93 | Want to Grow Your Team? How to do the One thing Your Team Wants Most: Recognition
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[00:00:00] Hey friends. Welcome back to the call to lead podcast. So we have been chatting for the last few episodes all about how to grow your network marketing team. And I'm hearing from a lot of you that this is something that. Is probably one of the biggest struggles that you're facing right now. And that's whether or not you don't yet have a team or you've got a small team that you want to grow and duplicate a little bit more or. For those of you guys who actually do have a large team and are able to personally enroll people into your company, but your team's not doing the same today's episode is going to be talking all about probably one of the most important systems that you need to have in place. For your business, as you step into this call to lead, if you will. And that is the power of recognition. So I'm going to be sharing logistically and principally some of the things that I've seen to work in my own personal business and some things that I have learned from some of the top. Industry [00:01:00] experts. And so, but the lab, hopefully this will be a short and sweet, condensed episode. That's going to equip you with one of the biggest tools to pour fuel on the fire of your team's momentum and growth. So let's dive into today's episode
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Okay. So I'm going to start with something that I learned from one of my favorite books that I'm reading right now, which is called system scale by Brett Blake. You guys, you guys, this man is a genius and his other book renewable for field leaders has been such a blessing ever since someone that I interviewed on my podcast, ~uh,~ Jody Watkins, actually with Rhodan and fields.
She's the first one who years ago shared with me about Brett Blake. And he's seriously such an amazing resource. If you are a, I would say definitely a top, like 2% to 5% leader, looking for all of the systems to grow your business. His books are incredible. So I can definitely link to, he just started a new website where he links to all the resources. And I think he's got some other cool stuff coming up, but I say that to say that I read a quote from his book systems scale that kind of blew my mind. [00:03:00] And, ~um, ~it's from my girl, Mary Kay Ash, who is the founder of Mary Kay? Yup. One of the O G. Old school network marketing companies out there that has been around for decades and has I think millions of distributors worldwide. Fun fact, I was actually one of them at one point, ~um,~ though, obviously not any longer. But I love this quote from her because it kind of blew my mind and I think she's right. And that said there are two things people want more than sex and money. Recognition and praise and I'm like, okay, first of all, preach. Mary. Kay. And I bet you guys probably never thought I'd say the word sex on my pocket. That's I'm sure my. My sweet assistance is like, wait, wait, do I delete that? But no, I mean, sex is a gift from God. It's a beautiful thing when used in the confines of marriage. And it's something that we as humans, innately desire. But it's kind of crazy to me to think that someone might desire recognition and praise even more than that, [00:04:00] or even more than the thing that people assume people are looking for when they join a network marketing company, which is the money. And I'm here to tell you I've even had conversations within the last week with leaders who really have confirmed this for me, that sometimes the need to feel recognized, to feel encouraged, to be able to shown the goodness of the hard work and. Effort that they've put in. Sometimes that's what, what it's all about. And it can go down too far, the other path for people. And if this is you keep in mind and I even had a leader kind of humbly say this to me, that sometimes our desire for recognition can outweigh we're looking for it in the wrong places.
Right? In fact, I'm reading through the Bible in a year. Some of you guys might know that if you follow me on Instagram, and that was kind of my big take home in Genesis today is there's a point where Jacob also known as Israel. Real brings his, ~um, ~his entire family has clan. To this altar of the Lord and he gathers up all their idols and he has them [00:05:00] bury them. And I was thinking, I'm like, wow, what idols? Or what other gods do we have in our lives? And sometimes I think it is one of the biggest things, especially network marketing, it's seeking praise and validation from someone other than the Lord. So I want to start this episode by prefacing that from, especially from your end, if you like, most people clearly desire the form of recognition within your business. I want you to know that there is one person that you should be seeking that recognition from, and it may or may not come in this life. But I don't know about you. It's my number one goal for the Lord. You know, when I come into his kingdom to say, well done, good and faithful servant. So just kind of keep that in mind, that recognition is not designed to replace that. That validation that we should be seeking straight from the Lord. However, having said that it is a really cool tool and a really amazing way that you can be a cheerleader import Kurt [00:06:00] encouragement onto your team so that they keep doing all the things. And so I had the idea for this episode to actually this morning. It's kind of crazy. Sometimes this happens where sometimes I'll batch record and do things in advance. I'm actually sitting down to write after this, to do an amazing interview with my girl, Jackie Richards. ~Uh,~ for her podcast, her brand new podcast, the Jackie Richard show. And she's going to come back on mine because her episode that we chatted about last summer, all about social media and how she took a break is still one of the best, ~um,~ performing episodes on my entire podcast. So I'm gonna bring her back on and talk specifically about team building right after this.
But I felt this inspiration as I was doing my own recognition this morning, and I was actually making some tweaks to it. Some kind of systematic tweaks to what all I'm including, because now that I'm back on social media, I am now I'm posting my recognition on social media. Again, when I took my business off social media for a year. I moved everything over [00:07:00] to postcards, which actually have one right here. If you're watching this on YouTube. This is an example of what I still send out to my directs and to all the top sellers on my team is a little postcard that I use an app called postal. To send directly to the people who have done big things in the month prior. And so it's an example of a way to do it without having to lever social. But again, now that I am back on Instagram, I want to be very intentional about setting the example for what I include in my own recognition. And that's what kind of gave me the idea that I'm like, okay, I should go on a podcast and talk about it because you guys, you know, might have a recognition system of your own. And that's awesome. The things that I'm gonna tell you guys today are more principles. They're not. ~Um, ~finite rules. There's not a wrong or right way to do recognition. And I encourage you to seek that inspiration from the Lord when it comes to, you know, to, to doing what you do. But I thought it might be helpful to share these basic principles with you. And then also share with you [00:08:00] kind of how I do that for my own business, for within my own team. So let's dive into kind of the logistics of it. And you guys know that a lot of times, the way my brain works, I have to kind of organize it. And so a lot of times I'll do it in the who, what, when, where, why, how kind of framework. And so I'm going to kind of go from that lens. ~Um,~ and I'm going to get a little bit out of order here, but I think it's important to kind of organize the thoughts.
So grab that notebook again and just kind of take, take notes if you want to, because I really am hopeful that this can be a game changer for you and something that you. You can save and remember, or share with a teammate or a leader that might be looking for this information as well. So, okay. The basic principles of recognition and doing it the right way is the first question a lot of people ask is what exactly do you recognize? And the answer to this question is pretty simple and that's what you want repeated. That's it literally what you want to recognize are the things that you wish your [00:09:00] team was doing. And that's going to be a million different things throughout your journey. In this business, it's going to be everything from obviously sales or getting active or rank advancing or enrolling new art, new distributors.
It could be attending your reunion. It could be, ~um,~ you know, getting their first sale. There are so many things that actions that we want our team to take over and over and. Over again, and just like with our children or if you've ever coached or been a part of like a sports team, if you want them to do more of something, you got to give them all the praise. And again, be that cheerleader to encourage them to do it again. So the first principle with. When it comes to recognition is recognize what you want repeated. And think about what are you looking for your team to do? What do you wish they would do in this season, in this month? And I'll talk about kind of when and how to do it. And just a second, but I want you to first start on, like, what is it that you are hoping or [00:10:00] wishing that your team would get in line with and do more of and how can you focus on recognizing more of those things? Okay. So that's step one is what do you want repeated and recognize the heck out of that? Okay. The second question. Can be a little bit more of a complicated one and that's who do you recognize? And so this is where there's not a wrong or a right answer. And it's going to be a little bit dependent on the size of your team, on the dynamics of your team, maybe how long you've been in business. And it's probably going to look a little different for me than it might for, for you or for. Say an artist who just has a few TVs or one who's, you know, hasn't really built up any independent leaders on her own. So it can be a little bit of a challenge to kind of navigate the duplicatable side of this because a lot of times people don't do what you tell them to do, or even what they feel inspired to do. They do what they see you do as a leader. So I'm here to tell you that you can copy my, [00:11:00] you know, recognition systems and do what I do, but you can also look at the size and dynamics of your team and the results again that you want repeated. And recognize that, but the principles behind who you want to recognize are as many people as possible. So this is something that I know my mentor, Sarah Davies has always encouraged me to do. And I think because I love the idea of a leaderboard. I'm definitely a sports fan. ~Um, ~I am just by nature. My oldest daughter is the same way where we'll be like, what was your favorite song from that new need to breathe album or what's, ~um,~ you know, who's your favorite teacher this year? Or what's your favorite subject? And it's funny because my husband and my, my other daughter are like, I like them all.
Is it an okay to like them all? I don't, I don't have a favorite. Why does everything have to be ranked tether? But I think that the nature and the culture of my team, specifically in these seven years of doing my recognition, I have always had like a top 10 or [00:12:00] 12 that I have recognized. And I know Sarah, again, she would kind of fight me on this and she'd say, well, why don't you, you know, fit more people or do more sides or do twenty-five people that hit or achieved X.
But one of the things that I like to do is just keep that consistency of. Like the top 12 basically. And I've been doing that from when I probably had about like 14 people on my team. So like 12 of the 14 were on there. Now I have about 4,200 on my team. And though I still recognize. The top 12 in sales for two different sets of people. And again, this is because my team is, is, is pretty big. So you can kind of take this and run with this for yourself, or be inspired by it, or just take it for what it is, which is what I choose to do. And so I do one for my directly enrolled distributors. So I also kind of make the exception that if, ~um, ~say there is someone who is on my first line, who is not active in that month, but there's someone on her second line that [00:13:00] is active. I will include that person in as, as a separate leg, if you will. So this, I always say it's my,~ um, ~essay congrats on being in the top 12 of my 52 or however many I have direct artist legs. So it's basically the first active person on each of my legs. And the reason I do that is this is a way that I can kind of taproot if you're not familiar with that term. That's, you know, the fact that your next leader or your next top seller. I might not be on your first line. She might not even be on your second or third line. She could be so far down and you want to be able to kind of systematize your, your recognition if you will. And the connection pieces to allow you to build those relationships with the people who are doing the things, and they are doing the actions that you want them to take. And so that's exactly what I do is I recognize my directly enrolled. And then in a few cases, if the person between us is not currently working their [00:14:00] business, they're not getting active, which is totally fine. I've seen that person step back into it and they would then take the place of this. But I recognize my directs. Because I, for me, since I do have, I believe 52 directly enrolled artists legs at the moment. That's about the size of a team in our company. That's about the top 2% about an artist's five, if you're familiar with the St compensation plan. And if you aren't, I'll make sure to list in the show notes, the income disclosure for saying so you can kind of see what that looks like income wise and. And also it's just to kind of cover the bases. Anytime we talk about things like money or any of this good stuff, it's good to link that in. ~Um,~ and anything that you're doing, including your recognition. So I should include that in here. It's not one of my tips, but you should always link your income disclosure. ~Um, ~and actually fun fact on that. That is also a way, so I have on my Instagram, I have like, at the very bottom, it says artists nine team. And so since I'm an artist, nine was Seint and then write about that. It's like, you know, ~um, ~check out our income disclosure statement, ~um,~ for. You [00:15:00] know, I think that's really what I just put on there. It's like a link on the Instagram stories. Like I was trying to income disclosure. They can then go in and see like, okay. You know, it takes a while to get tarred. It's nine, first of all, there's, you know, there's not many people that get there and people can kind of get perspective on what it looks like for where you are in your business.
If that makes sense. So, anyway, that was a little side note. But I do recognize my directs because again, that is about the size of it's. It's kind of exemplifying what I would want that. ~Um, ~you know, 2% ish, 2% to 5% leader. What I would want her to emulate because I tend to make decisions and do the actions that I want others even at a lower level, too. ~Um, ~to, to do, because again, I know that people are going to do what they see me do, not necessarily what I tell them to. So that's, that's where I do. I focus on my drinks. Okay. Plus it does allow you, if you do have a big team or you have leaders and they do duplicate that, that's amazing. Like that's something that can be duplicated down. [00:16:00] However, I also recognize the top 12. On my entire team, which in the past has kind of leaned into, you know, some confusions. ~You know, ~around like, okay, that's a very, very small percentage of people, right? Like 12 out of 4,200. That's not very many people that I'm recognizing when it comes to sales. But it is something that I've done for a very, very long time. And it's a way for those people, those, those people who are doing really, really big things in their business, who. Can sometimes make others feel like less than it's kind of interesting. Cause it, it, it does one of two things. It either inspires the heck out of people. And then they're like digging into like, what is this girl doing and how can I do what she's doing? Which that's me. I have always been in that camp.
That's how I found my mentor, Sarah, because I was enrolled directly to corporate. I saw her name listed on. ~Um, ~a leaderboard earlier, like early on in my journey here. And I was like, what is this girl doing? She kind of looks like me. We're both in the south. Like, okay, let's figure out what we're going to do. And we actually connected. And then I wound [00:17:00] up moving from corporate onto her team, which was the best. Blessing that I have experienced in this business. And I'm so grateful that I was a stalker and inspired by the success of others. On the other hand, I will sometimes see people be discouraged or de motivated or feel less than when they see what someone's doing at the very tip top of their team. And. Listen, I understand feelings are real and I don't want, want to diminish those, those hard feelings or the hurt that can come from that. But again, that's where I go back to. Are you seeking that validation from the rank? And, you know, from something like this postcard, or are you seeking it for yourself and for the hard work and the effort that you know, you put in and are you being inspired instead of like my oldest daughter. Because my youngest is so competitive, she always has to remind her that a compliment to someone else is not an insult to you. And I have no idea who said that, but I mean, such good advice. [00:18:00] Right? And so when I do recognize my top tippy top sellers on the team, sometimes they're doing. Like crazy stupid amounts of sales, but that's the reason why I want to take the time to shop them out because my goodness, they are doing amazing things in their business and they deserve that recognition as well. And it can be inspiring to people like me to believe that they can do it too. Because there are gals on that. ~Um, ~you know, that used to years ago, be at the tippy top of the team that, you know, for selling. What now wouldn't even get them in the top 12, if that makes sense. And so sometimes people can be inspired by the success of others in a bigger way that that is that fuel to their fire for them to do big things as well. Okay. So when you, when I'm answering the question, who do you recognize. I would say yes. Recognize as many as possible. ~Um, ~Knowing that your team size is dependent. Okay. So who do you recognize, hopefully that answers that or gives you a little bit of insight? Okay, [00:19:00] next is probably my favorite one for this. And it's one that I literally think was a download from the Lord that I've kind of been mulling over and it just came together in my mind. And I'm super excited about it is. One question you might have is okay. And when it comes to setting up a recognition system, like what. ~Um, ~Brett or buddy Rett, Blake talks about in renewal and in systems scale, you might be thinking, well, like how often or what what's, what's the process like when, and how do I actually do this? And so there are three S's that describe the three different times or, ~um,~ you know, ways that you can recognize.
And those three are systematic. Strategic. And spontaneous. And what I mean by that is systematic is that's exactly what Brett's talking about here in this book that is giving your team a rhythm and a consistency and a cadence that they can come to know to expect exactly what you're going to shout out every single month or every single week, or whenever you want to do it.
Because again, The principle here is you need a system. [00:20:00] You need something that you do the same. That's measurable. Not like this pie in the sky. I mean, you can definitely, and I see some of my leaders and I love it when they'll do like a, ~um, you know, kind of~ an MVP award. Like they're shouting out. Someone who's helping other people, even outside of their team, because again, they're recognizing the results. They won't repeat it. Right. So, you know, you can definitely include those at. I can't remember how Brett calls it, but like the ones that are not as like tangible or not as,~ um, Uh, ~easy for people to figure out how do I get that? Right. But you definitely want to include the things that people know. Okay. If I do this, then I'm likely to be recognized for whatever that is. So for me, this is where I have actually shifted my system slightly as of this morning. ~Um, ~have not yet posted these on Instagram, but you can go follow me on Heather K Berge, ~um, ~over on Instagram and maybe I'll do a highlight reel bubble. So it is called pilot bubble where I do like team or something where you can kind of go in there and see it. Cause it'll probably be gone by the time you see this or watch this, this, ~um, ~actually might not be, if you're listening to this on Friday, it'll probably still be up [00:21:00] in 24 hours.
So, so you can go check it out. If you're listening to this in the early bird, or you can check out that highlight bubble. But for me, I do in addition to the top and sales for my directs top and sales for my, ~um, ~my entire team. I am adding in their top enrollers because that is something that I want to focus more on. I want people to, especially since that's what you guys are saying, you want to write is to grow your team. So I want to recognize those who are doing it right to inspire on what it is that they're doing. ~Um,~ also recognizing rank advancements, because I think this is really important and I do it all the way down to our foundation rank. Which as sane as a rank called artists three, which is about the top 10%. And it's one that anyone can hit within a few months of, I mean, technically they can hit it in their first month if they're on fire and hit the ground running. But it's something that I really believe anybody can do in the first three months of their business.
So I want to be able to recognize that in the same way that I would even recognize the top rank, but I am going to do this on my entire team, because [00:22:00] there are leaders who, you know, I hope, and I know that their direct mentors are going. Be shouting the heck out of them as well. But when someone hits the top 2%, like my girl, Courtney Sheffield, so she's several levels down or two she's on my second line. ~Um, ~with an amazing leader between us, but you guys, she had a freaking big deal in ranking to artists seven last month. So I'll include a shout out to her. I also have another Courtney, Courtney, Spencer, who ranked to the top 1%. And so I'll be shouting her out as well. And anyone in, you know, down to those,~ um,~ that, that foundation rank. Of artists three, so 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, all the way up and make that a consistent rhythm because again, more recognition. So even if their leaders are recognizing them, that's awesome. More recognition is not a bad thing. So, ~um, ~let's see. Yeah. So top enroller, rank advancements, top and sales. ~Um, ~and then I also do a little slide that kind of has my stats on my team. Cause I'm stat obsessed. I like to track it for myself and I figured why not share it? So that's my system, if you will,~ um, ~for [00:23:00] recognition. And then I also send the postcards because that's just a fun, little signature that I do. And then I also send a. ~Um, ~a monthly update to all of my direct artists legs and the ones who I include a couple second, you know, ~um, ~not really third lines, but the ones again, who might have a weak leader, that's kind of in and out of the business. I'll include them as well to keep everybody in the loop. And I text him a link in project broadcast to a landing page that has basically all the scoop that's going on, including the recognition. So that's my system and that's an example of a systematic. Predictable rhythm that you can have in your business. The next one is strategic. And so this is something that my amazing mentor Sarah does really, really well. It's also something that Courtney Spencer and I would say Courtney Sheffield. That hit those super big ranks on my team last month. Did and that is they, they knew that they had leaders on their teams who were going for big, big ranks. And they knew that that would [00:24:00] involve a lot of encouragement and a lot of places. And thankfully they've built really, really strong, solid teams where, for example, in Courtney, Spencer's. Example, she had a lot of different ways that her team could rank. And in that case she could rank and, you know, and they could all win together. Right. There were a lot of different pieces. And so she really went in her back office and she's y'all. She also was, is the number two, I believe seller on my team.
So girlfriend is busy and in the week that we had a huge customer sale where she sold like 30 grand in one week, which is insane. She still took the time to connect with 12 of her. Teenie's. To, ~uh,~ You know, check in and just meet some of them. Some of them were like, I'm sorry, I don't even know who you are, but she was like, you're doing amazing this month in sales. I just wanted to connect and see how I can help serve you. You know, when they were close to maybe ranking to their first rank or to their next rank or close to the next commission bracket, she let them know that because again, that's, what's in it for them. And from those conversations, she was able [00:25:00] to help a ton of other people rank, which caused her to rank to that top 1% and hit that big goal like a week before the end of the month.
So. That's an example of a strategic recognition system. That can be done when you know, people on your team are in momentum. So it's not something that she might, I mean, she could do it as a system every month, but it's something that she knows when you've got those months or a big sale or an incentive or something in your company, you can get a little strategic and deep dive into your team when it comes to your recognition.
So that's strategic. And then the final one is my favorite. And that is spontaneous and spontaneous is when you literally feel that prompt that I believe is from the holy spirit to shout someone out. So it might be that you are looking in your back office and you see, oh my gosh, girlfriend is crushing it. Like my girl drew is like, she already has a thousand in sales so far this month.
So I went to check in on her. She had sent me a message to say that she was doing an in-person party. And so I was like, oh my gosh, I'm so proud of you for [00:26:00] stepping outside your comfort zone. And having a party and starting the month off. Crushing it. And so that's an example of that's a spontaneous recognition recognizing the results that I want repeated from an amazing future top leader, like drew. Okay. So listen to your, the holy spirit, listen to those little opportunities. It might be on a zoom call where you've got a teeny or even a sideline or an upline where you feel like, okay, I need to shop them out for something that they've done.
And look for those examples of the spontaneous side of things. Okay. And then the last and final one is aware, and this is one other area I would say there's three different places. And they're pretty obvious. I won't spend a lot of time here, but it's public. So that's out into the world so that people like, I love Instagram stories because they can be shared, they can reshare to their story.
So it's not really them recognizing themselves, which Proverbs talks about that. Let others recognize you. Right. So, but it allows them to shout, you know, kind of showcase where they've been recognized because you can tag them. [00:27:00] So public is super important. Private is just as important. Sarah Davies. Again, my mentor she's reached the top of our company by sending like an unbelievable amount of private recognition messages to encourage, equip and cheer people on. Okay. So this is also what allows you to create that connection piece that is hugely important to grow your business, which we've talked about extensively on this podcast, and then finally within your team.
So that's going to look like for me, it's in a telegram thread again, in my monthly update that I send out via text message for you. It might be a Facebook. Group. ~Uh, ~just wherever your team has a community, that's where you're going to want to do it. So you want to do it in all three of those places, public private, and in your team. All right guys. Well, I'm going to hop on this interview with Jackie Witchell air hopefully next week now, but also I wanted to make sure if you didn't catch the news last week, I am in the midst of planning, a virtual summit with some of my favorite network marketing industry leaders. And I can't, you guys, [00:28:00] I'm having conversations with people who are saying yes to being a part of this, every like. Not every day, but multiple times a week. And it's so exciting. I have stuff, everything from AI to systems, to all kinds of cool stuff, that's going to be a part of this. So if you want the scoop, you can text the word summit to my purse or my business cell, which is 9 1 2 4 0 5 8 9 1 2. And that will keep you in the loop for all of the scoop as it comes. So thank you guys for listening and for being a part of today's episode, I am forever grateful and I'll see you all next week. Bye.
