This blog is the first part in a series I am writing on the issues that affect decisions on how to make placements of your enrollments.

Rule 1 – There are no rules

A lot of people in talking about placements express ideas as a rule. Let me be clear. There are no rules.

One of the things humans do when we come together in communities is create dogma. We do it to be helpful and to share an experience or lesson we have learned with others. But dogma is dangerous, because other people start interpreting the rules without the benefit of the experience that sits behind it to understand the importance of context.

I hear some people express things as Rules in this business, like “Never place a personal enrollment below the third row”. In and of itself, that’s good guidance, in isolation, and as a general principle, however there will be circumstances where it is absolutely necessary and appropriate. One of the other parts of this series will deal with depth, and I have no issue with this statement if it is presented as guidance, and as one parameter to take into account among the many parameters that we will discuss in this series of blogs.

So, let me say again, Rule 1 is “there are no rules”. Rule 2, is “see Rule 1”.

It’s too complex for Rules

If there were to be anything approaching a rule it would be that until you are at least Silver you should talk to your up-lines about placements, and preferably a Silver or Above who has been in the business for more than a year.

There are no ‘One Size Fits All’ rules that allow a new Wellness Advocate to go away in isolation assess the situation from all the perspectives and make a wise decision.

There are a plethora of parameters that need to be weighed up to make a good decision, and these will be the subjects of this blog series:

1. The Person being placed
2. Supporting the person being placed
3. Power of Three
4. Structural Requirements for Ranks
5. The current development of the leaders you are supporting at every layer
6. The trade offs of Tap Rooting & Depth
7. Relationships
8. Legs as Separate Businesses
9. Creating a sustainable business and managing risk

Upline Knowing

Can you remember a time in your life when you have actually experienced something and a lesson drops in as a deep knowing? Do you know what I mean? Where it is as if a veil has lifted, and suddenly you see something in a completely different way, like the character Neo in the movie ‘The Matrix’ at the end of the movie where we sees how everything in his world is a digital construction, and he can control it all, because he sees it as it really is.

There is a book that talks about this phenomena called ‘Blink :The power of thinking without thinking’ by Malcolm Gladwell. As the Amazon outline for ‘Blink’ describes, we meet the psychologist who has learned to predict whether a marriage will last, based on a few minutes of observing a couple; the tennis coach who knows when a player will double-fault before the racket even makes contact with the ball; the antiquities experts who recognize a fake at a glance.

The same knowings land with most accomplished leaders in doTERRA as we have the personal  experiences that teach us on a different level to class or book taught knowledge. It isn’t that your up-lines are your boss, they are not, no one signs up for a boss in the doTERRA business. Very simply as we travel the road with doTERRA we have the experiences that create knowing, that constitutes situational wisdom.

Set Aside the Ego

Some of us when we come to doTERRA have had a great deal of life and possibly business experience. For my part I’ve done a lot in my business career, as a Chief Financial Officer, Chief Operating Officer, and Company Founder. I’ve listed two companies on the stock exchange, raised over $100 Million in Capital, acquired many companies. I’ve even worked around Science and Medicine and dealt with the FDA and TGA for over a decade. I’ve managed large teams of people. I’ve done a great deal of inner work that has given me the knowledge of self to work well with almost anyone.

But, when I came to doTERRA, I had never done Network Marketing, I had never done anything that involved getting individual people to enroll or place orders, or to inspire them to go on to Loyalty Rewards Programs.

My job was to suck it up and recognise that in some aspects I was back at the ‘L for Learner’ stage in this business. I needed at times to bow to my wife’s experience too, as she got involved in the business some months before I did on the enrolling side of things.

Think of the journey from Consultant, through all of the ranks to Diamond and beyond as a journey from Brisbane via Sydney, Melbourne, and Adelaide, to Perth, but imagine it’s 1880, and there is no GPS, no Google, few highways, long distances between towns. Your Diamond up-lines have arrived in Perth and they know the road like the back of their hand. It is simply the wise thing to do to phone ahead and have a conversation about the terrain you are travelling through.  Aren’t you lucky you can just call them today. In the 1880’s you’d have to have sent a telegram

Your up-lines aren’t better than you. You don’t need to engage with any inner dialogue that feels resentment at having to defer to a seemingly higher authority. It’s your business, there is no ‘have to’ other than complying with doTERRA’s Policy Manual. It’s a case of ‘ought to want to’, as it is something that will help you.

There are many holes that you can fall down in this business if you don’t educate yourself and get good advice from wise up-lines. Those who don’t seek advisers, and business training and fully engage with the success tools like Share Success very often spend a very long time failing to get to the ranks that they aspire to and that are going to allow them to create a Pipeline Business (read the Hauling Buckets v Pipeline story in the Share Success Build Guide) and the abundance they desire.

Who is an Upline?

Everyone of us in doTERRA has an Enroller, and a Sponsor. An Enroller is the person who introduced you to the products and or business who you enrolled with. Your Sponsor is simply the person in your Enroller’s tree under whom they placed you.

Your Enroller is your first up-line, and their Enroller your next, and so on. Technically too your sponsor, and their sponsor, and so on are also a form of up-line with some interest in your business, but it is your Enroller Chain that your interests are most strongly aligned and where you should go first for advice.

Some people are part of a tight chain of people ranking off one another, where everyone in the chain is fully engaged, doing the business full time or at least as a strong focus area, and they are all hoping to get to Diamond and beyond. That is our situation, and all of our first line of ranking leaders fit that description. With our second line below our first line ranking leaders, there is a mix of fully engaged people on a clear journey, and people who happened into Elite and are enjoying free products, but don’t have any interest in the business.

When your Enroller is someone who had a class once, enrolled you because they invited you, but they have not proceeded to do the business, and thus have little support they can offer, you need to go higher. In the back office on the Team Tab you can see an option titled ‘Upline Listing’. This gives you the name rank and phone number of every upline all the way to the first doTERRA Wellness Advocate Justin Harrison # 1001. You can look at the upline string by Enroller or by Sponsor and all should be willing to help you. Find a Diamond or above and ask them for help, they will more than likely offer personal help, and may be able to recommend other mentors in their team who you can engage with and learn from.

In Summary

So the take home here is that while there are no rules, and no bosses in doTERRA, if you want to succeed you dramatically improve your chances, and the rate at which you will rank if you consult your uplines about placements at least until you are Silver. The reality is all the way up to Diamond we would have placement conversations with our uplines when we were considering big strategic issues, and that probably wont stop till we have the 360 degree experience you get at Presidential Diamond.

If you are focusing on developing character traits to learn and rank quickly, humility is a key one. Recognise that your uplines are the Sensai’s and if they have got to Diamond it’s because they have developed that knowing that Malcolm Gladwell talks about in Blink, and tapping into that knowing can only help you.

This was the first blog in a series. Now we’ve talked about having conversations with your Uplines, the blogs that are coming will equip you to ask great questions, and to know what context to share with your upline to have the best conversation.
Ura P Auckland
Diamond Leader with Petah-Jane Auckland-Hall
Writer, and Authentic Essential Oil Entrepreneur
Earth Spirit Pathways

Image Attributions: ‘Neon Neo‘ by ‘SMcGarnigle‘ on Flickr is licensed under CC by 2.0

Placement Series Table of Contents

Placements Part 1 – Upline Wisdom
Placements Part 2 – The Human Element
Placements Part 3 – Truly Serving Creates Success
Placements Part 4 – Power of Three
Placements Part 5 – Two Legs to Premier