This article on boundaries is for the Mompreneur who is growing a monetized personal brand, with a network marketing business as a stream of income.
I hope it encourages you to set and enforce boundaries within that prong of your brand so that you don’t lose focus on or time for working toward your long term brand goals for influence, impact, and income.
You see, three years ago I was introduced to network marketing through a fellow blogger. She was creating courses, blogging, etc. – all things I wanted to continue doing and working toward.
My 5 year personal brand game plan got WAY off course.
Fairly quickly, that first network marketing partnership became ALL I had time and energy for business wise. I stopped blogging for almost a year because I simply didn’t have time to anymore.
I inadvertently put all my eggs in one basket for a full year, which is the very thing I now advise my clients NOT to do.
Although there were many things about the industry I enjoyed – the friendships, monetizing sharing about a product I loved, etc., I found myself pulled away from creating content that truly felt like “me” and my purpose. My dreams of coaching and course creation seemed impossible, at least in a season where my daughter was not yet in school and I had very limited time to work toward my business goals…
There were endless tasks to be done every day of the week within that business, and I didn’t have the systems or boundaries in place to protect my time and energy. But don’t worry, it IS possible to have a thriving network marketing business, personal brand, AND maintain your sanity!
Time and energy are limited and precious resources.
Without boundaries for yourself and for others, it can quickly become depleted with activities that don’t bring you the income, impact or joy you likely set out to create as an entrepreneur.
5 Important Boundaries In Network Marketing When You Have A Personal Brand
Here are some boundaries I truly think you need to implement in your network marketing business if you are building a personal brand you would like to monetize outside of that industry, particularly if your brand is NOT tied to network marketing:
- You have to keep your long term vision focussed on where you want to take your brand. Additionally, doing ALL the things, all the time sets a lifestyle example for people joining your team that they more than likely don’t want. They look at you and think, “I wouldn’t want to do what she is doing!” Personally, I feel that it’s super important to show your team healthy boundaries and prioritizing your self-care, family, and time freedom even if it means sacrificing “volume”.
- Point to tools/resources, don’t answer every single question your team or customers have, at least not in a one to one fashion. If you have to say something more than a couple of times, you should for SURE cut and post a quick video, make a post to reference later when it comes up again, or have a resource you or your company provides to point to. Having systems in place (i.e. automated text or email communication) and tools (videos, units in your team Facebook group or website with on-ramping, FAQs, etc.) really helps with this, as does setting expectations for communication. We teach people how to treat and communicate with us. You want to create self-sufficient LEADERS within your organization, not learners.
- Set times to respond back to messages and questions during the day, do NOT be a slave to your inbox. For example, check and respond to messages at noon and again at 4 PM and don’t allow yourself to constantly pop into your DMs. This is a hugely inefficient waste of time and, frankly, crazy-making. At least it has been for me.
- Just say no to attending #alltheZooms. Yes, I am giving you permission to say no. I know I didn’t sign up for a Zoom call 4 nights a week – I have a personal brand to build and a daughter to devote my time to. If you want to build or expand a personal brand you truly have to protect your time and energy – a million zooms a month will not allow you to have the time freedom to pursue your long-term goals.
- If someone (upline, downline, or sideline) puts pressure on you to be, do or say anything that makes you uncomfortable you have a right to assert a boundary (aka say no). When you set or enforce boundaries some people won’t understand or like it, and that is okay.
And remember, those who get upset by your boundaries. are usually the ones who benefited most from you not having any.
.These boundaries have truly helped myself and my team to continue growing personal brands AND network marketing a a part of that, versus pigeonholing to one industry/company.
For the rest of my must-have boundaries and expansion on those outlined above make sure to check out this video and let me know which you needed to hear most!
These are the two books I recommend on this topic. I truly hope they help you in your journey of learning to set & enforce boundaries for your life and business, as they have for me. Boundaries = freedom.
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