How Do I Contact My Directors Upline? Warning- Vent Too

[ShanaSmith]

OK, her upline is Robin Anderson. Does anyone have her info before I call HO?

I will pm you with Robin's info. She is great! I one of Robin's first line directors. There are several of us in the area,(she is an exec). Robin needs to hear what is going on. You probably won't be the first to tell her, but she still needs to hear about it. She can also refer you to the closest director in her downline that does monthly meetings.... like we are supposed to.

 

[cathyskitchen]

She does combine with another director. Both of them are saying that there isn't any interest in them.

I hate when directors use this excuse. Then MAKE YOUR MEETINGS MORE INTERESTING AND WORTHWHILE TO COME TO!!! :grumpy:

Sorry, vent over.

 

[tlennhoff]

I hate when directors use this excuse. Then MAKE YOUR MEETINGS MORE INTERESTING AND WORTHWHILE TO COME TO!!! :grumpy:

Sorry, vent over.

My director is trying to make the meetings fun and interesting... But most of her really tiny team are not making it to meetings. Most of us have not even tried the meetings to see how great they are (LOL, I've made it to one but we talk at least once a week & I have you guys for my training). Luckily she has a great attitude and looks at it as a chance to do an intesive one-on-one or small individualized trianing if only 1-2 people show up and it has worked really well for her so far.

 

[cathyskitchen]

Tasha - that's great that your director has tried to make her meetings more fun and interesting, and even better that she keeps in touch with you regularly. The first director I was under when I started had regular meetings that were pretty-well attended, but she was very short, to the point, no extra conversations allowed, and she basically shoved you out of her house after the hour was up. Never called us - just sent 2 newsletters in the 1 year she was my director. My current one has a FT job in addition to PC, and has made it clear that PC is not a priority for her. Which is fine for her, but it's very hard to recruit and keep people motivated when there is no meeting to take them to, or the meetings are worthless. Yes, I've tried doing my own meetings, but it's not the same as getting recognition and information from a real director who has training and outlines from HO to use for meetings. I don't get it - my director recruits at least 2 new consultants per month, but then lets them hang out to dry when it comes to training and motivation, so they all end up quitting within a year. It's a shame, b/c there have been some really great people at her meetings (some I keep in touch with and help to motivate even though it does nothing financially for me) who could REALLY do well if they just had a little bit of direction, goal-setting, guidance, motivation, whatever. I hate seeing good people get shafted like that. Anyway, that's why I said that. Not meant for the good directors out there who have meetings regularly and don't gossip the entire time (or focus only on recipes the entire meeting - there's more to our shows than the recipe!!!).

 

[tlennhoff]

I can only imagine how hard this business must be without support from an upline. I know that if my director ends up losing her directorship I'll have no upline support. Prior to my directors promotion I had only heard from my upline 2-3 times - one was to ask why she was not getting a regular report from me (yeah, like that motivated me to have my 1st contact be a lecture on not doing something she had never told me to do) and then she added me to her "email list" and I got a few generic emails which were ideas I'd already learned here.

Thank goodness a place like this exists.

 

[pamperedgirl3]

My current one has a FT job in addition to PC, and has made it clear that PC is not a priority for her.

I don't understand why some people take directorship if they don't want to make PC a priority. At least TRY to act like you care about your downline!

 

[Teresa Lynn]

Having been on both sides (as a director and now as a future)
I am/was willing to match/exceed their effort to stay in touch...

I can't count how many times I have received an email or phone call when it was URGENT for them to find an answer which is common business knowledge but they were too lazy to look it up or didn't ever bother to read it in the first place.
I had a recruit at the beginning of the month buy catalogs and receipts from another recruit. (she hadn't had a show since Jan.) I kept telling her she should have the current catalogs & didn't need to buy any. After she spent $30 she found her spring changeover kit unopened and wanted her $$ back from my other cons.

Even now as a Future I send a monthly newsletter..... EACH month I "hide" someone's consultant # in the articles. consultant # 12345 call me for a fun gift!! In almost 18 issues no one has called me and obviously at this point the ## have repeated. In the beginning I had Starbucks gift cards, Merrill goodies etc. Now I've removed it.

 

[chef_kimmo]

I am sorry to hear that you have had a hard time with your director and am glad that she called. While at times I see comments made like what I am going to say and think no way but here goes. We don't know everyone who logs in here and if they pass the information along to people. I at times think, I don't have time to just lurk and tell others but maybe some people do.

I know this was said earlier and will repeat it because I have gone through a lot since being in PC. I signed up under someone who was not my director and my director happened to live in another city. My hospitality director started out including me in things but really no training from her. Eventually I go the training from her because she realized I wasn't getting it from my director. I used to say to things like "I deserved the training" and "she is making a percentage off of me and I am one of her top producters" and "that is part of her job"

While I still believe directors have an obligation, I have learned from my feelings and I know how I intend to take care of my team as I grow it better than the way I was treated.

Anyway, I went through the phase of thinking the thoughts that I need and deserve the training but when I really think about it I say I will be whatever I am going to be no matter what a director gives or does for me. Yes, I have received some good wording on how to do different things from my previous hosptality director and truely believe we learn from those that have walked the road we are now going down. Living through the frustrations I also noticed that I did thrive the more when I wasn't hung up one whether or not if I was getting support from my "director". Funny, but I did - that could be what frustrated me because a few times I was number 1 or 2 in sales on her team when I quit worrying about things like that and just worked my business.

Since all those times my director, hospitality director, and their director all quit which moved me up the line to my previous 3rd line director who is an NED. I do hear from her but now imagine me "expecting" to be contacted by someone who has over 200 in her 1st line.

I guess that is what ultimately led me to believe I will be what I will be with or without a director. I have found another meeting to attend in town and even being asked to be involved in the training. I know I can learn a ton of things by reading on here and taking online training, etc.

I have been through so many people trying to get to director. I know that people have signed up who are kit nappers and don't really know why. I have others who have signed up and gave up after a bit. I have given a lot to each one of them. I can only imagine what someone who is a director has gone through with probably far more people signed and left than me.

You are gung ho and that is awesome for you and your director. I do hear what you are saying and your director sounds to not have a bunch of people under her. I do believe I would be working closely with those that producing to make sure they are happy and getting the support she needs. The more I have read here I would say that she has something else going on. She may be frustrated at her dwindling down line and may just need a lunch with you to get back on track. Make sure to be open with her and tell her how you feel - she may need your support as much as you need hers. Not like that you need to train her but if she hears it from you she may think to herself "I need to pull my head out and get back at this awesome business"

I had someone say to me once that if I wanted to be a director then I needed to act like one. That keeps popping into my head and when I read threads like this one I try to learn to help my current recruits. (Funny, I have a vision of someone I thought I was training getting onto a message board like this and venting about me so I almost wonder if I am not going overboard in helping them.)

I know this is long and I hope you get my well intended drift.

 

[BethCooks4U]

Everyone does their business their way and while they may think they are "there for their team", some are just not getting it.

I went to every meeting and met every challenge and was (am) always one of the top in the cluster. I thought my director was supportive and there - she always answered my calls. But then I started noticing that she didn't always follow through with promises and rarely made calls to me first.

I also found out that she had not been doing any training to my downline when I started recruiting (I was green and thought she was doing it). Those consultants had virtually no training - I would call them but it wasn't training.

Her newsletters are about quarterly and even when PC was sending charms every month as an incentive she wouldn't mail them until the newsletters went out because she wouldn't spend the $0.37 postage (at that point she had moved away).

She feels she is a great director and she does have her good points but I feel that it is not my responsibility to contact her - it is her's to contact me. If I didn't respond, then that's different but I do and she should be the one keeping in touch. She chose to not go to conference this year and then had a director meeting sounding like she had been right there with us. lol

Now she might call me every other month or sends an occasional email. She always says "call me" and whenever I do leave her a message she emails back with comments you would make to a new consultant like I had no clue. Back when I started she had her director team working right with her on the meetings but with me she doesn't even involve me when she comes to do a meeting with my team (almost once a year) - I started doing my own meetings when I was a FD with just 3 consultants because she moved (she encouraged that but didn't give me much guidance at all after the first meeting). Sorry - this ended up being a vent.


ANYWAY! My point is that she thinks she is a great director but I don't see her that way. I try my best to do all the things I wish she would do for me but I am sure that some on my team may think that I am not doing enough. We are all human. You have to tell us what you want, need. If we don't respond - shame on us. But if you don't tell us we can't try to fix it or explain.

Those with large teams can't physically talk to everyone every week but they can email everyone and they need to spend their time with the top performers, new people and those doing anything special (out of that person's normal ways).

I leave a message at least a couple times a month with even those that never respond to my calls, emails or meetings. I won't go away until they say "I'm done" and then I'll try to be in touch at least a couple times a year. I truely care about them all and I want them to know that but I also know I'm not perfect and that I miss things too. I do tell them to call or email anytime they have a question or need something but I don't depend on that. In fact, you can bet something's wrong when they AREN'T calling or answering calls.

We all need to give each other a break and we also need to tell the person we feel has slighted us so they at least have a chance to make it good. I have told my director how I feel but she just gets defensive so now I just do it my way and take what she decides to throw my way when it happens...