The Agreement Seekers Blog

For decades, the work-from-home industry has rewarded volume: enroll more people, push the numbers, and hope some will stick. But here’s the truth that many overlook - this approach is fundamentally flawed, and it’s why so many people fail. The “20 years of success” many trumpet is often just a surface narrative, hiding a deeper truth: once the transaction is done, the real work should begin. The Hard Reality: Most sponsorship ends at sign-up Too many sponsors treat their role as a quick transaction - "You joined, now go get yours." This “wing it” mentality leaves new people stranded without tools, guidance, or accountability. It’s a “deadbeat” approach dressed up as mentorship. And let’s be honest, that’s why the failure rate in this industry remains high. True sponsorship is about cultivation, not just acquisition Genuine success depends on nurturing relationships. It’s about transferring skills, attitudes, and best practices tailored to each individual. It’s about accounta...

The Two Kinds of Sponsors - and Why One Will Change Your Life If you're middle-aged or staring down retirement with more questions than answers about money, you're not alone. The truth is, many of us spent our younger years surviving, not strategizing. Now the clock is ticking, and the traditional playbook - work hard, save a little, retire quietly - just doesn’t cut it anymore. So you’ve started exploring digital marketing. Smart move. But there’s a fork in the road most don’t see until it’s too late. There are two kinds of sponsors in this space: 1. The Money Marketer They flash big numbers. They buy leads. They might even convince you to sign up with slick promises and flashy funnels. Then? Crickets. You’re left holding the bag, trying to figure out how to build a business with no map, no mentor, and no real support. It’s like being sold a car with no engine. Looks great - goes nowhere. 2. The Human Helper This sponsor sees you. They ask about your goals. They learn your bac...

Let me ask, can you lead and engage in a constructive conversation?   Let me make this easier to answer.  If you had a tool to use as a guide (a series of 30 questions) that you already had the answers to, could you have a productive exchange with another human being who is on the same path to financial well-being as yourself? Here is the deal:  if you can have 100 genuine conversations with 100 real, regular people, this should result in about 30% of these folks joining you in your business. Here is how we facilitate making this happen: We teach how to set up a Gmail account and set it on permanent vacation response.  This is essentially a very crude (but free) autoresponder. In this automated email, we provide a link to a tool (an online form that you copy and make your own) that is a series of about 30 questions that blasts through all of the social "nice-ities" and gets right to the meat of things in terms of peoples' needs, skill sets, goals, etc.  Thi...

This post is going to be a bit tough, but it is the unvarnished reality.  You won't find anyone who is trying to "recruit warm bodies, do the numbers, and see who sticks..."  talking about this. From our perspective, we want to be selective and help people we introduce to what we do, and self-select .  In this context, here's the deal:  you will not build a business working with broke and broken people.  Yes, this may sound harsh, but unfortunately, it is absolutely true. First, let's address broke.  Being in business inherently involves the creation of commerce (the exchange of money for something of value).  Many people are simply not wired for this.  The "why" behind this is not easily answered.  However, the broad stroke on this topic is that people who have been surviving month to month and living hand-to-mouth simply do not have the risk tolerance to do anything outside of their current experience and comfort zone.  Therefore, ...

I created a niche site named "401Konundrum" with the subtitle "Minding Mismanaged Futures." The goal of this site, much like this post, is to highlight alternative income-generating options that don't rely on lifelong savings, stock market performance, or professional portfolio management—common assumptions about retirement planning. Our Alternative Approach Our approach leverages the same principles of compounding and leverage but in a non-traditional manner. We focus on organizing knowledge, people, and money: Knowledge and People : We teach how to build and manage organizations. Money : We provide an alternative to the traditional "lifetime" savings approach. Traditional vs. Alternative Retirement Models Consider a traditional retirement model where someone has accumulated $1 million in a 401K. Assuming a conservative 6% annuitized return, this yields $60,000 annually—a result of 40 years of savings and growth. In contrast, our model emphasizes high...

Building a reliable, monthly residual income depends on receiving recurring payments, typically through subscriptions. Other home business models often fail to provide truly secure, passive income, as they require ongoing active involvement. Therefore, genuine passive income comes from people paying you a monthly subscription fee or making automatic re-orders, which is the basis of MLMs, though they generally offer lower margins compared to our model. If you've been involved with us, you know our business model is 80% Organization Development and 20% Business Transactions. The strength of your organization is crucial; in fact, the specific business could be anything. The often-overlooked truth in the networking industry is that mastering the 80% (organization development) is essential for the success of the 20% (business transactions) in the long term. The key to your business is the mentorship you provide, nurturing your partners to self-sufficiency with systems that transfer know...

I grew up with the expression, "too poor to pay attention".  This is a kind of tongue-in-cheek expression to describe people burdened by poverty.  Life for many is about survival and getting from month to month.  People in these circumstances are so busy getting through today, that there is no time left to think about tomorrow (their future). The next step up this ladder is people with little to no risk tolerance due to their budgets being so tight that they can't afford to "play around" with any risks.  In other words, they have to pay their bills.  They go to work to make it so.  And this cycle repeats itself over and over and over - in many cases for entire lifetimes. Given this reality, there are really two perspectives as they relate to what we do: These people are simply not a match for what we do.  They are better off staying on the path they are on because they literally cannot afford to take a risk.  What we do is not for everyone, and th...

Before starting this post, I Googled BOBO simply to see what I would find.  In Filipino, it is a word that means smart or perceptive.  In Spanish, it means dumb or dull.  It is interesting that these are somewhat opposites.  Then, there is Bobo the Clown (also acknowledging Bozo).  In this post, I add my own definition for BOBO. In our business, we specifically target groups of people similar to us.  We refer to this as Affinity Marketing.  I won't dive deep into that here.  However, depending upon the statistics you look at, anywhere between 50% and 80% of people hate what they do for work (and) if hate is too strong a word, let's say they could "take it or leave it" in regard to what they do to earn money in supporting themselves and their families. Of these people, there is a huge "slice" of folks who are Bordering On Burn Out. (BOBO)  They metaphorically "hold their breath" every day and can't wait for their workday to end.  Wednesda...

Hmmm... a funnel and two buckets... Sound like we're changing the oil in your car? Not quite. Anyone who has been around marketing for any length knows what a marketing funnel is. Essentially it is a process of exposure, then education that progressively narrows people who have been exposed to your message, then take the initiative to learn more - and ultimately choose to buy what you are selling, join what you are doing, or respond to what you are saying, etc. The funnel is a front-end business process. Like any process, it has steps to be followed (and as such) is able to be replicated, no different than a recipe when cooking any food. It is a do this, then that approach. We have and we teach how to use our front-end marketing funnel. Then we have two buckets for two different purposes. Bucket number one holds recurring income money. Recurring income happens by selling something, like a hot dog vendor. You can make a living with a recurring income, but you must go out on ...

 A big portion of the demographic of our target audience are professionals who are burnt out (for any number of reasons) and looking for income alternatives.  These people are looking for a "choice" with the opportunity to take their life in a different direction. I get it.  I was one of them.  Every week, there came the point on Sunday night at 8:00 - right after 60 Minutes - that I would feel a sense of dread wash over me.  It was the dread of another week doing something I "had to do", but it was not necessarily something I "wanted to do".   I had to earn money to support my family.  I had to go to a job and work with people I did not necessarily like and take direction from people I did not necessarily respect.  I was working to make a paycheck with no sense of purpose or passion.  It was a means to an end and in retrospect, it was year after year after year conforming to organizations I worked for.  It was a regrettable use of ...

 This is a quick bit of perspective and advice. Many business opportunities in our space never talk about taxes, other than to say that "taxes are your responsibility".  Right up front, you should know that if you want to build a long-term, sustainable business, you should learn about (and) pay taxes on the money you earn from your home business. As such, you need to know that you may be earning 100% commissions in some programs, however, you also need to know that these earnings are taxed at 15.3%.  As such, for every $10,000 you make, you "net" 84.7%, or $8,470.00. Some programs will send you a 1099 Self Employment Tax Statement.  Others may not. In either case, be smart and put the $1530 in a savings account (or any place you won't touch it) so it will "be there" when you need it to square up with the government at tax time.

The level of effort you apply to your business is important, sure.  However, the road to (profitability) is paved with a lot more things that need to be in place - independent of how hard you intend to work at it. Mentorship - enables you to avoid unproductive activity and provides a support system that teaches how to transition from a newbie to a professional Home Business Owner.  It is the proverbial "shoulder to lean on".  However, it is a shoulder you are paying for and this is an important dynamic for both the mentor and mentee to understand. Leverage - there have to be components of the overall "system" that leverage your time and money.  You can leverage your time with tools and technology.  You can leverage money by understanding and ensuring that you are involved with platforms that employ compensation systems that have a leverage component. Onboarding - allied with mentorship, there has to be a "structure" that (at least in theory) provides you...

This will all make sense at the end... Preconceptions and predispositions relate to opinions and attitudes.  Both attitudes and opinions can be thought of on a linear scale from negative to neutral to positive.  In our industry, we deal with preconceptions, all day - every day.   To drill down one level deeper, an attitude is an established (predisposed) way of thinking about someone or something.  It exists as something that is pre-verbal.  It is also known as a mindset.  Everyone has attitudes and opinions that are a matter of degree - in someone's willingness to speak up (or) remain silent.  Either way, attitudes and opinions exist. As stated, once an attitude is articulated into words, it becomes an opinion.  The important thing to understand is that an opinion is something that is not necessarily based on facts or knowledge.   OK...  So, what is the point here... We build organizations in the context of person-to-person co...

You can't blink credibility into existence.  It needs to be scraped and clawed for through the passage of time.   Therefore, for anyone new to Affiliate Marketing (in our niche and the way we do it) this is the reason we recruit people with whom you have something in common, with the supposition that they may not have a deep credibility base in our industry either.  Historically, this is why ventures typically fail.  It is a matter of the blind leading the blind.  With Vertical Industry Marketing, we start with our Relationship Building Accelerator and, (at least) we develop an understanding of each others' lived experience (as best we can). So, this begs the question, "What sets you apart from the pack?"  What makes you exceptional to the extent that someone would want to choose you as the person they want to work with?   Especially if you are just getting started, you may think there is nothing that makes you "special". I want to challenge ...

Everything should be simple.  Why isn't it? There is nothing hard to understand about truth and integrity.  It follows that if you are perceived as one who is honest and adheres to virtue, you should be someone worthy of trust.  So where does everything break down?   I think it boils down to understanding that trust is built over time.  It is not implicit, it is earned.  It is a thousand micro-actions that lead to the macro of trust.  It is something that evolves, it is not something that is granted, in most cases, especially when two people do not know each other, initially. Corresponding to this, "A Real Solution" is simply a statement and perception that (like trust) needs to be earned.  We have every confidence that our solution IS real for the vast majority.  However, in the process of getting people to adopt what we do as something they embrace, there is a significant amount of education that is necessary.  It is a thousand mi...

This post is a point of clarification.   Our business is in the Affiliate Marketing space.  Yes, we build organizations, however, Rank Advancement is a Multi-Level Marketing concept.  MLM's "rank advance" through the growth of business volume, which is typically associated with organizational size. As one advances in rank, they get a bigger piece of the pie.  If the first level is 5%, the rank advance may mean 3% or a total of 8%... along with a title change from (in metals) Bronze to Silver to Gold to Platinum.  The company tracks these transactions and pays the distributor on a predetermined schedule. This is not our model.  We earn 100%, paid directly - peer to peer.  The company tracks these transactions as an accounting and "scorekeeping" function, however, money is paid directly to you.  The company is not a middle man that holds your money, it simply is a portal for your transaction to take place. This is a huge difference.  We gr...

Many people want or need more money and know if they simply "found" something to plug into... that actually worked, it would provide the all-important grease that would make life a whole lot easier. I have used the expression many times, "There are a million ways to make money, you only need one". I have also said, "Money is the grease that lubricates life". Both obviously infer the "idea" that money plays a huge role in people's lives. Most people have a job to fund their life. It is a fixed income approach, working for a salary or a wage. Their only "leverage" is getting a 401K match from their employer and then hoping the Stock Market performs in a manner that supports growth. The goal of a 401K is retirement, so it is of little use until you are 59 1/2, unless you want to borrow against it and incur stiff penalties for doing so. So what are the alternatives in the "million ways" to make money? A second and/or t...

What follows may or may not apply to you.  Perhaps you are self-actualized and wealthy; both spiritually and financially.  Most people fall short of this.  If so, my wish is that these thoughts instill some hope and some clarity. There are a lot of things that take place inside of our specific Community as well as the Communities of our Affiliate Partners.  Ultimately, we are "in the business" of helping people rise above their current circumstances, to the extent that additional financial resources can make this happen. "Planting a Flag" essentially means making a commitment.  The question is, whether something is worthy of your commitment of time and resources?  Does something you evaluate as a "means" to earn additional income hold up to scrutiny?  Does it make sense?  Can you justify and defend your involvement in whatever you choose to do?  Do you have the conviction and moral authority of "knowing" that what you are commiting to - is wo...

You can make money doing just about anything if someone is willing to pay you for it.  In a general way, this defines commerce. In the new world of Digital Commerce, there is something called an NFT (Non-Fungible Token).  It is a "unique unit of data" on a digital ledger, typically associated with something... artwork, music, sports trading cards, or even just ideas.  So, it is a digital representation of something - stored on the blockchain. So let me ask, where is the value here?  Something is unique.  OK.  Something is scarce.  All right.  Something that two parties agree that has value... How? I am not sure, but it is happening in real time, right in front of our eyes.  I am in no credible position to judge, so I will not.  This all seems kind of "made up" to me, however my opinion of it is irrelevant.  If people agree to it - so be it.  It is a means to an end.   More power to them. Analagously, the "detractors" of ou...

This will be short.  It is about procrastination.  It is about being stuck in life. There is a song by Adele named Easy on Me .  The refrain of the song is, "I had no time to choose what I chose to do".  It is a lament about youth and being stuck in her ways.  Later in the song she talks about having good intentions and the highest hopes.  Nonetheless, it is a song of regret - of an older self reflecting on a younger self. From my perspective, her song speaks to the "plight of the commoner".  It is a life resigned to the way things are, even with the best-of-intentions.  It is "knowing" things can be different, but doing nothing about it, and this realization coming only from the wisdom of the passage of time. Many times people get swept along by the inertia of family, social, or cultural expectations and as Adele says, "I had no time to choose what I chose to do".  Eveything in life is reduced to an unconscious whirlwind, in the absence of a...