A Conversation With Scheffy

You’re going to hear a lot more about the power of Success Links this year, as the concept has caught on fire within the coach community.

Today I was describing the concept of Success Links to a friend over breakfast and she said “it’s kind of like AA sponsorship – where you’re far less likely to relapse yourself if you are accountable to helping someone else succeed.” Well put!

This year’s Top Coach contest is all about building Success Links, where every coach has an incentive to get the person they recruit to build accountability. Every time I describe it to someone I can see the “aha” moment”. Accountability – that’s what has been missing!

Our first Top Coach winner in the new format shocked us all: Jason Scheff, the lead singer of Chicago. He topped the list and has built momentum like we would have never expected from a guy who already has a full time job and who you would never expect to embrace a peer-to-peer marketing concept. Who knew cool people could dig MLM too?

In a recent exchange with Jason, I was again reminded that people who want to help people really understand the value of connecting via Success Links. That’s why Beachbody’s growth plans have the potential of such a dramatic impact – but only when coaches focus their efforts on creating Success Links.

Here’s an excerpt taken from a string of Jason’s emails. He created a whopping 12 Success Links last month, and as you will read below, the guy is excited and as passionate about helping people as he is about rock and roll!

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Hey Carl,

Sorry I had to run today so quick. I am back out on the road again, (what else is new, right?) and in Tampa right now.

I'll tell you brother, it's funny that Horton was my trainer back in the day and I *was* in the best shape I'd ever been in, up until that point... but it didn't stick and you know why? No support system other than my trainer, Tony. Once I stopped hiring him it was only a matter of time before I slipped back into being a fat slob! And that isn't a good thing for someone on stage. Nothing worse than seeing a fat, middle aged rocker. As I said to you today, one of the things I really dig is how transparent I've become. I've put my life out there for fans. I had to do something DRASTIC. I had to ANNOUNCE to my fans before I'd lifted a FINGER I was going to get in shape. It's all in my blogs here on MySpace.

I really *got it* at the coaches summit. I'm sitting there thinking, "What are you keeping your mouth shut for?" You see I'm VERY careful to not go after my fans for money. I've kept my reputation and image very pure because that's my heart. So it was a bit of a hurdle to talk about what I'm doing as a coach and all that, but I got over it, OBVIOUSLY! I thought, "What good am I doing ANYBODY by keeping my mouth shut? NO ONE!"

It was in my Scheffy Show webcast that "The Scheffy Challenge" was born. I'd love to say I'm smart enough to come up with something like that but it was ALL the fans. Their idea, their PRIZE they named. It was PURE collaboration in the biggest Web 3.0 sense. EXACTLY what I've been working for. Once I launched the challenge I offered the business opportunity side of it and went through my stumbling of how to present that. I did my best by putting your videos and everything up but, in my culture, there are always naysayers and haters. You got ‘em too bro! You get big and they wanna come after you! So I've been getting the email here and there with the fan that tells me there is talk out there about this *pyramid scheme* I'm involved in. I see it as a GREAT opportunity to explain myself – That’s why I LOVE the web! Because I get to put it all out there so NO ONE can do their own P.R. smear! What great technology we have these days... I can press a button RIGHT NOW and be streaming a live broadcast/webcast and settle the score. For me, this is about helping people – by showing that I was getting myself fit first - and that’s it!

Dude, I wanted to stop eating candy on the back of the bus. I wanted my fingers to stop tingling. I have a 10 year old and a 7 year old that I wasn't playing with because I just didn't have the energy. So that's been my vision brother... I wanted to WORK for my results so it would *stick*. I am self appointing myself to be the *celeb* that finds the *right* way to do this so that it sticks – not just for me, for everybody who cares to listen.

We all know the truth... This WORKS! It's not snake oil or a scam. Since Horton was my trainer back in my FIRST heyday, haaaa, I know what his programs do and how effective they are. I just didn't have the support system back then. So I know first hand how legit this all is... I've been doing it for 10 months now! I'm not saying that the ONLY road to nirvana is *this* product... I'm saying that doing SOMETHING and attaching a supportive group of people to it is the answer. I happened to choose this one. It’s working for me. But I don’t care if people want to climb trees together and support each other from day to day – just do it and help each other!

I'm going to be touring with The Doobie Brothers this summer, just finished a Japan tour with Huey Lewis and The News... and don't think THOSE guys were ALL over me about how I look right now! Huey was flipping out...

The best part about it... it's ALL about just WORKING for it. Get in SHAPE! Everything falls into place. But a funny thing happens on the way to the office when you're doing that... the MUSE happens and the sky's the limit. Talk to you soon... your friend and brother... Jason

The Power of a Success Link

There's a new concept that's become all the rage at Beachbody which was developed in our network marketing think-tank on the 7th floor: The "Success Link"

As you know, I got to hang out with our seventeen 2007 Top Coaches and runners-up in Hawaii a few weeks ago. It was a blast, and it only made us all look forward to topping it in Mexico next year. From what I hear, that's what the Coach goal is: "Get to Mexico," and that objective is now tied to creating Success Links.

This Top Coach contest is geared to keep the business opportunity on point: Helping people get accountable to their healthy lifestyle more than simply recruiting new coaches. In this case, helping people get accountable means, helping someone you coach create at least one "active" coach to whom they are accountable. You - to them - to their downline... Three "active status" coaches in a row, equals one "Success Link".

The premise here is that, in order to help people succeed with their decision to become a coach and live a healthy active lifestyle, they need to be accountable to more than just their upline coach. They need to be accountable to someone downline, to whom they said "I am going to get serious about fitness and nutrition, and I will do this with you."

The upside to the coach is, the more success links you have, the more accountable YOU are to stay with your program, and in turn, the more people you are helping. It's not so easy to quit when you tell someone you are in it for the long haul. THAT'S accountability to a healthy lifestyle! That's the point of a Success Link.

Each month we will take a snap shot of how many new Success Links were created. There will be as many as 20 winners each month, with cash prizes ranging from $100 to $2,000, and the leader will be named Top Coach. All Top Coaches from April through December will be invited to join us for the fiesta-filled event in Mexico! Each Top Coach will be featured in a video segment on the Team Beachbody™ Web site and headlined in Momentum, the monthly Coach newsletter.

The contest officially kicked off on March 31st. At the end of each business week, the system counts the number of active Success Links you have for that week. If the number is 8 or greater, you will be recognized for the club level that you have achieved:

8 active links = Bronze
12 active links = Silver
20 active links = Gold
30 active links = Executive

Recognition as you climb through the ranks includes a special “Success Link Club” pin and your name posted in the “Success Link Club” area of Coach’s Corner.

Any coach you have personally sponsored (ever since you joined the business) will be counted as an active success link so long as they are active with 50PV and they have a personally sponsored coach who is active with 50PV.

Special note- a personally sponsored coach can only be counted as one active link even if they have more than one active personally sponsored coach.

Example- Carl sponsors Kevin who is active and Kevin sponsors Michael, Jim and Jason all active with 50PV. Kevin will count as one active link for Carl even though he has three personally sponsored coaches who are active. Kevin has the potential for three active links because he has three personally sponsored coaches. (Nice work Kevin!)

We have developed a weekly report that will be sent to each coach telling how many active success links they had at the start of the contest period and how many active links they have at the end of each commission period. This will allow you to track your increase and compare that to the top 20 list that will be posted in Coach’s Corner each week.

I almost forgot the big money: There will also be the Top Coach of the year who wins a $10,000 prize. And two other half-year awards of $5,000 for the most Success Links measured two times during the year. Also, you can earn cash rewards in multiple months if you repeatedly rank in the top 20. Part of the contest also includes "Elite Points", which I will describe in a future post, but you can get the contest rules in Coaches Corner.

The bottom line is, the more Success Links you get, the more people you help to get active and healthy. And the more people you help get active and healthy, the more you deserve to hang with the other Top Coaches in Mexico. As the network of coaches expands, THAT'S the activity we want to reward, and we're putting our money where that kind of healthy success happens!