I spent the day talking to business owners of convenient stores about carrying a product that my network marketing company sells.  And being that I’m not always the first one to catch on to really important concepts offered by my personal friend and mentor Michael Dlouhy, it took the better part of the day to realize that business models really do drive the behavior in the field.  As this settled in it was like a video in my mind and I could imagine Michael saying, “Man, I hope you guys get this!” just like he says in this recorded audio. This behavior recently became more obvious with the new enhancements to the compensation plan-adding more money back into the hands of the distributors was sheer genious if I say so myself.

This got me to thinking about how this plays out in leadership development and continuing to educate oneself in your industry.  For example, I went to a workshop by Tom ‘Big Al’ Schreiter in Houston, TX. July 7th, 2009 to further educate myself.  Needless to say it was a life changing experience.  But it occurred to me today that being on a personal path of leadership drives a certain kind of behavior as well.  I believe that Jeff Olsen said it best in his book, ‘The Slight Edge,” when he said that successful people do what others are not willing to do.  Could it really be this simple?  Is it really as simple as going to a workshop instead of watching TV on a given evening?  Is it as simple as following through on a decision to stop at just one more convenient store to ask if it would be okay to speak with a manager or the owner to see if they might be interested in what you could offer?

This leads me to my next question, what does it take to be a leader?  I mean really, is it something you are born with or is it the natural behavior, by-product if you will, of a person’s desire to achieve success?  If the truth be told I didn’t wake up one morning and say, “I want to be a leader!”  But I have been drawn to people who seem to fill a room with their presence sort of like a moth to a flame.  And being able to admit certain traits of my dominant personality type I found that I tend to ask a lot of questions-did I say a lot of questions?  Just knowing about my personality type through education has answered many questions and has taken my interactions with everyone I meet to a new level.  For example, I was speaking with Art Jonak and Don Standard about leadership and I shared with them about an experience I had with a family member.  And it dawned on me that things that I might feel are necessary to say in a difficult situation might not ever feel comfortable to someone else with a different personality type.

All of this leads me back to one very simple concept which is the dominating filter by which I view the world and that is gratitude.  I adopted a practice a few years ago that upon waking in the morning I would wriggle my fingers and toes, then my arms and legs, and then walk a few steps to drink clean water.  The ‘limb check’ that I have come to call it was inspired by a dear friend who has Multiple Sclerosis.  And every single morning I am almost in tears of gratitude, for many things but especially, for my health and for the great fortune of being one of a small percentage of humans on this planet that have the luxury of clean water on demand.  It doesn’t take very long to take notice of all the things that one could be grateful for if any effort is afforded at all.  I still have some friends that have a hard time understanding how a person can be grateful every single day, but the challenges I have overcome in my life leave me little choice. And I say that sincerely and in all honesty.  And I guess it all fell in line when I finally accepted the fact that I didn’t have an average experience growing up and I will not settle for average success in my life. Besides, I am committed to creating a life that most people can only dream of having.

Network marketing is about building relationships with people not about buying leads, promotional materials, paying for the tools (like replicated websites) to build their business for them. The question that you should ask yourself, “Can the average person work to achieve above average results?” Is this even possible in your company? How can you know for sure? There are a few ways to tell. One, read the policies and procedures and decide by asking your upline about them (hint: if it’s changed often, more than 12 pages long, or you need a lawyer to understand it-there might be a problem). Two, is there a proven, duplicable system that is provided for free to help you every step of the way? Three, what kind of compensation plan do you have and does it drive the right behavior in the field? And most importantly if you don’t understand it can anyone in your upline team explain it to you?

I came into network marketing with a few assumptions. The biggest and most costly assumption was that my upline superstar, space commander guru was actually doing it themself. What am I talking about, you might ask? Are they building a network marketing organization by training their organization how to be successful? I mean, charging you hundreds of dollars for a collection of cd’s in a shiny folder and telling you to make a list of friends and family is NOT training you to succeed. It is a good formula to become alienated from family and in some cases that might actually be beneficial but that’s not the point. Next, I assumed that since my company was publicly traded that this made them credible. And finally, that I would be able to follow the techniques they did offer to success instead of being offered every affiliate scam disguised as a viable tool.

Again I find myself grateful and consider myself VERY lucky that I haven’t been in this wonderful industry long enough to experience all of the horror stories told by some of my team members. I mistakenly thought that MLM is about the lifestyle, then I thought it’s about the money, now I understand it’s about the people. In the words of my personal friend and mentor, “Build the people and the people will build the business.” I know that building a house is easier to do with construction workers, so building a network marketing organization will require training network marketers to be successful. I sure am glad that recruiting friends and family didn’t make sense to me and that I found a 5 pillars company that is owned by people who understand the nuts and bolts of this wonderful industry.

How does self-improvement create opportunity you might ask?  Well, in network marketing it’s not wholly about the products, just about every network marketing company has excellent products, it’s about the relationships you build with people.  A personal friend and upline sponsor of mine makes the qualification for sponsoring someone into your organization, “would you want to spend a month with them on a cruise?”  So how would you know if this is something you would consider if you haven’t taken the time to build a relationship with them?  How cool is it to pick the people you want to work with?  I personally think this is greatest thing about the network marketing industry.  So if I’m not in a daily habit of self-improvement who will I be attracting into my business?  Everyone knows the answer to this question, if you don’t then click here for more information on the subject.

One of my favorite sayings and the motto I live by is, “I want to be a little bit better today than yesterday, and even better if I get to experience tomorrow.”  Day by day, every little self-improvement increases the possibility of achieving one of my personal goals: creating a wildly successful, highly prosperous, fun loving-and having, network marketing organization.

“A leader is not measured by how many followers they have, but how many followers they have inspired to lead.”

And when dealing with people it is not possible to form a lasting, quality relationship with them by ‘getting them in’ and moving on to the next 350, 000.  Some will need mentoring, some will need technical training, some will need personal development, and all of them will need to have a relationship with YOU, the leader of your organization.  So how is this possible if you have hundreds maybe thousands of leads in a short period of time?  It’s not, and so many people miss the opportunity to follow their dreams in this amazing industry because of this very failing.  They become jaded, they get burned, used up, and cynical.  It happens for two main reasons: greed and ego.

So, it would stand to reason that there should be a checklist when looking for a network marketing organization.  The most important is, almost always, buried deep within a lengthy document written by lawyers-it’s called the policies and procedures.  Here is the first time the upline relationship needs to be solid, accommodating, and accurate.  Second, is the compensation plan.  Sometimes this one can be harder to decipher than Egyptian hieroglyphs so having a sponsor to explain exactly what it’s going to take to make the kind of income you want is vital.  There should be no stuttering or evasion when asking questions about the compensation plan, and it should be easily found along with the policies and procedures BEFORE you sign up for anything!  Why?  Because how can you expect to be successful without ALL the information?

There are several other things to consider about any MLM company or opportunity but for me the relationship and support from your upline and your team are crucial ingredients.  I like to think of success like baking a cake.  Mmmmm….cake.  What happens to a cake if you use salt instead of sugar?  You might get a cake that looks good but tastes like, well you know what.  And if there’s not a supportive upline relationship then you might end up like thousands of people who wander from one MLM scam to another like a junkie wondering what’s wrong with me that I can’t succeed?  Like the casinos in Las Vegas the ‘House’ has an edge and the cards are stacked in their favor.  And without a team working together to help each other to reach success and good upline relationships the cards will continue to be stacked against your possibility of achieving your dreams.