The virus, COVID-19, the pandemic, whatever you want to call it, it’s affecting all of us to some degree. 

And one of the main questions I’ve been getting from Network Marketing Professionals and Online Coaches is how do you support your clients at this time? 

There’s a lot of fear, questions and overwhelm that comes with something so unknown. 

There’s no right way or wrong way to approach business and what is going on right now because nobody has launched anything online during a worldwide pandemic before.

Do we really know what we’re doing? No. We’re all flying by the seat of our pants, making things up as we go and doing the best we can with what we’ve got. And that’s all you can do right now. 

So I’m going to show you some of the different ways to best support your people:

1. VALIDATE THEIR FEELINGS 

There is such a wide range of emotions right now - fear, overwhelm, anxiety and then there are people who aren’t fazed at all for whatever reason. No matter where you fall on that scale, there’s nothing wrong with what you’re feeling. Your feelings are perfectly validated. 

Come together with your team or your community and just letting them know that you’re here and you hear them. 

2. ENCOURAGE OPEN DISCUSSION 

Ask them how they’re feeling and encourage open lines of communication. Let them know that you’re in a judgment-free zone if someone feels differently than other people. 

When anything crazy happens - in business and in life - people tend to shut down and they internalize a lot of things. Sometimes they don’t necessarily have anyone in their life to talk about it with. An entrepreneur might be feeling differently from someone with a corporate job.

You are here to support them. 

3. SET UP MORE LINES OF COMMUNICATION 

Setting up more touchpoints of communication with your leaders and with your clients. Set up Zoom calls that are “let’s get together and chat” rather than coaching calls. 

Get on a call, talk about what is going on and just laugh - because we all know that laughter is the best medicine! 

Find a distraction away from the social media arguments about whether or not you should be going outside and what the best way to handle the situation is. 

4. SUPPORT THEIR MONEY MINDSET 

One of the biggest and most taboo topics right now is money. It is one of those things that when something starts to shift, people often panic about money first. 

So some of the biggest questions that come out of this:

Should I keep selling? Should I launch? Should I stop selling? 

Ask yourself, “Whether I keep selling or stop selling, what’s going to give me more of what I want in life?”

There is not a right or a wrong answer to this question.

Stop selling if you honestly think that people can’t benefit from your services or products.

Stop selling if you genuinely believe that NOT selling will give you more of what you want. 

But, if you want more financial security and continuing to sell will give you that, then your answer is, absolutely keep selling. 

Have Lysol and Amazon stopped selling? No. 

Has Jeff Bezos stopped selling? No.

People might be having shifts in their financial situations but they’re still going to have things that are important to them. And it’s your job as a leader to position yourself as being essential to them. 

Will you be essential at all times? Possibly. Possibly not. 

It might involve making a slight pivot to not just selling the products that are going to benefit you and your business the most, but shifting so that you can be more of service to them.

You could create free resources to take care of your people so that when things start to balance out again they will be there and they will be ready to continue on with you because you served without expectation. 

Supporting your people with any money blocks that are coming up, any limiting beliefs is going to such a long way 

5. ENCOURAGE COLLABORATION

You can collaborate within your team, or you can encourage them to collaborate with people outside of their circle. 

Because for Network Marketers, there are people in companies outside of yours that have the same fears as you. So you can partner up with them to do ANYTHING. 

Put your creative hat on. 

You could do a free challenge together. Set up a big giveaway to build up your Facebook communities. Do a big live Zoom event with someone else and bring two teams together to hang out chat. 

Two of my peers in the online coaching community, partnered up to bring their communities together and they did a big group bingo! 

Their communities loved having a distraction, loved having a laugh, and loved doing something goofy! Because even though there’s a lot going on, we don’t have to be serious all of the time! 

We get to laugh. We get to have fun. 

6. ENCOURAGE CREATIVITY 

What got you here, will not get you there. 

People’s buying behaviors and their social media activity are very different right now than it was 2-4 weeks ago. 

So you can’t keep doing the same things that you were doing. You have to get creative and change things up a little bit. 

For example, say your primary focus is on helping people lose weight. 

Maybe that is not their primary focus right now, maybe their primary focus is having control over something, because it seems like so many things in their lives are out of their control right now.  

Maybe you teach them how they can have control over their schedule, or how they can have control over their food, which can help with weight loss and what they want long term. 

It’s important to meet people where they’re at. Solve their problems now and that’s how they know you are essential. 

7. ENCOURAGE THEM TO DO WHAT’S BEST FOR THEM 

Encourage your team and your leaders to pivot, to get creative, but also let them know that the timeline of doing this pivot doesn’t have to be an overnight thing. 

They can take time to sit with this and think about it. Not everyone has to come out guns blazing with this pivot. Let them do it on their terms with you there supporting them every step of the way.

This isn’t your way or the highway! 

Leaders are going to be emerging. They will be the people showing up when it’s hard, messy and don’t know whats going on.

Leaders will be serving without expectations. 

So if you’re doing any of these things, the way I see it, you’re winning right now. And everything else can fall by the wayside until you are ready.