Latest / The Growth Class with Phil Masiello / Women’s Entrepreneurship: Creating Flexible Income Through Direct Sales with Nancy Bogart

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Women’s Entrepreneurship: Creating Flexible Income Through Direct Sales with Nancy Bogart · The Growth Class with Phil Masiello

• 0:17
  SPEAKER_00: Hey everybody and welcome back to the growth class.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: I'm your host, Phil Mastiello, and today we're popping the hood on a business that didn't start in a boardroom, but on the craft show circuit.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: Our guest today started in 2000 with a single lotion bar and a mission to help women build an income without sacrificing their lives.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: So 26 years later, she hasn't just built a company, she's built an entire movement.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: And we're talking about scaling through communities, staying anchored as to your why and the mechanics of non-toxic slop brands.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: So please welcome the founder of Jordan Essentials, Nancy Bogart.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: Nancy, thanks for taking the time and coming on.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you, Phil.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks for having me.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_01: I'm always excited to share a story.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: Why don't you get why don't you take us back to the beginning of what you did, why you did it, how you did it.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: That's always an exciting part for people.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_01: You know, it's still like living outside yourself when you tell the story because it has been 26 years.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_01: I was a stay-at-home mom.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_01: I had three little boys, and my husband said, I think it's time you get a job.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_01: Because I had stayed home for about seven years.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_01: I think I heard get an income.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_01: So I decided to create my own so that I could still keep my time, make the money I wanted to, not have to go punch a clock.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_01: And inadvertently, I started a direct sales company in my kitchen.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I love formulating, um, I was a caterer, really, um, through school, got my degree in hospitality management and quickly shut everything down to have the kids back when you could just have one income.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_01: Then of course, we needed two incomes.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_01: And so I invented a lotion bar.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_01: It's a solid bar of lotion.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I still love formulating and inventing today.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_01: So that's kind of nice when you keep doing what you love for 26 years.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but I knew there were other women who also wanted the same thing I did.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_01: And so that's when um somebody said, Have you ever heard of direct sales?
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_01: I had no idea what that meant.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_01: Um, there's no internet, there was no Google search.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_01: I was just busy with the kids.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_01: And they said it would help a lot of other people like you, especially moms and women who wanted to make an extra income.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_01: And so we incorporated in February of 2000 after I did a couple of craft fairs.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_01: And then, of course, we still, vendor events, craft fairs, anytime we get person to person.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_01: And then now we have so many people who are out doing what I did, but it was tough in the beginning.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I love the fact that I can look back now after 26 years.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's always, it's always good to look back after you've built something and you've been doing it for quite some time.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: Beauty products, skincare, body lotions, things like that.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it's it's it's always a great business, but it's also pretty competitive.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: So how do you set yourself apart from that?
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I didn't have any idea how competitive it was until after you get into it, and especially after you start to grow.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I think it's definitely our niche is gonna be that we're really for everyday people and we sell through everyday people.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_01: So you have a friend, you know, Phil, we might be talking about something.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_01: You tell me about, you know, you've been working out lately and how sore you are.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, hey, how about a dead sea salt soak?
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_01: We're very, very relational.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_01: We don't sell on Amazon.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_01: We don't have storefronts.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_01: We only go through our network of distributors.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_01: And if you had told me I was going to own one of those companies someday, I would have told you you were crazy.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_01: But it's definitely but our competitive advantage is those relationships that we built and the fact that we manufacture.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_01: So I run a manufacturing facility, sales and marketing, um, which has given us also the ability to be able to be a lot more flexible when the market goes or during the pandemic.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_01: You know, we could make a little, we could make a lot.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_01: I always tell people, don't worry, we'll make more.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_01: So that has been uh competitive.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_01: We don't have to shut down, we don't have to wait for, you know, long shipments.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_01: And um, we make everything in these great fresh batches here in Nixon, Missouri, in the middle of nowhere.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_01: That's a it didn't used to be a competitive advantage, but it definitely is today.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_00: So you run your own manufacturing.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_01: I do.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_01: I did not mean to.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_01: I did.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_01: I did.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_01: Um we've had some outside vendors over the years, very, very few.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but I really am a Naha certified aromatherapist.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_01: So I want to play in the blends and bring them together.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_01: And I love the fact that we employ people in our local neighborhood.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_01: Um, my daughter, we adopted when she was almost five.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_01: She has learning disabilities and she couldn't find a job.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, why are we not employing people with disabilities?
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_01: So about 20, 25% of our workforce uh in the home office are people who can come in and be contributing members of society.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_01: So not only do we people selling it, the people who make it became a part of our mission as well, so that we could have something really amazing that gives on both sides of the coin.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's important.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: I I think um we had a shaving brand and uh many years ago.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_00: And when we started, we were doing all these sets.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_00: We were, we were, because it was shaving products.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_00: Our manufacturer was making the creams and the lotions, and then we would put together these sets and we started bringing it to this facility where they employed autistic people.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_00: And it was sort of a reworking facility because like we have Under Armour here and we have Scott Tissue and Domino Sugar and things like that.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_00: And when they had problems, they would bring their product to this facility to get reworked.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_00: And but they didn't have steady business.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: And I started talking to them about doing steady business, and we actually wound up our warehouse, was a couple of doors away.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_00: So we wound up actually moving into their place and building a separate place.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: And that was who did our they built our sets, they did the pick, the pack, the ship, and you know, un they loaded, unloaded.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it was it was really uh it was rewarding for us as well as for them.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_00: So uh I agree with you.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, there's people that that can contribute to society, you just need to give them the opportunity to do it.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, absolutely.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's been more rewarding than I thought.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_01: I think we hired our first person through an agency nine or ten years ago.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_01: She's still with us today.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's fantastic.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_00: So, what are the types of products that you do besides the the the creams and the lotions?
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_00: So, I'm assuming that you're doing oils and we're a little oily.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I like to put them into a blend instead of all the little droppers because you know, fast, gotta go.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_01: So um our big key ingredients magnesium.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_01: So I I stumbled upon this probably about 13 years ago, is the benefit of topical magnesium.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_01: So we infuse a lot of our products with um a great um amount of magnesium because it's so beneficial to your cells.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_01: Then you mix it with the essential oils for allergies, headaches, you know, just to support the everyday health and wellness of a person.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_01: And um, so you can grab that as a parent and say, let's try this skin.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you get a sunburn.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_01: How about some skin relief?
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_01: Green tea, aloe, chamomile, seaweed, blend it together.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_01: And we did move into the skincare um a couple years ago and really kind of leaned into the same, like we do a beautiful Bakucho with frankincense.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_01: So um I do love what the oils can do.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_01: I always feel like, you know, got to put them here, you got to use them.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_01: When you don't need to go to, you know, a pharmaceutical or something else.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_01: It just creates this great everyday.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_01: And I do love creating the blends.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_01: We've we've done for some for hormone support.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_01: We do them for um Copacalm with a copaiba.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_01: I won't geek out on the essential so much.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_01: We're gonna talk about business, but you know, why not have a product that smells good and it does good for your body?
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_01: So we do a lot of that dead sea salt, soaks, shampoos, shower gels with rosemary and mint in it.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_01: So it's got a lot of those botanical um ingredients in it.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that that um gives people confidence in using their products.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_01: They didn't know what we know now.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I was so ahead of our time about not putting all this stuff junk in your products.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so that's built a customer base over 26 years of people who trust us and love the brand.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_00: So what is that sales process?
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_00: How does that work?
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_01: So um we have independent distributors.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_01: So somebody might say, Oh, you know, I met Phil.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_01: I like the products.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_01: I'd like to start selling the products as well.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_01: So I get an enrollment kit, it's 49 bucks.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_01: I wanted low commitment.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_01: I remember I did a drug sales years ago and we were like upside down with inventory.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_01: And so there were several things that I thought I want to do.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_01: There's no minimums.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_01: We ship direct for them.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_01: They make 25% off the top.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_01: There is a multi-level you bring people in as you teach, you reap.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_01: And um, so but we ship right from the home office.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_01: But we also do this is where I think is going to be our competitive advantage coming up in the next six to 12 months, is we do parties where people come together.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_01: All the workshops I've been to, you know, painting classes, ceramics, they come together and blend essential oils, try the products before they buy them, which makes it very eco-friendly.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_01: Um, we do online parties, we do texting parties.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_01: So that person could pick how they want to do their business.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_01: They might want to go ahead and do those bender events, little pop-up shop on the weekends, um, and they make a little bit of money or they make a lot of money.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_01: It's going to be up to them.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_01: But the way we set it up is very no pressure, partner with us, we'll partner with you.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_01: And that's how we're in all 50 states, Guam, Puerto Rico, and St.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_01: Thomas.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: Oh.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_00: And uh do people have specific territories?
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_00: Or I guess they can just, if they're bringing other salespeople in, they could just keep building, right?
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, there's no territories.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_01: As long as it's in where we can sell it in the U.S., um, they can go and take it wherever they want to.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_01: They'll create their own teams.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_01: And there might be like here in Springfield, Missouri, there might be three or four teams.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_01: But I always tell people when you walk in the door, what I really want you to do, like at our convention, is to feel like you're a part of the greater good.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_01: You know, we have a lot of our core values.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I protect those a lot more heavily now than I used to in the past.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_01: You know, so it's not for everybody, but for the people it is that want to come in and feel included, learn in that collaborative environment.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so there won't be any territories.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_01: They really absolutely is just who you know and who you want to help support and what you want to do with your business.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_00: So so what do you think your biggest bottleneck is to growth over the next, say, 12 to 24 months?
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_01: Social media.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_00: Social media.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_00: It's so funny, right?
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_00: I would think that that would not be a bottleneck, but a uh a growth channel.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_01: Is so crowded and people scroll so fast.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm all about the relationship.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_01: It's really hard to do those quickly.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_01: And we never do the, hey, haven't talked to you since high school.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_01: We don't do all the private DMs and you know, we really talk about real relationships.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_01: And I think it's hard to do on social media.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_01: In the beginning, especially during the pandemic, we're all shut down.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_01: It was awesome.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but now it it just feels like it's so heavy and you're advertising.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_01: And now there's AI, which is a it's a pro and it's also a con at the same time.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_01: So I like to be realistic about, you know, what's available to us.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_01: That would be a bottleneck.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_01: We've grown every year, year over year, for seven years.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_01: So for seven years, we've had this nice um spike going up.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_01: So the second bottleneck, um, you might think would be like supply, chain, and demand, but we build such great relationships, it's not.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_01: I think it's getting ahead of yourself.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_01: I've already done that um in the first five years.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_01: We were the fifth fastest growing state company in the state of Missouri.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_01: We were growing so fast, and I think my eyes got too big for my stomach.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_01: And so we were gonna do all these great things.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_01: And I've learned take what you've got, be a good steward of it, do a good job with it, plan ahead.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but like we're self-funded.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_01: So um we cash flow from within.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_01: And so I'm a little bit more protective about being debt-free.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_01: I don't want to get into debt betting on what's coming.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_01: I want to know what it is today.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_01: And then I have huge goals, but I also plan a little bit more fiscally responsible.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_01: So that growth that's happened has allowed us to really start thinking about, you know, where do we want to go?
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_01: What do we want to do?
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_01: And then I kind of take it as it comes, especially since we manufacture such an advantage.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, you don't have to like get tied up with, you know, 5,000 skew of something that you're never going to use.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_01: And there's your cash.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_01: Your cash is stuck.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_01: So again, I think it's an advantage for us.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_01: But the field gets a little crowded on social and um we like to be in person.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_01: So if we can create those relationships, I think that helps a lot.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_00: That's um I would think that social I would think that social non-paid, but just organic social would be uh great for you because especially if you had well, I guess are all your the people who sell your product, they have their own social channels.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_01: They do.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_01: I do really well with that.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_01: I try not to compete with them at all.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_01: So we don't want to advertise and go around them.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_01: Um I've been very loyal to the field and they've been very, very good to me.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_01: So we don't do affiliate brand, Amazon, you know, and I don't do paid marketing.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, no, I wouldn't ads, but I would think that just the um just the imagery of the parties, just the imagery of uh what's going on, the fun, the excitement of it all, and being able to do those videos would be great for social media versus, you know, I know what you mean, like what people are uh sort of create fake environments, but you've got real environments going on, and also you've got this whole manufacturing facility where you can basically talk about how you can maintain the quality of your product and you know where it is and it's American made and all that stuff.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, I would think that that'd be great.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_00: AI, you know, you brought up AI and I'll tell you, I'm a you know, we do you know, millions and millions of dollars worth of advertising and for other brands.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_00: And to me, I tell every brand the same thing.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_00: AI has its place.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_00: Data analytics, no question, it's great.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_00: You know, for for ideation, it's great.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_00: For for you know, creating or creating uh um workflows that pick up tasks, it's great.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_00: But trying to create content in video or imagery when you're selling to a consumer, it's terrible because you're saying I want the customer's saying I want authenticity, I want to create a connection, and you're giving them fake stuff.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_00: And then this whole new thing of AI creating user-generated content, that just blows my mind that people are actually using it, that brands are actually using it, because it's like you know, it's supposed to be user-generated content that's endorsing your product.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_00: But if you're creating the endorsement that it's no longer user generated, it's just a fake endorsement.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_00: And so you you can destroy your brand very, very quickly.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_00: And I was happy to see American Eagle outfitters and Aerie and a couple of other brands do this whole, you know, push against AI and advertising because uh look we we make our living with it and I don't use it that way.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_00: I don't use it that way.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_01: It's gonna be interesting to see how the next um year plays out now that everybody has all these tools and toys.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_01: Um and we use it.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, we're you know, I was one of the first people.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, let's use it and use it in the right way.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but yeah, it's it's still to me, it's those authentic relationships.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, they have Facebook groups, they, you know, we teach social media, we teach how to use AI to our distributors.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_01: But I also teach almost as much about um getting to know people and building that because when when everything starts to come together, they're gonna be like, who do I know?
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_01: And people want to be known.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_01: They want to know that you know their name, they want to have the service that we have that's uh associated with it.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_01: I don't think that's ever gonna go out of style.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that over, I think to to your point, you know, what's gonna happen over the next year, because we've been using AI for about seven years, and it took us, it took us a good three years to figure out how to build, you know, workflows and uh agents that actually uh do have a payback.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_00: I know everybody's out there saying, oh, we'll build an agent, it'll save you millions of dollars.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it's not true.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's just not.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_00: You have to understand the company and the working of the company.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_00: But when it comes to things like, you know, sending out bills, tasks, things that that you know you you don't really want to do or you don't like doing, or take your take your eye off of what you really love to do within a business, I think it's great.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_00: For us, in data analysis, it's it's second to none.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I can get answers in seconds that used to take us literally weeks to get.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_00: So, especially when we take on new clients, because we can look at what they've done in the past and get some sort of thing.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_00: But when it again, when it comes to creation of content, creation of video, creation of imagery, you know, and we're doing a lot of connected TV advertising, things like that, you you just can't use AI because you you can destroy a brand very quickly and and it's not worth the risk.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_00: And I think over the next couple of years, what you're gonna see is a lot of these companies that started that are selling this AI slop are gonna wind up just gone.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_00: And people are gonna realize brands are are they already realizing that consumers reject it.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_00: They don't want it.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_00: They they're, you know, I just wrote a whole article about this and I showed studies.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_00: There's stuff consumers are rejecting it, especially the you know, especially when you start seeing, you know, and you can always tell when it's an AI generated video, it's got like six fingers, and you can never read the words behind it's it's ridiculous, and people are trying to use it, and it's just not good.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_00: So I agree with you 100%.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_00: Um so uh so so w what your what are your top priorities now as you go into the next couple of years?
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_00: Because you said you've had seven years of growth, and do you see any of that growth slowing?
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_00: Do you see that continuing?
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_00: Um, because I know you're saying we we we try and keep that cash flow tight, which is great.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_01: So I, you know, I would say so goes the leader, so goes the team.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_01: And so um we're we're still multi-level and we're investing more in our distributor leaders.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_01: You know, these are people who don't have formal training in business.
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_01: They don't have um, you know, have to carry inventory.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_01: They may or may not, by the time they file their taxes, be surprised or not.
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_01: And so as we invest in people, that's really what I've seen in 26 years that pays off the most is by continuing to build those relationships.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_01: So my role's changed a little bit um since last year.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_01: My husband had a quadruple bypass and open heart surgery and arterial transplant last March.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_01: You know, and so I come back to the office and it didn't fall apart after I was gone for two weeks.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_01: And um, I've got some great new, especially young talent on our executive team.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_01: And they're like, you know, how are you going to spend your time?
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_01: Um, they really took the reins and ran with it.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_01: And so my time is best spent um with our leaders, making strategy and listening.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_01: I'm a great listener.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_01: I think if I had one superpower that I've picked up over 26 years, is instead of, you know, being defensive or I'm right or I'm doing a great job or I've been doing this so long, I just talked to a brand new distributor this morning and um she had some feedback for us on how people were placing orders in their party and, you know, what her hopes and dreams were.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_01: But I think you can get out of touch really quickly.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_01: So my plan is that I'm gonna continue to lean into our distributors, lean into those events, even if it's on Zoom, um, you know, spending time with them, listening.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_01: We have several different little groups that they can get into that um, you might be a brand new person.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_01: You might not have ever done this before.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_01: So it's almost like your own market survey, right?
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_01: And I love building the brand around people because if they're not going to sell it, what's the point?
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_01: It might have done well in the lab and, you know, maybe something I love, but once we you get the early adopters and we spend time together, I'm developing the leadership in our home office.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_01: Um, my husband and I both work on that together.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_01: Um, he does, he's just got his doctorate in strategic leadership.
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and um, so we both love the behavioral science, the connection people.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_01: So I do plan on writing out, um, staying very, very close to the people who are selling our products.
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_01: And of course, you know, knowing who we are and attracting people to our business.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_01: Like I said, it's not for everyone to sell our products.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_01: It is for everybody to use our products.
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_01: You know, we want to have a bottle of magnesium lotion from Jordan Essentials in every home in America.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_01: So that's the big goal, but it's only going to get there through those relationships.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_01: So I've just changed my time to where I spent it more in um listening, learning, developing, teaching, coaching um people.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_01: And that's again, where I like AI.
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_01: Like I just scanned a contract before we got on here.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, what's pitfalls?
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_01: What's in this?
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_01: You know, um, where can they get me?
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, and then finish that up within like seconds where you would have sent it off and gone through it.
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_01: You know, it's a standard contract we do every year.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_01: I just want to make sure there wasn't something sneaky in there.
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_01: So as a CEO, um, I'm a visionary CEO.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not an integrator, I'm not the, you know, operational CEO.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_01: I know who I am after all this time.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_01: And I think as far as the vision goes, that's, and I have to do stuff after this long that gives me energy that I like to do.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_01: Um, if you don't get to do what you like to do after owning a business for 26 years, wrong business for sure.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_01: So I get to craft, you know, how I want to do it.
• 21:59
  SPEAKER_01: And I think.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: Doing that, we'll continue to strengthen our leaders and show them their self-worth and how they're going to build forward as well.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_01: So I think I can see that building one on top of the other.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know how many people live in the United States right now, but they all have skin.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_01: Last time I noticed.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_01: So we have a great um market.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_01: We've got great products.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_01: And then I'm just invite investing in those great people to find everybody and share with them.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_00: 326 million.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_00: That's how many people live in the United States right now.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_00: But not but only uh 72% of them are of uh buying age.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_01: That's good to know.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_01: That's a fun fact.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_01: All right.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_01: I like it.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_01: I like it.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_01: Well, they all have skin.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_00: They they do have skin.
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_00: What um what would you say is it was the biggest um tool or resource that you ever got or piece of information that you ever got that was game-changing for you?
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_00: Like I don't know if you ever had a coach throughout your life uh that gave you some game-changing advice.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_01: So I belonged to an association and I went reluctantly.
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_01: I was a member of it for 25 years.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_01: And so I went by myself, alone, and I thought, you know, because I was very intimidated with this group of, especially they were direct sales companies, they were big companies.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_01: Who was I to be there?
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_01: And I decided to um make friends through this association.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_01: And then they had a spin-off to it for a women's retreat.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_01: And I went and sat next to an incredible group of women who um who were like light years ahead of me, who were happy to share.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_01: And so now I turn around and want to help people who are not where I'm at because I was so helped and developed.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_01: And there's really just there's a small group of women, there's about five of them that I am still friends with today.
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_01: I could call it anytime.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_01: I'm coming off the rails, you know, we got this situation because almost all of us in this group have been there, done that in some form, or can commiserate.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_01: So like-minded people, people going through the same thing, owning their own direct sales company, which is weird.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, how many people do that?
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_01: So finding people and networking with them.
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_01: I just talked to a couple the other day out of St.
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_01: Louis, you know, and they're doing a software transition and then they had some questions about that.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_01: So I hooked them up with my team.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_01: I just don't believe in, and several of us have similar products, but those people have mentored me and been friends with me.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and we got together in person.
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_01: I think in person's important.
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and we shared openly where I've never seen that happen.
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_01: You know, in business, you'll go to a networking group or something, and everybody's got their business card and they've got a quota to fill.
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_01: This was such a different vibe of direct selling business owners.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_01: And then that little subset of women, direct sales business owners who, like Mary Kay Ash, she wasn't in that group, but as an example, you know, who went before all of us and crafted this whole relationship building base business that I thought was incredible.
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_01: So we were members of the direct sales association for a long time.
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and those relationships have saved me probably millions and probably made me millions too at the same time, um, while also helping me develop as a person.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, you just can't beat that.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I agree with you.
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_00: I think that, you know, there's plenty of uh organizations out there for entrepreneurs.
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_00: You have to find the one that that does the best that that people are open uh with.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_00: Like I belong to uh YEO EO in YPO for years, and and there's there's people you can, you know, it's a network of people you can call on to ask questions and they're open and honest.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_00: It's not a networking group, it's a it's a true group of people trying to help elevate everybody else.
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, I would agree with you.
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_00: Well, we're almost out of time.
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_00: So what what what would you say uh would be the best piece of advice you could give to especially women entrepreneurs when they're just getting started?
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_01: First of all, you know, I hired a ton of consultants over the years, and I love consultants, they're great.
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_01: But you started the company or you are the executive in that seat, and they're not going to know everything you know.
• 26:05
  SPEAKER_01: So have that confidence so that you really maximize those relationships.
• 26:09
  SPEAKER_01: I think that had I trusted my instincts and my skills earlier, um, that I would have done better.
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, they only know what they know.
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_01: And like I said, I've had a lot of them in our lives over the years.
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_01: So I love the coaching and the learning you do, but you need to make it extremely personal.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I came with my own particular skill set.
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_01: I think I had that insecurity of being a stay-at-home mom for seven years and then jumping into this fast-growing company, and I doubted myself for way too long.
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_01: Um, then you kind of turn this point where you know um what you know.
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_01: And so you feel some confidence in that.
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_01: But if you're gonna start a business or you're going to run a business, you're already sitting in a really interesting seat that belongs to you.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_01: I think that in 2026, people definitely embrace their differences better than they used to, because we used to dress up in little suits and we look like little men, or the guys all wear the same thing.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_01: Now you guys are wearing tennis shoes, and you know, you're going into relationships, not as worried about the superficial, but we're all just made so absolutely uniquely that if once you embrace that, you lean into it, it's your fuel for traction.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_01: That's how you get traction is, you know, and you can be wrong, but you learn in the wrong and then you keep going and being a really good listener along the way.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_01: But again, like I said, I I didn't think I knew anything.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't think I had anything of value, and I was absolutely wrong in those early years.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_01: And so when I meet people who are in the beginning stages, you've got something going in the right, you're not missing a secret ingredient.
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, you are the secret ingredient.
• 27:41
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, whole 100%.
• 27:43
  SPEAKER_00: I agree.
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_00: I think everybody, when they're first starting a business, when they're first starting out, they're everybody's insecure.
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_00: The first time you do it, you're totally insecure about it.
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_00: You think, and and I think today it's even more difficult because we have social media where we have all these videos and all these posts and all these channels of these people saying, you know, I started this side gig and I went from zero to a million dollars in two months.
• 28:05
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, it makes people feel inadequate when in in reality it that's all bull.
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_00: They they, you know, they they make their money on the YouTube channel.
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_00: They never really actually started a business.
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_00: So I think you're 100% correct.
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_00: You you know, you you have to believe in yourself and you have to, you know, you you're the dis you're the difference maker.
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_00: So I appreciate you coming on.
• 28:25
  SPEAKER_00: It was a great discussion, and uh you built a great business.
• 28:28
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, and uh again, happy that you took the time to come on and talk to us about it.
• 28:33
  SPEAKER_00: And uh your link to your website will be uh in the description, and anybody who wants to get in touch with you can get in touch with you through that website.
• 28:41
  SPEAKER_00: And if they're interested in selling your product, they can get in touch through that website.
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you so much, Paul.
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_01: I've really enjoyed it.
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_01: I appreciate it.
• 28:49
  SPEAKER_00: All right.