Business Innovators Radio - Interview with Falko Krismayr Author of The 9 Stages of Network Marketing Mastery

Episode Date: November 15, 2024

Falko Krismayr is a retired Austrian Ski Jumper who has trained numerous World Championship and Olympic-winning athletes. His coaching focuses on success strategies, nutrition, motivation, and personal responsibility. Whether as a junior trainer, a teacher at a Montessori school, a coach in high-performance sports, or a leader in his Network Marketing organization, his goal has always been to build systems, serve as a role model, and inspire others to “fly.”In 2015, after his professional ski jumping career, Falko transitioned into self-employment, pursuing his vision of a free, self-determined life. He built a Network Marketing business that has since grown into a successful organization with thousands of distributors and customers. Inspired by Tony Robbins, he and his wife developed The 9 Stages of Network Marketing Mastery, a framework designed to give back to the industry and the wider community, helping others build successful businesses, achieve generational wealth, and experience lasting success.Learn More: https://networkmarketing-mastery.comInfluential Entrepreneurs with Mike Saundershttps://businessinnovatorsradio.com/influential-entrepreneurs-with-mike-saunders/Source: https://businessinnovatorsradio.com/interview-with-falko-krismayr-author-of-the-9-stages-of-network-marketing-mastery

Welcome to influential entrepreneurs, bringing you interviews with elite business leaders and experts, sharing tips and strategies for elevating your business to the next level. Here's your host, Mike Saunders. Hello and welcome to this episode of influential entrepreneurs. This is Mike Saunders, the authority positioning coach. Today we have with us, Falco, Chris Meyer, who's the author of the nine stages of network marketing mastery. Falco, welcome to the program. Yes, welcome. It's a pleasure to be here. Yeah, I'm excited to talk with you because I know that for most authors, they've had their book in their head for decades.

And now it's finally come out. So let's talk about it. And I want to hear about mastery. You know, I think that sometimes people get proficient with something and then they get to be, you know, maybe advanced. And then maybe they're an expert. But when you hit mastery level, that's when everything is working for you in the right direction. So I want to hear all about your proven strategies for network marketing mastery. But before we dive into that, give us a little bit of your story and background. I love to do that because I think I have a very interesting story because I was growing up in the Austrian Alps. And I always referred to the story from Heidi and Peter. It's a very, very unknown story here in Europe from two kids growing up in the Alps as kids of mountain farmers.

and for me it was exactly the same. When I remember back, you know, I was growing up in a house with stone walls, so one meter 50, one meter 60 thick, no heating. We were cooking on the fireplace. And even when we wanted to have warm water, we needed to make wood fire to heat the water to have a warm shower or a warm bath. So it was very, very simple how I grew up. But what happened when I was about 12 years old,

We got something magic to our home. We got a TV. And one of the first things I have seen on TV have been the Olympic Games in Calgary in 1988. And there was this one Finnish ski jumper called Matt Lecklenin. And he was winning three Olympic gold medals in these games. And so he inspired me to become a ski jumper.

So by the age of 12, I left home to pursue my dream to become a ski jumper. And so that was the start of my journey. And so then I had the privilege to win myself medals in junior world championships exactly on the same hills in Calgary. And I think it's not a coincidence. I think it was it had to be like this. And afterwards, when I finished my active career, I became a coach. And I was coaching different national teams in ski jumping, Nordic combined.

and had the privilege to guide athletes to, in total, 11 medals in World Championships and Olympic Games, in all colors, gold, silver, bronze. And this was the period, you know, from out of this sports experience, I became that mindset to go for mastery. And in 2015, I made a switch from being a professional's coach starting as an entrepreneur in the industry of Netanyl. bookmarketing. And yeah, a whole new journey started in 2015. You know, I love that introduction because it just reiterates the fact that you saw something that you wanted and you set that as a gold. You dialed in your mindset. You, you worked toward that. And guess what? You probably did not win those medals on that same hill in Calgary in one attempt or one try. It was failure, failure, failure, many falls, many lessons learned. And as they say, you either win or you

learn, not lose, we learn from mistakes. And so I think that that is so neat to hear that. And then you get into, okay, coming from the meager beginnings that you did, you achieved a lot of success. And what my next question would be, it makes me think of this. Okay, you wrote a book about network marketing mastery. But before you even write the book, you had to have gotten in to and exposed to network marketing. How did that come about? It was a very typical way. Most people in network marketing, they get into the industry because they know somebody

who started up with a network marketing company and then they invite them to a home event. And for me, it was exactly the same. I was sitting at the home event of the best friend of my ex-wife. That's how my journey in this industry started. Having a huge ego, very little knowledge, thinking about, okay, nice product, but this business model, could it really be real? What's behind it? So I was very skeptical in the very beginning. But, you know, I took the decision, actually, a year later, I was a year long a customer before I finally made the decision to become a distributor with this company.

because my ego was way too big in the very beginning, you know, being a national coach, having all this success, and now I should start up doing this pyramid scheme stuff. But then I had a shift in my personal life because I remember exactly when I was coming home from the Olympic Games 2014, they were in Sochi. And I was away already for three or four weeks. and then I was two days at home

and then after two days I had to go to the Scandinavian tournament for another two to three weeks and after this whole time of traveling I went home and it was one o'clock in the morning when I get up the stairs

opened the door of the sleeping room with my kids and I saw them sleeping and suddenly I started to cry and that was the moment when my ego got small enough and I started to look into the industry network marketing. I started it for three months, and it was exactly then on the first of April, 2014, when I made the decision, to become a master of that industry.

And I had this huge privilege. And it sounds to me, it sounds to me like part of that decision was the why of your family, your kids. You wanted, that was drawing you and you then wanted to stop traveling or stop being away from them and that network marketing opportunity from several weeks or months ago at that time, you were looking to that to help you fulfill that why to be with your family deeper. Yes, that was exactly the drive behind it. And what I wanted to say first was that I had this huge advantage, you know, coming from

high professional sports that I knew that, you know, when you want to win that gold medal and be on the podium and get it around your neck, you know, there's a very specific type of athletes winning this gold medal. So you need to have a certain mindset, certain attitudes, certain skill sets, physical shape, body shape. And because, and then you need, you know, this is the specific role model and we train athletes to become this person. And knowing that, what I did when I started in network marketing was that I started all the top leaders in the industry. They know, these huge names. I started the industry itself.

And I started to create this avatar for myself. And how does a top earner or a top leader in this industry think? How do they talk? How do they act? You know, what mindset do they bring to the table? What kind of attitude do they have? And so I started from the very beginning my journey to develop or to make the transition into that person. Because I knew that success isn't something you can chase.

Success is something you attract by the person you become. So I started my journey to becoming a successful person in this industry. You know, as they say, begin with the end in mind. and you wanted to have success and mastery and that kind of ending. So why not model success that you've all that's already been in the industry? So you aligned yourself with an organization or with a mentor. But how did how did you go from that point of making that decision to developing your nine stages of network marketing mastery?

It was over the course of my career. I realized something. Or when I'm looking back now, you know, I'm 10 years in the industry and I have not seen any or maybe there are other people in network marketing out there that can show a track record of success like I have it because from the start with my second network marketing company where I'm in right now till today I had growth every single month now for almost 10 consecutive years and this is very special in this industry because most organizations, you know, they grow, they shrink,

they, you know, they have this roller coaster going on. And so then I, at one point, when I realized that what we are building here is something unique, I came to a point, you know, when it was not about me anymore. And I am so thankful for this industry that I wanted to give back. And so the idea of writing a book, like you said it in the introduction, you know, was, already in my head for a couple of years. But then last year, I became part of the Tony Robbins Platinum membership,

so I was going a full year journey with him. And he inspired me, you know, to take finally action. And I'll make that final step to put the idea out of your head on a piece of paper. And so it is

exactly one year ago when I was scribbling the first idea on a piece of paper and I started to dive deeper into how can you really roll it out. And the nine stages of network marketing mastering, it is the journey. From being a prospect with having no idea about the industry, like I was sitting this years ago in the living room

of the best friend of my ex-wife and had no idea about this industry. I was innocent. I was fragile. I was skeptic. So from that moment, until you make the decision to start in the industry.

And that's the second stage. I call it the toddler stage. You know, when you are, you're fully dependent, you cannot build the business on your own. You're dependent on your sponsor. Like a toddler is dependent on their parents. And the excitement you can show is your strongest asset at that stage.

And from there, when you make together with your sponsor, you're able to get your first customers, maybe you're even your first distributors, building a little team. You move into the pupil stage. As you grow, you are becoming more experienced. And finally, you start to study the industry. You develop this self-drive that you want to learn, you know, the basics, everything, how you can build the business.

And that makes you even a little bit more independent from your upland, from your sponsor. And you can take action by yourself. And from there, something interesting happens because something what I always can see in almost every network marketing career is that from there, people are moving or transitioning into the teenager stage. And I don't know if you have had teenagers at home or if you have been a teenager. but it's always a very interesting stage in life, the teenager stage. So it is in network marketing. This is when your ego can get into your way,

when you think, you know it all, you know it best. And you start to manage your team more than being a real leader. And this teenager behavior can even lead that your business is maybe stagnating or maybe declining a little bit. And that brings you to the next stage. That's this young adult stage.

Because when you're transitioning out of the teenager stage, you go to the young adult stage, you know, in life, when you first time pay yourself for your apartment and you feel that you need to take responsibility for all the actions you do, you arrive in real life. That's the young adult stage. And in network marketing at that stage,

you have to make a very important decision. And it's a decision of blame, or fame. So what I mean by that is that your behavior in the teenager stage as a set that can lead that your business starts to stagnate or even go down. And in that moment, you know, you can decide to blame everyone and everything around you around you for your failure. You can point with the finger to your appliance that they didn't support me, right?

The company, I didn't have the right products and the whole industry. I knew it was a bad idea. or you take responsibility for your actions and you'd make the decision to go for mastery. To master that industry and really develop yourself to that person that can succeed in the industry. And if you do that and you finally figure out that in network marketing, it's not about what you can do.

It's about creating a system to make as many people successful as possible and that the system is more important than yourself, finally, you maybe might move to the business owner stage. And that's, I think, the biggest goal for most people in network marketing. When suddenly the business is not only in you anymore, but you own a business. Because then you have this real residual income. You have created that system that will even grow without yourself. And that's totally okay when the journey ends for many people at the business owner stage,

because this is what most people dream about. You're not having to trade time for money anymore. You know, being in complete control and able to live life on your terms. That's the beautiful picture we paint in the network marketing. And it's possible for a very small percentage, but it's possible. But the journey doesn't have to end here. Because what I felt, I made an experience in the World Championships 2015. Because after winning gold medals in the Olympics 2010 and in the World Championships 2011 with the team in two years in a row, I set a new goal for myself.

I wanted to help one person to become the best in what he's doing in the world. So that means winning an individual gold medal. And I was working hard for that goal. and it took me years but finally in 2015 one of my athletes became world champion in the world championships in Falun, 2015 and what happened was

that when he was crossing the finish line as a winner I felt empty nothing happened inside me and that was quite shocking in that moment and it took me actually years to realize what went wrong. And what I realized was that it was all about me in that moment.

It was about me proving myself that I am capable to help another person to become the best in the world. And that's why it was all about me. It was just checking a jackbox, nothing more. Yeah. And what I learned out of that is that true fulfillment. comes with growth. When you grow yourself and with your growth,

you have always the capability to contribute more and more and more. And the more you grow and contribute, the more fulfilling you will become. And here it is what I've learned, what's really important is that is really about giving from the heart without any expectations.

Because I had a very interesting conversation a couple of years. I'm writing about that in the book too. I had an interesting conversation with a leader in network marketing. And she said to me that she's getting tired, always, you know, when she always needs to give, give, give. And I just responded. I said, you're not giving. You're a host trading. Because real giving is the action of giving itself fulfills you.

that what makes you tired is just because you expect something for what you give and that's horse trading. Do you get the difference? Really interesting. Yeah. And so I added

in the book two more stages. And stage number eight, I call it that's the mentor stage. And in the mentor stage, you know, after creating the success with your business and, you know, being financially independent, financially free.

It's about fulfillment, feeling true happiness in life. And this is when you give back. And this is also one reason why I was writing this book because I want to give back to the industry. I want to give back to all network marketing companies out there because this industry changed my life. And I'm so thankful for it.

And I hope that this book can inspire many, hundreds and maybe thousands of people and find a guide how to go through this old nine stages. Because when you finished stage number eight, there's still one more stage to go. And that's stage number nine. I call it the wisdom stage. And in the wisdom stage, it is again using or leveraging the power of networked marketing. Because for me, network marketing is just a door opener to a new world. And in stage number nine, it's about, it's again, it's about contribution, but it's also about

building a legacy, you know, building generational wealth and starting this with your inner wealth. And from, from there on, when you created this inner wealth in yourself, you know, you can create or build also a system that's going to be unshakable. because in every successful company, family in the world, if you go back, you know, in the tree of the ancestors, you will find the one person

that is making the difference. The one person that made the decision, you know, I'm going to change the history for my family and for all the people around me. And network marketing for me is the opportunity for an average person to create an above average lifestyle because with a very small investment, you can build a business that can change the future for yourself and for all your future generations if you go

through all the nine stages of network marketing mastery. You know, Falco, you've said a whole lot and thank you for that overview of talking through your steps and your frameworks and everything that you put together there. Those nine stages are really powerful. Let me tell you something that I noticed as I was listening to you speak. You said a specific word several times, and I see that word is actually part of chapter five, which is decision and decide. And I've heard someone on a podcast several months ago talking about the word decide, and the root

word decide has the concept of cut off. So when you decide to do something, you're cutting off your previous life or thought process or pride or whatever you want to think about there. But I would ask you, am I correct in thinking that all the way through your stages, there's actually opportunities to decide because you have to decide to get started. Then you have to decide to move from one stage to the next. then you have to decide I'm ready for mastery. I'm ready for the wisdom stage. So talk a little bit about the power of that decide. It is.

No, we have a saying in network marketing that even if you don't decide, you make a decision. Because if you don't decide, you decide that everything will stay the same as it is right now. And every day we have to make decisions. and it is these decisions can can lead you to success or they can lead you to failure and even it's very interesting that you mentioned this because as an as a coach I developed this one question I always ask my athletes and this is also something I'm forwarding now to to every people I'm working with is if you will know exactly where you want to go so this is the six steps of success. I also mentioned in a book. You need to know exactly where you want to go in

life, you know, in every little detail. The more exactly you know it, the more opportunity you will see. But if you have defined that, very specifically, then there's only one question you can ask yourself over and over and over again. And this is, is what I'm going to do next? Is this getting me any closer in a direct or indirect way to my goal? Yes or no. And if the answer is yes, please do it. But if the answer is no, why the heck should you do it? Why should you do something that is moving a third away from your goals? And this question is so powerful. And as you said, in every stage, in every moment in life, we need to ask ourselves these questions or this question, but only if you really know where you want to go. Because most people, they don't know it. I always take this example.

You know, many people are on the lake with a motorboat with an outside border and they don't hold the steering wheel. You know, they go, maybe they go full throttle with that motorboat, but they don't steer it to any particular direction. And then the motorboat goes just in circles. It makes a lot of noise and burns a lot of energy, but it's not getting to any meaningful destination. So that's why it's so important to know exactly where you want to go. because then you can move forward with much less energy, but with much more purpose. And that makes the journey much more enjoyable. Yes, love it.

You know, I know that there's a lot of times people might think, like you mentioned, you know, scam or multi-level marketing or, you know, pyramid scheme. What are some of the misconceptions people have about network marketing and how can they overcome them so that they can achieve long-term success? I can just tell my own story. When I mentioned, and was I mentioned in the better beginning, when I was sitting in that living room many years ago, I heard a lot about multi-level marketing, network marketing,

snowball system, pyramid schemes. And I had a huge opinion about it. But I actually had no knowledge. So that was also holding me back for more than a year. to get started in this beautiful industry. And I think most people out there are in the same situation as I was there. Because you hear here and there always things. And I have also now being 10 years in the industry,

and I believe I made some experience during this time, there are pyramid schemes out there. We don't have to talk this better than it is. And it is really important to make the difference, what is the legal network marketing company? and that can be a very powerful decision and what is a scam? Because the beautiful part

in network marketing is that you can create leverage and everything, everywhere, where there is an advantage, there's people who misuses. So I don't want to talk to this better than any of it. So there's definitely there is scams out there, but there's also beautiful companies out there. And it is important to realize the difference.

And if you are, are thinking about starting network marketing, also do the research, do the homework, and find a company that fits to you, to your own passion. So I think this is one of the misconceptions that people think everything is a scam out there and that they are going to lose money. And what I like to ask, when I get confronted with us in a situation of this, I always just respond. I say, oh, that's very interesting.

So you made experience with network marketing. Tell me more. And what is happening in that moment, in 90% of the time, is that people realize that they have no clue about network marketing. They're just talking something they have heard somewhere. From decades ago. From decades ago, yes. Yeah.

And another thing, and this is actually in the industry. It's a huge misconception. conception that many people don't realize that network marketing is a real profession. First, they're afraid to start in a scam, but then they behave like they were in a scam. So what I want to say by that is that they hope for high profits with very little work. But network marketing is a real profession. And when I said in the beginning, when I studied all the successful people in this industry, the first thing I noticed that all of them had a period in their life when they put in massive action,

really massive action. They were just putting in the work it needed to get the ball rolling. And it was not just for a day or a week, you know, when they were excited, when they saw something, or a month or a year. They did it over a couple of years. But during this period, they did. built the foundation to harvest the fruits for decades. And that's also a misconception that people think, oh, I can build a huge business.

There will very little work. And that's just not the truth. If it would be like this, everybody would do it. 100%. And it's a common misconception that people think, oh, well, only the people that do this or that or at the top or taking advantage of. But in reality, I want to circle back and I'll wrap up with this thought that you said at the very beginning of our conversation. It took you a while.

I think you said a year of using a certain product to then become a distributor. Well, you need to believe in the product or the service so that you feel passionate and enthusiastic to go out and promote that to different people that you know. So it really, in reality, is finding a product that you like and use and appreciate. and then it's just spreading the word and you get paid for spreading the word when they spread the word when they spread the word. So finding something, a company, and I know you all the way through our conversation, you've not mentioned companies or opportunities because that's not the point. The point is building this business mindset of mastery so that whatever company you choose

can be a successful environment in your network marketing journey. Yes. And you just need a company, you know, for which the product you're promoting or the service you're promoting, you need to have a real passion for it. Because then it never feels like work. And also what I want to give at the last, because every time, you know, when I'm on stage or get recognized for success, they ask me, what's your secret? And I want to give you that gift to everybody who is listening.

It is make it a priority. Make your own success a priority. Because if you don't make it a priority, somebody else will make it a priority and you're going to work for them. Yes. I love it. Well, Falco, it's been really eye-opening and enlightening to hear your journey and what you put together. So how can people learn more, reach out and connect with you and pick up a copy of your book?

Sure, you can find me on social media, but I think the best way is if you go to network marketing minus mastery.com. There you will find everything you need to get in contact and to get a copy of the book. Excellent. Well, I will make sure that that is also in your show notes here on this. podcast interview. So thank you so much for coming on. It's been a real pleasure talking with you. Thank you so much. It was a pleasure to me. Amazing. You've been listening to Influential Entrepreneurs with Mike Saunders. To learn more about the resources mentioned on today's show or listen to past episodes, visit www.com.