Beyond The Team: Emily's Shift to Coaching Success

In this episode of Her Purpose, Emily shares her inspiring journey of building incredible success in network marketing—only to realize, after about seven years, that something was missing. While she had achieved incredible financial milestones and recognition, she found herself craving something deeper: the opportunity to teach and empower more people beyond just her own team and company.

Emily’s true passion was helping others master the art of success in network marketing, regardless of their company or background. This realization led her to pivot from solely building her own business to launching a coaching platform called Beyond The Rank where she now mentors entrepreneurs across the industry. She’s on a mission to equip network marketers with the skills, strategy, and mindset they need to thrive. She can be found on Instagram at @emilygibsonandco and @beyondtherankandco.

Tune in as Emily opens up about the transition, the challenges of stepping into a new purpose, and how she’s making a bigger impact than ever before. If you’re in network marketing—or thinking about it—this episode is packed with valuable insights on what it really takes to succeed!

Transcript

And then around year six, seven, I started feeling like it's not as fulfilling as it used to be. What's that about? Like, what's that about? But if you feel called for more, like, not stepping into that is gonna suck your soul, and that's what it started to do to me, and I can't live like that. And I'm just so glad that all of that happened, because I never would be making the impact that I am right now if I would have just continued to do what I thought I was going to do for the rest of my life.
Welcome to her purpose, the podcast where together we dive into the inspiring journeys of women who are living out their purpose, not just for themselves, but in a way that serves others and creates lasting impact. I'm your host, Kendra Morse, and I'm here to share stories of women who've discovered their passions, overcome obstacles and found fulfillment in stepping into the work that they know they were meant to do. In each episode, we'll explore what it means to live fully, embrace your unique gifts, discover their purpose and past experiences, often painful ones, and use them to make a difference in the world. So if you're ready to be inspired and empowered to pursue your own path of meaningful purpose, then you're in the right place. Let's get started, and remember, let no one clip your wings. After about seven years of massive success in network marketing, Emily realized her true passion wasn't just in building her own business. She knew deep down that what really set her soul on fire was teaching others how to succeed wanting to make a bigger impact. She transitioned from leading her team to coaching network marketers across all companies. Now she helps entrepreneurs master the skills and mindset needed to really thrive in their businesses. In this episode, Emily shares her journey the challenges of pivoting and what it really takes to succeed in network marketing? Well, I am so excited to be chatting with you today. We have been like, digital online friends. I would say, like, I am a customer of yours or a client of yours, and have been and you've changed my life in my business. So I know how passionate you are and for what you do, and there's zero down my mind that you're living in your purpose. So when I put together this podcast, or we started working on kind of what we wanted this to be about, and it's all about women living in their purpose, you're one of the first people that popped into my head. She's living life on purpose. She's living in her purpose. She's impacting so many lives. But I want to kind of dig in. I feel like I know a lot of your story because I I've talked to you, or I've listened to you quite a bit, but I kind of want to know, like, going back as a kid, what were your first ideas or experiences around fulfillment and like purpose? Oh, gosh,
well, I wanted to be a doctor, duh. Didn't everyone like I wanted to grow up and be a doctor, and then I had a family member tell me I wasn't smart enough for that, so I should pick something a little more reasonable, like a teacher, which this is not to offend the teachers, because teachers you are under under appreciated and under rewarded. Teachers are some of the most highly intelligent people in our society. But people think that it's just a job because of what it's paid, because it's regulated by the government and communities and things like taxpayer dollars. People think that teachers are like a lower status job, but really, teachers spend more time with our children than we do as parents, so they have a huge impact in society. So anyway, I set my sights on being a teacher, because that's what I believed I would be good at doing. Graduated in elementary education, and then I just wanted to be a stay at home mom like that was really like my biggest dream was wanting to be a stay at home mom. So I had four kids in seven years, and then was totally overwhelmed with life. I'm an only child step siblings, but I didn't live with them until later, and I turned out to find some products in a little network marketing company based out of Scottsdale, Arizona. And I thought this is like an MLM dream. No one's ever heard of this before, and I love it. And six months later, I was at the top of the company. Did that for a decade, and then decided to use all of those gifts and qualities and things that have made me successful as a mom and a school teacher and a network marketer to launch a coaching business. And here I am. So it's just like been a wild ride, just following my passion and where God is calling me to go?
Yeah, so you, I know you've been in network marketing for 10 years, top of the company, amazing leader, earned all the trips on a yacht this summer. At what point, though, was there a pivotal moment where you realized I want more than just to be the top of my network marketing game? Like. So what caused that shift? Yeah, you know it was,
it was right around that time where I had earned everything there was to earn, like the company was making new incentive programs to help seven or eight of us have something to reach for. And so I was part of a group of three, three other people at the top of the company, where we looked at some options and private super yacht. Hello, like, Yes, I wanted to be a part of that. And so they showed it to us a few months before it was launched to the company. And then I earned it right after. It was just that. What took me about I think it took me a year to get that final piece of that puzzle, but it was so fun. And during that process, I think the thing that really stuck out to me, and this is not something that I ever want, like other network marketers, to hear this and be scared of, like, Oh my gosh. Like, Wait, what are you saying? But there comes a point in every professional network marketers career where you realize you don't actually own your business. You have to have really great relationships with corporate to have a say in what products are developed. The incentives. You sit on boards, you get volunteer time. You put your heart and soul into creating things. And at the end of the day, you're not an employee of the company, you're on the sales team and this really high achiever inside of me wanted more than that. I wanted to own it. I wanted to be in charge of what I sold, when I sold it, how I sold it. After doing that work marketing for seven years, this was when I launched my own coaching business. I started getting really opinionated about how I thought it was best to get momentum for people how I thought it was best to train top leaders, and because I had specific systems and methodologies of how I see network marketers have the best success, I really wanted to train that to everyone and not just people. In my company, I had friends and people and in dozens of network marketing companies who were coming to me asking for their help, and I realized there was this deeper calling and passion inside of me as a teacher, like, it makes sense, like that's what I went to school for, right? And there was this deeper passion inside of me that wanted everyone to win, not just people on my team, not just people in my company. I'm the type of girl that, if we go and we hang out, I want to elevate you. I want to elevate the girl next to you. I want to elevate the girl next to us. And I'm highly competitive, but I love to see everybody win. And so there just became this point in my career, about three years ago. Well, it was actually like a year or two before that, because I really wrestled with it for two years before I launched my company, because I felt like I was, like, being a sellout, you know, like, Oh, she can't cut it. She's got to go be a coach. That was a belief system that I had had around it, because not many truly successful network marketers become coaches, it's usually people who have not been able to be successful in the industry that understand there's a really big service you can provide by teaching concepts. And so I kind of had this belief that, oh, if you're a coach, it's because you can't make it. And I even had a corporate executive tell me once, when I was fighting really hard for one of my favorite network marketing coaches to come speak at convention. He was like, you know why people go do that, right? And I was like, why? Like, this person is so genius. And he was like, it's because they can't cut it like you, they can't do what you do. And that really, like, messed with me for two years before I launched my coaching business, because I thought, Wait, does this mean I can't cut it? Does this mean I can't do it? But there was just this higher power, like truly within me that was calling me to come and serve the industry and be able to make it easier for people, because so many coaches and and well intentioned people over complicate the business of network marketing. And the elementary school teacher in me was like, it doesn't have to be that complicated. It can be so much fun, and you can have so much success no matter what your personality is like I could show you. And so after two years of wrestling with it, there was this big thing that happened with my company where I got my feelings really, really hurt, and I thought, You know what? I want to own it. I want to own it like I'm done not owning my business. And now I look back on that decision, and I'm just so glad that all of that happened, because I never would be making the impact that I am right now if I would have just continued to do what I thought I was going to do for the rest of my life, which I loved and I was so obsessed with, like I have so much love and gratitude for that time in my life and everything it taught me and. And I love the company that I built my career in, and it's, it's just been such a full circle moment for me, though, to really step into what I feel God has called me to do. I feel like God put me on this earth to teach people how to do network marketing in a way that makes them Be like, wildly successful.
You know, I think it's really interesting when you look at the coaches, and it's hard in as a leader in network marketing, it's hard not to think, are they transitioning because of changes in the industry, or those exact beliefs? But something that just always shines so bright for you is your belief in the industry. And I feel like I'd love to know like you're talking about how you went from being super successful in network marketing and now you're super, even more successful as a coach. But why are you so passionate about helping people not make that transition right where? Where is your purpose in helping people find success in this industry? Like, why are you so passionate about helping others thrive in network marketing.
So first of all, network marketing is a unique business opportunity that brought our family out of credit card debt, not having time together. I was a stay at home mom making $0 a month, and I turned into a millionaire with zero training for it. Like, where does that happen? Anywhere else, nowhere. And I never set out to be that. I just wanted to make $1,000 a month. And where can you do that and still be at home with your kids just posting pictures on your phone and talking to your friends all day like it was something that was unique that nothing else could have offered me if I was a school teacher. Well, when I was a school teacher, I was making $2,200 a month, and I had to leave my house every morning by 730 and then, as long as I was not tied up in paperwork, parent teacher conferences, making things in my classroom, all those things I was lucky to be home by five. I always used to put on, like the Ellen DeGeneres and Oprah Winfrey Show on in my in my classroom after school, while I, like, cleaned it up and organized everything and got ready for the next day and did printouts and lamination. And then I'd bring home lamination to cut, and I'd bring home grades to, you know, papers to grade like it didn't just stop when I got home at five, it went into the evening. And I didn't have kids back then, so it wasn't that big of a deal. My husband was going to school to become a physical therapist and working, so it was just something to do when I got home. But I can't even imagine how hard it would be to live that life and have four kids now, I would not get to spend any time with my kids, and it wouldn't be enough money to even pay the bills. It just wouldn't and so to give women especially I know that there are some men in our industry, but it's primarily female based to give women a way to bring money into their family while still living the rest of their life without too much disruption, is priceless, and I will just never forget what the network marketing industry did for Me and how nothing like it exists anywhere else now, something I will say to speak to when you were talking about, like, as a top leader, when you look at other people that do this like, we are, we are, we have a critical eye against people. But like, look at every other like business industry in the world, okay, look at NFL, for example, like my husband was a huge Green Bay Packers fan. He went to school with Aaron Rodgers in high school. He's followed his career. Now he's with the New York Jets. And I said to him, I was like, Is he like the oldest guy in the NFL right now? And Sean said, well, we'd have to ask, you know, chat, GPT or whatever, but, like, I think so. And I was like, man, he should retire. He should retire and become a coach. He would be so good look at all of his experience that he could be an amazing coach for the NFL. And then all of a sudden, I was like, why don't we do that for really top performing network marketers? Why don't we do that? Why don't we see it as something they graduate into. Like, why do why are we critical of each other? Like, oh, they can't hang. And I have a theory about this. Not sure if you want me to share it. I do. But like, even you look at like, Olympians, like, look at Simone Biles, yeah, she's gonna retire here some point in the next several years, if not this year, right? And she's going to be revered for her career wisdom, experience. What do they do with Michael Phelps? They put them on as a contributor during the Olympics. They have them be the person that's on the microphone looking at the new, up and coming person who's swimming. Oh yeah. Oh, this is so hard. What he just did, so hard. Let me, let me explain it. You. But what happens to females in our industry when they want to graduate into coaching? Oh, she couldn't hang Oh, too hard. Oh, she couldn't keep the momentum going. Oh, why do we do that? I
want to know what your thoughts are. What's your
theory? I think that. I think that there's a culture of females eating other females,
maybe
and not, not saying that all women are Mean Girls, but that there is a culture among women that not many women are willing to admit. Where, if we feel threatened by something that someone else is doing, that an instinct within us is criticism. And this is not a blanket statement that all women do this or whatever, but I can't tell you how much criticism I received from people within my company, in other companies, not many people outside of network marketing were critical of me when I made this shift. A lot of people outside of the industry said things to me like, oh, it's such a natural next step for you. I'm not surprised at all. I'm shocked you didn't do it sooner. But within our industry, there's suspicion, What's she trying to take from me? How's this gonna hurt me? What's it gonna do? What's it gonna mean about me? What's it gonna say about me? Does she know something I don't know. It's like there's this scarcity cancer within the network marketing space, and one of my missions is to eliminate that out of our industry from the bottom up, to heal it from the root, meaning the new people that are brought in aren't raised with those ideas, and then we just smash it from the inside out, because it doesn't need to Be there. It just doesn't need to be there.
It's such a small I feel like our career path is a small group of people, the people that are a part of this industry. It's a very small group. And I can absolutely agree with I've seen a lot of those different beliefs all throughout my years in this industry, and I 100% agree that it's always a scarcity mindset. It's always a fear of lack. It's always rooted in fear, not in love and yes, why is our industry so different than any other industry? As far as coaching, not everyone is going to go through this path and become a coach, but for those people that have a ton of experience that can help people like I'm wondering how many people listening to this that are thinking, I want to become a coach, maybe not in network marketing, but in in anything like you say, anything that anyone does, you become a professional and you know how to do it. Then, of course, the next step is to become a coach and help other people do the same thing, accomplish the same way, but going back to that year or two where you were struggling to do it. And then also, like when you first started your coaching business, what would you say were the biggest things that were holding you back? Internal beliefs or external?
Gosh, there were lots of things, right? I mean, my pride was probably the biggest thing holding me back of I was gonna be a 17 star diamond for the rest of my life, and that was the only thing I was going to do, until the day I died like I bled my company, like it was in my blood. I lived, sleeped, ate, breathed, my company. I was in love with everything with it, and I had to deconstruct thinking like a network marketer to be a really great coach, because interacting with my network as a network marketer was totally different interacting as an unbiased coach. And it's hard to explain other than the way that I would I would say to you, I want you to think about all of your clientele are now not your friends and family, it's anyone you've known professionally, and you want to help them by pointing out the things that make them struggle, which are the things you spent seven years telling everyone aren't a struggle
that's deep,
because when you're a network marketer, what? What are you trying to get people to believe it's not as hard as it looks? I'll show you. You can do it. Give it two years, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, you ought to deconstruct all of that to become a coach, and then it's okay. Here's this system for how it works. It's not working well. It's probably because you're not doing it hard enough. It's probably because you're not doing it long enough, which is a shift. From Oh, nook and cranny. Oh, just a little bit here. Just being a coach versus an upline is totally different ball game. So I had to deconstruct all of that to interact and have a completely different relationship with everyone that I knew as a coach versus a network marketer, while retaining all of my wisdom, experience, knowledge of a network marketer. And then the other challenge that I had was network marketers are just suspicious of other network marketers, because are they going to take my team? And so from the very beginning, one of the things that I decided was I was never gonna buy anything from anyone that bought something from me and my coaching business, and they were never gonna buy anything from me. And I knew that it had to be that way from the start, and then it's taken me about three years for people to actually believe me that I mean it because Talk is cheap, let's be honest, but actions speak louder than words, and I knew that it was a short it would it would be something that would be so easy to grow my downline. If I just was a coach and a network marketer and I started coaching people at other companies, it would just be so easy for me to sign them up and build my downline at the same time and have both pieces of the pie. But my vision was so much bigger than that. I knew that what I wanted to do was going to be a marathon. I wanted to speak on network marketing stages. I wanted to teach the systems that I believed in that I know can help someone that's not great on social media, that doesn't have the same personality as me that sucks at marketing. I know that my systems can help the average Joe absolutely crush it in network marketing, and in order to reach that person, I'm gonna have to run Facebook ads and throw hundreds of 1000s of dollars into marketing that may never, I may never make back. I want to speak on stages of every single network marketing company, the little ones, the big ones, so that I can teach people these systems and they can win. And in order to do that, I have to prove that I can be trusted and that I'm not going to just do something like sign up everyone under me, right? It would be, so it would be. I can see why it's so tempting for so many network marketers to use a coaching business as a lead magnet for their downline. But it never made sense in my head how I could be an unbiased source as a coach to someone if I had those intentions, because then how can you fully trust me when I say something to you? You can't and ultimately trust with my client, that supersedes everything, and that's that core value within me of honesty, trust, character and accountability that I built my coaching business on, and that's why I've been able to attract leaders like yourself across 20 different network marketing companies and executives and CEOs of multiple network marketing companies now that we're working with and collaborating with in order to help them have these systems for their companies too. Was
it a really hard and fast stop on building your network marketing business when you started the coaching program? Or was there because I know you've earned things since,
oh yeah, I stopped my like, I am living the actual network marketing dream. Like, why did we all start this? Yeah? Like, residual income, right? I'm like, what I was gonna say is, yeah, we felt good on the products. We wanted to help a friend. But like, ding, ding, ding, network marketing, residual income. Work really hard for a couple of years and get paid for the rest of your life. Is that not why we do network marketing? Huge perk. That's the dream, right? And so, um, so I did both businesses for a year together, and I had a top 15 team. My My organization is still I top 30, winning everything. I even just got an email, but like, I earned, like, another thing, a trip to the Bahamas, a shopping spree, and then I think I'm gonna earn it under my husband's position too. Again. Like, it's wild. I literally look at my husband last night and I'm like, Look how amazing my systems are. Still I haven't touched my business in three years. I haven't posted about anything in two years, and it is still just gangbusters, and I get a ginormous check like dream. Extreme job status, like I probably make more than the surgeon down the street from us. That's our neighbor, just on that residual check. And it's not just because I got in early, by the way. I joined my network marketing company when it was eight years old. It had already hit that like massive momentum. Thing that happens in the beginning twice like that. I didn't live through any of that, right? What I did, though, was I built really wide and really deep, and I worked on developing leaders, and because I did all of that really gritty work for seven years without taking months off or anything like that, I would take a week off three times a year and completely disconnect to go on earned trips, a trip to Disneyland with my family, and then a family trip to my parents lake house in California every year. So three weeks out of the year, three different times I would completely disconnect. But other than that, I was working it just like I did when I had a nine to five job every single day, Monday through Friday, sometimes Saturdays if I needed to do an event or something like that. But because of that consistency, because that ball that I pushed up the hill, I pushed it up for so long that it was so big, that the momentum just doesn't stop. And when you have the right systems to create that type of duplication, and you know how to develop high quality leaders like I did, it has the gift that keeps on giving forever and ever and ever. And I'm so grateful to my past self, like, Thanks for hooking me up. Emily from 2015 that started this to just make $1,000 a month. Like, what?
How would you describe the difference in in feeling a sense of fulfillment, in being a leader in network marketing versus being a coach?
I think it's just different, different love, different phases of my of my career, I was so incredibly fulfilled growing my network marketing business. I remember in the early stages just feeling like, I can't believe they're paying me for this. I would do this for free, and then earning the trips, and then being like, well, I'm never coming on a trip again without someone from my team, I gotta go figure out how to develop leaders, and then watching leaders earn trips, and then helping them get their leaders to earn trips, and then getting new people and creating new legs and all these other things, and feeling so much fulfillment in all of it For so long. And then around year six, seven, I started feeling like it's not as fulfilling as it used to be. What's that about? Like, what's that about? And so I got coached by someone not in network marketing, and just explored some of those feelings for myself in a really non threatening environment with someone that had no business, whether I, you know, did whatever I did or not, right? I wanted it to be unbiased. This is why it's so important that this is why it's so key that that you never order anything from me and my MLM, and I never order anything from you and yours, because to be unbiased is the best gift you can give your client. And so I found someone that I knew was unbiased, and I sorted through all of my feelings, and what it came down to was that I needed an extra challenge.
These conversations show us that living with purpose is so not about perfection, it's about trusting the whispers of your heart, embracing what is probably going to feel like a mess, and having the courage to take that first or next step when you probably won't feel ready. I do believe that every woman has a story that's unfolding, and every story can become a spark of inspiration for someone else. So if today's episode has touched you in any way, my ask is this, share it with a woman you love who might need a reminder that she's not alone, and those whispers she's feeling, they're there for a reason. All right, let's get back to the episode.
I had mastered everything that had ever been given to me, and there was nothing more for me to master, and I was ready for more. And so for me, I'm not the type of person that can sit in that type of what's the word I'm looking for, not like, like, like. I need to wake up and be inspired every day with what I do. I can't just be like I'm thinking of the I'm thinking of the quote by Theodore Roosevelt, the Man in the Arena, right, not being one of those cold, timid souls that neither knows victory from defeat. Mm. Like I literally created another seven figure business, risking everything to do it because I didn't want to be with those cold, timid souls that neither knows victory from defeat, even though, if you look at my network marketing career, you would never look at it as something that was not anything other than massive, wild success. I mean, I've achieved more than when people say I'm in the top 1% of network marketers, I'm like, Well, I'm in the top 1% of that 1% like, that's where my career fell. Like, not like fell, but not as like falling, but like. That's where it landed, right top 1% of the 1% it probably still, is still, is exactly like it's just wild, like I, when I, when I talk to CEOs and other companies, I'm always super transparent. I have a downline of 20,000 I did this for 10 years. That's why, that's why I'm worth something to you. And when I tell them the money that I still make, and I show them paychecks and my contracts that I have, that I will I have never and will never, sign up someone from that's a client, you know, whatever they look at me and they're like, this is actually really impressive, because if people knew how to build an organization like you do, we would all be more successful in this industry, because it's that long term. It's that longevity that people miss out on in network marketing. That messes them up is they think, Oh, I'm gonna hit the rank, right? That's why I made my program called Beyond the rank, because you got to go beyond the rank, and then you got to manage your mind after after the rank too, right? But it's getting beyond the rank that will give you the longevity in the industry that you want. But most people quit too soon. They they have a little success. And what I mean by a little success is you hit the top of the company, in my opinion, that's when you are finally having your degree in network marketing. Now you get to go practice. It's like a doctor that goes to medical school and does eight years in residency. It takes you, let's say it takes you five years to hit the top of your company. Well, that's your residency. Now you get to go practice medicine for the rest of your life, practice network marketing. The cool thing for us, though, is we get residual income, so if we decide we don't want to operate anymore seven days a week, we can go become coaches and teach people how to do it right. And how cool is that