Joanne was bitten by the entrepreneurial bug in her late 20’s, she dreamed of a lifestyle that was so opposite to her upbringing. After a few years she realized she was in the wrong business, her life was not what she expected it to be. One day she engaged in a conversation with a middle aged women while shopping this chance meeting turned out to be a defining moment for her. This woman was so enthusiastic that all she could hear was the “music” she was sharing. This music stirred up so much emotion inside her that every part of her body was on high alert status. Frankly the business she was sharing was too good to be true.

You see Joanne was a franchise owner who bought into the entrepreneurial dream however, she was tired of the long hours, lack of freedom, employee headaches etc…. All she could understand from this brief introduction was when she shared this line “you can make a lot of money while you sleep.” This is what she was lacking in her life “FREEDOM” and therefore this subsequently became her DREAM!!!

After doing her research on the industry, attending events, meeting with top earners. Joanne made a decision that she was going to join a Network Marketing company and create a residual income that would provide her the Lifestyle Freedom she desperately wanted which consisted of more quality time with her family, the ability to at a moments notice jump on a plane and travel to an exotic location even if it was just for a few days, purchase a winter home in Maui, Hawaii overlooking the Pacific Ocean where she could continue to work her business.

10 years later Joanne is forced to look back at her career in Network Marketing due to the fact she had recently in the last 18 months joined a company (her 5th in 10 years) that showed promised however, her organization once again died. Even though she had achieved some success financially and been able to support her family she was no-where close to that residual income DREAM.

Joanne after this collapse of her business once again went for a long walk in the woods. This collapse of her business had been a pattern with her previous 4 companies, she would build it up due to her great recruiting skills create great organizational volume and then it would fall apart 1 to 2 years later. She would always blame the company, it was something the company always did that destroyed her business which made it easy for her to look for another opportunity.

About a mile in the woods Joanne bumped into a women named Lacy who was resting on a bench apparently after a long jog. Joanne decided to engage in conversation with her she needed someone to talk too even if it was a stranger. After a bunch of small talk Joanne asked her what she did for a living, to her surprise Lacy shared with her that she was a Network Marketing Professional for the last 10 years and when on to share with her why she joined Network Marketing. Joanne immediately was enthralled because Lacy and her had something in common they joined for the same reason the residual income DREAM!

To Joanne’s surprise Lacy’s story was completely different than hers. Lacy had shared with her that she struggled for 5 years, she had to rebuild several times in the 5 years but stayed with the company she joined even though new opportunities were enticing, she recognized she had to take personal responsibility for her failures (first rule of great leadership). Lacy continued to share with her the defining moment in her business, when one of her closest friends and front line business partner hit her with comments that shook her foundation which was shared to her by an industry leader. Maybe the reason why we have had to rebuild several times over the years is because we broke many leadership rules like the following – “Time will either Promote you or expose you” especially in Leadership (2nd rule of Leadership).

Her friend went on to share with her instances in their business where they did not follow through with what they said they would do especially when times got tough which ended up disappointing some of their team leaders at the time and subsequently they quit because they no longer believed in their leadership.

Furthermore, her friend continued to share other details of the conversation with this Network Marketing Leader regarding recognition. Do you remember the times we were so focused on our personal recognition and getting to the next rank that some of our leaders became upset (3rd rule of leadership – the focus should never be about you as a leader your focus should always be about helping people reach their goals and next ranks)

This focus led to more leaders leaving the business because they felt alienated, confused, not supported etc… Bottom line it’s was always about Lacy…

Joanne started to become very uncomfortable as she recognized moments in her business that according to Lacy were huge Leadership errors that led to her rebuilding over and over again. By the end of the conversation Lacy shared with her what transpired after this defining moment in her business, she realized she needed to start from scratch and work harder on herself on a daily basis (4th rule of Leadership – your income will be directly tied to how much you grow as a person).

Lacy went on to state that her business started to thrive when she bought into these very important Leadership truths . More importantly she shared with Joanne what Lacy emphatically felt was the most important of all Leadership rules was Leading by example (5th rule of leadership – the speed of the team will always be based on the speed of the Leader. The most respected leaders are the ones that are qualifying for all promotions, recruiting the most amount of people, helping the most amount of people to the next rank, etc….)

Joanne’s mind again started to wander it was like she was in a trance memories started to flood her consciousness of the Leadership decisions she made over the years that were not congruent to these Leadership rules that Lacy had shared. Joanne did not know how long she was in the state when Lacy’s mobile phone rang, apparently it was Lacy’s travel agent confirming a weekend trip to the Caribbean with her family.

Joanne thanked her for her time they exchanged business cards and promised to keep in touch. Joanne reflected for a little while, the warm sun now peaking through the massive pine trees, upon this reflection she was wondering why these lessons resonated with her at the highest level at this moment and how things would have been different in her life now if she excepted these truths earlier in her career.

As she got up Joanne was so motivated by Lacy, her heart warmed with feelings of gratitude.

 

Have a great month,
God Bless, Your friend & business partner,

Joe Garcia