Defcon 1 Direct Selling. Randy Gage

than I did.

      But here’s the craziest part of all that. If you had asked me then whether I would be releasing a book in 2020, distilling the secrets of my success and leadership in Direct Selling, I would have said, “Of course.”

      Probably not what you thought I was going to say. And if you did hear my answer back then, you probably would have thought I was irrational, foolish, and naive. And you’d have been right.

      And That’s Why I Can Actually Write This Book

And that’s why you can read it with confidence, knowing it can help you be irrational, foolish, and naive too. Irrational, foolish, and naive enough to live your dreams. Because the number of rational, wise, and skeptical people in the world who are living their dreams would probably fit in a subway car.

      My story really is one of those romantic, “rags to riches” tales that we all love to hear. A kid who was expelled from high school and served time for armed robbery—who was able to transform his life to become happy, successful, and wealthy. However, too often these stories of transformation leave out the messy middle stages, the drama and trauma that have to be endured and persevered through to reach the “lived happily ever after” ending.

      Not this field manual.

      This is the book that some wish you would never see or know about. The people who don’t want you to read it fear that what you’re about to discover might scare you away. Might blow up the idealistic narrative they’re trying to sell you.

      But I Want You to Know the Truth

The truth that, yes, you can be successful, build a large team, and live your dreams. But also the truth that it is going to take real work, dedication, and endless endurance—and that you’ll need more than just goals and a positive attitude. You’ll need an actual game plan. And most importantly, the truth that growing your business won’t always go according to your game plan. That sometimes your game plan is going to get blown out of the water, and you’re going to have to suck it up and create a new one.

      I See Dead People

      And by dead people, I mean clueless people in a coma of delusion. The people in charge of “the system.” The system that says go $80,000 or $100,000 in debt for a college degree that is out of date before you even graduate, then sell your soul to a series of jobs you don’t like or actually hate, trading hours for money in the hopes of financially existing with your head barely above water. And doing this for 40 or 50 years to “retire” in a position of still needing financial supplementation to get by.

      I think we’ve lost the plot.…

      Do we really have to work six days a week to enjoy one off? Work 50 weeks a year to vacation for two? We have an education system now that is preparing people to be worker drones in the collective. Entitlement mentality is running amok and we’ve forgotten what it means to live a life of meaning. There is nothing wrong with working a job for a salary, getting paid a fair wage for an honest effort. We all must start someplace, whether that is working a drive-thru, scrubbing bathrooms, or washing dishes in a pancake house like I did. But let’s not become immune to the opportunity of developing and progressing, becoming the highest possible version of ourselves in everything we do, including our career.

Entrepreneurship is not for everyone. I get that. But there are millions of people in unfulfilling jobs for whom an entrepreneurial opportunity would provide a much better alternative. And these people don’t realize that opportunity is available to them because they have bought into the “normalcy” of the current system. With this field manual, I’m going to show you exactly how you can best share this opportunity with them. Not with high- pressure sales techniques or hype, but by truly educating your candidates about the possibilities you can offer them.

       It’s not your job to sponsor everyone you know. But it is your job to offer people what you have, allow them to self-select in or out, and then help those who decide to join you.

      Make the commitment now that this is the culture you will create on your team. Don’t “close” people; “open” them to the possibilities.

      The insights you discover in this book are meant to equip you for the dirty realities you will confront and to demonstrate to you that you’re not the first person to face such daunting circumstances. Every great leader must face down extraordinary challenges before they come out victorious on the other side.

      Please allow me to share with you how this book came about.

It was January 2019 and I was doing the final edits on my most recent book, Direct Selling Success. I sent proof copies to more than 20 top income earners in various companies to get their input. It immediately became apparent that the book would be a worldwide smash, an international bestseller. To a person, these leaders wanted to know how soon it would be published, whether they could share key sections with their top leaders, and whether I would give them permission to begin training sessions based on the content.

      And then Something Fascinating Occurred

      For three days straight I received urgent messages from three of those leaders who had read select chapters of the book. Now they were seeking help with a burning situation that had arisen with their teams. They each were desperate to know if I had additional advice that could apply to their unique situations.

      In each of these cases, the leader and their team faced a “DEFCON 1” type of situation. The DEFCON scale (short for “Defense Readiness Condition”) measures the alert level of defense forces. DEFCON 1 is the maximum level status, used to describe preparation for imminent nuclear war. Obviously, these leaders were not facing anything close to an actual war. But they were facing exceptional, crisis scenarios that threatened the ongoing existence of their business.

      In one case, a lot of their top leaders had lost confidence in the company and left en masse to join another one. In another case, the company had made major changes to the comp plan, and the results were causing a huge drop in volume and lots of resignations. In the third case, many leaders had been influenced by an outside generic trainer who had taught them systems that were actually eroding their businesses. These three leaders needed to act fast, or they would lose their teams and their livelihoods. If you develop a large team, at some point you too will face a “DEFCON 1” type of scenario for your business.

      And That’s Why I’m Writing This New Book

Here’s the thing about leadership, particularly in Direct Selling. (For most of this book, I will refer to this as Leveraged Sales, which I believe is a much more appropriate label for this business model.) Most people believe leadership is about being positive all the time, sending out lots of happy, smiley emojis in their WhatsApp groups, and always giving positive motivational speeches. But the truth is, that’s not leadership—that’s propaganda. Well-meaning propaganda, surely, but propaganda nonetheless. And you’re going to have to do better than that.

      That’s not to say there is no place for the “moonbeams, unicorns, and rainbows” perspective in leadership. There most certainly is. But that positive, optimistic, motivational outlook is only one element of leadership.

      Because True Leadership Deals with the Messy, Complicated, and Dark Areas as Well

      How do you stay true to your principles and lead the team forward when their world is falling apart because of a comp plan change, regulatory attacks, or a competitor poaching away top leaders? Or when 90 percent of the product line is on backorder, the company can’t make commissions, or there’s a sociopath in the sponsorship line above you? You’re going to need to exercise a higher level of leadership. One that reflects the yin and yang dichotomy of leading in the real world.

      Here’s how I define leadership in our space: