The times, they are a changing. . .

So much has changed since the era of pushy sales and enrolling anyone who can fog a mirror, and yet the perception lingers that network marketing is the worst thing since income tax. We have Tim Sales' Professional Inviter and Michael Oliver's Natural Selling, to name just two supreme examples of how to connect with people without creating awkwardness and resentment, and yet the negative perception lingers.

We have online training resources, full marketing support from our companies in the form of brochures, DVDs, slide shows. We have Web 2.0 social networking. We have strong upline, downline, crossline support. We have the freedom to work at home, on our own timeline, setting our own schedules, and yet the perception lingers.

We have more and more companies turning to network marketing as the business strategy of the future. We have icons of the business world, like Donald Trump and Bill Farley, turning to network marketing. We have websites that address people's objections in an unbiased, undramatic, truthful, coherent style. . . . and yet the perception lingers.

Changing that perception is like pulling a nail out of a thick board. We don't know if the nail is about to come out of the board, or if we have to pull and pull and pull to get it out. It doesn't really matter how much nail is left in the board; our job is to pull until it comes out. And it will come out.

Public perception may be about to change. Perhaps next month the shift will start appearing here and there. Perhaps next year. It doesn't matter how close we are to the perception change; our job is to help the change happen.

My colleagues and I just created a meetup group using meetup.com. We are moving forward with a positive attitude, determined to further the effort of changing the public's opinion about network marketing.

Our vision is to create greater understanding by the general public of the truly amazing opportunity that is possible through network marketing, available to anyone who sincerely yearns for greater financial freedom and greater time freedom.

Our purpose is three-fold: 1) to bolster our resolve to create successful network marketing businesses by surrounding ourselves with like-minded souls; 2) to mastermind positive actions and identify resources that will help us spread the truth about the positive aspects of network marketing; 3) to invite guests who would benefit from learning more about network marketing in order to overcome their own objections.

Our goal is to help people realize their dreams, using network marketing as the vehicle to personal freedom.

It's easy to do, and you can do it wherever you are. Check out meetup.com. It is powerful.