What Do Student Loans Have To Do With Network Marketing?

Written by Juli Becker on Dec 3, 2011 7:20 pm

As a student loan debt counselor at one of the top four loan servicers in the country AND a Network Marketer, I feel fortunate to be able to provide solutions to people on a daily basis, no matter what role I am playing.

BUT, I feel compelled to admit, it is challenging sometimes switching back and forth between the corporate and the entrepreneurial mindsets.

As a student loan debt counselor, my time is scheduled by the minute, 1/4 hour, hour, and day. Every conversation I have is recorded, logged, and evaluated. I am micro-managed down to how often I sneeze and rewarded for my efforts based on someone else's evaluation of my performance.

As a Network Marketing entrepreneur, I have the freedom to do what I want, when I want. I can decide when I want to work and how hard. I can choose what skills I want to use that will determine the results I want. In essence, I can write my own paycheck.

With that said, I attempt to comingle the skills I've learned in both positions in order to have a more unified life – skills like time management, focus, listening intently, and using scripts and WIIFM's (What's In It For Me?) statements that will attract like-minded people to me – skills that every serious entrepreneur needs to incorporate in order to be successful. After all, being a Network Marketer is more like running a professional business than a hobby, so in either case I look for ways to professionally distinguish the needs of the people I talk to, so I can determine how I can help each individual in the best way possible according to their needs.

What Do Student Loans Have To Do With Network Marketing?

There is much discussion in the Network Marketing arena as to the value, or more specifically, the lack of value of a college education.

In many ways I tend to lean toward the side that says that a college education is useless, but, then again, I would be misrepresenting the facts because the real truth is that my pursuit of a teaching degree placed strategically on my resume is what got me hired for my current position in the first place. The sad fact is, however, I listen to borrowers every day who are struggling to pay off their student loans because sometimes their debt is the same size as some people's mortgages. And even though I have my own student loans from pursuit of a degree I never finished, in my opinion, Network Marketing is the BETTER WAY.