Every network marketer wishes that he had a massive organization and more leaders in his group. Life would be wonderful. The bonus checks would be too heavy to carry. And, he could watch cable television 24 hours every day.

So why not take a shortcut to build your network marketing business? The fastest way to build a large organization is through the help of leaders.

We can’t build a very large MLM organization on our own if we only sponsor distributors. Our time is limited. We can only service so many distributors and their problems. Even the best distributors need some service and help.

The way to multiply our efforts is to create leaders who can take care of their own groups. Duplicating ourselves by creating new leaders is the only way to build a large, massive organization.

Then where do we begin?

First, let’s define the difference between a network marketing leader and a distributor.

Distributors are temporary. They come and go in our business. Sometimes they work hard and build groups, and other times they may continue as a wholesale user of the product, or even quit. And it’s okay that distributors are temporary. They should have the right to come and take out of our business what they want.

For instance, here are some things distributors want from our business:

1.     The ability to save on their personal purchases.

2.     A chance to make retail sales and profits.

3.     A feeling of belonging to a positive group of people.

4.     A chance to develop personally.

5.     Some quick checks to pay off the VISA bill.

6.     A part-time income to put a child through college.

7.     Car payments.

8.     Enough money for that one dream vacation. 

All these reasons to be a distributor are good. We should support and service our distributors to reach these goals. However, the truth is that this support and service should only take 10 or 20% of our time. Why?

Because distributors don’t want or need a lot of support.

Some distributors say:

“Oh, don’t keep calling me about those opportunity meetings. And I’m not interested in those training meetings either. Call me when the president comes to town, or if the company introduces a new product. Otherwise, leave me alone.”

That’s okay. We only want to help distributors get what they want out of our business. We don’t want to push our agenda on them. They’ll appreciate that we respect them as adults and let them choose their own goals.

But remember, your distributors only have a temporary commitment. When the newspaper writes a bad article about your company, your distributor might leave. Or when the home office forgets to return the distributor’s phone call, again, the distributor might quit. Or maybe a little bit of rejection from prospects will quickly end your distributor’s career.

Distributors come and go, but leaders are the real thing.

Okay, we all know that leaders are more important than distributors. Most distributors are temporary and have a temporary commitment toward your business - and that’s not bad.  Like all of us, they’re going to take what they want and then get on with their lives. 

But leaders are going to stay with you and your business for a long time. So which would you rather have - one leader or 100 distributors? 

That’s easy for us to answer. One leader! However, you might be thinking:

“Yeah, having one leader is great, but maybe 100 distributors would give me some pretty good bonus checks.”

The problem is that we’ll have to replace those 100 distributors as time goes on, and instead of building this residual income that we talk about, we end up with just a full-time job replacing distributors. 

When we focus on leaders, it changes how we build our business. 

People always ask me:

“Tom, what’s the secret to success in network marketing?”

I have a quick, short answer that I’ve used for years and it goes like this:

“To be successful in network marketing, all you have to do is build leaders and make them successful.” 

In other words, if you had a choice to go out and do a retail party to sell some skin care or long distance or whatever, that’s nice - but that’s probably a job. That’s not building the type of residual income business you want.

While this activity is part of your business, this activity will not be the fastest route to your goal of becoming a leader.

You have to think differently if you’re going to build a large and successful downline organization. You’re going to carefully focus on which activities you do, because you want to be a leader.

I’ll show you the difference. 

Several years ago, I went over to start a downline in England.  I arrived and a friend of mine, John Church, met me at the airport. Because I had a relationship with John, he had already committed to becoming a distributor – even though he had no details.

As I walk off my plane, John is waiting for me. He has his first prospect with him, a man named, Brian. Well, I gave a horrible, jet-lagged presentation and Brian joins. He didn’t join because of my presentation. He joined because he was a friend of John Church.

Relationships do make a difference.

John Church and I then proceeded to drive towards his home so I could get a bit of sleep. Before we arrive at John’s home, his mobile telephone rings. It’s his new distributor, Brian.

Brian says:

“I have a contact about eight hours away in Scotland and I would like it if you could go talk to him. I just hung up the telephone with him and he said he may or may not be interested – but he would take a look at the business if you’d drive up to meet him. He’ll come two hours closer if you will drive the other six hours.”

John looked at me and said:

“Eight hours?”

I replied:

“Tell Brian that it’s no problem. We’re on our way - just give us directions.”

Well, I didn’t get that nap I wanted. Instead, John and I just kept on driving to Scotland. Along the way, John said:

“Are we crazy? We’re driving six hours for someone who might not even show up!”

I said:

“That’s OK.”

 John gasped:

“What do you mean, it’s okay? Six hours up and six hours back and this semi-committed prospect might not even show up!”

I explained my position:

“John, we’re not going there to give a presentation. We’re going there to support Brian. We want to let Brian know that because he wants to be a leader, we’re going to help him to the ends of the earth no matter what until he becomes a leader. If this prospect shows up or not, it’s irrelevant. It’s no big deal. We’re driving six hours to show our commitment to Brian.”

That’s the difference in focus I’m talking about. Because we’re focused on building a leader, our activity changes also. We will concentrate on different tasks and take different viewpoints on situations than other networkers because we’re building leaders.

The above example with Brian and John will also change how you feel about failure when somebody doesn’t show up at a meeting, or a lot of guests don’t come. You’ll have less stress and more focus because you’re thinking:

“The reason I’m doing this meeting is to develop this person into a leader.”

This helps us focus on what we’re doing because we know why we are doing our present activity. This focus and understanding helps us get along in our business, and we make progress. 

As a side note, John Church uses this activity focus to build leaders and get out of their way. So if you don’t believe it works, just call him. You’ll get his answering machine as he’s always golfing or on vacation.

So that’s what I mean by changing what you do to build leaders versus lots and lots of activity which can take up our day.

Of course, I’m sure all of the Fortune Now subscribers said that they would rather have one leader than 100 distributors. But just in case you’re still skeptical, consider the following example.

Generals make a difference.

Imagine that you are dictator of your own country. That’s pretty good - you have your own army and you have five loyal generals. You also have 100,000 infantry men. (Of course, the generals represent leaders and the infantry men represent distributors in case you’re not following this analogy.)

What happens next is that one night, I sneak across enemy lines and attack your army. I use my pink belt in karate and go chop, chop, chop and I beat up all 100,000 of your infantry men.

The next morning you wake up and you have five generals left. All of your infantry went home to their mothers for sympathy.

Now, here’s the important question.

With only five generals left, could you rebuild your army?

Of course you could. That’s the importance of leaders. When things go bad and everyone abandons the ship, you can still rebuild your organization if you have loyal leaders.

What if the opposite were to happen?

What if I were to sneak across enemy lines and kidnap your five generals? What would happen then?

The next morning, you wake up and all you have are your 100,000 infantry men with no leadership or direction. They start marching in circles, firing inward, stepping in latrines, getting lost - it’s a disaster!

So as you see, generals are everything.

Some networkers build leaders.  Other networkers are just busy.

That’s the difference why some networkers can work for a few years and finally retire from their business. These networkers focused all their activity on building leaders.

The other networkers? The ones that were just busy? Well, they’re still busy.

If you’re not convinced that building leaders is important by now . . . well, you can save yourself some time by not reading any further.

Okay! Okay! Let’s get some leaders!

We need a step-by-step plan. And that’s easy because I studied engineering. If you’re not familiar with engineers, we need a step-by-step plan for everything. That’s why we’re incredibly cool people with a keen sense of fashion design.

For instance, when we walk, we have a plan. We’re thinking:

“Left foot, then the right foot. Left foot, then the right foot, etc.”

So, back to our plan. We’re going to create our master plan in three easy steps. By mastering each step one at a time, we’ll end up with an organization of leaders.

Here are the steps to master:

Step #1: Define what a leader is.

Step #2: How to find leaders.

Step #3: What to teach leaders.

Step #1 is very important. Before we go looking for leaders, wouldn’t it be a great idea to know what a leader looks like?

 It’s a lot easier to find somebody if we know what he looks like.

On a recent teleconference training call, I asked the group:

“Does anybody on tonight’s call have a good definition of what is a leader?”

The answers were:

§         Someone who is willing to step up and help to encourage others.

§         Someone who makes sure that he gets done what needs to be done.

§         Somebody who is coachable. 

§         Somebody who is good with people -- a good communicator.

§         Someone with a vision.

§         A leader is somebody who wants to learn and wants to succeed.

§         A leader is someone who commits to taking the action that’s required to make it to the top. 

And that was the list. The rest of the callers were silent. I don’t think they ever thought about this question. I can’t imagine how they looked for leaders if they never even knew what a leader looked like.

What is my definition of a leader?

I have three definitions of a leader. These aren’t the only three definitions. They’re not all-inclusive. These are just three definitions to give us an idea of what we are looking for.

The first definition I heard is from a man named Tracy Dietrich in Dallas, Texas. He says that leaders are professional students of the business.

In other words, leaders actually read the sales manual that came with their distributor kit. By this definition, everybody reading this training lesson would be a leader. We’re students of network marketing – always looking for new ideas and information.

Leaders listen to audio training tapes, read books, go to upline meetings and, whenever they can, they attend company conventions. You’ll see leaders hanging around with the upline leaders hoping to pick up a good idea. 

I like this definition. It makes it easy to spot leaders. Just go to any training meeting and you’ll see the chairs full of leaders.

Sounds good, but what is my second definition of a leader?

This definition is a little harder to explain but easy to observe.

Imagine that you decide to take a vacation to Hawaii. You’re going to miss your local weekly opportunity meeting. Somebody will have to conduct your weekly meeting.

A leader is someone who will do the opportunity meeting, make sure the product display is there, pay for the room, and assumes the responsibility that everything runs smoothly - and you don’t have to call from Hawaii to see if it was done.

In other words, you’re on vacation and you don’t have to worry or check on anything. This leader was glad you left town so he could take the responsibility!

This is a pretty good definition of a leader. He is someone who does his business without your constant motivation and checking. He is someone you don’t have to worry about.

 The third definition of a leader is the toughest.

 This definition separates the so-called leaders from the real leaders. Here it is:

 A leader is someone who handles problems.

Let’s say there is a problem in the downline. Mike didn’t get his order or Mary talked longer than Al or there was some bad news in the local press, or whatever. 

A leader handles the problem. 

Your leader will call the home office to trace the order, will help Al understand why Mary talked longer, or support and counsel a devastated distributor who is upset over some bad publicity.

The leadership test is this:

Will the problem filter upline to you?

If you have a distributor who you think is a leader -- but the distributor is still passing problems upline to you, this distributor doesn’t qualify to be a leader. 

This is a tough test, but it separates leaders from the crowd.

Now we have three clear descriptions of a leader. We know exactly what we are searching for.

Now that we have a really good grip on what a leader is, the next question in your mind should be:

Step #2: How do I find leaders?

That’s simple.

There are only two ways to get leaders.

The first way to get leaders is to steal them. That’s right, steal them. We’re all leaders here, so let’s be honest. People try to steal leaders all the time, don’t they? 

They say:

“Come over to my business and I’ll give you $5 more than what you’re making over there.”

So the leader changes loyalty and moves to another company.

What’s the downside of this?

Well, if the leader will change allegiance for $5 more income, then what’s going to happen when someone else offers this leader $6 more income?

Ouch!

If this leader can be bought once, he can be bought again.

So we could steal leaders, but the problem is that we will only end up with temporary leaders. This means we’d have a job for the rest of our lives replacing leader after leader, wouldn’t we? This isn’t what we’re looking for.

You see, a lot of distributors advertise for leaders. They try to persuade leaders to come over with the newest hot deal because it’s a tenth of a cent lower or it pays 1% more. But what happens when someone else offers two-tenths of a cent lower or 2% more?

The temporary leader is gone.

It’s just a full-time job replacing temporary leaders. It’s not really building a permanent, loyal network marketing organization.

So I would like to eliminate further discussion about stealing leaders because that’s not really what we want to do. We want permanent income.

So what’s the second way to get leaders?

The second way to get leaders is to build them from scratch.

In other words, we are going to find a distributor who is not  a leader now. Then, we’re going to teach him exactly how to become a leader.

But there is a challenge!

If this distributor is not a leader now, he is going to look exactly like any other temporary distributor, right? 

So how do we know who to build into a leader? How do we avoid wasting time building the wrong person into a leader?

Have you ever worked with someone who is coachable, committed to action, wanted to be a leader -- and that person never became a leader? Has that ever happened to you? Have you experienced the wasted time and effort?

Well, I spent my first 15 years in network marketing with this same frustration.

I did this. I said:

“If you want to be a leader, let’s go for it.”

So I moved in with the committed distributor. We drove all over the country together. We made phone calls together. We gave meetings together. I taught the distributor everything I knew.

And most of the time, he didn’t become a leader.

I ended up wasting a lot of my time. The distributor wasted a lot of his time. And nothing permanent was accomplished.

That all changed when I met a guy named Tom Paredes. He came up to me and said this:

“Tom, you’re an idiot.”

Of course this immediately got my attention. I said to myself:

“I’d better listen to this guy. He’s right. He’s telling the truth. I’ve been wasting all this time working hard – but training the wrong people.”

Tom Paredes continued. He said:

“If you’re going to train everybody who says that he wants to be a leader, it’s not going to work. Talk is cheap.”

So I asked the obvious question:

“So how do you know who to train and who not to train? Everyone wants to be a leader. They told me so. How do you know which one to work with?”

Tom Paredes’ simple answer was this:

“You simply give them a test.”

I smacked my forehead - I’d just wasted fifteen years! Why hadn’t I given these candidates a test? Well, because . . . I never thought of it. And now that I know I should give the candidates a test, what would be my next obvious question?

You’re right! What kind of test should I give them?

Again Tom Paredes had a simple answer. He said:

“You give them a book! Tell them to read the book and that you’ll check back with them in three days to discuss the book.”

Now it all made sense.

Let’s say that you were in a business and you sponsored me. I said that I wanted to learn to become a leader, so you say:

“Tom, here’s a book that’s really going to help you build your business. I know you want to be a leader. Today is Monday. Why don’t we get together on Thursday and discuss what’s in this book. I’ll show you how you can use it in your business.”

Of course I’ll thank you for the book and say that I’m looking forward to our Thursday meeting. Well, Thursday comes and you call me.

I start making excuses over the telephone and say:

“Well, I couldn’t read the book on Monday, because that’s when Monday Night Football comes on television. And then on Tuesday, I had to work overtime on my job. Wednesday night is family night. That’s when the family goes out and I can watch television in peace. So I really haven’t read the book yet.”

 What would that tell you about me?

That says:

“Hey, if I can’t put forth enough effort to read the book, what chance is there that I would put forth an effort to take guests to meetings? To go to other training and listen to tapes? To drive to conventions?”

This doesn’t mean that I will always be a non-leader. It just means that at this time in my life, I’m not willing to make a commitment. It doesn’t mean I’m a terrible person, it just means - hey, I’m not going to be a leader right now. 

It’s important that we give this test before we invest time in training a distributor to become a leader. If we don’t perform this test, any time that we spend with an uncommitted distributor is wasted.

We may be stealing time from somebody who desperately needs to be a leader. 

So what happens if you give me a book and the next morning I give you a call at 6 a.m.? I say:

“I know it’s early, but I am wired with excitement. I’ve highlighted the book and made an outline. I know it’s 6 a.m. but let’s get together for breakfast. If we hurry up, we can have breakfast at 6:30 a.m. and talk about this book before I go to work.”

  What would that tell you? 

Ka-ching! 

We have a winner here. This is a simple test but it makes all the difference in the world. 

By the way, I haven’t mentioned which book to give as a test, have I? 

Of course, you can give them a Big Al book because they’ll learn great recruiting techniques. Any of my five wonderfully written books would do.

But it doesn’t matter which book you give as a test!

Why? Because it’s only a test. You’re only checking for action from your potential leader. Remember, almost everyone will say that they want to become a leader, but talk is cheap. You have to check for that action commitment.

 So if you don’t have a brilliantly written Big Al book handy, you can give them a National Geographic Magazine, right? It doesn’t matter. You’re only checking for action.

By the way, if you don’t have a book or a magazine, what else can you give as a test? 

You could use a video tape, an audio tape, or have your potential leader listen to a conference call - or send him to a store for milk and cookies. It’s only a test. 

But if you don’t have a book, an audio tape, or even a video tape, you might reconsider your leadership capabilities. 

Danger! Danger!
Depression approaching!

When you give your potential leadership candidates this test, I have to give you this warning:

You might get depressed.

After you read this training lesson, you’re probably going to grab a superbly written Big Al book and give this leadership test to your brother-in-law, your friends, and to your best distributors.

And you might expect too much from these people.

I’ll tell you a story about a friend of mine in Canada. He was doing pretty well with his business, but after he heard about this leadership test, he went out and gave a test to some of his distributors.

He called me a year later and said:

“I took your advice last year and I gave my best distributors the leadership test. I gave them all a book. Here’s what happened. All of my so-called potential leaders – flunked! I felt really bad and totally depressed.

“Then, here is what I did next. I gave this same test to a bunch of second-stringers - you know, the people who didn’t drive as nice a car, didn’t have as many contacts, didn’t have as big a vocabulary, didn’t seem like the salesman – just ordinary distributors who weren’t quite as good as my top people.

“Again, some of those second-stringers failed. However, a few of these distributors passed the test, and I’ve spent the last year working with them. It’s been the most productive year of my life!

“I don’t have to call these people to make sure they’re coming to meetings. They call me to make sure I’m going to be there. We have the most positive people at our opportunity meetings - people who are motivated, people who are going places. It’s been a fantastic year!”

The reason I tell you this story is not because it has a happy ending. 

I tell this story because here is what will happen after you read this training lesson.

You’ll give this leadership test to a lot of your best distributors and most of them are going to flunk. And then you’ll say:

“I know my brother-in-law would really, really make a great leader and the only reason he didn’t read the book is . . .”

And you’ll start making up excuses for people
who aren’t ready to become a leader.

 Then, you’ll start investing time with really nice people who didn’t pass the leadership test – and won’t become a leader. Bad for business.

So be prepared for some disappointment. Don’t take the results personally. You’re only looking for distributors who pass the test and are willing to invest action to back up their words.

Let’s move on.

We’ve given our distributors the leadership test and now we’ve identified people who look like ordinary distributors, who act like ordinary distributors, but these are special people. These chosen few will now be trained to become leaders.

Here’s the $64,000 Question!

 Remember step #3? Well, if you don’t, let me review these three logical steps. 

Step #1: Define what a leader is.

We have three definitions. This step is easy.

Step #2: How to find leaders.

We just covered this. Sure we can find leaders, but they’ll be temporary leaders. The permanent way to build leaders is to train ordinary distributors (who pass the leadership test) to become leaders.

Step #3: What to teach leaders.

Yes, this is the big question! What do leaders know that distributors don’t know?

Look at it this way. You’ve taught your new distributor to be a good distributor - and that means you’ve taught him:

§         All about the products.

§         All about the company.

§         How to be loyal.

§         How to network.

§         How to be positive.

§         How to sponsor effectively.

§         How to retail products.

§         How to duplicate his efforts, etc. 

After teaching your distributor all these important skills, you now have a really well-trained distributor – but you don’t have a leader!

So now you decide you’re going to teach your distributor to become a leader.

What are you going to teach him?  

End of part 1.