Executive TLDR
The Village Concept: Success is communal; the entire hierarchy must work together to “raise” new leaders through shared energy and diverse relatability.
Energy Management: Leaders are the power sources for their teams; you must stay “fired up” to recharge teammates who are drained by their daily environments.
Process over Title: Leadership is a “Law of Process.” Do not “park” on your title; your current relevance is defined by your recruiting and licensing numbers today.
Influence Hierarchy: Moving through the five levels—from Position to Pinnacle—is the only way to build a stable, non-roller-coaster business.
Video Summary: The 5 Levels of Leadership
Eduar Fernandez delivers a high-energy training session focused on the progression of leadership and the cultural mindset required for massive expansion. He emphasizes that “Destination is more important than Situation,” urging leaders to focus on their future goals rather than current temporary struggles. He highlights the Law of Process, explaining that leadership is built daily through consistent action, coaching, and staying “in the trenches
The core of the presentation breaks down the five distinct levels of influence:
Level 1: Position (Title): The lowest level where people follow because they have to. Eduar warns against building a business based on past accolades or seniority.
Level 2: Permission (Relationships): People follow because they want to. While essential, he cautions against letting “likability” replace “respect” or allowing personal relationships to overshadow business logic.
Level 3: Production (Results): Respect is earned through leading by example and generating numbers. However, leaders must avoid prioritizing “Cash over Character.”
Level 4: People Development (Reproduction): The stage where you empower others to succeed. This is the foundation of a wide and deep organization.
Level 5: Pinnacle (Respect): The highest level, where people follow because of who you are and what you represent. This is the level achieved by the “Legends” of the business.
Fernandez concludes with a powerful spiritual analogy regarding faith, reminding the audience that they are always “one recruit away from an explosion” and urging them to never allow their faith to be broken by temporary setbacks.
FAQs
Q: What does Eduar mean by “it takes a village to raise a child”?
A: He means that every leader in the hierarchy should support and celebrate the success of any new representative, regardless of which team they belong to.
Q: Why is “energy” considered a leader’s responsibility?
A: Teams are like cell phones that get drained by the world; the leader must act as the “plug” to recharge them with excitement and positivity.
Q: What is the difference between movement and progress?
A: Movement is being busy; progress is doing the specific activities (presentations, recruiting, licensing) that actually grow the business.
Q: Why is “Position” (Level 1) the weakest level of leadership?
A: Because people only give the minimum effort required when they follow someone simply because of a title.
Q: Can a leader be successful at Level 2 (Permission) alone?
A: No. Relationship is important, but if you don’t produce results (Level 3), the team won’t respect your business guidance.
Q: What is the “Law of Process”?
A: It is the idea that leadership and success happen over time through daily habits, not through a single event or title.
Q: Why does age not matter in this business?
A: The “scoreboard” (POL) only tracks performance metrics like recruiting and cash flow, not the age of the leader.
Q: How does Eduar define a “roller coaster business”?
A: A business that goes up to high production and then crashes because it was built on temporary hype rather than solid Level 4 development.
Q: What is the danger of prioritizing “Cash over Character”?
A: It may lead to short-term gains (Production), but the business will eventually fail because it lacks a solid, ethical foundation.
Q: How do you reach Level 5 (Pinnacle)?
A: By spending decades developing other leaders and maintaining an ultimate example of character and success.
Q: What are the four things you can never get back in life?
A: 1. Words after they are said, 2. Time after it is gone, 3. Trust after it is broken, and 4. Opportunities after they are missed.
Q: Why should leaders avoid “parking” on their titles?
A: Because yesterday’s success doesn’t pay today’s bills; a leader must stay active and keep producing new results.
Q: What is the importance of the “Haiti group” story?
A: It illustrates that relatability is key to inspiration—seeing someone from a similar background succeed makes the goal feel attainable.
Q: How much does Eduar earn monthly?
A: He states that his business now earns over $50,000 per month.
Q: What is the “Devil’s Table” analogy about?
A: It is a story about the power of faith and prayer, illustrating that your breakthrough often happens just as you are at your breaking point.
Q: How do you know if you are making “Progress”?
A: By looking at your numbers: personal premium, recruits, and licensing within your base shop.
Glossary
Law of Process: The leadership principle that growth develops daily through consistent habits, not in a single day.
Base Shop: The primary team and environment directly managed by a leader, serving as the “training ground.”
SVP (Senior Vice President): One of the highest leadership ranks in the company, representing significant organizational reach.
QBI (Quality of Business Index): A metric used to track the retention and health of the business, often viewed as a “character scoreboard.”
The Village: The cultural concept of a hierarchy working collectively to support and train new representatives.
POL: The internal “scoreboard” or performance tracking system used to rank leaders based on production.
Level 4 (People Development): The leadership stage focused on reproducing results in others and creating independent leaders.
Pinnacle: The fifth and highest level of leadership where influence is based on a lifetime of legacy and respect.
Transcript:
Look, I want to get right into it, man. I want to teach you guys something. But look, one of the things that I want you guys to understand is that it takes a village to raise a child. And we’re in this school, and we’re in this school together. So what I’m saying is, look, whenever one of John’s RVPs goes up, I’m going to get up and I’m going to get excited. Just, if it was one of my RVPs, I’m going to clap for Michael’s senior rep, just how I would clap for Olivier’s senior rep. You understand? So when I tell you guys it takes a village to raise a child, we are all in this together. Everybody say together. When I first started here, one of the most inspirational people and demographic group was the Haiti group. I promise you guys, man, because you guys came from a place that looked like where I come from, right?
And as much as I loved Yvonne, they couldn’t relate to my story. So when they brought me here to the village as a child, and I saw the community in Charlemagne and Tesla and Rezzy, man, where’s Rezzy? Where’s he at? Okay, he’s taller if he stands on his wallet, right? So come on, man. My brother’s going over half a million tonight, man. Give it up for him, man. When I met Rezzy, he barely spoke English. So did I. Right? I mean, he’s from Cuba, and it was two people don’t speak the language, trying to understand each other, right? I’m kidding. But anyways and he was so excited, man. He was a regional leader. He had just got this jacket that I think Charlemagne was given at the time. Charlemagne was at 300,000, right? The income level that we’re at now, and I remember seeing this guy, and he was fired up.
He was a regional leader, and he was competing with the guy that recruited me at the time, and he was fired up. He had just quit his job at the Old Navy, right? Was it old Navy resi. I think it was Tommy Hilfiger. Tommy hilfiger. Right. A little bit better. And he was so excited, man. He was so excited. He was a regional leader. He’s like, Man, Dan, this thing is the best, man. The best. I don’t know. He says, I’m excited. And at the time, I don’t think he was making 50,000 a year, and today he’s making over 50,000 a month. So when I tell you guys that it takes a village to raise a child, I mean that, guys. So look, what we have to practice before I get into it is we have to practice energy, man. Like this cool over here.
Harvey, by the way, is one of my best friends. Between him and my RVPs, those are my best friends. Those are my buddies. Those are the guys I invest time with. Guys. I don’t want my friend coming out here and coming out to half. You guys sleeping? I don’t want to see that, okay? I’m serious. Like, my office, if you know me, man, you got to be high. Energetic. You got to be high. So, guys, I want you guys to get fired up because we can only get as good as you guys give us. Does that make sense? Say yes. Yes. One more time. All right, now we’re ready to talk. Okay? So, guys, I want to talk to you guys today about leadership. And I want you guys to know that, look, as a leader thank you. As a leader, you guys are the ones that give your team energy, right?
People get drained all day. They’re like cell phones. They get used all day, right? Use it. Use it. Use it. What happens to your phone if you don’t plug it in at the end of the night? Dies, right? So when people come to you, some of you guys got no energy, man. You come out and it’s like, man, there’s no excitement. There’s nothing positive, nothing big happening. I see you guys, right? And it’s like, dude, what is going on? If I’m going to come at you for energy, like, how the hell are you so low? You got to be fired up, man. You guys got to be fired up about this opportunity. You got to be fired up about the Kenny’s of the world, about the leaves, right? I mean, there’s just so many amazing things that can happen, and I want you guys to understand that destination is more important than situation.
I’ll take a person that knows where they’re going over, the one that thinks he knows where he’s at. Do not confuse movement with progress. It is not the same thing, okay? There are some of you guys, man, you do a lot of moving, but there are some of other of you guys that you’re doing presentations every day. You’re talking to people. You’re getting better, right? You’re staying coachable. You listen to audios. You know what happens over time. By the law of process, you will get better. So these are the five levels that people look up to, right? The five levels of leadership. Say number one, it’s position, okay? People are going to follow you and listen to you because of your title. I am a division leader, a regional leader, an RVP. I’m a senior vice president. I’m a national sales director. I’m a senior national sales director.
Like, guys, obviously this is the worst. Right or wrong sometimes, man, it doesn’t matter what you’ve done before. Today is my birthday. Did you guys know that? Okay, cool. Becoming successful is like having a birthday. How many times a year do people tell you, happy birthday? What happens after that? So if you’re really good at this thing, you’re going to get congratulated about 80 times, 365 days a year, 80 times in your lifetime. You should hear days that are happy birthday. That’s how it is to become successful. So many people are past, man, back when I was 21, Tony, man, we used to man, back in high school, back in college. It doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter what you’ve done. You cannot build a business on how you used to run a 50 grand base shop. You cannot run a business on how you used to do 10,000 in personal premium.
You cannot build a business on how you used to have this great track record. It doesn’t matter. Say it doesn’t matter. Look, me and my girlfriend last month, right? Soon to be wife, because she’s doing awesome as a girlfriend, right? She’s going to get promoted, right? Man, she’s like the highlight of my business. Ever since she came into my life, everything has gotten better. Everything. I promise you. Last month, we did nine personal recruits by 27,000 in personal production. Okay, but look, it’s not that wasn’t the team. The team did 252 by 170,000, right? So when I’m telling you guys, look, we don’t want to be positional leaders. We don’t want our team to listen to us because we’re senior vice presidents. The youngest senior vice presidents in the company, by the way, okay? You don’t need to clap for that. You don’t need to clap for that’s, okay?
But because it doesn’t know. It doesn’t matter. Another thing, if we’re in the room of Primerica nobody cares your age, man. Nobody cares your age. I’m an SVP. Michael’s An SVP. What they’re caring about how’s your base shop, how’s your through first, how’s your recruiting numbers, how’s your licensing number, how’s your cash. That’s what matters. When you go look at pol, is there any category that’s going to pull up my age? No. Right? So I don’t want to be a guy that’s parked on my title. I don’t want to be parked in that. You guys with me? So, guys, a lot of us, man. Look, if you got promoted to district leader, hey, it’s okay. You already did that. How about let’s get to division, let’s get to regional. Does that make sense, guys? And we have some amazing people. I just want to give it up real quick for Miguel and Jocelyn.
Just killing it. New district leaders, guys, give it up for them. They got one of the biggest, have so many. I think this couple is going to be amazing. Dainel and Roxana, killing it. Ryan and Sierra. I mean, man, I can sit here and I can name so many. I believe we have maybe like 70 or 80 people at this event. So I’m excited. Number two is permission. Say permission. This happens a lot in our business. People are going to listen to you because of the relationship you have with them. How many times in life have you gotten to an accountant or actually, let me give you a personal advice. There’s somebody that I have an amazing relationship for and I listen to them when it comes to the church. And sometimes we let credibility overflow from one area of our life to another. And you can’t do that if you’re going to listen to somebody in business you might hate or like how they do their personal life, but they’re your business coach, right?
My parents, not great business people, amazing marriage. I could not let the fact that they were amazing parents in great marriage overflow to tell me how to run my business. That same guy, right, that I’ll give you guys a personal example. I asked him, I said, hey, man, I need an accountant. He’s my spiritual coach from church, right? He recommends this lady does a horrible job. Horrible job. Michael doesn’t file my taxes, right? I go file the next year. They’re like, dude, they didn’t even send nothing. Like, what charges me like thousands of dollars? And then as I started thinking, I’m like, why am I listening to this guy? He’s on a salary, right? He’s worked for this company for 40 years. He’s got no idea how to run a business. And I just asked him, who would do a businessman’s taxes? You know what happened?
Because of our permission, because of our relationship. Does that make sense? So, guys, you can’t build a business on relationships. That is important. It is important, but you’re not going to build a business on relationship. You solidify it, you make it better, right? But you can’t just expect people to listen to you just because you’re their friend. And this happens a lot. Sometimes we listen to people that we like more than people that we respect. Bad parenting, right? No such thing as bad children. There’s only bad. That’s right. Yvonne taught me that. Number three, production. People respect you because you can produce. Now, even though this is important, it is not the most important. I can trust you with my life, but can I trust you with my kids and my wife? Just because you produce doesn’t mean you’re going to build a super solid business.
You might build a business, but it might not be solid. Everything that shines is not gold. Sometimes in Primerica, you see all these people, they come up, right? So the people that have been here a long time and my mentor Ed always said, edward, don’t worry, give it time. If they’re doing something right, over time it’s going to show. If not, it’ll come down. Sure enough. Man, I’ve sold so many people up and down, up and down, right? We can name them off. Guys, this is good, right? This is good. It’s good for you to go out and write personal production and recruit directs and to train people and to build the big recruiting base shop. But it’s not the most important. Think of it like if you were to build a building just at very high up, but no width, there’s no strength there.
Does that make sense? This happens a lot, man. Maybe sometimes it happens to everybody. Sometimes you put cash over character, right. QBI is a very good that’s the public scoreboard in Primerica. Like, how’s your character? Right? Level number four, guys, people, development. People will follow you because what you’ve done for them, this is like big, by the way. You can build a business on all of these. There’s just the higher that you go on the leadership pyramid, you’re going to understand why certain people build bigger businesses than others. Okay? So again, of what you’ve developed, if you have a business, at the end of the day, everybody can always say, yeah, but man, but that guy teaches people how to make money. Okay? Now, even though that is important, it might not be the most important. Right. I think Pablo Escobar was one of the wealthiest man on the world at one point, right.
So is cash the ultimate leader of people’s characters? No. Good people can make money. Bad people can make money. Right. So can you still? Absolutely, you know, because you’re developing people. But guys, the pinnacle of your success here, the pinnacle level number five, you could just go up really quick. Dustin of leadership is, well, the pinnacle, right. But it’s what you represent, who you are. What example, your ultimate example, who you are. That is the top level of leadership. And as I look at organizations that have been around for years and years, and they thrive, like Mario and Franny, right? Ed and Yvonne, john and Patty and I could name off, right. So many people here in this room as well. You know why? Because that is the ultimate level, you said, man. I’ve seen them produce. I like them as people. I have great relationships with them.
I’ve seen them develop people. But most importantly, I follow who they are as a person. Guys, organizations rise and fall on leadership. When I started this company, at no point did I tell Ed and Yvonne, hey, I want to go straight to half a million dollars and then go down to negative 50. Happens all the time. I’m not in a roller coaster business. We are here to build a solid business that grows years after years after years. Okay? And I’m going to close with this well, not this statement, but I have a good story I think might help you guys. There are four things in life you cannot get back. I hope you guys are taking notes. Number one is words after they’ve been said. Be very careful of what you tell people. Number two, time after it’s gone, invest wisely. Three, trust after it’s broken.
And number four, opportunities after they are missed. I don’t know about you guys, man, but this is something special that you have in here. When I started this company, guys, my parents, when I first came from Cuba, for years here, they made 35 to 39,000. You know why? It was predictable? Because it was in salary and hourly. So it was going to be the same amount of money every year. Our pay cycle is not done yet. It’s done on Monday. Right now we’re at 48,000 in pay and we’ll go over 50,000. If not tonight, then on Monday, right? And I remember I started this company, man, if I could just make an extra 2000, 3000. And if I would make 5000, it would be ridiculous. Today this company pays us over $50,000 a month. I’m going to close it with this. It’s a very powerful story.
I’ll share it with you guys. My goal here is that after you leave, I take a little piece of you guys with me. And you guys take a little piece of me with you. There’s three devils and they’re sitting on a table. Three demons, I’m sorry, in hell. And as the devil was going around and saying, what did you do today? Devil number one says, well, today I made a woman commit adultery. I want you guys to picture the scene, middle of hell as a table. Devil number two said, I helped a child, a young man disrespect his parents. But let me tell you a story. Before devil number three, there was a sister and a brother. And her brother was an alcoholic. And every single day she would pray for her brother, pray for her brother. She would pray for him that he would stop, he would quit alcohol.
He wouldn’t be sad. And her brother was always sad, always drinking, always sad, always drinking, for years. And finally one day, John, she gets home and he’s almost passed out drinking. And she tells him, for years, I’ve been praying over you for years. And you know what? I’m tired of this. Every day, every night, it’s the same story. And she stores into her room and she falls asleep. So as I’m telling you this story, this is actually her dream. So number three comes up and they said, what did you do today? And he says, Today I accomplished something bigger than all of you put together. They said, what is it? He says, Today I broke a woman’s faith. For years I’ve been trying to help this young man commit suicide. And every time, right before I get him to do it, his sister’s prayers cover him and he won’t pull the trigger.
It was her dream. She wakes up, she runs into her such a deep story. She runs into her brother’s room and he’s on his knees with a gun getting ready to pull the trigger. He said, right before I did it, I said, God, the only way I won’t do this if is my sister busts through that door right now. I tell you this to say it, guys, you can’t let people break your faith. You’re one recruit away from an explosion. You’re one referral away from a totally different life guys. And you’re one decision away from changing your life together. I’ll see you guys.
