How to Be a Leader in Direct Sales (Even If You Don’t Have a Team Yet!)

Hi, friend! Welcome back to the Passports, Profits and Pixie Dust. I’m Lindsay Dollinger — high school Spanish teacher, dog mom, world traveler, and direct seller who helps women build their direct sales businesses the right way so they can make the money they deserve, live their dream lives, and (of course!) travel the world.

Today we’re diving into something so many women get wrong when they’re building their business:

👉 Leadership.

Specifically:

✨ How to lead when you have a team of ONE
✨ How to lead when you have a team of TEN THOUSAND
✨ And yes… how to be a leader even when you have no team at all yet

Because here’s the truth:

Leadership has nothing to do with team size — and everything to do with how you show up.

Let’s break it down.

⭐ PART 1: What Leadership Looks Like When You Do Have a Team

Whether you’ve sponsored one person or you’re running a massive organization, the principles are the same.

1. The 80/20 Leadership Rule

If you spend five hours a week on your business:

• 80% of that time should be on your own business
  (customer acquisition, follow-up, selling, booking parties, growing relationships)
  
• 20% should be dedicated to your team
  (coaching, answering messages, recognition, team calls)
  

Why?

Because your business doesn’t grow unless YOU grow.

Your next rockstar recruit will come from your personal business activities — not from babysitting your team chat for hours.

Leaders lead from the front.

2. Get Your Personal Sales Done EARLY

One of the smartest things you can do as a leader?

Hit your personal sales goal — fast.

I always aim to hit my monthly minimum in the first week, often through front-loading parties and customer follow-ups.

Why this works:

✔ It creates momentum
✔ It gives your team a model to follow
✔ It frees you up to focus on sponsoring
✔ It prevents “end of month panic mode”
✔ It leads to duplication your team can follow

When the beginning of your month is strong, the rest of your month becomes strategic instead of chaotic.

3. Frontload Your Recruiting Efforts

Recruiting follows the same rhythm:
Plant seeds at the end of the month → harvest at the beginning of the month.

This is how you create flow.

You start conversations, follow up on open loops, check in with prospects, and nurture relationships — then sign them at the beginning of a fresh month.

This kind of structure creates a predictable sponsoring system, and predictability = leadership.

4. Model EVERYTHING You Want Your Team to Do

You cannot — and should not — tell your team to do things you aren’t willing to do yourself.

If you preach:

• Messaging
  
• Booking parties
  
• Being consistent
  
• Doing Facebook Lives
  
• Following up
  
• Showing up on social
  

…but never do it yourself?

Your team won’t either.

Your team learns more from what you show than from what you say.

A very real (and accurate) rule in network marketing:

✨ Your team will typically do 75% of what YOU do. ✨

So if you want your team working?
You have to be WORKING.

If you want your team booking?
You have to be BOOKING.

If you want your team selling?
You have to be SELLING.

5. Give Consistent Recognition

Recognition matters more than you think.

You can recognize:

• Their first sale
  
• Hitting their first rank
  
• Hitting a bonus
  
• Booking a party
  
• Doing their first live
  
• Completing training
  
• Anything worth celebrating!
  

Celebrate them:

• On your team page
  
• On your public profile
  
• In your opportunity group
  
• In your stories
  

Recognition breeds confidence.
Confidence breeds leadership.
Leadership breeds growth.

6. Build REAL Relationships With Your Team

This part is huge.

Do not be a “transactional” leader.
Be a relationship leader.

Ways to do this:
✔ Friend them on Facebook
✔ Comment on their life updates
✔ Support their wins (inside & outside business)
✔ Know what’s going on in their world
✔ Check in when they need it

Just remember the golden rule:

👉 Complain UP. Never down.

You can be friends, but your team is not your venting space.

7. Lead Like You’re Already Your Next Rank

This one is SO powerful.

If you want to be a Senior Director, show up as a Senior Director.

If you want to be a leader of 500 people, lead as though you already have 500.

Ask yourself:

• How would she show up online?
  
• How would she mentor her team?
  
• How would she speak?
  
• How would she carry herself?
  
• How would she move through her month?
  

Lead from your future identity — not your current one.

⭐ PART 2: How to Lead When You Have ZERO Team Members

Friend — leadership doesn’t start when you sponsor someone.
Leadership begins the moment you DECIDE to lead.

Here’s how to be a leader with no team yet:

1. Share Team & Company Stories

Borrow the belief.
Borrow the wins.
Borrow the success stories.

Share:

• Transformation stories
  
• Incentive trips
  
• Income wins
  
• Rank advancements
  
• Impact stories
  

If you don’t have your own story yet?
Share someone else’s.

Stories sell the opportunity long before you ever bring someone onto your team.

2. Show Up as the Leader You’re Becoming

You can:
✔ Show up consistently
✔ Post like a leader
✔ Sell like a leader
✔ Serve like a leader
✔ Recognize other stylists
✔ Engage in team spaces
✔ Be active in your upline’s community
✔ Share business blessings
✔ Share what you’re learning

People will join you because of how you SHOW UP — not because of your rank.

3. Start Developing Leadership Habits NOW

Leadership habits include:

• Personal development
  
• Listening to podcasts
  
• Reading books
  
• Working your business consistently
  
• Staying positive
  
• Being solution-focused
  
• Being a team player
  
• Uplifting others
  

You don’t suddenly become “leadership material” after you sponsor someone.

You become leadership material before they arrive — so when they do, you’re ready.

⭐ Final Thought: You Are a Leader RIGHT NOW

Whether you have:
→ zero team members
→ one person
→ or a massive organization…

Leadership is a CHOICE.

It’s how you:
✨ show up
✨ speak
✨ work
✨ serve
✨ grow
✨ carry yourself

Decide today:
“I am a leader.”

Then act like the woman who already leads the team of your dreams.

And that team?
She’s coming.
You just have to keep growing until she arrives. 💛

If this blog helped you, please:

➡️ screenshot it
➡️ share on Instagram or Facebook stories
➡️ tag me @lindsaydollinger
➡️ share it with your teams

And send me a message — I LOVE hearing what episodes you want next!

Go rock your business, friend. You’ve got this. ✨