I have always had (as readers of The Zen of MLM know well) an aversion to what in sales and network marketing is called “The Three-Foot Rule.”

If your interpretation of that rule is, as Scott Allen put it when I interviewed him in 2006 for Networking Times, “Anybody within three feet of you is worth getting to know a little better,” then you and I have no argument whatsoever. However, if it is more like the classic version, “Anyone within three feet is fair game for me to pitch my opportunity to, whether they ask for it or not,” then we have issues.

Seth Godin recently put this beautifully in his blog. Seth isn’t talking here about network marketing, but my oh my, it fits like a glove:

The end result of spam (email spam, blog spam, Twitter spam, Squidoo spam, comment spam, phone spam, politician spam [or prospecting spam—JDM]) is that it eats away at your brand. If you don’t have a brand, you might make some short term cash, but it gets tiresome creating annoyance everywhere you go. If you do have a brand, you don’t notice the brand erosion . . . until it’s too late.

Here, it’s simple:

You can contact just about anyone you want. The only rule is you need to contact them personally, with respect, and do it months before you need their help! Contact them about them, not about you. Engage. Contribute. Question. Pay attention. Read. Interact.

Then, when you’ve earned the right to attention and respect, months and months later, sure, ask. It takes a lot of time and effort, which is why volume isn’t the answer for you, quality is.

That’s a great way to get a job, promote a site, make a friend, spread the word or just be a human.

The bottom line here is your brand. In network marketing, no matter what company you’re aligned with, the core of all your activities is that you are either building your brand, letting your brand coast (read: atrophy), or ruining your brand. Make the three preceding paragraphs your personal brand bible, and you’ll build it.