Copy of 107 | Do You Feel Hopeless in Your Business or Team Right Now? 5 Steps to Renew your Hope
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[00:00:00] Hey friends, welcome back to the Called to Lead podcast. So today's episode is going to be a continuation from a series that I've been doing for the last four to six weeks, all about bringing renewal or growth to your business using six simple steps. all around the CHISEL acronym that was introduced to me by Brett Blake's book, Renewal for Field Leaders.
So we've already tackled the overview back in episode 105. So go listen to that if you want the brief overview. We've also tackled the first letter, which is C. Cash a couple of episodes back and in today's episode, we're going to be tackling the H, which is all about instilling hope for you, but also more importantly for your field, for your team, for your company and five practical ways that you can do that in your business.
So let's dive into today's episode.
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So have you ever felt like in your business or maybe you feel right now in your business that all hope is lost or you've got kind of a fear or uncertainty for where your company is going or [00:02:00] where your business is going or where your team is going. Maybe you've kind of taken a step backwards in your business, or maybe you've slipped a few ranks back.
And there's a lot of reasons why that could be the case. But one of the realities of That could be that your company is in what's called, ~um, ~the shakeout or the life cycle of a business that I have talked about and several episodes since the new year, but essentially every single network marketing company as Brett Blake talks about in this book, and he should know because he's worked with a ton of them and you'll be hearing his story and learning directly from him and an episode I'll see you coming very soon.
So get excited. But he's the one who's done countless research on literally hundreds of companies to know that all of them about five to seven years in experience a kind of a dip, like a stagnation and then a dip in their sales or revenue. And while not every team is impacted by this. There can be some that are kind of [00:03:00] insulated from it and some that still experience growth.
And actually, if you go back and listen to some of my episodes where I'm sharing my numbers, my team is experiencing a little bit more growth than others are experiencing because of implementing the things that I learned in this book. And so I know they work and I'm doing them and I'm learning them out loud on this podcast right alongside you in hopes of leading my team and my company which is Seint Beauty to renewal in this year which is basically taking where we were at the height and making it double or triple or just grow within the next year or two because obviously implementing these things takes time.
But it starts with that acronym, right? What the steps that you can take in your business to do right now to help lead your team back to growth and renewal. And so going back to the chisel acronym, again, we talked about cash. So this one is going to be focused on hope. So where are you at when it comes to hope?
[00:04:00] I mentioned this in episode, I think it was one of five when I did the overview that your hope should not be in your company, first of all, or what you do as a business model. Maybe you're a longtime network marketer and maybe you've been a part of multiple companies that have been through this experience and process, which can be very discouraging.
And sometimes it can make you feel like it's you, that's the problem. Or maybe you have a friend or a family member that experienced something like this. And so you're a little bit nervous for what that looks like. We'll know that you're just like your identity. isn't in what you do, whether you're a mom or a business owner, or like my identity was way wrapped up in when I was a boutique owner.
And I was putting that as a priority above a lot of different things. Your identity, my friends, should be, first of all, in Christ. So he is the one who created you for a purpose, and he's given you every bit of gifts, talents, passion that's going to be different from your upline, from your sideline teamie, from your friends, your family.
You have been [00:05:00] uniquely gifted to serve his purposes in this kingdom. But if you're listening to this podcast, you've also likely been led to the business of network marketing. And if you're like me, you feel like you're called to this business and you want to do the best that you can. And you've seen the impact that it can make on your family.
And so you have a hope that it can be what you want it to be, that it can be the amazing opportunity, the amazing income to bless and serve not only your family, but those that are on your team or that you want to join you in business. And I'm here to tell you that when you have hope, First yourself and you can focus on believing the best thing that could happen in this business versus believing the worst thing that could happen.
And when you follow some of the five tips that I'll share with you and your business, then absolutely my friends, you can absolutely have hope that your company, whether you're in the same companies as me or not, can absolutely be what you want it to be and everything you dreamed of and more. So anytime we talk about money and income and all of that stuff, I always want to link to the [00:06:00] Seint Income Disclosure just so that you can see practically what this looks like.
Again, I'm an artist nine in the company, so you can kind of dive in and see how long it takes to get to a rank like that. It's certainly without years of hard work and effort. And again, the results that I've experienced are not typical. But I also know that I've followed a path that has been paved before me from companies long beyond Seint even started for decades, honestly, in this business model and from brilliant people and wise people like Brett Blake and sharing the strategies on.
how to do this thing. So, and I know they work because I've seen it done not just in my business, but in the business of countless others as well. So in fact, I want to share a little quick story before I dive into these five tips, just to kind of exemplify another time in our, in my Seint journey or in the bell curve of our business model that we all experienced.
And so maybe you can relate to this as well. But about a year after we launched. the company. I did join at the beginning, [00:07:00] which sometimes people are like, Oh, well, obviously you got in at the beginning. But let me tell you, there are people who joined way after me that make way more than me and, you know, have done just as well, not better than me.
And there are lots of people who joined at the same time that I did who did not follow these steps and who did not lean into their hope of what was possible. And they definitely have not had the results because of it. So I do not believe in the fact that you, wherever you're joining in your network marketing company or within Seint, that you absolutely can create a business that can be a sustainable blessing for your family.
So I want to start there. However, having said that, I celebrated my one year as an artist around the time that saying our company did as well. And shortly after that, they did something that At first we were excited about, they launched a new website. And so they kind of touted it, that it was coming and we were all really excited about it until they dropped it.
And it was. awful. Everything that we learned about how to navigate the back office was like totally transformed into something [00:08:00] that's still honestly a little bit complicated to this day. That was actually a very simple thing at the beginning and I think they're working on that as well. But they also, there was some kind of like glitch in the back end of it as well that impacted some pay structure things.
They did not change the comp plan, but they essentially fixed a glitch that was inflating people more easily to get paid at their rank. It's kind of a long story, but Oh, and then because we were kind of entering into the hyper growth phase, so exiting the launch phase, trying to kind of figure it out, entering the hyper growth phase, we didn't have stock in anything.
We are a makeup company that is based in applying cream makeup with brushes. And we had like two of our eight brushes in stock, and we were out of a lot of the colors and people were very frustrated. And a lot of people started to lose hope in that moment that this business was not what they thought it was or that it wasn't what they hoped that it could be.
And I myself, just being an optimist by nature, being a big believer in [00:09:00] the product itself and having a heart and a vision for our corporate team and knowing that they did have our best interests and that it was just as crappy for them as it was for us, I decided, you know what, I'm just gonna put my head down and I'm going to move forward.
So they actually shut down artists signups or distributor enrollments for, I think it was like a month or two. And when they opened them back up, there were a lot of people who were like, yep, you know what? I don't want to do this anymore. I'm frustrated. ~Um, ~they kind of leaned into some of the negative things that they couldn't control and stepped back in their business and didn't really like do much with it and didn't take advantage or leverage it.
I, however, use that time to build momentum and excitement. And on that day, it's probably still my biggest enrollment month that I've ever had. And I think it was maybe five or six artists joined me in that month. And what's crazy is two of them are two of my strongest leader legs. To this day, and I'm so grateful that, you know, number one, [00:10:00] I like, didn't kind of fall into the deep hole of despair that can happen when things around you, when it feels like the sky is following and put my focus and energy on still just sharing what I knew was an amazing product and had the potential to be an incredible business model with as many people as I could.
And so these two leaders joined my team and guess what, by that time they'd fixed some of the website issues. They'd fix the stock issues. They'd fixed the glitch in the, in the way people were getting paid. And so when these new teamies enrolled with me, they didn't know any different. They were starting fresh.
They were doing what they saw me do, which was sharing the makeup and sharing the business model. And they got going to great success in their business. And again, have kept going and kept following that model and are still growing in their business. Both of their teams have had, ~um,~ there are two that are.
~Um, uh, ~insulated a bit from the shakeout within our company because their teams are still growing to this day because they didn't like they didn't even know. And so your company might be going through some things, whether it's stock issues or [00:11:00] corporate communications, like there's a, there's a lot of things that we don't have control over at all as the field.
But I'm here to tell you that if you put your head down and you plant your feet where you are and you stand firm and stay. still and realize that this can be the blessing that you want it to be. If you just focus on one word, hope and focus on instilling that hope in your team, my friends, think about what the best thing that could happen is.
I know, I believe with all my heart that for as many companies who have done something like expand globally and reach that billion dollar unicorn status as a network marketing company. I believe with my heart that Seint can do it too. And if they don't, my hope is also not in that, but I believe and I hope that it is possible.
And I believe it's possible without making these mistakes because we're all going to make mistakes in business and business is hard. So things like inventory management issues or learning the ropes of customer service or communication. These are all things that, as a company [00:12:00] grows, they're going to have hiccups and roadblocks.
They're also things that you can step into and control to an extent within your own business. So having said all that and shared, shared my story, I'm so grateful that I didn't lose hope in some of the rocky seasons of, we literally called it, Mascara Get In, you guys. Our, the company was called Mascara at the time.
We called it Mascara Get In. It was that bad. Oh, and I should share the results. So obviously, so you see where my business is. which is again an artist nine. But what was kind of cool is there was this huge drought. Well, that was not cool, but there was this huge drought of rank advancements in that year and no one essentially, they went from a ton of people hitting all of these high ranks and a lot of momentum and you know, the hyper growth to no one ranking until I ranked to artist seven, which was this kind of like magical, you know, rank at the time.
And I was the first person in over or almost a year, it was almost a year. Over a year? Yes. No. Almost a year. 2019. It was 2018 was the mascara get in. [00:13:00] 2019, January 2019 is when I ranked, so two years into my business, is when I hit that high rank of what we call artist seven. And what was really cool after that is then the floodgates opened because people were like, Oh, oh wait, you can still hit high ranks in this company.
Oh wait, what, what did you do? And you know, we all started kind of sharing what was working and hope and belief was back because, and again, I'm not trying to toot my own horn, but it's another reason that I'm so thankful that I put my head down and just got to work and did this thing. Cause I went from being, it was kind of like the tortoise and the hare.
I was not one of the fastest to rank. You know, in, in the years prior, but because I put my hope in what was possible and I put my head down, I got to work and I implemented a lot of the things I'm going to talk to you guys about. It, it was effective and still is effective in my business, which is why I still do it and why you can do it too, wherever you are in your business.
So here are the five ways that you can instill hope back in your team and in your network marketing business. So, Number one, and this is exactly what I did right [00:14:00] after, like when, when these gals joined my team is host an in person event. Specifically, if you lead a team of more than say 10 people host a retreat, a team retreat.
This is something that can be so incredibly powerful for establishing that connection that can. That can go so much deeper for within your team. And it is, if your team is in renewal, or not in renewal, is if they're in the shakeout, there's no better time than to gather together. And as I talked about in the C or cash episode a couple back, it's also a great investment of your time and of any resources or money that you have to spend.
And my very first one, I did it really simply. I just, ~uh,~ I had access to a cabin, a really simple low key cabin in the North Carolina mountains where I could just pay a cleaning fee. And I brought, I think there were about 10 of us, 10 or 12. And I did tie a little incentive to it where it was a bingo board where they could achieve a couple of little simple things like buying a conference ticket,~ um,~ you know, [00:15:00] getting, getting active, sharing, I think it was like sharing the, ~um, ~the business with some friends.
I can't remember what they, what they were at the time, but just some really simple action steps. And if they did those things, then they got an invitation to come to the retreat. So I kind of did a double whammy to build some momentum, but then also pour fire on that by hosting a gathering. So. Even if it's not a retreat, maybe you only have a handful of teamies on your team.
What if you find a way to either get together,~ um,~ in person, if you absolutely can't do that, you could, you could do like a hangout on your PJs on zoom, right? Like whether it's in the morning or the evening. you know, however you want to do it, get it, finding times to intentionally connect and even better when you can do this in person is huge.
And certainly if your company is having any sort of, or your team is having any sort of in person event, get yourself there because it is definitely one of the most powerful ways for you to instill that hope in your business. Okay. So number two, and this is a big one, this [00:16:00] is going to be obvious to some of you, but if you haven't heard this, this is definitely a lesson to drill down to yourself and know that when you're feeling down, in your business, go up to your upline, your mentor, whoever the closest person that's working their business is to you.
And when you're feeling up, go down to your team, because I'm telling you there will be hard days in your business. There will be, there'll be frustrations that happen. There'll be things that disappoint you. There will be people that disappoint you. There's going to be all kinds of things that are going to let you down.
And that In this life and in business, we are not promised that this is always going to be easy. And I'm here to tell you, it will not definitely will not. There's going to be hard days, but when those happen or when you feel frustrated or upset, go to your upline as opposed to going even to honestly, unless you just have a really strong relationship to sideline chats.
Well, no, I wouldn't do it in any sort of chat. So if you have like one to one, a couple of like, you know, business minded, you know, [00:17:00] Faith based believers that can help pray you through it. That's one thing, but certainly do not bring those frustrations into your team or down into your team because, first of all, they might not understand the full context and they may be feeling great in their business, even if you have had a bad day or a bad experience and So we're maintaining that kind of positive, ~um,~ hopeful face to them.
It's not like you have to lie or act like everything's, and we'll get there in a minute, it's not like you have to act like everything's fine if it's not, but you should not be complaining or sharing bad things or even worse, like rumors or just I heard this or whatever, any of that kind of stuff. Do not share that with your downline.
You can talk to your upline as much as you want though. That's what she's there for. If I'm your upline, that's what I'm here for. I can take it and trust me, you know, that's, that's a, one of the hard parts about leadership is, and we'll talk about that in a second, is having someone on your team that's frustrated.
But essentially we all need a safe place to vent and just know that's the place. [00:18:00] if you're feeling down, go up. And if you're feeling up, go down. And, and again, if you're in the middle of, you know, kind of a frustrating thing and you have a big win personally, maybe it's a customer, a dream team that joined you or a customer that placed a big order, share that with your team, share the good stuff.
If you know of somebody on your team, who's doing big things, shout her out too, because it's those powerful reminders that can instill that hope and excitement in your team when they feel like maybe there's not any, okay. Okay. So when you're feeling down, go up. When you're feeling up, go down. So number three is tying in directly to when you do have someone maybe come up to you, a disgruntled teamie or a disgruntled sideline or somebody that comes to you in full on freak out mode.
Maybe they're just so frustrated because they had an issue with customer service, you know, a customer that's unhappy, or maybe they've got a teamie that's unhappy, or they've just had some kind of bad situation. As they do happen ~that ~that ~is ~is frustrating her, and I can tell you that [00:19:00] one of the hardest parts about this business for sure is is having to feel those frustrations or, you know, when you've got maybe a leader that is going backwards or isn't seeing the growth.
or stuck in comparison mode and feeling just deflated and defeated. And so sometimes when they come to you, it can feel like you need to fix it for them. And while you can certainly give them some advice or point them in a direction, honestly, what they want most of the time is just to feel heard and just to feel understood.
So really your role as a leader and instilling hope in them is just acknowledging the. frustration that they're feeling and saying, Yeah, I can imagine that would really suck. I'm so sorry. Tell me more about that. And how can I help? And kind of taking ownership of the things that you can control. And we'll talk about that in a second.
~Um, ~but just, just helping her to have that space to let it out. Because I've seen it time and time again, that when you create that space, as opposed to you know, trying to correct or even [00:20:00] coach her through it. Sometimes like it doesn't always doesn't always work because all she really wants is to feel understood.
And I heard this one time that,~ um,~ this is a great lesson I learned in one of the coaching programs I've been a part of that, you know, we all have had bad stuff happen to us in our lives and in our business. And it's like basically like a bag of. Rocks, if you, if you will, it was like this big bag of rocks of all the hard and heavy things that you've had to carry in your business and in leadership.
And as your business grows, you'll have more of those rocks. You'll have more of those, those hard things. And sometimes it can feel like you're, you're dragging it along. But when you've got someone that's frustrated, maybe experiencing the same things that you're experiencing or have had in the past before, when they come at you with a wall or they're frustrated or, or these negative feelings or energy, you've got to put down your bag of rocks.
and reach out to her in a way that she feels like she can share her heart and that you're hearing her, that you're helping her to feel understood. And so asking questions like, you know, tell me more about that. [00:21:00] And, you know, how did that make you feel? And just, just letting her talk it through is. When you've successfully done that and her walls start to come down and she starts to thank you and kind of feel like that sense of connection, then is when you can unpack.
You know what? There was this time in my business where I felt the same way. And here's what I did to overcome that. Or I know Heather. Listen to her podcast, and she talked about the time that mascarageddon happened, and this is what she did to do it. So, but if you try to show up with that energy or that coaching before you've helped them feel understood, they're gonna feel dismissed, or even sometimes I know I get labeled as toxic positive because I just, it's honestly sometimes a fault where my brain just does not go to the worst case scenario.
And so sometimes I feel like I have a hard time empathizing when others do, which is not a good thing, and I've got to work on it. So I even have to remind myself that Just help them feel understood. Take a deep breath. Don't try to coach them. Certainly don't try to criticize them and just do your best to love [00:22:00] her and serve her and know that it is one of the hardest parts of this business is having frustrated disgruntled teamies.
So just help her feel understood. Open up your bag of rocks or someone else's and serve her with steps that she can take to bring back the hope in her business. So that is number three. Number four is kind of going back to that sort of toxic positivity thing is there are certain things that that do suck.
We had that happen. Actually, we had a recent product launch with our company and we were all very, very excited about it. Clearly we were more excited than corporate thought we were. And so in Canada, By the time I woke up at 7 a. m. Eastern, one of the products was sold out, shortly after another one sold out, and then another one, and then people in the U.
S. started getting the hang of it, and then it started to sell out in the U. S., and people were pissed, for lack of a better word. I mean, it was like, You know, there were a lot of upset people and it was it was really crappy. It was [00:23:00] very like, you know, frustrating at the, ~um,~ you know, at the least. And so you have to be honest when things are frustrating.
You have to acknowledge it, but you also have to acknowledge that they're not. In your control. None of us could go and make more of the lip oil or drive to Canada and restock, right? Like that wasn't something that was in our control. So what we did is we shifted our focus to what we could control, which is, you know, first of all, when there's high demand for a product like that.
~Uh, ~you know, sharing like, wow, like we, we make awesome stuff that sells out really fast, right? But also we took control to let corporate know how we felt and they listened and they're gonna be bringing it back to the lip oil and, and the other things. And they know now that we do have that excitement ~in, ~in demand for that product.
But the other thing that you have to realize, and, and this is another Sherry specific. Sherry scenario. I don't know what I was trying to say. Another scenario where, ~uh,~ this happened to me where I was getting frustrated with it, kind of mixed frustrations [00:24:00] of like what was happening and frustrated that people were frustrated.
And I was starting to spiral. And so I called my husband and he helped me remember, ~um,~ that, you know, okay. put your business mind on. It's actually really smart that our company didn't over project the sales and invest a ton of their cash going back to the first C because all of these chisel acronyms, you know, or letters apply to corporate as well.
They're being smart. And so if they were making smart choices with their cash and they underestimated the demand, it's actually better than the alternative, which would be if they spent a bunch of money on stuff that didn't move or didn't sell. And so. While it's not ideal, it's number one, something we certainly cannot control.
Number two, it's a lesson that corporate is going to have to learn and live from, and they'll, you know, they'll kind of learn and grow. And just remember, and Brett Blake tells us this all the time, that corporate is just your supplier and suppliers aren't always going to get it right. But when you look at them as like just the one who gives you the [00:25:00] product, and again, a product that's in high demand, like think about.
Stanley Cups. They sold out everywhere and now everybody has to have one, right? And everybody's got like 87 of them. And anyways, so, you know, high demand can be a good thing. And that's just one, one little example. So just shift your focus a little bit, but also acknowledge when things do suck because that's.
That, that is the case sometimes. And so focus on what you can control rather than spend a ton of time and energy on what you can't control, if that makes sense, because there's always going to be something that goes haywire in any business model. Okay. So that's number four. And then number five, the greatest way or one of the greatest ways that you can instill hope back in your business is to realize that it's a lot easier to birth new Children than it is to raise the dead.
So if you have leaders who really haven't done much in their business for years, and they're the ones that are complaining, or if your team feels like they're dead or stuck or not doing anything and that's leading to discouragement or a lack [00:26:00] of hope for you. I know it can seem overwhelming, but the best way to combat that, and I can promise you it feels so good when you do, is to go and find new people because your newbies are going to be the most excited about this business.
And again, if you're creating a place of optimism and excitement and fun and hope and you've got a product that people love and a business model where others are ranking and growing, even if it feels like your team or your upline or your sideline teamie who's complaining to you, if even if their teams aren't growing, I can promise you there are people who are in your business.
whether you're in my team, my company or not. And so look to them to know what's working for them. Let their results inspire you to go out and build your business. Because the alternative is maybe you leave this company and you go join another company. Guess what? You're going to have exactly the same experience over there.
Maybe not at the beginning because you might join it, you know, the, hypergrowth or whatever, but you're going to get to the point where you have a [00:27:00] promotion growth by promotion where things are going to level off. And then if you don't have systems in place, or if you're bringing bad habits, like a bad attitude or a negative, you know, thoughts and spiraling and all of that into that business, the same thing is going to happen in your business.
So unless you know for a fact that your company is a sinking ship, then I invite you and encourage you to plant your feet where you are to go all in with hope and encouragement. Learn out loud, but acknowledge when things do get tough because they always will. And just instill this hope in yourself, hope in the Lord first, hope in yourself and in what you're capable of.
Believe in that for your company. Bring that energy into this and just see what happens. Hope, my friends, is so important. And I hope that these five tips to help you bring that hope to your business back to life can be helpful in your business. And if you want more, dive into Brett Blake's Renewal for Field Leaders book.
I'll link to it in the show [00:28:00] notes and stay tuned for my interview with him coming up very soon. So I hope you'll have an amazing week and I'll see you soon.
