Randy Gage - Defcon 1 Direct Selling

Almost unbelievably, this company still survives today. But it is a textbook example of a flatline company. The people who drank the Kool-Aid hang on, but the only way to increase sales is by opening additional countries, because no one takes the company or its field leadership seriously in the existing markets. Nobody wants to join a flatline company.

Often these five reactions are based on a well-meaning desire to protect a team from anything negative ever happening to them. And while this goal is noble, it’s not realistic. The truth is, bad things are eventually going to happen to everyone, including your team.

The mark of a positive, empowering leader isn’t that you will prevent anything bad from happening—because that simply isn’t possible—but rather that you will show (lead) the team how to come out on the other side still standing.

So how do you do that? We’re going to explore that throughout the rest of this book. But let’s set the foundation here. Let’s revisit the definition of a leader I gave you in the introduction:

Inspiring people to become the highest possible version of themselves—and building the environment that facilitates this process. Here’s what that looks like in practical application:

You use your power to make those who follow you more powerful.

There are lots of parental analogies we can use here, but the best one is that of “helicopter parents.” Just as these parents harm their children by hovering over them constantly, trying to protect them, you can create the same result with your team. You need to protect your kids from pedophiles and kidnappers, but you have to allow them to skin their knees and fall off their bikes. The omnipotent, charismatic, dynamic leader who for all practical purposes runs a benevolent cult ultimately weakens his people and destroys the team. They suck all of the oxygen out of the room.

We can take my definition of strong leadership above and break it down into two components. The first part is about inspiring team members to become the highest possible version of themselves. To do that begins with leading yourself. You have to be the example, the person modeling the behavior, and most importantly, the one going after your own dreams.

There are legions of negative people who will doubt you, ridicule you, and even try to sabotage you. If you’re not willing to fight for your dreams, the haters win. Your team needs to see you winning this fight yourself in order for them even to have a shot.

The ironic thing about inspiring leadership is that it doesn’t come from simply being positive and recognizing good results. To actually inspire others, you must challenge them in some way. People look to leaders because they want someone who dares them to have a higher vision, raise their eyes above the horizon, and strive to accomplish more, whether for themselves or a noble purpose.

The best way to do that is always by modeling the behavior. Barking orders at people certainly isn’t going to work. We place way too much emphasis on control in our profession. Because we’re dealing with an all-volunteer army, control doesn’t actually work very well. When you operate in control mode, you’re really offering people only two options: Comply or Defy. And since most people hate being told what to do, a lot choose the latter option.

Simply becoming the world’s best trainer and presenting the world’s finest training won’t succeed either. (Especially if you’re not actually doing what you teach yourself.) Your team will draw the biggest cues from watching the actions and behaviors they see from you. So be the example showing them the path to follow.

The second part of strong leadership is building the environment that facilitates your people’s process of becoming their highest version of themselves. This is an important responsibility of all top leaders in Leveraged Sales. You do this through the system, training, and tools. It’s also vital that there be a defined leadership track to follow.

Your people need to know what the pathway for becoming a leader with the team looks like. If you’re a new recruit in the army and your dream is to become a general, you have an idea of what all the ranks leading up to that rank are and the responsibilities of each one. Your people need to know what ranks, behaviors, and team activities put them on the path of becoming a leader with the team. (This will become much clearer to you in later chapters.)

Once you are working well in these two areas—inspiring people to become better and creating an environment that facilitates that—you have the two fundamental elements for developing a strong infrastructure of leadership throughout your team. This will allow you to develop strong growth and true duplication.

Now that you know what the role of a positive, empowering leader looks like, let’s explore the most important step you will take towards that end—accepting the sacred responsibility that comes along with sponsoring others.

For decades I’ve been regaling convention audiences with my story of sponsoring my roommate into the first five companies I joined. (In fact, the story is so funny it’s been stolen by one CEO, two authors, and five other speakers. That I know of.) He joined each time because I agreed to pay for his distributor kit and activation order, for which he promised to repay me from all the money we were both going to be raking in. And in each of those attempts, he was the only person I sponsored!

That system works well to sign up your first recruit quickly but doesn’t work out so well over the long haul. After I reached the point where I couldn’t even convince my roommate to join if I paid for everything, it became apparent I would need to improve my recruiting approach.

Mentally I created a pretty simple equation in my mind. It basically went something like this:

I was broke and I hated being broke.

Most of the people I knew were also broke.

The people in Leveraged Sales made money, earned bonus cars, and went on fancy trips. A lot of them appeared to be rich (and certainly were rich by my standards).

I wanted to be rich.

If I could sign up enough people, I would get rich.

If the people I signed up also signed up enough people, they could get rich too.

That was my basic recruiting presentation. Eventually I got good enough at that pitch to attract and sponsor people who actually paid for their own distributor kit and activation order. I felt assured that I was well on my way to success, because I had conquered the most difficult element of the business: recruiting. I did my part by signing up at least five people and then waited for them to make me rich. (Because I had seen the presentation that said those five would bring in 25, then those 25 would bring in 125, and so on.) It was all I could do to restrain myself from putting down the deposit to order my Ferrari.

Shockingly, I noticed that my five people didn’t seem to be pulling their weight. I checked in with them frequently, reminding them that I needed to be rich and they weren’t doing their part. You’ve probably deduced how well that played out.

I would sponsor so many people, there would be no way that duplication could not happen. (Or so I thought.) I started doing meetings five nights a week in the back room of a local restaurant. The skill level (and pressure tactics) of my presenting moved upwards and sponsorships increased to 30 people in a month. Those 30 people would naturally increase to at least 150 the following month, right?