Latest / Good Morning From The Chicken Coop! / Season 4 - Episode 165 - The Avon lady

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Season 4 - Episode 165 - The Avon lady · Good Morning From The Chicken Coop!

• 0:01
  Hey everybody, welcome to the good morning from the Chicken
• 0:04
  Coop podcast. My name is Kim Johnson and I am
• 0:07
  a mastermindset coach, creative strategist, and also happened to
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  be a farmer. This is my chicken coop and I
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  come out here every day to record a podcast to teach
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  distinctions, possibilities, new ways of thinking, and just bring
• 0:20
  some joy into the world. So welcome to the coop and let's
• 0:23
  start your day off in a fantastic way.
• 0:27
  Hey everybody, good morning from the chicken coop.
• 0:31
  Did you ever encounter an Avon lady?
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  You know my mother, when I grew up, my mother had an Avon lady.
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  Bullshit. I won't say it was the same
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  lady, but they were always referred to as the Avon lady and
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  there was always one of them at our house.
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  The woman could use Avon like nobody's business.
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  She used it for everything. She was incredibly loyal to them
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  and it wasn't until I was much older and had she moved out of
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  the house and she didn't have an Avon lady anymore that she
• 1:02
  decided to start going to the Lancome counter.
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  And no, this is not a commercial for either Lancome or Avon.
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  This is just me telling a story about my mother.
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  And I got to thinking about this last night because I was making
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  my list for my Costco run today And I was like, interesting how
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  my mom would stock up on things. And I would laugh at her for
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  stocking up on things because I'd be like, why do you have to
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  have? Because she always had the
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  drawer filled with the Avon Products.
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  And she'd say things to me like, well, what if they don't carry
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  it anymore? And I was like, well, what if
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  they don't? What if there's something
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  better? She's like, but I like this.
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  I don't need anything better. This is what I'm looking for.
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  This is exactly what I want. So she would stock up.
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  And when my mom passed away, I have to say I was laughing my
• 1:50
  her best friend and I were laughing at how much Avon she
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  had and Lancome she had because she had found before she passed
• 1:57
  away an Avon lady and she was getting stuff again.
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  And she was ordering because she's was not an online person,
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  so she couldn't order it that way.
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  And we were just like, Oh my gosh.
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  And my, my mom's best friend would take took all of it so she
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  could have it because I said I I don't want to throw it away.
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  She's like, I'll use it no problem.
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  So she took it and we were laughing.
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  She goes, I won't need anything until I die.
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  And she still jokes around with me after all these years later
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  that my mom's been gone, that she still has some of those Avon
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  Products. Now, what is this all about?
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  Well, one, the Avon lady herself, OK, this whoever the
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  these people were that made-up the, the, the, the identity of
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  the Avon lady. I used to just marvel at them
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  when I was a kid, that they would show up at the house, sit
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  down with my mother, go over the book with her and influence her
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  to get stuff and talk to her, show her samples.
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  And I always thought this was so interesting to me, how somebody
• 3:01
  would come to your house and sell you something and you would
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  sit and give them all of your attention.
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  Now, that does not happen anymore unless you call somebody
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  in for a quote and you're asking them to come in and show you
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  something. But the point of today is
• 3:15
  thinking about the skills of the Avon lady.
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  Holy cow. They were so far ahead of their
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  time because they would sit there just like the Fuller Brush
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  guys, who I never encountered, but I read stories about them,
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  how they would come and they would show you everything and
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  you would make your choices and then they would actually bring
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  you the stuff back. Like the Avon lady would come
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  back the following week or 10 days and she would have my mom's
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  whole bag and she would drop it off with a new catalog.
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  So the assumption was always the sale.
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  The assumption was always moving forward, the end.
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  Not only that, but they took the time to explain everything.
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  And lo and behold, you know what?
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  They really made business work, you know, and no joke if they
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  made that effort. Like my mom had one Avon lady
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  for the majority of my life until she passed away.
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  That woman was there and then she started getting different
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  ones who took over her territory once she passed away.
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  But that woman was there all the time, all the time.
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  And I can't remember her name. I try as I might, I can't
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  remember her name, but I was too young.
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  And I, I, I marvel at the, the tenacity that that just that,
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  that they would take this on and do it house by house, piece by
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  piece. And I start thinking about how
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  IA lot of entrepreneurs listen, a lot of people who listen to
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  this podcast own their own businesses and how we have to
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  like figure out how we're going to market ourselves.
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  What are we going to do for people to find us and seek us
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  out? And the one lesson that we could
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  take away from these Avon ladies is the first lesson.
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  Not one lesson, but the first lesson is the tenacity of just
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  being willing to be consistent. Holy cow, their consistency was
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  outrageous. They stuck with it. 2 They would
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  sit hands with hands down with people.
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  They would sit and they would talk to them and they would
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  actually make connection. And in this digital world that
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  we live in, we forget that we are able to make these
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  connections. We forget that we are able to do
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  connection in, in a way that matters because if you're not
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  connecting with your people, there's a chance they're not
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  going to come back to you. And 3rd, they always assume the
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  sale. They always assume that they
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  were going to get something. And I whether they were
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  disappointed or not, it didn't matter.
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  They still came back. They still came back.
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  So we are so fragile. Sometimes we get disappointed
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  and then we don't try anymore. And I know, I know, I've done it
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  myself and it's the wrong thing to do.
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  That's why consistency matters. Staying on point with people
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  matters and putting somebody in a position where there is no
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  question they understand how much they mean to you and they
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  you appreciate them. And because you know you, they
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  see you, they see you showing up.
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  You have to burn that into them. So take it for what it's worth,
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  learn from the Avon lady, and I hope you guys have a blessed day
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  and I'll see you tomorrow. Bye.