Last year I learned a valuable lesson in my network marketing career as I learned to surf behind a boat. But before I tell you about my experience, let me tell you where I got my understanding of the learning process. It comes from the “ Conscious Competence ” learning model.

It is not clear who originated the very first 'conscious competence' learning model. Various modern authors are named, but sources as old as Confucius and Socrates are cited as possible earliest originators. But the model clearly explains the 4 stages you go through in your business. Not understanding these stages is the fundamental reason for the failure of a lot of training and teaching in the network marketing industry.

Now back to my surfing experience…

Each summer I would go on the lake and watch people surf and do wakeboarding. It looked so easy. I was at the 'Unconsciously Incompetent ' stage (this is the fantasy stage - 'Oh, I can do this, I've done snowboarding, surfing doesn't look too hard').

Next thing you know, my brother calls me and says “Stephane, come over I just bought a surf, let's go try it.” That second stage is called 'Consciously Incompetent ,' (This is the reality stage: 'Oh my God, what have I gotten myself into - this is so much harder than I thought.').

If you are a visual, watch this short video below, you'll have a good laugh… or pitty for me :-(

I realized I was in the third stage when I was able to get off the water, go from one side of the wave to the other without too much effort. This is the 'Consciously Competent ' stage (The competence stage: 'I know what to do, and I am concentrating very hard to use the techniques I know I need to be successful').

At the end of the summer, we hired a guy named Tim to do a corporate video for our rental business to promote surfing and wakeboarding as an activity we propose at our nautical center. When he got on the board, I immediately realized what it was like to be ‘ Unconsciously Competent '(This is the mastery stage: 'I don't have to be consciously operating all the time - some of the techniques I have acquired are now part of me, some of my skills are automatic - I can save my conscious energy for the ones I'm still working on developing.')

Each person getting involved in network marketing will grow through the same four distinct stages in their career. By the time they reach the 4th stage they are leaders with their company and are top income earners. They seem to have a natural talent, a peace of mind and a total sense of control over their destiny.

If they do not grow all the way to the 4th stage they will usually leave the business. They are the ones who say , "Network Marketing Doesn't Work…". This is because they tried and failed. They either failed at recruiting people or they recruited a lot of people but none of them actually worked the business. They believe the reason is that none of them were really serious.

Which stage are you currently at?

When a person is in the first stage ‘ Unconsciously Incompetent' , They are not aware that they have a particular deficiency in the area of building their business. The excitement level is high. They're on fire! At this level, people think like the following: 

People operating at the Unconsciously Incompetent level are usually driven by excitement. They recruit because their excitement is contagious. The new recruits don't join for their own reasons but because they fear they're going to miss something if they don't. They have not connected their reasons why they would want to do it with the business as the solution to their individual goals. This sets them up to lose interest in the business just as quickly as they got excited.

Within a few weeks, new distributors start to realize that "telling a few people about it" is not the answer. It's not telling people it's developing the skills that allow you to select and develop people. At this point, they have reached Consciously Incompetent . Unfortunately, you will see the largest number of people quit at this stage. They realize they're going to have to work. The person realizes that by improving their skills or abilities, their effectiveness will improve. They must learn how to find their prospect's reasons why they would be interested before they actually invite them to review information. Otherwise they're just bugging people with something they never showed an interest for in the first place. They must become someone who is able to learn, implement and then train others. They begin to realize their lack of success could depend on them and they start having thoughts like the following: 

Those who make it through Consciously Incompetent will eventually get to Consciously Competent . At this point they have learned from someone who trained them on the real skills necessary to build a successful business. They followed the saying “Your business will only grow as fast as you grow.” They learned that communication is the fundamental skill one needs to develop. They have worked on themselves more than anything else. They practiced what to say and how to say it. They realized that everything worth pursuing requires time to become effective. They understand that whatever they do, it will require effort, and if they're going to work hard anyway, why not work hard at something that will reward them tremendously. For this reason, they developed the perseverance necessary to move forward.

At this level, recruiting is more like a "game". They developed good habits that produce results. This is a time when they get their first recognition from the company and start to gain confidence in their prospecting and recruiting abilities. They learn to work the numbers and with the proper skills, the job is easy.

The person will not reliably perform the skill unless thinking about it - the skill is not yet 'second nature' or 'automatic'

However, it isn't long (about a year) before extreme frustration sets in and begins to drive them to the next level. They start having thoughts like: 

They develop an awareness that drives them to Unconsciously Competent . At this level distributors have an entirely different view of prospecting and recruiting.

Their skills become so practiced that they enter the unconscious parts of the brain - it becomes 'second nature'

Common examples are driving, sports activities, typing, manual dexterity tasks, listening and communicating. It becomes possible for certain skills to be performed while doing something else, for example, talking on the phone while driving.

Distributors operating at this level are now considered to be professional network marketers. They have something very unique in how they conduct their business. They have charisma. For some reason, everyone they recruit comes in and goes to work . Now, the predominant attitude and thoughts are something like:

This is the pinnacle of success in network marketing. If you carefully evaluate the top money earners with any company, you will usually see these traits of character and competence.

Some people are really good at network marketing from the beginning – you feel they are wired for that business. But the reality is they developed their skills elsewhere before coming here. U nfortunately, several of them are so instinctual at their skills that they don't understand the theory - because they don't need it - and as such sometimes have more difficulty understanding why others can't get the same results they get.

Great leaders will be able to look at their unconscious competence from the outside, digging to find and understand the skills, abilities and beliefs that, based on looking at what they do, inform what they do and how they do it. That's the kind of leader I was so grateful of having as a sponsor.

The conscious competence model explains the process and stages of learning a new skill (for building a successful Network Marketing business or anything else). Once you understand the process of how we learn, you can build your business with peace of mind knowing which stage you're at and what's coming up next.

Most people who say ‘no' to network marketing usually analyze it from the “Consciously Incompetent” level. They think they can't do it.

But when you look at what they currently do for a living, you realize they were at that same level when they got started. So, someone should not decide on the profession they will do for the rest of their lives based on their competence level in that field but more at what getting in the “Unconsciously Incompetent” level in that field will provide them. If what they get is not in alignment with what they truly want out of life, they should look elsewhere.

Because, in network marketing or in any other career, practice will always lead them to the final stage “Mastery”. If mastering being a truck driver, a secretary, a dentist, a realtor, a carpet cleaner allows you to live your life the way you want, then do it. But if it doesn't, don't waste any more time, because time flies and you risk to loose the most important years of your life.

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To your success,