The Social Selling Leadership Podcast

Recruiting Up: The Missing Skill Between $10K and $50K Months

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Episode Summary

Here’s the truth: if you feel like you’ve plateaued in your network marketing business, nothing has gone wrong. This is a normal part of growth—especially for high-achieving leaders who are working hard but not seeing the next level of momentum.

In this episode, Rachael Bodie breaks down why the real bottleneck isn’t effort—it’s who you’re recruiting and how you see yourself as a leader. She walks you through the identity shift and recruiting strategy required to “recruit up,” build a stronger team, and create sustainable growth with the right people in your organization. 

Why You Should Listen: What You’ll Learn

Start Recruiting Leaders Instead of Just Creating Activity
When you haven’t developed this skill, it looks like constantly onboarding customers or low-commitment team members who don’t duplicate. You’ll learn how to shift your recruiting system to attract high-capacity leaders—because once you do, everything changes in your duplication, depth, and long-term growth.

Stop Pre-Judging and Start Expanding Your Network
When this is missing, it looks like hesitating to reach out, overthinking, and deciding who will or won’t say yes. You’ll learn how to remove those mental filters—because once you start initiating real conversations, your pipeline, sponsoring, and team expansion accelerate.

Shift Your Identity to Match the Leader You Want to Become
When you don’t understand this, it looks like believing you’re “not credible enough” or “not established enough.” You’ll learn how identity drives your results—because once you see yourself as a sought-after mentor, your confidence, messaging, and recruiting results shift immediately.

Build Relationships That Actually Convert in Social Selling
When this skill is missing, it looks like either cold messaging or avoiding outreach altogether. You’ll learn how to build real relationships, listen effectively, and make intentional offers—because strong social selling strategies are built on connection, not pressure.

Understand Why Recruiting Is the Engine of Scaling Your Team
When you haven’t mastered this, it looks like pushing for results with the wrong people and feeling exhausted. You’ll learn how recruiting the right people creates leverage—because once you bring in leaders, your business gains momentum and starts to feel exponential instead of effort-heavy.

Resources Mentioned

SPEAKER_00

Welcome to the Social Selling Leadership Podcast, the show for six-figure network marketers ready to scale with alignment and simple systems. I'm your host, Rachel Bode, network marketing expert and industry veteran. Each week you'll learn the strategies and systems top leaders use to enroll high-quality recruits, create duplication in their downline, and lead with confidence. Let's dive in. Welcome back to the show. So before we dive in today's episode, I wanted to tell you guys about a book that I'm reading. It's called Emotional Agility. And if you're new to the show, one of the reasons why we talk or touch on emotions is emotions are the root of everything that we do or don't do. And that's because of something called the think, feel, act cycle. So we tell ourselves a thought, we have a sentence in our mind, and that sentence then generates or creates an emotion. And that emotion or feeling fuels what we do or what we don't do. And the reason that's important is how we show up or how we don't show up, that creates the results in our business. So this is a really important part of understanding why you are creating the results that you have in your business or why maybe you're not. So reading this book and the whole premise of the book is all about developing resilience with your emotions. And one of the core topics that she speaks on, I think she's a PhD, is showing up for yourself. So she tells the story of a village where when a tribesman or woman does something wrong, what they do is they have that person sit in the center of the tribe and everyone surrounds them in a circle and they let them have it. But it's different than you may think. Instead of judging them, they let them have it and they share all the things that are good and right and true about that person. They encourage that person. And I thought that was so fascinating. I actually went to a mastermind a couple years ago in Malibu. And we we did this activity and it sort of just happened organically when we were all sitting around in this big mansion that we were sitting we were staying in, and we were talking about personal branding. And the whole idea of branding is like what people think of you. So we had this idea to, and some of these people were I never met before, and they never met me. So we had an idea where we were going to all sit together in a circle and we were going to go person by person and share one word that we would use to describe that person and our experience in them. And it was so powerful. I jotted down all the words that people used to describe me, and it was such a good reminder of how we're seen. And I actually brought this in. I facilitated a leadership event in the Dominican Republic last year, and we did this activity. And what was really cool, it was this top leader, six and seven figure leaders in a company, and some of the spouses were there. And I'm telling you, people speaking words of life and truth, their spouses saying things about them and sharing how they saw them. It was transformational. There were definitely like a lot of tears shed. So just something to think through. Something you could bring into a team call or a team training. It's really powerful to have other people speak words of life and truth with you. So let's get into today's topic. So I want to start with something that is going to challenge you a little bit. We're going to be talking today about recruiting up. Okay. So if you have someone that you follow and they have a bigger following than you, I want to challenge you to reach out anyway. Just take a minute to let that land. Because I've shared this a couple times recently. I've shared it on social. I've been talking, you know, to other leaders, clients, and it really hit a nerve. And what I realized is this is this is like one of the biggest gaps I see for six-figure network marketers. Right? So maybe here you're in a place where you're making money, you've made money, you built something, but maybe you feel like you've plateaued, or even worse, you're going backwards. Right? If that's the case, this episode was created for you. Because here's what's actually happening. A lot of direct sales leaders, they're not stuck because they're not working hard. They're stuck because they're recruiting the wrong people, or they're not recruiting anyone. And that's because they're waiting. No waiting for people at their level or below their level to show interest. And when I say at their level, as humans, we all have intrinsic value. And what I mean there is they're waiting for people they perceive to be less successful to reach out. Meanwhile, industry leaders, influencers, top earners, inside and outside network marketing, they're being prospected constantly. And here's the truth, you guys. Not only are you allowed to recruit up, if you want to scale, you have to. And I want you to hear this because this isn't just theory. I have tons of client examples. In fact, uh, one of my clients, this this shift of recruiting up, she went from 14K a month to 34K in a month. Now, this didn't happen overnight. We've been working together for uh, I think a little over 18 months. And of course, there was strategy, right? We implemented my signature recruiting process. We worked on her uh her messaging. Uh we built a really strong onboarding system that created destruction for duplication. But here's what most people miss: you could have the best systems and the best strategy in the world. But if you don't have the right people or any people moving through those systems, you're not going to duplicate. And what really changed everything for her was not just the strategy, it was an identity shift. And so, what does that mean when you hear identity shift? It means she started believing different things about herself as a leader and a mentor. And she started thinking different things about those potential team members she was prospecting. So she stopped just recruiting customers or recruiting, you know, casual income seekers. And she started recruiting leaders, professionals, people who could actually run. And here's the important thing to name, too. It was a both and. It wasn't that she was only recruiting those top leaders, she was she was recruiting both. And here's what I want you to understand. When you start recruiting up, your business changes, right? You stop chasing, you stop in this constant cycle of rebuilding, and you start leading people who, because they're successful in other areas of their life, guess what? How you do one thing is how you do most things, right? So when they come in, they're ready to hit the ground running. And there is nothing like having a new rock star recruit. When you wake up, you feel excited again to work your business, right? Someone that you can run with, someone to match your energy. And that's when your income starts to take off exponentially. Now, when I say recruiting up, there are a couple of different ways this shows up. So let me kind of give you some context here. First, I mean recruiting up within the industry. So I would say this uh encompasses people who are influencers, traditional influencers, people who are network marketers, uh, affiliate marketers, um, women or men with big audiences. These are the kind of people where you look at them and think, oh gosh, they're too big for me to reach out to. So that's the one bucket. The second category is recruiting up in the professional world. So this could be a doctor, a dentist, an engineer, um, corporate professional, someone in marketing or financing. It could be a speaker, an author. And, you know, my story coming in and starting my business working full-time for John Maxwell, I attracted in a lot of these kinds of people. And that's one of the reasons how I was able to build my business so quickly and so successfully, because I was sharing my story and I was attracting people like me. But the point is, you are in this bucket, you are recruiting someone in that you perceive as, wow, this person's more successful than me. But here's the thing: both of these approaches and recruiting these people require the same thing: a shift in how you see yourself and how you see them. Because recruiting up is an identity before it's a strategy. It's an identity before it's a strategy. Because if you don't see yourself as the type of leader who can attract these people and lead these people, you won't even try. I was actually on a coaching call recently, and this is such a powerful moment. So my client was telling me that she was at her annual training and she had this realization. So there was a company, a couple in her company that shot to the very top. And she was she was saying, like they, it's almost like they came out of nowhere in the past couple of years, and they've been the number one in the company for the last two years. And by the way, this network marketing company is a billion-dollar company, so it's one of the top 10 network marketing companies globally. So these people are like uber successful. And they were being interviewed on stage and they had some of their team members that were being interviewed too. And what she realized is all of those team members were professionals. Oh, many of them came in with six-figure jobs. Some of them already had network marketing experience. And then she told me, she's like, she had this realization. Oh my gosh, they only recruit up. To which I said, exactly. So this is the pattern, right? Top leaders are not just randomly building teams, they're intentionally recruiting high capacity people, alongside the everyday people, too, right? It is that both and. But then at the end, she said something that I thought was really powerful. She said, you know what? I don't think I've ever referred up. And by the way, this client, she is at, let's see, where is she? She's at about 13 to 14k a month. She said, Most of my people, they come in for the products or just extra income. So you can see the difference, right? One bills more linear growth, the other bills exponential growth. And then as we were talking, I was asking her, Why do you think? And she said, Well, you know, I just they probably wouldn't be interested. They're already successful. But then she caught herself and she said, Why am I deciding for them? I'm like, Yes, that's it. That's the shift. Okay, now the second version of this is the leader who says, if I reach out to someone with a bigger following, they're gonna look at my page and think I'm a nobody, right? They're gonna judge me. Um, but really, that's because the underlying thought is my Instagram or my Facebook doesn't reflect the leader either. Because you're using follower count as an arbitrary metric to define who you are as a leader. So the thought is why would they ever join me? But when you're in that place, you know what happens? You hesitate, you scroll, you overthink, you tell yourself you have no one to invite because you're afraid. Or you'll tell yourself, I don't know how to recruit bigger people, but that's not true. You know how to do it. It's actually very simple. It's just fear. And that is because it's not a strategy problem, it's a belief problem. Because underneath all of it, it's this thought of I'm not cruel, I'm not credible enough, I'm not established enough. But the truth is, the number of followers you have, it's completely arbitrary. What actually matters is what you believe, how do you show up, the energy with which you show up. Because when you confidently and boldly reach out to someone, you're able to listen to them, to connect with them, to understand what they want, to speak to their pain points, to communicate your value. And you guys, that matters infinitely more than your follower count. I mean, I cannot tell you the number of leaders that I talk to, and some of them have massive followings. And many of those people are killing it with customers, but they're really capped with their income because they're not really able to recruit. They haven't really uh figured out how to lean in and leverage what the most powerful thing in network marketing leverage income through team building. So here's the question I want you to sit with. If you already were a leader with a massive following, how would you show up? Right? What would you believe about yourself? Maybe it's I'm a sought-after leader. You know, I'm creating a team, everyone wants to be a part of. What I'm doing here is valuable. I am her dream mentor. When you're believing that and in that identity, how would you reach out?

unknown

Right?

SPEAKER_00

A lot of you think, I don't know how, but again, it's not the issue. The issue is the overthinking, the pre-judging. Because you're deciding who's gonna say yes, who wouldn't, who is too big. And in doing that, you're filtering out your future leaders. Of course, this is going to lead to some ghosting and some no's and some rejection, but that's part of the price. The faster you get the no, the faster you get to the next yes. So I really want to remind you you don't know what's happening behind the scenes in someone's life. You know, before network marketing, I had a very prestigious career. I had what many would consider a dream job, you know, leading the consulting division of John Maxwell. And there was a lot of incredible things about it. I was making great money. I was able to travel. I got to meet so many thought leaders. I got to be mentored directly by, you know, one of the greatest leadership experts in the world. So from the outside, everything looked perfect. But behind the scenes, I was struggling. I was hanging on by a thread. I was constantly traveling. I was missing out on my kids' lives. I wasn't able to be there for field trips or to cook dinner every night because by the time I got home and was sitting in rush hour traffic in Atlanta, it was like 7:30. I was literally praying for something. So when you look at someone and think, oh, she's good, she's need this, she's already successful, you don't actually know that. And let me also be clear, I am not talking about poll messaging strangers on the internet. This is not about hay girl. I am definitely like an anti-hate girl. And I will say I went through a season of my business when I did that because I thought that was the right way to do it. But it was very short-lived because it did not feel good. What I'm talking about is building real relationships, having real conversations, listening to what someone is saying, and then making a direct, intentional, bold offer. This is what it means to lead. Leadership sounds amazing and it feels terrible sometimes because courage is hard, right? That means that you have to show up and lean in and feel the fear and do it anyway. But here's the reality: recruiting is really the engine of leverage. So if you are, you've been stuck at the same income or rank and you want 20k months, 30k, 50k, at some point you have to recruit up. Because recruiting down, it's like pushing a car uphill. Right? Recruiting up is like putting the right driver in the car. It's just so much easier. Same business, but completely different momentum. So I just really I want to just say it plainly. Your hesitation is costing you your next dream team member. And if you don't ship this, you're gonna stay stuck. You're gonna stay plateaued, or worse, you're gonna fall further behind. And I don't, I'm not saying that to scare you, I'm saying it to inspire you and encourage you to take action. So here's what I want you to do. I want you to always, when you leave listening to this, I really want to give you something actionable. So I want you to think of five people right now. Five people. People you've been avoiding reaching out to, people that you would love to work with. Stop pre-judging. Start the conversation, make the reach out. You know the five-second rule from Mel Romans? You count backwards from five, five, four, three, two, one, do the thing. Don't give your brain time to talk yourself out of it. You want to be the one to make that bold offer because if you don't do it, someone else will. You're not lacking people, you're just filtering out the ones who could change your business. Okay, guys, that's what I have for you. We'll see you on the next episode. If you're a six-figure network marketing leader and you know your recruiting and duplication systems need a revamp, this is exactly the work I do in my private one-on-work room. I help established leaders become the mentor their dream team is looking for so that growth becomes duplicatable, scalable, and sustainable without the burnout. If this episode resonated, you can apply for a free mini session using the link in the show notes. We'll look at your current systems and goals, identify what's actually creating the ceiling in your business, and map out the top three shifts that will position you to double your monthly income.