right? So what I created, because it was a gift to me, I used to be one of those idiots. I used to be a five-year-old. Still am sometimes, right? But I used to be just, you know, when I started network marketing, I was a 22-year-old, but really in a five-year-old…

Patrick Shaw:

Mm-hmm.

Richard Bliss Brooke:

Set of beliefs and personality. I was just highly dysfunctional. And the people that recruited me, the people that trained me, the people that coached me, the people that owned my company, they were all about personal development. They fed me the books, they fed me the tapes, they put me in the seminars, and I transformed, Patrick. I became a different…

Patrick Shaw:

And do you think going back though, and I know it’s hard to remember that, I mean, it’s been a long time, Richard, but when you got started and you were that 20, early 20-something kid, can you honestly say that you were attracted to the money or you were attracted to the idea that you could become more?

Richard Bliss Brooke:

I can…

Richard Bliss Brooke:

The latter for sure.

Patrick Shaw:

So you really were attracted to, hey, this is an opportunity for me to be in a good environment, good people, good community, learn some stuff, yeah.

Richard Bliss Brooke:

Yeah, I love the whole idea of the money. I did. I mean, I’m all about abundance, right? I don’t minimize that. I’m all about abundance. But the number one thing that’s always attracted me to network marketing, the number one thing that I appreciate, the number one thing that I have promoted with the money is this is an environment where you can become…

Patrick Shaw:

Yeah, right.

Richard Bliss Brooke:

Somebody far greater than you have been. And let’s talk about how that…

Patrick Shaw:

Yeah, I agree with you. I think it’s interesting, you know, you mentioned Jeff Olson, the first company I ever joined was The People’s Network. And it never really got off the ground. But there was a culture there like none other I had ever been involved in. And everybody signed up because they wanted to improve the quality of their life. Now, it shows the wrong. What’s that? That was it. It was personal growth. And…

Richard Bliss Brooke:

Yeah.

Richard Bliss Brooke:

And that was the product. That was the product, right?

Patrick Shaw:

And out of that, like I’m still doing, we’re launching with companies right and left and the number of leaders that came from that relatively small group. 25 years later is really surprising. Like it’s shocking and nobody made any real money there. Yeah. I mean, it really speaks to your point. Like…

Richard Bliss Brooke:

A lot.

Richard Bliss Brooke:

Yeah, a lot. Yep. Right, it’s not because of the money. It’s because of the personal development. And…

Patrick Shaw:

So many people that became so much more financially, but it’s what they learned there in that environment and culture, and they wouldn’t trade it for anything.

Richard Bliss Brooke:

And that’s what I think that’s what will give us all longevity. You know, those, whoever’s listening in the audience, you know, I would just ask you how long you’ve been doing this. And I would ask you maybe how many companies have you done it in and where do you want to be 20 years from now? You know, I’m almost 69. So I’d be happy to be alive 20 years from now, but, um, you know, most of the audience is probably younger than I am. And so where do you want to be 10 years from now, 20 years from now? Do you want to…

Patrick Shaw:

Yeah.

Patrick Shaw:

Yeah.

Richard Bliss Brooke:

You want to have a great reputation? Do you want to have your health? You want to have a great body of friends, a network? You want to have income coming in every month, whether you’re working or not? Or do you want to be thinking about doing another deal, starting over? And you know, I know people don’t see it. Nobody sees it when they’re in it. You only see it in hindsight or from 40,000 feet.

Patrick Shaw:

Yeah.

Richard Bliss Brooke:

But that’s a big challenge in our profession is we’re all chasing the TikTok money and the, let me get on stage and let me be famous and let me be a rock star and too many of us, we really don’t care when it, when the rubber meets the road, we really don’t care who we recruit, who we hurt, what we say to get there.

And that is damaging our profession and it makes us vulnerable. Because literally, if you want to do this, here’s an exercise for you folks, get a clipboard. I actually did this as Super MLM Man. You ever seen a Super MLM Man episode, Patrick? Oh my gosh, you have to watch him. I hit the streets with a film crew, had a clipboard. I just stopped people on the street.

Patrick Shaw:

No.

Richard Bliss Brooke:

Hey, what do you know about network marketing? They don’t know what I’m talking about. What do you know about MLM? They don’t know what I’m talking about. Direct selling. Oh yeah, well I said, can you name a direct selling company? They would say Verizon, Nordstrom, AT&T. I mean, people don’t understand what we do, but the easy way to tell them, no, what I’m talking about is Amway, Herbalife, Mary Kay.

Patrick Shaw:

Yeah.

Richard Bliss Brooke:

Oh, now I know what you’re talking about. What do you think about that model? And people just puked on me, left and right.

Patrick Shaw:

Yeah.

Richard Bliss Brooke:

They don’t like what we do. And I don’t know. I’d ask everybody out there, you know, how hard it is to recruit. You know how much work you have to put into recruiting two or three people a month for two years, which is what it takes to build an empire in network marketing. What if it was twice as easy to recruit? What if it was three times as easy? And we’re not going to get there by hyping people and lying to them and…

Patrick Shaw:

Mm-hmm.

Richard Bliss Brooke:

Showing them our Ferraris and our…

We’re going to get there by being smarter, being better, and changing the reputation of our profession. Like being more transparent with people, like telling people. I love using the income disclosure statements. You know, people hate them because they’re so negative, right? I just turn them around. I show a prospect the income disclosure statement. I say, here it is. As you can see, only 1% of the people make any money at all. I’m just curious, Patrick.

Patrick Shaw:

Yeah.

Richard Bliss Brooke:

Are you a 99 percenter or a 1 percenter?

Patrick Shaw:

Yeah.

Richard Bliss Brooke:

They always say I’m a one percenter.

Patrick Shaw:

Right. No, it really is true. I mean, I love what you’re saying. And I think that’s the call to action for everybody listening is, you know, if we slow down and we ask our prospects almost to be a little bit more introspective, a little more aware, find out what do you really want. You know, we live in this quick twitch knee-jerk reaction of, yeah, I want a million dollars. But I think if you slow down and explain to them…

What 10 grand a month really means and what it buys you, what it actually gets you, because it’s not the money anybody’s after. I think most people would slow down and go, wow, I can be in an environment where I can grow, I can learn, I can find more fulfillment and happiness. I can have a passive residual income. So by the time my kids are ready to do something, I can do it with them, right? Yeah, that’s powerful. Have you written anything?

Richard Bliss Brooke:

Oh my god.

Richard Bliss Brooke:

Yep.

Patrick Shaw:

Now, where can they find you best, Richard? I know you’ve got richardbrooke.com, is that right?

Richard Bliss Brooke:

That is me.

Patrick Shaw:

So Richard Brooke, B-R-O-O-K-E, so everybody knows. And then any other suggestions? You’ve got The Four-Year Career, Mach 2 With Your Hair On Fire. I still remember that book. I mean, I got that book to hundreds and hundreds of people a long, long time ago. It was such a great book. I should probably read it again. It’s been 20 years. How long did you write that book? It feels like 20 years. Was it that long ago?

Richard Bliss Brooke:

I wrote it in 1995. I totally rewrote it in 2020. But I kind of take it for granted, Patrick, because I wrote it so long ago. But people still buy it off Amazon. They buy it off my website. I give it to people. And I just gave it to a New York Times bestselling author, one of the top keynote speakers…

In the country, a very, very successful speaker, coach, consultant, author, and it blew her mind.

Patrick Shaw:

It’s a great, man, it’s an awesome book. I mean, so I read that about when I, you wrote that a year or two before I joined the industry. And that’s pretty cool. That’s, I mean, it’s such a powerful book. So at any rate, well, Richard, any closing thoughts for folks, I enjoyed being with you today so much and I appreciate you taking the time to be with the audience.

Richard Bliss Brooke:

Well, thank you. I’ve always admired what you’ve done with RapidFunnel. That’s a brilliant program. You and I are gonna spend some more time digging into it because everybody in our profession needs that kind of technical support. We don’t have time to spend tracking stuff and following. We need to be organized. We need to be on top of tech, right? Not have tech be on top of us. And…

Patrick Shaw:

That’s right.

Richard Bliss Brooke:

I think that’s the problem for so many people is they just get overwhelmed, right? And I don’t know how to keep track of all this. What do I do with all this? And so what you’re doing for our profession is way beyond whatever you built. Um, which the fact that you’re still getting that huge check is so inspirational to me cause that

‘s the dream, right? Build it once, get paid forever. And then if you want to go do something like build RapidFunnel or paint or sail the world or teach or go do it. So you…

Patrick Shaw:

There it is.

Patrick Shaw:

It’s really incredible, man. I mean, I would have never been able to do the things I’ve done because it took a full-time lift. And if I hadn’t had the income, yeah.

Richard Bliss Brooke:

Yeah, for sure. So you ought to be on, we need to have you on stage, Patrick. Say here, right here. This is the dream, right here.

Patrick Shaw:

I’m still doing some of that to the degree I want anyway. But Richard, it’s really, you’re such a light to the industry for what you’ve done and the message you keep delivering. It needs to be heard. I know it’s inspired me today. I’m gonna make sure to double down on a couple of fronts. I’ve got ideas spinning around my head how to push that message even more effectively.

You know, we pride ourselves on this concept of authentic sharing technology. It’s not, we’re not supposed to hide behind the tech. That’s, that’s the exact opposite of what network marketing should be. It’s the authenticity and delivering more of that message. I think is part of it. So thank you so much.

Richard Bliss Brooke:

You’re welcome, sir. Have a wonderful holiday.

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