Have you ever been dismissed because of your age, dress or type of business?

In my decade's worth of attending networking events, I've seen far too many people dismiss others because of how they are dressed, how old they are or, more commonly, because of their business category. The latter mostly happens where MLMs (Multi Level Marketing) is concerned.

MLMs are businesses such as Utility Warehouse, Forever Living, Tropic Skin Care and many more besides, where the business owner acts as an agent for a larger company, selling their products or services in exchange for a commission. For some reason, many people who are in 'proper' businesses like to turn their noses up at MLMs as though they're not real businesses, just hobbyists or are time wasters who aren't connected to the right people and can't help them. It's a stigma that gets attached to MLMs, and it's 100% wrong.

I even saw a debate on LinkedIn recently where a business owner, complaining about networking, said they were all full of 'MLM nonsense and hobbyists'.

My business partner, Lianne, used to attend networking meetings such as BNI and would often get overlooked by members and visitors as the 'Utility Warehouse girl' who had nothing of value to offer. The fact she also owned a digital marketing agency with clients across four continents, and had a large property portfolio, was completely lost on these business owners as they'd just judged, and dismissed, her on being an MLM.

One of our clients at Engage Web was also judged recently by a prospective client of ours. A CEO of a business saw how Engage Web had worked with someone in an MLM and immediately made a judgement call that we were too small for his business because we worked with these part-time hobby businesses. The fact this 'MLM lady' had a six-figure turnover was lost on him. He'd made his judgement call based on appearances, and dismissed us because we worked with her.

Some years ago, in BNI, I presented an education slot on why you shouldn't judge based on appearances, and you can watch that below. The story has quite the surprise ending, as many tales of judging on appearances tend to have!

The moral of all these stories is simple: don't judge people until you get to know them. Just because someone is in an MLM it doesn't mean they don't have the experience, contacts or sway to make the introduction that could transform your business. Don't assume the man in the suit is more important than the man in the jeans and T-Shirt. Don't assume the older person is more influential than the teenager. Don't assume the financial advisor is more valuable to you than the Forever Living person.

If you are the sort of person to post online dismissing whole networking organisations as being full of 'MLM nonsense' or dismissing all MLM people as hobbyists, you're really only exposing yourself as someone who just doesn't understand the power of relationship building and referral marketing.

Don't judge on appearances.