Reliv Blog

How to Grow Your Business Prospects Through Facebook

You’ve logged in, set up a profile and learned how to follow, post updates, and engage with others. Facebook can be a powerful resource for connecting with family and friends, but what’s the best way to use it to grow your business?

Should I use my personal profile to talk about my business?
Should you also have a business page?
Are Facebook groups useful for business?

It all boils down to this: How can you maximize the time you spend on Facebook?

Because there are so many options for how to use Facebook for business, it can feel overwhelming. Even more importantly, two of the above options are useful, while one can be a big waste of time. Let’s break down some of the options and best practices you should consider when using Facebook.

Your Personal Profile
Let’s start with your personal profile. It’s the page that you create when you join Facebook for the first time. Everyone who uses Facebook has a personal profile, even those who moderate business pages or groups. On this page, you set up a profile picture, cover photo and add some information about yourself. This is your most important Facebook asset, because it’s where people will come when they want to get to know you.

Talking Business
To answer the first question above, yes, you can talk about your business on your personal page. However, as with any social space, there are some rules you should follow, and Facebook has some guidelines. When you talk about your business, the content should be natural and conversational, not like an advertisement or “spam.” Posting this kind of content will result in people “unfriending” you (unfollowing your profile). Facebook is clear about this: your personal profile is for sharing updates, not pushy business promotions. If you fail to adhere to these standards, they can shut down your profile.

What to Share
What sorts of posts are good to share that will promote your business? Think about your Reliv lifestyle! Share pictures of your shakes, create recipes, and talk about what positive changes Reliv has brought to your life in the areas of health, wellness and finances. Your posts should be educational, entertaining, interesting—or all three! Ask questions, and take a real interest in what your followers are talking about. This will provide you with a natural way to build relationships with your friends, followers and their networks.

Note: Facebook limits you to 5,000 friends, but you can have unlimited followers. That’s a wide enough audience to make this your primary online space for building your business.

Business Pages
If creating a personal page is like inviting someone to your home, creating a business page is akin to inviting them to your office. This is the space where you can make your business the primary focus, and you can speak directly about Reliv products and the Reliv opportunity. For many, it is the page that they direct their prospects to for more information.

Business pages have waned in effectiveness because of the Facebook algorithm (the way Facebook determines who sees what content in their news feed). Business pages no longer have the same reach or engagement that they once did. It is estimated that around 1% of the people following your page (likes) actually see your updates in their news feed. That means that you’re taking the time to create thoughtful posts, and very few people are seeing the content.

Advertising on Facebook
Why would Facebook do this? Although it is known as a social platform, Facebook makes money through selling ads. They encourage businesses to purchase advertising to ensure their content shows up in users’ feeds. If you want to create and run ads, a business page is the only place you can do it. These can be effective for reaching your ideal customers through targeted ads, but you must have an advertising budget for your business. But that doesn’t mean you have to spend a fortune! Even $5 can go a long way if you put the right message in front of the right audience. Add a note here about checking out our Facebook ads video tutorial to learn more at reliv.com/success-training.

Facebook Groups
The best, most cost-effective way to reach prospects and potential customers today is through Facebook Groups. These spaces are like a club that you invite people to join, and then the group can have discussions, answer polls, share photos and more all within a private space. It’s like an online shake party where you select the guests! These groups look like business pages, but they function very differently.

There are groups for nearly any interest you can imagine, and they are a great space to find other like-minded people. Think of a Facebook Group as a space where people connect with each other, share wins and tips, encourage each other and seek answers to their questions. It’s a great place for lead generation because the group is focused on a theme (e.g. fitness and weight loss, healthy living, entrepreneurs, nutrition). Because group members have elected to join, you can safely assume that they want to see your content and participate.

Facebook favors the content posted in groups because it encourages users to login and use the platform more often. That means that when you post things in a group, members are more likely to see it than they would on your personal or business page. When you post, Facebook sends them a notification that invites them to come view the update! It’s a win-win for business builders!

Where to Begin
Start by creating a robust personal profile online, and share as much as you’re comfortable about yourself. Then, consider using Facebook Groups to share content with your prospects and network. Remember that they will check out your personal profile when they want to learn more about you, so it’s the best place to start. A group that is based on a theme that is relevant to your Reliv business will attract people who are interested in learning more about what you offer. However you choose to use Facebook, remember to be positive, share your story and encourage others.

Business, Business Builder Tips, Business Success Stories

Top Skill Set for a Network Marketer

By President of Sales & Marketing Tom Pinnock

People ask me all the time what the number one skill a professional network marketer needs to have. Well, it’s really pretty simple—people need to know that you care. There’s an old saying that puts it this way: “People don’t care about how much you know until they know how much you care.”

Think of it as relationship creation. The more friends you have, the bigger you can grow your network. It could even be said that high earners get paid for the relationships that they have with their top leaders. Don’t think of it as “I need to sponsor,” but rather, “I need to make a new friend, and I want to help them to a healthier and happier life.”

By recognizing this very important step, you will go from “salesie” to sincere. The most successful Distributors quickly find out what people want and go to work immediately to see that they get it. In other words, find out what their needs are, offer them a solution, and show them how you can help. This simple action is essential to starting a relationship with your customers and Distributors, and it’s these actions that will show them that you care.

Isn’t it true that in the beginning all of us wanted to know what Reliv could do for us? That’s why the more personal and engaging the conversation is the more effective it will be. If you don’t develop meaningful relationships with others, you’ll never know what’s on their minds. “Our greatest resource is our people,” says Reliv CEO, Ryan Montgomery. “Reliv will always be a people and relationship business.”

With that said, doesn’t it make sense to find out what people need, offer them a solution, and show them your willingness to help? Indeed, our unique conversational advantage is our greatest resource to beating the competition. It’s the caring and the personal touch that sets us apart from everyone else and all the other ways people sell products.

After all, we are about using our brilliant products and our simple business to build up an ever-growing community of amazing people. To do that, we must continue to focus on helping others, getting them to believe in themselves, and coaching them up so that they can achieve their dreams. Sometimes I think of myself as a bridge builder, building the bridge between people’s goals and showing them how Reliv can help them achieve those goals.

I think we can all agree that our core beliefs in Reliv are to help other people and add value to their lives. If we all do that, we’ll all be rich in relationships and in growth. As our founder Bob Montgomery taught me many years ago, “Help enough people get what they want, and you’ll get what you want.”

Business, Business Builder Tips, Business Success Stories, Reliv ambassadors

How to Face Your Fears as an Entrepreneur

By Reliv Ambassador Joyce Ferguson

What was I so afraid of? Have you ever asked yourself that question, and isn’t is usually once you’ve tackled something and pushed through it?

A character in a novel I’m currently reading just spoke these words of advice to a young friend: “Don’t follow fear. Fear makes you stupid.” I thought these words were poignant, especially given the context. The character spent twenty years of his adult life walling himself oﬀ from fear and risk. His fear was the risk of loving, and it made me think that often times our fear is the risk of doing.

No doubt, fear and risk are our partners when we start our businesses or take action to actually build them. When we risk believing in ourselves, our products and business model, we fear the outcome as we step into the unknown and take chances with our future.

We fear the unknown.

What appears to be the easier, more secure way tempts us back into the known with every step we take. It invites us back into the box we’ve made for ourselves, even though it may be a box we’ve long outgrown and often hated.

It seems such an easy choice to return to that box…to take a job and give over our future career and professional life to some corporation’s keeping. For some of us, “the known” may mean working for someone else, and for others, “the known” may involve not having worked outside the home. That’s our box, and we know it well. Who wants to chance living outside of it?

Many, if not most, of the spoken and unspoken excuses thrown my way from prospects and Distributors over the years revolve around the fear of the unknown path that network marketing seems to represent. The business of working with and through others to reach joint goals just seems too risky. The business of growing oneself and helping others do the same seems too fearful. Many of us crave the seeming security of a job that rarely pays us what we’re worth or provides the long term security we seek. We’re afraid to take the step, chase the dream, and choose freedom.

Funny, once we’ve taken steps away from fear and dared the unknown, we ﬁnd there’s a path to follow and a clearer direction for our future than we expected. We realize there’s a large company of wonderful friends for our new journey.

Fear can indeed make us “stupid”— unaware of our prospects, uncertain of our steps, unsure of our own value. Action in the face of that fear … refusing to follow it … awakens us to knowledge and growth and purpose. Our future success becomes our own to build.

Business, Business Builder Tips

Keep It Short & Sweet: How to Form Your 1-Minute Reliv Story

By Reliv Director of Marketing Erin Koch

When you get great health results on Reliv products, you can’t help but want to share your story with the world — and you should! After all, that’s how you’ll build your business as an Independent Reliv Distributor. But because we have incredible products and a fantastic business opportunity, it can be easy to overwhelm a new person with your excitement. If you’ve seen the deer in headlights look, you know what I’m talking about.

In fact, thanks to technology, our attention spans as humans are getting shorter and shorter. According to a study by Microsoft, we’re now clocking in at a whopping 8 seconds. But there are some smart and easy ways you can shape your story so that you do catch someone’s interest. Here are my top tips:

• Write it down. If you’ve never written down your story, this could be a really good practice. What are the main points you want to get across? Try putting them in bullets, which will make you stay more focused. Whether you lead with the products, the business or both, have these stories formulated on paper to make sure you’re staying on track. Remember to keep your health or business story focused on benefits. For example, “My product 24K® helped me get the energy I needed so I could tackle my to-do list.” Or, “The Reliv business opportunity helped me work from home, so I didn’t have to feel guilty about dropping my kids off at daycare every day.”

• Be relatable and compliant. This is a big one. You may have the most incredible health results that you’re dying to share because of Reliv products, but not everyone is going to relate to your specific health history. What people can relate to are more general health benefits like needing more energy, improving their digestive health and anti-aging just to name a few. In fact, use our product wheel for ideas on this! And remember, Reliv products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease, so don’t mention any specific health conditions. The same goes for your business story. People relate to things like getting out of debt, having more time, flexible work schedules and being their own boss. That’s going to resonate with them much more than spectacular income claims that can feel like too much of a stretch for them to ever reach.

• Be flexible, not rehearsed. If you’ve been sharing your story for a while, it can be a challenge to not sound rehearsed — after all, you’ve probably shared your story a million times. But when you talk to someone new about Reliv, they’re going to give you clues about the things they care about. Use these clues to work them into your one-minute story. For example, if you’re talking to a mom who shares that she’s exhausted all the time, be sure to weave in how Reliv products gave you energy to check off everything on your to-do list. This way you’re reflecting back to HER needs while using your own personal health results.

• Time yourself. Get out your phone or stop watch and practice your story out loud. When writing marketing scripts for videos and audio, we use this method all the time to make sure we’re staying focused on the main points. If you’re going over the one-minute mark, you need to be more concise.

What tips do you have for sharing your one-minute story? Comment below or on our Facebook page and let us know how these tips worked for you!

fit3, Healthy Living Tips, Nutrition

Have Fit3 Will Travel

By Director of Product Development & Fit3 Trainer Tina Van Horn

Many of you are getting excited about your spring travel plans, but here at Reliv we want to make sure you have a plan for staying healthy while you travel. We’ve all been there. You plan a relaxing vacation, but when you return home your souvenirs include digestive issues, icky infections or viruses and maybe even some extra pounds. The good news is that with a little bit of preparation you can avoid these common health hazards typically associated with travel.

How to Avoid Calorie Bombs

Regardless of whether you are flying, driving or using any other mode of transportation, be sure to check out menus online for dining options near your destination. This will help you avoid the temptations of the sights and smells once you sit down to order. Identify places you want to try that may have fresh local fare that is typically far healthier than the standard chain restaurant choices.

If it’s available, look at the nutrition information for enticing foods. You don’t have to analyze every macro and micronutrient, but you will make better choices if you have a general idea whether your salad is 500 calories or even 2500 calories! Yes, salads can be bigger calorie bombs than many entree options! And don’t be afraid to make special requests, such as sauces and dressings on the side or substitute fresh vegetables for french fries.

Hydrate with H2O

Many of us have a tendency to get dehydrated when we travel, especially if we are flying. Typically we don’t drink enough water because we don’t want to make pit stops or use the airplane lavatory. But dehydration not only contributes to some of the gastric upsets that are common to travelers, but it also zaps your energy and can cause irritability. Headaches and muscle cramps are some other common symptoms.

And don’t be tempted by sodas, sugary beverages and cocktails. The easiest strategy is to carry a water bottle with you everywhere and refill it often. Even at the airport, you can carry an empty water bottle with you through security and then fill it from a drinking fountain at the gate.

Healthy Snacks and Nutrition

It’s also a good idea to pack some snacks and small meals, just in case you get delayed or the available options are limited to vending machines or fast food. Some travel-friendly items include nuts, dried fruit, low-sugar nutrition bars, fresh veggies, and of course, your Reliv products. They’re portable, simple and convenient to take with you. Fit3™ Purify is a must-have for any trip because it’s a metabolic supporter, probiotic and liver cleanse in one. It’s a great way to keep your body in peak performance even when you travel.

If you happen to get stuck in the airport on a long layover or delay, all of the major airports now have a really great variety of healthy options… if you can get past the smell of Cinnabon, which has about 900 calories for the average cinnamon roll. Remember that tip about looking up nutrition content? Is that cinnamon roll worth 900 calories and the sugar coma that is going to drag you down for the next few hours?

If you have a road trip coming up, you have a little more freedom to pack your own food, so use that to your advantage. Baby carrots and other raw veggies are great because they are relatively low-calorie, loaded with fiber and help keep you hydrated. Not only are these healthy suggestions, but they may also help combat boredom as you pass the miles.

Even convenience stores now stock a surprising selection of healthy choices like yogurt, nuts, fresh fruit and veggies. You just have to get past the mile-long candy display.

How to Sneak in Some Physical Activity

During a layover, get up and move around the terminal for some exercise and check out all of the food options. You will be pleasantly surprised by the variety of healthy foods that are available, such as fresh fruit, hummus cups, deli-style salads and sandwiches. Some in-flight magazines even include simple exercises you can do from your seat like leg lifts to keep you from getting too stiff. Of course if you’re on a road trip, take stretching breaks each time you stop to refuel.

With Fit3, everything you need is accessible online. Take 30-45 minutes to get in an online Fit3 workout and keep up with your fitness buddies through the Fit3 community to help motivate you during your trip.

Remember to Rest

Travel can certainly take its toll on your immune system, so make sure to schedule some down time into your itinerary. Naps and vacation just go together!

Have some tips of your own for staying healthy during your travels? Comment below!

Business, Business Builder Tips, Business Success Stories, Reliv ambassadors

Why Listening is Key to Good Communication

By President of Sales & Marketing Tom Pinnock

For many years, I have written and spoken about the importance of communication and how it is the single most significant thing to master if you want to become a professional network marketer. After all, it’s what our business is all about. Reliv makes our amazing products, and it’s up to us to tell the world about them.

In my experience, there is no better way to present our products than to wrap it around a human being. When we talk about the Reliv difference and present it from our hearts, it comes off as it should — authentic. Good communicators tend to spread the word quickly and reap the financial rewards of this industry at rocket speed. However, after being in this business for as long as I have, I’ve found that new Distributors have a tendency to over-communicate or talk too much. If you see your neighbors skedaddling out their back door when they see you coming, you’re probably overdoing it. Or, if you’re “that someone” who brings a flip chart to Thanksgiving dinner and starts showing the compensation plan, you probably need to reconsider your tactics.

It’s impossible to become a great leader without being a great communicator. Notice I didn’t say great talker because there’s a big difference. To be a good communicator you must first become a good listener. That’s why God gave you two ears and one mouth. He expects you to listen twice as much as you talk. Good listeners are worth their weight in gold. They understand that they can never learn anything while they are talking. The key to being a good listener is to take a sincere interest in the other person. People enjoy talking about themselves and their families, and while they’re talking, it’s the perfect opportunity to gain invaluable knowledge — by simply listening. In other words, find out what people want and then go to work and help them get it. If this becomes your strategy, you will build an organization that stretches around the globe.

Many times, people will tell you that they’re unhappy with their jobs, or that they work too much, or that they don’t like their boss, or that they don’t have enough money to send their children to college. Such comments give you the perfect lead-in to talk about the opportunity available to them in Reliv.

Never forget that what you say is never as important as how you say it. If you’re excited, you’ll never go wrong. People are always attracted to people who love what they are doing. Learn to talk from your heart and not your head. People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care, so never miss an opportunity to zip it up and listen! The greatest form of discourse takes place within a conversation, and not a lecture. And let’s also remember that good communication skills include letters, emails, and texts.

Most people have not been taught how to properly communicate the value of products and opportunity within our industry. Focus on the benefits 80% of the time and the details 20% of the time. Most people have this reversed. Talk in ways that personalize solutions:

• “My products can help you lose weight and feel great!”
• “My products can help you fit into your skinny jeans, sleep better and have more energy.”
• “My business can help you to retire early.”
• “My business can help you spend more quality time with your kids and be a hands-on mom.”
• “My business can help you quit that job you dread getting up for every morning.”
• “My business can help you make a real difference in people’s lives.”

In other words, sell the destination and not the airplane. People want to know what Reliv will do for them. The more personal and engaging the conversation is the more effective it will be. If you don’t develop meaningful relationships with others, you’ll never know what’s really on their minds.

Business, Business Success Stories, Healthy Living Tips, My Story

Why Reliv?

By Key Director Nabila Mahbub

When I first heard about the three areas of Reliv—help people get healthy with optimal nutrition, teach others how to earn an income and nourish thousands of hungry children around the world—I knew that this was a company that I wanted to work with. All my passions are put together in one place!

As a nurse, I understand the role nutrition plays in our bodies and the importance of having it balanced for a healthy and preventative lifestyle. As part of my healthy lifestyle before Reliv, I worked out, drank smoothies, took many multivitamins, protein shakes, etc. When I learned that some Reliv products are Halal, gluten-free, and clinically-proven plant-based formulas, it got me so excited! Halal supplements are very important to me and not always easy to find.

I started noticing amazing changes and an overall feeling of wellbeing after I started taking Reliv products, and it was a significant difference from all the other supplements I had taken before. I started noticing improvements in the quality of my performance at the gym and found that I had more stamina and recovered faster. Those who have been working out with me for years also noticed the changes and they too wanted to learn what I was doing differently! These amazing results helped me share Reliv with loved ones and reach out to others to help them improve their health.

If we can raise awareness about the importance of eating right, increasing physical activity, and implementing supplements with optimal nutrition like Reliv, we can help people enhance their quality of life. I believe Reliv should be in every household, and I love sharing Reliv with everyone in my life!

fit3, Healthy Living Tips, Nutrition, Weight Loss

How To Stop Overeating: Portion Sizes

By Director of Product Development & Fit3 Trainer Tina Van Horn

Think you know what a portion of peanut butter looks like? Two tablespoons isn’t very much when you start smearing it on your bread. How about an actual serving size of ice cream? Who really only eats half a cup? That’s like three bites. And let’s not even talk about cereal. . . there’s an awful lot of room left in the bowl if you play along with what the side panel of the box says is a serving.

Portion distortion is a real thing. We have become so conditioned to the over-sized helpings served in restaurants that we have no basis for what is the reality when it comes to a reasonable serving size. There are so many packaged convenience foods and beverages that we think are single servings but actually contain two or more servings. We consume the whole thing anyway because we have been led to think a serving is MUCH larger than what it actually is. Always read labels! Even if you think you know how many servings there are in that little package of mixed nuts at the checkout, always check the label. You will probably be shocked!

Easy Mistake

One of the easiest mistakes to make with Fit3 is not understanding proper portion sizes. When you are getting started, I highly recommend using a food scale for a few weeks until you have overcome the propaganda from the food marketing industry and you get a handle on what is sensible. Every couple of months I get out my food scale and bring myself back to reality because we do have a tendency to wander off. Once you get a grasp of what a true portion looks like, you can put the food scale away and use our Easy Portion Sizes Sheet. This tool is so helpful with everyday portion sizes. Try putting it on your fridge for easy access.

What foods haunt you when it comes to sticking to a single portion? You already know mine: peanut butter, ice cream, and cereal. Funny how none of us have that problem when it comes to a salad!

Business, fit3, Nutrition

Why We All Need A Good Girlfriend

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By Distributors and Best Friends Dodi McCune & Ruth Kettler

Happy Galentine’s Day! Galentine’s Day is celebrated on February 13th as the day of women celebrating their friendships. It’s the perfect day to reflect on the value of our girlfriends!

The dictionary definition of a girlfriend is “a female friend who gives assistance; a supporter, a frequent and favorite companion.” However, girlfriends are so much more than that definition. They are business partners, neighbors, best friends, etc.

A good girlfriend is someone who is there to support you when you have something to celebrate, something to work on or something to cry about. She is there when you need the best medicine—laughter! She is there for late night chats about your day or to voice your thoughts and ideas that have been running in your head and desperately need to be said. Sometimes that chat is done via text or a phone call, or our favorite way, Marco Polo video texting. We get to see each other face-to-face, the smiles that just happen or sometimes the tears in our eyes as we share our hopes, dreams, and heartaches that we are experiencing.

The benefits of having a good girlfriend are beyond measure. That person always wants what is best for you and is there to share love and support—even in your business! She is there every step of the way. She knows how to give you that gentle push when you feel like you just cannot do anymore or to let you know how great of a job you’ve done and how proud she is.

A good girlfriend doesn’t let you go on stage at Reliv Live with sunglasses on your head or your sleeve half-rolled up. She is always looking out for your best interest. She is your biggest supporter outside of family!

The bottom line is that outside of family, every gal needs a good girlfriend to have her back, to support her, to laugh with, to push, to love, to correct, to cry with, to celebrate with and do life with. There’s just nothing else like having the support of your best friend as you create goals for yourself in your life and your business. We cannot imagine and would never want to imagine a life without having a good girlfriend or even a group of them to support us on our journey!

Know that it is okay to not have a good girlfriend yet. You can always find friendship in someone new! Here are some of the ways we find new friends and build relationships:

Join a workout group, a book club, or some other activity of interest. Just Google “Workout Group in [your city]” or “Book club in [your city]” and tons of results will show up. If not, organize your own!
Invite an old friend to a happy hour or coffee.
Say “yes” to invitations to dinner parties or activities.
Host a brunch, movie night or game night.
Attend a Reliv Girlfriends’ Getaway! Stay tuned to reliv.com for the next event announcement.

We had a blast at the Girlfriends’ Getaway because of all these reasons above and more. Finding a good girlfriend is a treasure and these events celebrate that and teach you how to do business with your girlfriends! We cannot wait to see what Reliv has planned for Girlfriends’ Getaways in 2019.

Business, Business Builder Tips, Reliv ambassadors

Mindy’s “Top 10” Things to Help You Qualify for Hawaii!

AlohaHawaii BLOG

By Platinum Ambassador Mindy Jones

Reliv’s Aloha Hawaii Promotion is an amazing opportunity for growing your business and a free vacation! Here are my top 10 tips to help you qualify for Hawaii:

Start with the right mindset. Make a decision that you are going to earn the Hawaii trip no matter how long you’ve been with Reliv, even if you signed up today or have been in Reliv for 20+ years.
Visualize yourself in Hawaii. How is it going to feel? What activities will you be enjoying? Put pictures of Hawaii around your house. Look at them daily and visualize yourself there for motivation.
Get familiar with the promotion. How can you earn points? Lay out a game plan. How many autoship customers? Quick Starts? Master Affiliates? Who can you help your organization qualify?
Put up a tracking sheet where you can see it daily.
Start filling your pipeline by having a daily plan of action. How many NEW people are you talking to on a daily basis? How many appointments are you doing weekly?
Reach out to customers and Distributors. Find out what is new in their life and tell them how excited you are about all the great things that are going on with Reliv. Connect them to stories and share the promotion. Show them the benefits of becoming a Quick Start or a Master Affiliate. Find out who wants to work toward the Hawaii trip and work with them!
Send videos to prospects, customers and Distributors through Reliv’s Mobile App and then make sure to follow up.
Plug into conference calls, meetings, trainings, webinars, Facebook Groups and in-home presentations. Talk to your upline and any organization you have available in your area. Do these with other people!
Draw out your organization and see how to get to your next Director level.
Just do it! Make it happen! You deserve it and it will definitely be worth it. See you in Hawaii! Aloha!