This month, Powerhouse Planning is featuring superstars of the direct sales industry who have taken the time to share with us their experiences and viewpoints gained over time. Through the words of those doing it—and doing it well—our Powerhouse team aims to help both new and established direct sales professionals grow their business as a result of the insights (including some of the harder lessons learned) of those in the field who are finding success.

Company: Young Living Essential Oils
Industry Professional: Carolyn Herrick, Independent Distributor

Young Living is a wellness company offering essential oils to customers around the globe, including the United States, Australia, Europe, Canada, Japan, and Singapore. It officially launched in 1994 after the owners, D. Gary Young and Mary Young, developed farmland in Utah and Idaho. According to the company’s website, they currently rank as a world leader in the essential oils industry, and earlier this year they received the Silver Award from the Public Relations Society of America for brand communications and public relations. Further, the brand has expanded sustainability efforts through their program Seed to Seal, which utilizes greater supply chain assurance.

Independent Distributor Carolyn Herrick, an Air Force veteran, joined the company three years ago anpresently holds Gold status, representing an average monthly income of $6067. She made the decision to operate her direct sales business after experiencing the benefits of the essential oils during a difficult pregnancy. Product categories include for the home, wellness, beauty, and balance. She chronicles her thoughts about the different oils and how they can be beneficial at http://essentiallyaware.com/. The website offers her the opportunity to connect in a more personal way with potential and current customers by providing real-time insight into the health benefits of her offerings.

Why has direct sales been a good avenue for you?
I have always loved people. I love talking to people, I love meeting people, I love helping people, and I love building other people up. I didn’t start with Young Living with the intent to sell, but when the products worked for me and my family, I just started talking about them. This happened during a time in my life when I had lost my primary source of income and was nursing a brand new baby. I could do education and help people from my iPhone, in my rocking chair. I could meet other new mamas at the park and teach them about natural wellness and how to live a chemical-free life, since this is such a trending topic. Companies that claim to be natural and honest, we are finding, aren’t. I have so much genuine passion for wellness and natural options that it was extremely easy for me to become a “sales” person even though all of my sales are through heart-centered sharing.

What is your greatest accomplishment with your company?
When I made a certain level—referred to as Silver—in six months, I received as a reward a kit of 120 different essential oils and blends, valued at over $2,000. They made this incentive purposefully difficult but doable. Meaning, with hard work, it is absolutely there for everyone to obtain, but not everyone does. That, along with an all-expense-paid retreat in a five-star hotel for three days, made me feel like a queen, even at a level that wasn’t one of the top leadership ranks in the company.

What is your hardest lesson learned?
Relationships always come before sales. Always. I learned this the hard way by losing some relationships at the cost of my business. Thankfully, some friends have extended grace to me, but one of the things I frequently speak about online is how NOT to do direct sales. Cold calls, mass copy/paste “opportunity” messages, and the like are the easiest, fastest way to get unfriended or unfollowed on social media. Even outside social media, in real, face-to-face relationships, you have to set boundaries and establish lanes or else your enthusiasm for your company can start to overshadow your friendships.

How do you gauge success?
To me, success came in stages. I think it’s important to celebrate each step. Someone’s first referral or sale, someone’s first company advancement—those are some of the most foundational parts of success. My “I’ve arrived” moment came when I was able to quit a very good, stable government job to work from home. That time freedom is priceless and makes me feel I have made it in this industry.

What’s your favorite professional/personal quote?
“If you live a high-vibration life, everything that comes in is abundant.” –Anni Dayan

This quote is the wallpaper in the team business group that I run. I focus a lot on emotional health, and I have learned how much the frequency of the people, things, food, etc. that we surround ourselves with affects us in life, relationships, business—everything.

Where do you envision yourself in five years professionally?
There’s actually a great book called 5: Where Will You Be Five Years from Today? [by Dan Zadra and Kristel Wills] that helped me figure this out. With my current trajectory, in five years I am in the top tier of earners in Young Living. That is an income of about $150,000 a month (youngliving.com/ids). With this income, my husband does not have to work unless he wants to. I am giving enormous, generous amounts of money at will. I have paid cash for a house. I am leaving legacy money for my child and adopting a child or continuing to fund adoptions, which I currently do. I am traveling worldwide to do humanitarian work and take family vacations.

How have you grown your team?
In the beginning, I wasn’t purposeful at all. I just gathered a lot of team members and hoped someone would want to join me in sharing and growing a business. As time went by, I was able to find more resources and learn more. We have a saying, “Know more, do better.” I think the single most helpful thing to developing my business has been developing myself as a person. If you develop yourself as a person, you will be fully equipped to lead anyone else who ends up on your team.

Below, Carolyn shares her tips for using the trending tools of direct sales to expand a customer base and strengthen relationships.

Building Your Team Tips
When it comes to building your team, your personality and values have got to shine through in all the training and techniques. In the end, people don’t choose a product—they choose YOU. You are uniquely gifted to lead your team. No one else can do that better than you.

Online Party Tips
Online parties have got to change as the platform changes. Over a year ago, we were using auto-posting services to run a LIVE event, but presently, truly LIVE videos have become possible. If you try to use the old model, you will fall behind those using the new platforms. Changing with technology requires flexibility and a lot of growth, but if you plan to do online parties you have to keep up with it.

Utilizing Social Media Tips
If you use social media for marketing, make sure only one out of five posts is about your product. Make sure an image accompanies it. Tell a story. Don’t rattle off facts and end with, “If you’re interested in learning more…” because everyone will immediately feel sold to. Just share your heart and your story. That’s what people want to see and hear. They will come to you if you are genuine.

Making it YOUR Company Tips
When you are a distributor for a big, corporate company, it’s important not to have just your own stories, but also to connect your stories with the corporate story. For instance, Young Living is the only essential oils company in the world that owns its own farms. That is impressive, but most people don’t care. What they care about is seeing YOU on that farm, smelling the lavender and showing them how it’s sourced, planted, cultivated, harvested, distilled, bottled, and sealed to end up in your members’ hands. If you are in a company that has a unique niche, you have got to add your own face to that company or else no one will care! They will just read, “We’re the only ones who…blah blah blah.” But when you show them your zeal and you connect with that bigger picture personally, you’ve made money.

Website: https://www.myyl.com/cherrick

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EOaware/

This month, Powerhouse Planning is featuring superstars of the direct sales industry who have taken the time to share with us their experiences and viewpoints gained over time. Through the words of those doing it—and doing it well—our Powerhouse team aims to help both new and established direct sales professionals grow their businesses as a result of the insights (including some of the harder lessons learned) of those in the field who are finding success.

Company: Nomadés
Industry Professional: Christy DeWitt, Director of Business Development and Sales
Since launching in 2009, Nomadés has offered customers the opportunity to capture their life stories one charm at a time. Christy DeWitt, Director of Business Development and Sales, joined the company shortly after its beginning. Her role evolved from customer to consultant to management, which she says has helped her relate to the team of consultants she now works with. While she does admit to possessing a strong knack for sales, Christy explains that it was ultimately her adoration of the products that made her go all in.

The Nomadés Collection includes custom-designed charms that symbolize military duty stations, branches of the Armed Forces, love stories, and life changes. The company operates with a team of consultants located across the globe located globally and all products are created within the United States. Since their niche market is smaller, the market is less saturated with Nomadés consultants. To find a consultant nearest you, go to www.nomadescollection.com/locate.aspx.

Q&A with Christy DeWitt:
Describe your position with Nomadés:
The Director of Business Development and Sales is a sales-driven position that works directly to train consultants, plan events, and manage the logistics of vendor events. Other responsibilities include establishing and maintaining relationships between Nomadés and boutiques.

What tools do you encourage your consultants to use?
Nomadés encourages their team to “be charming” by working to establish relationships with customers. For example, use a Facebook brand page versus a closed private group so that potential and current customers have the option of accepting an invite rather than being automatically added.

What stands out to you today about working with Nomadés?
I’d say one of them is we’re here eight years later. There have been feast years, and there have been famine years. There aren’t a lot of all women-owned businesses, and we are a tight-knit group of women. They’re my tribe; they are my people. They’re my business partners, but they’re also the most important people in my life next to my family.

How do you gauge success?
Sales is an obvious metric for gauging success in this industry, but so is the personal success of our consultants—even if it was a slower month for the company as a whole. I love it when I have a team member who is a slow starter, and then she is a top performer for three months in a row.

What’s your favorite professional/personal quote?
You don’t build a business. You build people and then people build the business.

How have you grown your team?
Nomadés creates a sisterhood type of company culture among the Independent Consultants. They are taught that they are in business for themselves, but not by themselves. The company uses various tools to engage with their virtual team, such as creating different themes throughout the week like motivational quotes, what’s happening, and marketing information.

Most consultants come to Nomadés by way of first being a customer. After their involvement with the product and company, they traditionally inquire about the process to be a consultant. All different personalities and backgrounds can succeed in this field, especially when they have an authentic belief in their product. Plus, consultants sharing their experiences often motivates new consultants to come on board.

Below, Christy shares her tips for using the trending tools of direct sales to expand a customer base and strengthen relationships.

Building Your Team Tips
Give people the opportunity to say yes or no. Whether it is buying or joining your team, they will not know the options/opportunity unless you tell them. You have to ask.

I invest in my team. I learned early on that words of affirmation, recognition, and to some extent incentives go a long way to encouraging your team. I make an effort to recognize even the smallest accomplishments of my team members. Everyone likes a shout-out!

You can’t drag people into success—they have to want it. Stop spending energy on people who don’t want it. Always be sweet and charming, but you can’t do it for them.

Online Party Tips
Determine why your hostess wants to do the “party” online. I think there is a misnomer that online events are easier than in home. The truth is an online event must have the full attention of your hostess, and she needs to be fully engaged for it to be a success. If she wants an online event in lieu of having people in her home for two hours because she thinks it will be easier, let her know that’s not really the case.

Your hostess should invite 30-40 people to an online event and no more. She needs to personally invite them and not mass invite them (Facebook messaging the masses is not the route to go). She cannot mass invite 350 of her closest friends and think they are going to see that in their Facebook notifications. It is a waste of her time and your time. The jewelry I sell is a very personal piece of jewelry and requires a sincere and personal request to guests. So, here is the tip: YOU are going to have to explain that to her, however painful it may be.

Facebook Live and videos garner tons more interest/results than pictures and posts. If you want guests to get excited about a product, then they need to hear that excitement and enthusiasm in your voice. I don’t care how many CAPITAL LETTERS and exclamation points you put in a post; it’s not the same as someone seeing you and hearing your excitement.

Utilizing Social Media Tips
Pick your favorite social media platforms and what you are most comfortable with and use those. You do not have to be on Snapchat, Tumbler, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest. Pick a couple that you like and work really diligently on those.

After picking the platform best suited for you and your business, you have to use it daily. If it is March and you still have a Christmas-themed cover photo on your Facebook brand page, people assume you are closed for business. For example, if it’s Easter, take those Christmas lights down and make an attempt to look like you want to work your business.

Every post to your social media platform does not and should not be about your business. Get personal. You are not selling from your brand page; you are building a relationship with an audience. Have fun! Post “other” stuff on your pages—you want people to like you, follow you, and get to know you!

Making it YOUR Company
While your product company (e.g., Nomadés, Scentsy, Pampered Chef) is likely to give you resources to help with your business, they cannot do it for you. You have to want to do this. Know the why, the reason you are doing it.

You have to work YOUR business every day. (Sure, you can take a vacation.) But seriously, if you are truly working this as a business and not a hobby, then it will take dedicated, intentional work every day. Treat it like a business.

Be proud of what you do. Take ownership and when people ask what you do for a living or a job, speak with confidence about what you do.

I firmly believe you have to have a passion for what you do. I love this product. I feel profoundly sorry for anyone who doesn’t have it and I have any overwhelming drive to share it with others. If you don’t feel that way about your product and business, then you are going to have a hard time convincing anyone else.

Website: www.nomadescollection.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/nomadescollection