How I Got My Mind Right
I want to share with you how I got my mind right using a combination of elements including morning and evening rituals. First thing in the morning, I walked to an altar space I had set up to make a prayer of gratitude for two things: the ten people I was going to be able to talk to about this business today, and the two people who were actually going to sit down and go through a business presentation with me. Then I went about my day, seeking those opportunities. All day, my mind, heart, and energy – my whole being – was looking for those people I could talk with. I was excited to encounter the two people who would sit down with me to delve into this business. And every single day, I was able to engage in ten conversations and every single day, I was able to present the business twice.
If I started to lose my energy and excitement, I used to bounce up and down, doing this little dance, saying to myself, “Funk, funk, funk. Get out of that funk.” I would do my no-rhythm, white-man body-bop to get back in the energy of my morning prayer of gratitude. I would repeat my mantra: “I can, I will, I am. I can, I will, I am.” Then I would get back in action and start talking to people. That’s where I lived during that whole first year. Aligning (and realigning) my energy and taking action.
At the end of each day, I offered gratitude. In my evening ritual, I returned to my altar, giving thanks for the people I was able to talk to and for the two business presentations I was able to make.
It Takes Six Months to See Results
When you get to this point in your business, be prepared for it to take roughly six months before you start seeing the results. They don’t come overnight. You have to hold strong and focus on “doing” before you start seeing the results. You have to see it and believe it and know it before it actually happens. And you have to have patience. Then, it’s about doing. It’s about talking to more and more people, staying in action, massive imbalance for a finite period. Get that boulder over the hill until you have so many leaders in your business, so many new distributors coming in every month that it doesn’t matter what YOU do. Your leaders and team are going to have a much larger impact than you because of the foundation you laid. That’s where you’re going.
Action Step
This chapter’s single action step is a big one.
Make an honest list of the time-consuming activities in your life that don’t contribute to your future. Commit to one year of imbalance. Give up those things and focus strictly on your business.
Chapter 8
Identifying Leaders
I was never top of the class at school,
but my classmates must have seen potential in me,
because my nickname was “Einstein.”
— Stephen Hawking
Not Everyone Is a Leader
Once you’re able to identify potential leaders, you can start working with them to develop them into the leaders they’re meant to be. Recognize that everybody you sponsor is not going to become a leader. Not everybody is meant to be a leader. Some are not capable, some are capable but don’t want to become leaders, and some are capable but not yet ready to lead.
I cannot stress enough that you can’t force someone into something he is not ready for or capable of. That’s like trying to force someone to quit an addiction when he’s not ready to do it himself. You can point him in the right direction and talk about the destruction his habit is bringing upon himself and others. But until a person is ready to get help, you can’t help him.
One of the most common situations new leaders ask me about is: “How do I get my distributors to the next level?” In fact, the majority of distributors are never going to get to the next level, no matter what you do. They’re not all going to become leaders.
This is how multilevel marketing works: instead of trying to change the probabilities and force action on those who are never going to become leaders, your approach is to work the numbers.
Working the Numbers
Here’s how I look at the numbers. If you recruit 100 people, 30 to 50 of them are going to do something. Those who actually do something might sign up one or a few customers, or they might sign up a few distributors. Of the 30 to 50 who actually do something, perhaps 3 will become leaders.
When you’re first getting started, you don’t have 100 people to sift through to find your three leaders, so you’ll work with anybody who signs up with you as though that person is a leader. I work with my leaders one-on-one. When you first become a distributor and start bringing in other distributors, you work one-on-one with everybody you bring in. Eventually, given the number of people in your team, you can only work with the leaders one-on-one and everyone else in a group. That’s where you want to get. You want so many people coming into your business that you have to identify the leaders and spend most of your “team building” time with your real, running leaders.
How to Know You Have a Leader
How do I know that someone in my downline is a potential leader? There’s no specific type of person who is going to become a leader in your business. A leader could be a doctor, a lawyer, a janitor, a teacher, a recovering alcoholic, a stay-at-home mom, a model citizen, a high-school dropout…Leaders come from all different backgrounds and have all different personality types. However, specific character traits do appear over and over in leaders. They’re self-motivated. They’re solution-oriented. They’re problem solvers. They’re competitive. They’re usually busy in the rest of their lives. They believe in something bigger than themselves. They’re action-oriented. They’re dreamers. They’re coachable. They’re motivated by either inspiration or desperation. And also, they inspire me.
In that list of traits, the last two stand out for me as important identifiers.
1. Leaders are motivated by one of two things: inspiration or desperation.
Inspiration. They’re inspired by what network marketing is all about and what you offer with this business opportunity. Inspired by the number of people they can help. Inspired by the income. Inspired by having freedom in their lives.
Desperation. They’re ready for change and they need something like this in their lives. Maybe they’re living lives of quiet desperation. Maybe they’re sick and tired of being sick and tired.
When I started my network marketing business, I was both inspired and desperate. If you can find that mix, you’ve identified a person motivated enough to become a leader.
2. The second significant identifier for me is that I’m excited to work with someone. We’ve all encountered distributors we dread even talking with on the phone. If you care about your business, your energy, and your wellbeing, I recommend you stop mentoring people who have that effect on you. Don’t work one-on-one with them.
A clear identifier that you have a leader worth working with is that you’re excited to work with her. The energy, enthusiasm, and passion she has about the business fuels you. Working with someone like that, I get just as much out of the relationship as I give.
Sifting for Leaders
As I sift for potential leaders, I’m looking for these signs, in order of importance:
1. They’re winning challenges. Leaders are competitive. Leaders want to be at the top. Leaders want to be winning. Somebody who wins the little challenges you run for your team may be a leader.
2. They sign up distributors right away. When someone on my team starts bringing in other people right away, that’s a big identifier to me that I have a potential leader. This is a person I’m going to invest my one-on-one time in.
3. They implement the trainings. A leader wants more. Be careful, though – consuming information doesn’t indicate a leader. If a person consumes information and signs people up, he is a potential leader you want to work with. But if he is just consuming information and not actually taking action, I won’t spend one-on-one time with him.
4. They are coachable. Leaders are willing to take direction and follow your lead.
5. They’re helping others. In a training or video chat, you�
��ll notice people in the group who help others. They’re in there answering questions. They always contribute. They find something of value and share it in the group.
Pay Attention to Sleeping Giants
When I refer to a “sleeping giant” I mean a person in your organization who hasn’t taken any action yet, but who you know intuitively has the ability to build a strong business. You can see her potential. You can feel it when you talk to her. She’s the type of person others are attracted to. People listen to her, people follow her, people look to her for what she has to say. Maybe she’s not ready at this moment. Maybe she doesn’t know she’s a leader yet. Maybe she’s not ready because of fear, because of self-doubt, because she’s busy with other things. Maybe she doesn’t see the big picture of network marketing yet. She doesn’t see what’s possible, but she’s still a leader. She’s just not ready to lead in this business.
When I have a potential leader in my organization who’s not ready to lead in this business, I keep touching that sleeping giant. I was one, myself. I was a distributor for six months before I took action in this business. I signed up, and my sponsor, Bob, kept trying to get me to do something, but I wasn’t yet inspired to action. I was a leader, just not in this realm yet. Eventually, six months after I signed up, I became inspired and took action. Then I went on to build a team of over 30,000 distributors. I was a sleeping giant in Bob’s organization. He knew I had the ability to build a big business, so he kept touching the sleeping giant.
Hayley Christian
Hayley Christian, a distributor I personally sponsored, was also a sleeping giant. A distributor for three years, she had built her team to about 20 people working under her and was making a couple of hundred dollars a week. She hung out there, coasting. I kept reaching out to Hayley and connecting with her, though. All of the sudden, as a new year began, during five months – from January through May – she blew up her business. She made the decision to let go of the excuses and fears blocking her growth. And she totally took off! It’s been an honor and an inspiration to work closely with Hayley and watch her grow. During that big push, she kept advancing, rank after rank. She started speaking on other team leaders’ calls. She eventually spoke on our company’s national call. She spoke at our leadership event. Hayley has since gone on to become a leader with a team of thousands of distributors. She was a sleeping giant. I intuitively knew she was able to succeed in this business, which is why I continued to work with her.
I encourage you to keep touching those sleeping giants. Let them know that you’re ready when they’re ready. A sleeping giant wants you to keep connecting with her. Don’t depend on her. Go out there in search of other leaders. But do continue to believe in her. Continue to see what’s possible for her. Continue to let her know you believe in her. “I believe in you” is probably the most important phrase you can offer to anyone – as long as it’s truthful and you sincerely believe it. Follow it up with why you believe in that person and what you see as possible for her. That’s how I love to touch sleeping giants. Keep connecting with them because they might come around.
Action Steps
1. Think back to the story I just shared about Hayley. Do you see yourself in Hayley before she made the shift? If so, make the decision now to change! It really is just a decision. If you have already made the shift and have a working downline, jump to Action Step #2.
2. If you already have a working downline and leaders in your organization, make two lists:
a) Your leaders
b) Your potential leaders
Chapter 9
Working the Numbers
You don’t lead by hitting people over the head –
that’s assault, not leadership.
— Dwight D. Eisenhower
Five True Leaders
To attend the first corporate-sponsored training weekend of my network marketing career, I drove 12 hours from Boston to Washington, D.C., along with a few of my downline distributors and my personal sponsor, Bob. I was excited to get all the details of how to succeed in my new industry. The event began at 8 o’clock Saturday morning, and I was immediately mesmerized by the man leading the training. A concept he shared that morning has stuck with me for many years and helped mold the philosophy I now teach on building a network marketing business.
“You’re really only looking for five people.”
That statement simplified my outlook on my new business. Prior to hearing it, I thought I needed a team of hundreds, maybe even thousands of people to make this business happen. It was true that I needed big numbers, but I couldn’t wrap my head around how I was going to recruit that many people. I couldn’t wrap my head around how the duplication process could generate a big team. My mind couldn’t even conceive, let alone believe, that I could build a team of, say, 5,000 distributors. But I could wrap my head around “you’re only looking for five people.” Those five people need to be five true leaders. Even so, finding five people – that I could get behind.
My take-away from that weekend was the simple concept that five true leaders was the number. When you get five true leaders in your downline, you have officially “made it.” Eventually your five true leaders are going to develop their own five true leaders. That compounds to a team of 25 leaders. With 25 leaders in your downline, your business is no longer dependent on you. Your business will grow away from you, and it will continue to grow for years to come.
You are NOT looking for just five people though. Network marketing doesn’t work that way. You are looking for five true leaders. You can find these five true leaders in a variety of ways, but the important piece is that your focus, your drive, your activities all point toward finding and developing five true leaders. This is different from signing up customers or distributors and hoping some would take off. Although I had to continue to do that, my focus was on finding my five true leaders. Prior to that corporate training weekend, I had noticed people in my company recruiting 20, 30, 40 people a month, which I used to strive for (and fall short). After that weekend, I no longer aimed to be a big recruiter. I aimed to bring in a few people a month, work closely with them, and sift through my downline to identify those five true leaders who were all in. The ones ready to build like I wanted to build. The ones who had a vision and a dream and would do whatever it took to succeed!
Leaders of Leaders Work Two Funnels
It takes a lot of action to connect to your five true leaders. You still have to work with all of your customers. You still have to work with all the distributors who sign up, talk a big game, and then do nothing. You still have to work with the people who come in and only do a little bit. And you still have to work with people who sign up, do a good amount, but never become a leader. They quit, fade away, or migrate to another company. You have to go through all that. You have to sift through large volumes of people to find leaders who are hungry to work with you.
I see our business as comprised of two “funnels” – one to find distributors and another to identify leaders within those distributors. The first funnel may look like this: you talk to 500 people about the business, 250 say they’re going to look at it, 125 actually take a look, and 25 sign up as distributors. Most people understand that funnel, although they are usually surprised by the number of people they initially have to talk to.
The second funnel involves filtering through your distributors to find leaders. Here’s a rough idea of how it looks. Twenty-five people come in as distributors intending to work the business. Of those 25, only 15 do anything. Of the 15 who do something, 5 actually become active, working distributors. They stick around. They’re with you and your business for an extended period of time. One of those 5 will become a leader. That’s how rare leaders are. It’s not just one out of 25 that you’re looking to sift through. We need to combine both funnels. We talked to 500 people to get one true leader. And I’m telling you that you need 5 leaders in total. Wrap your mind around this. It’s a lot of work, but cultivating five true leaders gives yo
u a business that means freedom in your life!
Fast or Slow, Find Your Five
During that same corporate weekend event in D.C., after the trainer laid out the five-leaders concept for us, he asked us how quickly we were going to find them. He talked about the energy, motivation, and determination required to find those five leaders. Then he told the following story.
Imagine you’re sitting in the stands of a gymnasium, and down on the floor of the gymnasium are 10,000 little cups flipped upside down. Those 10,000 cups represent potential people you can talk with about this business. Under those 10,000 cups are five diamonds. Those diamonds represent five true leaders. How fast would you go down there? How fast would you start flipping the cups to find those five? If you flipped a few and didn’t find a diamond, would you stop? Would you know which cups the diamonds were under?
Everyone wants to know how long it will take for this business to “take off” for them. “How many people do I have to talk to?” they ask. I don’t know. It’s rare, but maybe the first five cups you flip are the leaders you’re looking for. Most likely not. Maybe you flip half the cups and you find all of your leaders. Maybe you flip all the cups except for five, and you don’t find any leaders until those last five. I can’t predict how long it’s going to take you, but a sure way to fail is to stop “flipping cups.”
Your skills, energy, momentum, passion, and the speed at which you connect with people about this business will determine when you find your five leaders. It’s a numbers game, and you can increase the probability of finding leaders in two ways:
1. You can talk to more people, flipping more cups faster and faster, which requires sheer grit and hard work.
Build to Last Page 7
