Tom “Big Al” Schreiter - exceptionalexistence.com · Tom “Big Al” Schreiter is one of the most skillful and revered educators in the network marketing space. Unless you’re

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Big Al Tells AllA Conversation with Tom Schreiter

By Dr. Josephine Gross

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CONTENTS (toc2.phtml) >> LEAD INTERVIEW May/Jun 2014

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Tom “Big Al”Schreiter is one ofthe most skillful and reverededucators in the networkmarketing space. Unlessyou’re brand new to thebusiness, you’ve probablyread some of the Big Al booksor his free newsletter atBigAlReport.com—and if youhaven’t, we highly recommendyou do so. You may have seenTom speak at the ANMPconvention, at Art Jonak’sMastermind event, at a Big Allive workshop, or at one of thenumerous other events hespeaks at every year.

A living legend in theprofession, Tom built large

distributor organizations and also founded two network marketing companies.But rather than work in the office on marketing plans and theories, Tomalways preferred to be in the field, personally sponsoring and training

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distributors. Logging his fortythird year in network marketing, he developeda treasure chest of tips and tools which he generously shares with audiencesaround the world.

An engineer by training and a natural marketing genius, Tom has meticulouslytested every strategy he teaches—from icebreakers to building rapport, fromhow to get distributors started fast to more advanced marketing lessons andcase studies. We recently picked his brain about his newest book How toProspect, Sell, and Build Your Network Marketing Business with Stories.—J.G.

What led you to write a book about storytelling?Stories are the best way to communicate with people, and that’s our job. Wehave to get ideas from our heads inside theirs, and the story is just the absolutebest way to do it.

Before the written word, all information was passed on from generation togeneration with stories, so the mind is set up to accept information, rememberit, and visualize it in story format—and it does all this automatically. We canremember a story from age five, but we can’t remember dates we studied for ahistory exam fifteen minutes later. The human mind is set up to understand andsee things in story format. Think about dreaming: while we sleep: the mind takesuseless bits of information it can’t file away, puts them together, and creates astory.

For most people, story is the only way to communicate directly to thesubconscious mind, because it does everything automatically. When you tell astory, the subconscious mind of your prospect pops up a movie screen, pulls up abarrel of popcorn, stuffed chair, sits back, and watches the story on the screen.What’s really cool is the subconscious mind is not very smart. It says, “Wait aminute, if it’s up on the movie screen, I’ll put myself in as the main character.”That’s why we enjoy books and watching Pirates of the Caribbean, because wefeel we’re one of the main characters.

Since our subconscious mind doesn’t have the thinking capacity the consciousmind does, when it sees the story up there, it’s as though that story actuallyhappened to us, and it helps us feel and understand things and make decisions.The bottom line is: facts tell people stuff, but stories sell people stuff, and that’swhy successful networkers are all great storytellers.



How does a story lead to a decision tobuy or join a business?Let’s take a look at how the human mindworks. Research over the last couple ofdecades shows that all decisions are made inthe subconscious mind. We make decisionsautomatically based upon preexistingprograms. For example, if I say DemocraticParty, depending on your internalprogramming about the Democratic Party,instantly your subconscious mind creates afeeling or an opinion. If you say to medonuts, my subconscious mind has aprogram that says it’s one of the four basicfood groups—I’m in! If you say Los AngelesLakers where you live, people are going tohave an automatic response based onwhether they love them or hate them.

We all have programs about sales people.Most people have a program that says,“Salespeople? You better be careful.” “It’s toogood to be true.” “There’s always a catch.”“Think of excuses... save your money.” Whenyou use stories, it kind of bypasses thoseprograms. They say, “I have to be carefulwith salesmen... but just a moment, I want tohear the story first.” If you present theinformation in story format, it goes past thatsalesman program into the subconsciousmind, and now it’s inside their head.

If you don’t do this, here’s the problem. I’m in a store looking at some clothes. Asales clerk walks up behind me and says, “Can I help you?” Now, because of mypast bad experiences with salespeople, I have a program in my mind that says“Looks like a salesperson, acts like a salesperson, feels like a salesperson...,” thensounds the sales alarm: “Run! Save your wallet. Save your purse.”



When someone says, “Can I help you?” it activates that program in thesubconscious mind, the decisionmaking part of my brain, and I automaticallysay, “No, I am just looking.” I made a decision I’m just looking. I don’t want tobe sold. The decision is made instantly and the sale is dead.

If we talk to people and we look, act, and sound like a salesman, they make aninstant decision, “I don’t want to do business with you because I’m afraid allthese bad things can happen.” But people will listen to a story, so why not putyour information in the story format and avoid all those decisionmakingproblems with the subconscious mind.

You’ve convinced us. Now how do we put our information into astory? There are many ways to do that, as you teach in your book. We can do an entire sales presentation in story format. Let’s say yourpresentation includes some slides about the company building—that’s exciting.There are some slides about the company founder, a family photo with 2.5 kidsand a dog. And then you show some slides about your product and all thestatistics scientists can use to shut up other scientists. Finally you show thecompensation plan with the boring circles and percentages people don’tunderstand.

Or, you can communicate quickly and efficiently by describing each one of thosefacts in a story format, which could sound like this:

Thank you for coming tonight. Let me tell you what happened to me. I thoughtI’d check out this company, so I went down there. You see this slide here? Yeah,it’s a big building. I walked in and met the owner, and we went out to lunch.Over lunch, I asked him all these questions. He had all the answers I waslooking for. I said, “Wow, what a great company with a great vision to workfor.” Then they told me about the products. I took one of these products homeand tried it. Here’s what happened to me [...]. I thought it may be just me, so Igave it to my neighbor, and he tried it and had this fantastic result. Two dayslater I walked down to the mailbox, and I found this bonus check I didn’t evenexpect. I gave it to my wife to go shopping with, and she said, “This is really acool business, we should tell other people about it.” And we started doing that.After we told a few neighbors, they told a few friends and a couple of relatives,and the checks started getting bigger. Pretty soon my wife and I were racingdown the driveway waiting for the mailman on the fifteenth of every month tosee how big our check was going to be!



With Art Jonak in Venice, Italy 2008.

At train station in Siberia.

When I tell that story to people I don’t even need a slide or a flip chart, and it’smore entertaining. And it’s much easier for them to visualize and rememberthan seeing those meaningless facts on a slide.

Is it best to tell stories aboutyourself?You can tell them about other people,about other people’s bonus checks,about what happened to your friendat work who got fired three yearsbefore his pension was due. Yeah,people love stories. Think about littlechildren age two or three. What dothey always ask? “Mommy, Daddy,tell me a story.” Stories are like crackcocaine to the human mind.

Stories are certainlyentertaining, but a good storyalso makes a point. Any tips onhow to make sure to get yourpoint across?We’re natural storytellers. A lot ofpeople say they can’t tell a story. I tellthem, “Watch this: Monday morning,can you pick up the phone, call work,and say, [cough] I’m sick. I can’tcome in.” They all start laughing.Yeah, okay, we tell stories. We tellstories all the time. One of thegreatest stories ever is when a manproposes to a woman and says, “I’llbe responsible. I’ll come home every

night, take out the trash...” It’s a great story, but it’s so engrossing she actuallybuys it and married him. Go figure, right? Stories are just a way to take what’sinside your mind and put it inside their mind, and it flows naturally.



If you want to make your stories just a little bit more interesting, like in moviesand books, we add something called tension. You have a boring story when yousay, “I woke up in the morning, everything was okay that day, and I went tosleep.” But when you say, “I woke up this morning, I had this searing pain in myheart, and when I tried to move I couldn’t move my right,” all of a sudden there’stension and the story becomes more interesting.

You can throw tension in the story by saying, “I went to work last month, andthere was a note on my desk that said, Please go see the boss and bring yourpersonal belongings.” Already there’s tension in the story. Or you can say, “Iwent to this meeting, and when I went home my mother started yelling at me,‘What did you get yourself into? Don’t you know about those crazy people thatare always positive and having fun and smiling? What are you thinking?’” Nowthe argument’s starting, and we have tension in the story. People kind ofnaturally know how to make stories interesting, and if you don’t, just look atpeople’s faces. When they start rolling their eyes while you’re talking, that mightbe a hint. When they fall asleep, you might want to work on it a little bit.

How do we influence people with story? How do we move people intoaction?People will decide what to do based on their preexisting programs. If your fatherwas a Democrat, your grandfather was a Democrat, and your spouse is aDemocrat, chances are you will have a program that will make you voteDemocrat. People have programs in their mind that tell them health comes froman antibiotic, or that expensive skin care is better than inexpensive skin care.But we also have programs that keep new information from coming inside ourhead—prejudices, etc.

What a story does is it bypasses those programs and we now have theopportunity to put new information inside their head past all those barriers.Then, with the new information inside their head, they can decide if what we areoffering is going to serve them or not, and that’s important. So we’re not exactlyinfluencing their decision. What we’re doing is getting the information insidetheir head so they have something to base their decision on.

Let’s say you’re talking to a 69yearold grandmother with really bad arthritis inher knees, and you happen to sell some product that could help her naturally toheal her body. To bypass all that dysfunctional programming that says “I don’twant any new information,” you tell a story:



In front of Amsterdam Central station, Netherlands.

My aunt is 83 years old. She used to walk with a cane, but now that she startedtaking this product she feels so much better she’s taken up break dancing andkarate classes.

That story sneaks by all those barriers in this grandmother’s mind, and now shehas it in her brain. She’s thinking, “If I take this product, maybe I could feelbetter.” You’ve done your job, you’ve got the information inside her head. Now,depending on the programs inside her head, she’s going to decide whether thatwill serve her or not. She might say, “I want to try that and be able to take mygrandbabies to the zoo again.” Or she may have another program in her headthat says “No, I don’t want to feel better, because my children visit me morewhen I pretend to be sick.” People are going to decide what they want to dodepending on their personal circumstances. And that’s okay.

I’m perfectly okay when they make that decision. What I’m not okay with is nothaving the ability to get the information inside her head so she has the choice. Ifyou cannot get your information across, you’ve effectively withheld thoseoptions, and that’s almost criminal. As networkers, our job is to let people knowabout our opportunity, our products, and our services, and get past all theprejudices and barriers to get that information inside their head. Then they candecide if it’s going to serve them or not, if it’s going to make them happy.

Telling stories makes our jobeasier because we are not tryingto manipulate, we’re notattached to the outcome.Right. We’re just helping them pastthe dysfunctional barriers we all havethat prevent us from listening. Forexample, let me tell you about mymother.

By the way, when I said, “Let me tellyou about my mother,” everybodyput down the barriers.

Here’s what happened. My mom wasdiagnosed with diabetes many, manyyears ago. I thought I needed to dosomething, so I went and found aproduct for her diabetes.



Visiting Kazakhstan.

My mother lives in a small town,everyone knows each other. She goesto see the doctor often; it’s a socialvisit.

I said, “You need to take thesetablets, it will help control your bloodsugar and you’ll get healthier.”She takes the tablets.I visit her a month later and say,“How did the tablets go?”She says, “I can’t swallow tablets.”Oh man. So I went out and I found aproduct that was liquid, a drink,something similar to help her withher blood sugar levels. I give that toher.A month later, I said, “How did it go?How’s your blood sugar been?”She says, “I can’t swallow liquids.”

At that moment I realized that my mother can’t swallow tablets, she can’tswallow liquids, and she doesn’t want to take anything for her diabetes, becauseshe enjoys visiting the doctor every two weeks. She doesn’t want to give that up.And her program is health comes from traditional medicine all these years. It’sjust the way it is.

When I tell that story, people understand that we have to get the informationinside, but they’re going to decide what they’re going to do depending on theirpersonal programs and life experiences.

People then totally understand why their mother will reject them or whysomebody will say, “I know I need it, but I just don’t want to take it.” It explainsit to them in a way that they don’t feel personally offended. They understandthat the person simply has another agenda that’s going to make them happier.

In my case, my mother enjoys visiting the doctor a whole lot more. Why not letthem be happy, as long as you’ve done your job. You gave them the opportunity,then it’s up to them to see if it’s going to serve their life or not. That little storyhelps people overcome rejection almost instantly. They understand how it worksand where it comes from.



Tom, you spend your life going around the world telling stories.Where do you get your best material? How do you come up with allthose new stories all the time?You just have to be awake. They happen to you all the time. People ask, “Did thatreally happen to you?” Some of these things you can’t make up. If you’re outthere talking to people, you’re going to accumulate stories. Just think of all thestuff that happens to you when you travel. Let me give you a couple of otherstories just to show how easy it is.

You might say, “I’ve got this brand new distributor, they just joined. But they’renot listening to me, they don’t want to follow the system. How do I convincethem to stop trying to do it their way?”

Everybody who joins, even though they’ve never done networking before, thinksthey know how to do it better. “I’ve got this special mail order system,” “I’mgoing to rent this big hall and everyone in the city will come,” and so on.

Here’s a very short story you can tell them, it’s just three sentences, and you’llput inside their mind why they should listen to you.

You say to the new person:Imagine you wanted to walk through a minefield. Would you want to go first?Or would you rather have a leader who knows the way go first, and you simplyfollow carefully in his footsteps?

That little story’s better than preaching to them about following a system. Theyget it. And you can do hundreds of these stories. I encourage everyone to have astory about your product, about your opportunity, about your trips, your checks,the friendships you build. If you have stories about all these things, people willremember you. That’s the bottom line.

There’s an old story that goes like this.Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson went on a little camping trip, and as they’relaying down the conversation went like this. Sherlock Holmes says, “Watson,look up at the sky and tell me what you see.” Dr. Watson says, “I see millionsand millions of stars.” Sherlock Holmes says, “What does that tell you?” Dr.Watson says, “Astrologically it tells me there are millions of galaxies andpotentially billions of planets. Theologically it tells me that God is great, andthat we are very, very small, and meteorologically it tells me that we will have



a beautiful day tomorrow. What does it tell you, Sherlock?” And Sherlock says,“Watson, you bonehead. Somebody stole our tent. That’s why you can see thestars.”

Stories help people see the obvious.

Here’s another secret. When you start telling a story, there’s a program in thehuman mind that says if anybody anywhere at any time is telling a story we haveto listen all the way to the end, because we cannot go on with life until we knowhow the story ends. It holds people’s attention. You really don’t have to worryabout attention spills as salesmen do. Let’s illustrate this with another story.

There used to be a television classic called The Dukes of Hazard, and beforeevery commercial the General Lee car was flying through the air, and they’d stopit halfway through the air and go to the commercial, because they knew wewould wait to come back after the commercial to see if the car would come backdown. It’s just a way of holding people’s attention and getting your messageinside so they see it. Stories are the most efficient way of communicating, whichis why top leaders in network marketing always tell stories.

One bonus tip: a few years ago we shared the stage in Singapore, andyou taught me, “When you have stage fright, just tell a story!”It takes care of the two basic problems of public speaking. Problem number oneis I might forget what comes next. With a story you remember automaticallywhat comes next. You don’t need notes. Number two is Will the audience likeme? It takes care of that as well, because if you’re telling a story the audience willlove you. No matter how bad the story is, the worst story is better than the bestpresentation of meaningless facts. To cure yourself of those two big fears ofpublic speaking, tell a story and you’ll be fine.

Take your brand new distributor who just joined. You tell her, “You’re going tospeak at tonight’s meeting.” She doesn’t know anything. You say, “Don’t worry,just come up, tell the story of what happened to you, and then sit down.”

You start the meeting, and you say, “Now, to show you how our product works,we’re going to invite up a brand new distributor, she joined just 36 hours ago.Come on up here, and just tell us what happened when you got your product.”

She stands up and looks at the crowd, “I got the product, and I opened it up. Myknife was a little dull, so I cut my finger. Blood was running down my arm. I tooka bottle of this miracle product out and put two drops on my finger, and it healed



right before my very eyes. I’m so impressed with the product. Thank you verymuch.”

Everybody is mesmerized, and she’s not nervous. She just says what happened.

Or we have our brand new distributor at the meeting and say, “Please come upand tell us what it’s like to get your first bonus check.”

“I walked down the mailbox, and there was a letter from my network marketingcompany. I thought, ‘Oh no...’ I ripped it open and looked inside, and it wasn’t aletter. It was a check!”

Everybody just sees this in their minds so vividly it holds everybody’s attention.If you want to find people who become instantly great leaders, just find a bunchof great storytellers. They’re already trained.

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Tom “Big Al” Schreiter - exceptionalexistence.com · Tom “Big Al” Schreiter is one of the most skillful and revered educators in the network marketing space. Unless you’re