Direct Selling News May 2021

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DIRECT SELLING NEWS

VOLUME 17 / ISSUE 5

M AY 2 0 2 1

Renewal

RE-ENERGIZING GROWTH BY RE-THINKING CRISES

SIMPLE IS HARD MEANINGFUL DATA RULES INCRUISES / SIGHTS BEYOND THE HORIZON THE HAPPY CO. / COME ON, GET HAPPY!

With Gratitude to Our Direct Selling Clients and Partners for Making Exigo the Established Global Leader.

A boutique investment banking, business development and corporate finance advisory firm with a primary focus on the direct selling vertical.

Stuart Johnson, the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of SUCCESS Partners and Direct Selling News, is a cofounder of the new firm. Direct Selling Capital Advisors’ experience and relationships are unmatched within the direct selling community.

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The firm has quickly established itself as a significant resource for direct selling industry participants and is actively engaged in the marketing of potential transactions in excess of $700 million.

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Stuart Johnson, Partner | spj@directsellingcapital.com Ryan Bright, Partner | jrb@directsellingcapital.com

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F E AT U R E

Simple is Hard B Y PAU L A D A M S

Meaningful Data Rules B Y N O A H W E S T E R LU N D & H E AT H E R M A R T I N

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SPOTLIGHTS

inCruises:

Sights Beyond the Horizon B Y J E N N Y V E T T E R

The Happy Co.:

Come On, Get Happy!

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Data is a Friend of Mine

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D AV I D K E L L E Y

I N EV ERY ISSU E 6-7 AD INDEX // 9 FROM THE EDITOR // 11 INDUSTRY NEWS // 36 FORWARD THINKING // 93 DSA MESSAGE // 94 VENDOR DIRECTORY //

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RENEWAL:

CONTRIBUTORS

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Re-energizing Growth By Re-thinking Crises.

BY BETH DOUGL ASS SILCOX

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who DOES have a distributor agreement in place ■ Customer—someone who DOES NOT have a distributor agreement in place ■ Active is defi ned as each customer and distributor must have made a product purchase during the last six months. Active customer and distributor counts are limited to those in the U.S. and Canada.

Companies must have been in business for at least one year and have a minimum of $5 million in annual revenue. Qualifying companies must attain: 5:1 up to 10:1 for Gold status and 10:1 or more for Platinum status.

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/ FROM THE EDITOR /

Spring and Celebration are in the Air! WHAT AN EXCELLENT TIME IT IS to be looking at the positives and examining what it means to be a part of the direct selling channel. A huge thank you to all who tuned in for our second virtual Global Celebration. We had a night of awards, rankings and messages to inspire. Speaking of messages to inspire, I truly hope you could attend our recent Direct Selling University where more than 40 speakers delivered messages to educate and inspire. A complete wrap-up of the Global Celebration and Direct Selling University will be in our June issue.

Spring is a time of renewal and growth, and we have both at DSN. Our print issue has a refreshed look and format. Our website launched a new look created to get you the news you need in a dynamic and user-friendly place. Our homepage will show you the latest news and information. Click on READ to select the articles and information you need to know. LISTEN & WATCH takes you to our growing video and podcast collections, where you can learn from industry peers. Our ATTEND features event information. ACHIEVE is where you will find the articles and information on our Global 100 lists, Bravo Awards, Customer-Centric Recognition program, Best Places to Work and our latest Legends recipients. RESEARCH will lead you to the Digital Momentum Index, Stock Watch and Stock Ticker. Our DSN Dashboard, our weekly newsletter, launched a new look in April and continues to highlight the news from the past week. Please check out our new look at directsellingnews.com. We strive to provide the news you need and be the name you trust.

This issue of DSN focuses on the renewal that took place in seven direct selling companies. Check out the stories from Herbalife, Le-Vel, Nature’s Sunshine, Princess

House, Prüvit, Total Life Changes and USANA. These industry leaders take a brief, retrospective look inside their companies during a year like no other.

Industry veteran, Paul Adams, shows us how while Simple is Hard it is also incredibly important for success.

Truly compelling messaging is told in a way that people understand. Appealing and compelling—yet simple.

Simple is Hard can be found on page 42.

How to gather the right e-commerce customer information and make it work for you is the focus of our second feature article, Meaningful Data Rules, by Noah Westerlund and Heather Martin. Data can help you build better relationships with your customers. inCruises have their sights set beyond the horizon, and you can check out their story on page 76. Learn how even in the midst of a challenging year for the travel industry, inCruises saw consistent growth.

The Happy Co. is also feeling refreshed and reenergized with their new name and brand refresh. “We have been presented with a unique opportunity; our rapid growth combined with the leadership of our remarkable Brand Partners has enabled us to impact millions of people around the world in a very positive way,” states Bo Short, CEO of Elevacity Holdings, LLC and Elevacity International Holdings, LLC. At Direct Selling News, we endeavor to be a source, resource and thought leader for the entire direct selling channel. So, if you have a suggestion, a need or an inspiration to share, please reach out. We would love to hear from you.

All the best,

Pa t r i c i a W h i t e | E d i t o r | pw h i t e @ d i r e c t s e l l i n g n ew s . c o m @directsellingnews

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NEWS IN BRIEF

Mary Kay Encourages Innovation and Young Entrepreneurs

Isagenix Awards Grants to Nonprofits to Support Racial Equality, Natural Disaster Aid and More

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sagenix International, through its philanthropic organization ISA Foundation, awarded $620,000 in grants to 22 US-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations.

These grants will help serve underserved children, strive to develop wellness education for all and provide aid for those affected by natural disasters.

The foundation’s first-ever six-figure grant ($100,000) was awarded to GirlTrek, a nonprofit that seeks to support the physical and emotional wellbeing of Black women and girls by pioneering a health movement that is grounded in civil rights history

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and principles. This grant will help in the pursuit of racial equality, one of the foundation’s four focus areas.

“As a company that believes everyone deserves to experience a healthy, joyful, and abundant life, we love how GirlTrek is helping to improve Black women and girls’ physical and emotional wellbeing,” said Justin Powell, Isagenix Chief Legal Officer and ISA Foundation Board Member.

“We’re thrilled to partner with such an inspiring nonprofit and help it expand its reach so it can make an even larger impact on the communities it serves.” DSN

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ary Kay, Inc. announced the winners of its World Series of Innovation (WSI) Challenge.

This challenge was implemented in partnership with the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE), and Mary Kay’s sponsorship of the NFTE World Series of Innovation created an opportunity for those ages 13-24 to find solutions to some of the biggest challenges the world is facing today.

Participants focused on how they could provide solutions that would help advance the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) while fostering an entrepreneurial mindset.

“Students today grow up in a world where sustainability is part of the daily, global conversation and they are actively engaged to drive change,” said Deborah Gibbins, Chief Operating Officer at Mary Kay Inc. “Mary Kay is proud to partner with NFTE, an organization that is helping to not only ignite the entrepreneurial mindset in youth, but is encouraging them to think critically to tackle challenging global issues. Global companies like Mary Kay have a responsibility to foster entrepreneurial innovation that can help to make the world a better place.” DSN

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Spain Passes Law Classifying Delivery Workers as Staff

Tupperware Brands Partners with National Park Foundation

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upperware Brands’ nonprofit Tupperware Brands Charitable Foundation announced a collective contribution to support the National Park Service in diverting nearly 10 million singleuse plastic bottles from landfills. This effort includes the installation of water bottle refill stations in national parks as well as composting and recycling infrastructure and waste reduction education.

“We are excited to see how our pledge and support for the National Park Foundation is coming to life with these critical projects across the National Park System,” said Miguel Fernandez, Chief Executive Officer at Tupperware Brands. “Our partnership is based on the shared belief that together, we can nurture a better future if we find new and innovative solutions to reduce waste and increase environmental stewardship. Over the next year, we look forward to seeing how our collective impact will make a difference in keeping our parks fresh for generations to come.”

“Thanks to Tupperware’s generous funding, park staff and park visitors are empowered with more sustainable choices that ultimately reduce waste in national parks and benefit all of us,” said Will Shafroth, president and CEO of the National Park Foundation. DSN

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he Spanish government passed a law that individuals delivering for platforms like Deliveroo and UberEats will be recognized as salaried staff. This is the first passed legislation in Europe that explicitly regulates delivery worker status.

Six months ago, Spain’s leftwing government announced it would seek to clarify the legal status of those working for online delivery firms, believing they should be considered employees rather than gig workers.

Delivery workers have been outspoken about what they describe as precarious working conditions and have taken legal action to seek benefits like sick leave. Delivery firms have declared themselves an intermediary between businesses and delivery workers, insisting its workers are self-employed.

“They are now considered as salaried workers and will enjoy all the relevant protections,” said Labour Minister Yolanda Diaz in a televised address.

The declaration will be in the form of a legislative decree that “recognizes the presumption of employment for workers who provide paid delivery services.” DSN

Juice Plus+ Former CEO Named 2021 Master Entrepreneur

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ay Martin, Juice Plus+ Chief Executive Officer, has been awarded the 2021 Master Entrepreneur Award by the Society of Entrepreneurs (SOE). This award is presented to the individual who best exemplifies the characteristics the society requires of its members: self-direction, determination, creativity, leadership and integrity.

Martin moved to Memphis in 1969 and has committed to improving the city through initiatives like My City Rides, which provides affordable transportation through a lease-to-own plan, and locating his headquarters for the Juice Plus+ shipping facility within Memphis and company headquarters in nearby Collierville. DSN

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Medifast Study Reveals U.S. Adults Are Prioritizing Healthy Eating

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edifast, Inc., parent company of OPTAVIA, conducted a survey of 1,426 U.S. adults to uncover the trends and nutritional priorities and challenges people are facing as the country reaches the one-year mark of pandemic life.

The study found that 84 percent of adults are prioritizing healthy eating as much or more than last year and 89 percent reported that nutrition is important to them. Even so, 56 percent of respondents said eating healthy is difficult and 53 percent said that being home more because of the pandemic has enabled them to eat and snack poorly.

“Over the past year, the majority of Americans have come to recognize the importance of proper nutrition to their overall health, though many still struggle with where to start or how to stay consistent,” said Dan Chard, Medifast Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. “Oftentimes, support is the missing link–it’s why our model puts independent OPTAVIA Coaches at the center of everything we do. We believe the recent momentum behind our coach growth can be attributed to people seeking support to help them not only eat healthier but create healthy habits in all areas of their lives.” DSN

Beautycounter’s $1 Billion Deal with Carlyle Group

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n an agreement that gives equity giant Carlyle Group a majority stake, Beautycounter is now valued at $1 billion. This valuation is more than double the company’s last reported estimate, which valued Beautycounter at $400 million in January 2018.

Beautycounter is known for being a mouthpiece for the clean beauty movement, and Founder Gregg Renfrew has lobbied in front of Congress for improved government regulations on personal care products that would keep harmful chemicals out of daily-use items. “Beautycounter is a pioneer and leader in the fast-growing clean beauty industry, and we see an opportunity to support a talented, founder-led team in amplifying the brand’s mission to change beauty forever,” said Jay Sammons, Head of Global Consumer, Media and Retail for the Carlyle Group.

“I’m proud that we were able to navigate through the pandemic with a digitally-native mindset, fast-tracking our efforts to find new and innovative ways to enhance the online shopping experience,” Renfrew said. “We’ll continue to do so as we enter this next phase of growth for the company.” DSN

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Coway Honored for Corporate Transparency

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outh Korean direct selling company Coway, which specializes in home appliance rentals, was honored by the Business Integrity Society at its BIS Summit 2021 Anti-Corruption Awards.

Coway was chosen as an “Excellent Anti-Corruption Company” and recognized for its “continuous commitment to a framework for environmental, social and governance, or ESG, standards as well as corporate transparency.”

“We have been selected as an excellent anti-corruption company in recognition of our efforts to improve corporate transparency and risk management based on ESG,” said Lee Hae-sun, CEO of Coway. “We will continue to strive to strengthen our sustainable business system by actively fulfilling our responsibilities to our stakeholders.”

The company also unveiled plans to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 50 perent by the year 2030. By 2050, the company plans to be fully carbon neutral by 2050 and rely 100 percent on renewable energy. DSN

FTC Announces Reinvigorated Rulemaking Authority

Young Living Awarded Two Green Globes from the Green Building Initiative

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oung Living has been honored with two Green Globes certifications for “its dedication to energy efficiency, sustainability and reducing environmental impacts in building construction and management” by the Green Building Initiative, a nonprofit that collaborates with organizations to improve building performance and reduce climate impacts.

“This level of sustainability is a significant accomplishment and a realization to a 15-year long dream of my husband D. Gary Young, the founder of Young Living, who set our standard in being a leader and example of green practices,” said Mary Young, co-founder and CEO of Young Living. “We are so proud of our construction teams and building managers who have created a headquarters to match the Young Living mission and continue to achieve goals in which we can create a better world for all of us by taking care of our Earth.”

The awards were given based on the company’s U.S. global headquarters. DSN

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ederal Trade Commission Chairwoman Rebecca Kelly Slaughter announced a new rulemaking group within the FTC’s Office of the General Counsel.

The creation of this new entity will strengthen the existing rules of the FTC and increase the commission’s capacity to undertake new rulemakings. The FTC emphasized that it believes clear rules and significant civil penalties for rulebreakers deter bad actors.

“I believe that we can and must use our rulemaking authority to deliver effective deterrence for the novel harms of the digital economy and persistent old scams alike,” said Acting Chairwoman Slaughter. “Our rulemaking power under section 18 has gotten a bad reputation for being too hard to use, but longstanding FTC rules, such as the Funeral Rule and the Eyeglass Rule, have provided significant benefits to consumers.

It is also time for the Commission to activate its unfair methods of competition rulemaking authority in our increasingly concentrated economy, and I am excited for this new rulemaking group to explore all the possibilities.”

This centralization of rulemaking will be a shift from the commission’s current structure, which places responsibility for particular rules on individual bureaus and divisions. DSN

Amway Lays Off 900 Employees

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mway announced it will be restructuring its operations and laying off up to 900 of its employees. The majority of the layoffs will come from Amway’s Ada-based workforce, which currently totals almost 3,000 employees.

“We announced to U.S. employees that as we invest even more in nutrition science, innovation and manufacturing, and in delivering seamless social, shopping and customer experiences to help our Amway business owners around the world grow and thrive, we will also be restructuring our operations,” the company said.

“Since Rich DeVos and Jay Van Andel founded Amway 60plus years ago, we have been focused on helping people live better, healthier lives, and now we are investing even more in our wellness portfolio—in science, innovation, manufacturing— while also improving our digital capabilities,” Amway CEO Milind Pant said in a statement. “It is a difficult business reality that this kind of change doesn’t come without affecting people— people we love dearly who all passionately believe in what we do to support entrepreneurs all over the world.” DSN

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Primerica Survey Reports Americans’ Financial Confidence Is Waning

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rimerica’s recent Middle-Income Financial Security Monitor reported that middle-income families feel less financially prepared than they did three months prior.

Americans remain mostly optimistic about their economic future, but recent financial stresses led 59 percent of respondents to say that their income is not enough to meet their cost of living.

“Our latest research confirms what we hear from the thousands of middle-income families we meet with each day,” said Glenn J. Williams, CEO of Primerica. “Despite recent economic headwinds, working families are generally staying optimistic about their financial situation, and many are taking important steps to expand their financial knowledge, save for the future, and protect what they have.

Over four decades, Primerica representatives have earned the reputation of being a valuable resource, and we stand ready to help even more middle-income families become financially secure.”

Many of the participants in the survey said they are protecting their families with life insurance but other savings methods were mixed: 76 percent have a savings account, 53 percent have a retirement account provided through work, 41 percent have a life insurance policy provided

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through work and 31 percent have a policy outside of their work benefits.

Between September and December of 2020, the financial confidence of survey respondents declined. Fewer participants had an emergency fund of more than $1,000 or are saving for a comfortable retirement. Seven percent more participants said they would run out of money to meet their basic needs if the primary breadwinner became unemployed or passed, and fewer said they expect to be better off financially one year from now. Working families remain worried about their physical health (38 percent), financial situation (27 percent), their retirement savings (22 percent) and potential for unemployment (22 percent).

Women are bearing the brunt of the current economic upheaval, with a record number leaving the workforce, and their financial challenges have worsened as well. More women reported an increase in personal debt than did three months prior. Fewer women feel prepared for the financial impacts of the pandemic and 11 percent more women said they would run out of money in just one month if the primary breadwinner became unemployed or passed away.

The Monitor surveys households with annual incomes between $30,000-$100,000. DSN

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EXECUTIVE ANNOUNCEMENTS

Eric Chen

Dimitri Haloulos

Wendy Wang

Sunrider International, Chief of Global Manufacturing Officer Sunrider International has appointed Eric Chen to the role of Chief of Global Manufacturing Officer.

Chen is an organic chemist with more than a decade of experience as a Sunrider executive.

Chen’s previous titles with the company include Vice President of Manufacturing. In his new role, he will oversee the company’s global manufacturing sites, FDA compliance, product launches and research and development.

“The future of manufacturing at Sunrider is in the best hands,” said Dr. Tei-Fu Chen. “I’m proud of our children for taking the lead. Sunrider has been here for almost 40 years, and we know it has a big and successful future ahead. This is only the beginning.”

Rodan + Fields, CEO and President Rodan + Fields, LLC announced it has appointed Dimitri Haloulos to the role of Chief Executive Officer and President.

“We are excited to bring Dimitri on as our new leader. His track record of innovating companies and his passion for the direct selling channel made him the unanimous choice of the Board to be our next CEO,” said Dr. Katie Rodan, cofounder of Rodan + Fields.

“Dimitri shares our vision of providing all people with a life-changing opportunity and recognizes our Consultants’ success, is our success, and as we continue to grow we must provide them with a strong business opportunity,” added Dr. Kathy Fields, co-founder of Rodan + Fields.

Mary Kay, President of Asia Pacific Region Mary Kay announced Wendy Wang will be appointed President of the company’s Asia Pacific Region.

“We want to congratulate Wendy as she transitions into her new role as President of Mary Kay Asia Pacific,” said David Holl, Mary Kay Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. “Wendy is passionate for the Mary Kay independent sales force and is a proven leader within Mary Kay. During her tenure, she has tirelessly built a strong and talented legal team that created a culture of compliance and compassion for China and the entire Asia Pacific Region. We are thrilled to welcome her as a member of the executive committee as we build on our efforts to enrich women’s lives around the globe.”

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e t a D e h t ave

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New Board of Directors Members Tupperware Brands Corporation announced the appointment of three new members to its Board of Directors, including Deborah Ellinger, James Fordyce and Timothy Minges.

Ellinger has more than 15 years of experience as a board member for both public and private global entities.

Her global board experience focuses on the intersection of consumer products and services, technology and digitization.

Fordyce is the Co-Chairman of the Board and Co-Chief Executive Officer of Stone Canyon Industries Holdings, Inc., Chairman of the Board of Mauser Packaging Solutions, Inc., and Chairman of the Board of Saint John’s Health Center in Los Angeles. Fordyce brings extensive financial expertise and is well-versed in the direct selling industry and in business-to-business partnership.

Minges has held multiple leadership roles in the food and beverage industry, including c-suite positions where he oversaw critical markets with 30 manufacturing facilities and 30,000 employees.

Tupperware is committed to gender diversity, and the appointment of these three new members will make the Board 45 percent women-led. The company is also committed to increasing its racial diversity.

Primerica, Regional Vice President Primerica, Inc. announced David Brian Gradberg has been promoted to Regional Vice President. Gradberg has served as a local representative who has helped clients prepare for a more secure financial future by providing appropriate insurance, mutual funds, annuities and other financial solutions to meet their unique needs.

Herbalife Nutrition, Chief Digital Officer Herbalife Nutrition announced it has chosen Joe Miranda for the role of Chief Digital Officer.

Miranda has more than two decades of experience as a global technology executive in the media, financial and data analytics industries, and has worked with Fortune 500 companies to develop and execute enterprise digital strategies and build integrated, customer-centric digital programs across functions, business units and landscapes.

“The creation of this new position will allow the company to deliver exceptional digital experiences for our distributors, customers and employees,” said Frank Lamberti, executive vice president distributor and customer experience of Herbalife Nutrition. “Joe Miranda’s vast experience in enterprise digital transformation is the perfect background necessary to serve as our first Chief Digital Officer. In this role, Joe will work across 95 markets to devise and implement the company’s digital strategy.”

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Stuart Kronauge

Rod Larsen

Sunny Beutler

Juice Plus+, CEO Juice Plus+ announced the appointment of Stuart Kronauge as the company’s new Chief Executive Officer. Kronauge is the first woman CEO in the company’s history.

“My new role at Juice Plus+ has connected me to a community of 200,000 independent Sales Partners who are creating change and showing others that small, everyday changes can have a big impact on their and their families’ health,” Kronauge wrote in a statement on the Juice Plus+ blog. “At Juice Plus+, our powerhouse of female Sales Partners are blazing trails for other women to follow, and that’s something I’m incredibly proud to be a part of. Female entrepreneurs are an emerging force to be reckoned with. As a female business executive, I couldn’t be more excited about our future.”

Paulo L. Teixeira, the company’s former CEO, will now move into a role as executive chairman of the board to focus on broader visions for the company.

Jeunesse, Chief Operating Officer Jeunesse announced it has appointed Rod Larsen as the company’s Chief Operating Officer. Larsen has more than 25 years of experience in the direct selling industry.

“Rod is a true professional with an impressive track record of spearheading the operations of fast-growing, global organizations, and we are so pleased to welcome him to the Jeunesse Family,” said Jeunesse Chief Visionary Officer Scott Lewis. “With his depth of experience in the industry, we are confident Rod will play a key role in furthering our mission to help our global family of distributors achieve their dreams, while igniting the vision that will drive our success in 2021 and beyond.”

“My commitment with Scott and the entire Jeunesse corporate team is to accomplish our singular goal: to deliver on the Jeunesse promise of redefining youth through our revolutionary products and life changing opportunities,” said Larsen.

Sunrider International, CEO Sunrider International announced it has appointed Sunny Beutler to the role of Chief Executive Officer.

Beutler has more than 15 years of executive experience with Sunrider and is the daughter of Drs. Tei-Fu and Oi-Lin Chen. As CEO, Beutler will lead the company’s business development strategies, oversee its global operations and meet the needs of the company’s global network of distributors.

“I’m so proud of how far we’ve come after starting Sunrider over 38 years ago,” said Dr. Oi-Lin Chen.

“Now that we are close to 40 years of Sunrider, I am so blessed and happy to see my own second generation take the lead of this business. It was a dream before, and now it’s real. All five of our children have important roles: Sunny is CEO; Wendy Teng, Reuben Chen, and Jonathan Chen hold Board of Directors positions; and Eric Chen is Chief of Global Manufacturing. We know that our family will help modernize Sunrider and help it succeed for many years to come.”

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New Product and Science Advisory Board VIIVA has announced the names of its Product and Science Advisory Board members. These cross-industry professionals will play an integral role in providing guidance for products, formulations, positioning and marketing.

“We are excited to welcome this group of professionals to the VIIVA team and will be counting on their knowledge and expertise to help guide future product decisions and support VIIVA’s growth,” said VIIVA Global CEO Dick Wang.

Board members include: n Claudia Wilson, Registered Dietitian Nutritionist, Board-Certified Specialist in Sports Nutrition n Dr. Fred Templeman, medical doctor, Integrative Medicine expert with an emphasis in Botanical Supplements n Marysa Cardwell, Registered Dietitian Nutritionist, certified personal trainer with extensive background in psychology and nutrition n Tania Bliss, former News Anchor for CFCN News n Michael Ingrassia, expert in biology with a background in research and development in the cosmetics and pharmaceutical industries and a Ph.D. in Molecular and Cellular Biology n Craig Johanson, marketing and business professional who has helped launch nearly 100 nutritional and skincare products n Devin Glazier, direct selling leader who has launched products in more than 40 countries n Dr. Xiaoyi Qiu, a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard Medical School who has a Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences “We are looking forward to making decisions that will drive VIIVA’s product collections and help its Brand Partners continue to grow [and] thrive,” said Board member Craig Johanson.

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E X E C U T I V E

A N N O U N C E M E N T S

Miguel Pena MONAT Global, Director of Environment and Sustainability MONAT Global announced it has appointed Miguel Pena as the new Director of Environment and Sustainability. Pena will focus on leading and continuing the organization’s commitment to sustainability best practices and creating healthy communities.

“Miguel is a valuable addition to our team and his expertise will help guide us to becoming better environmental stewards,” said Stuart MacMillan, president of MONAT. “MONAT is already a global leader and our concentrated focus on the environment and sustainability will further solidify our commitment to creating healthy communities and a beautiful planet.”

“I look forward to creating a world-class program with lasting global impact by working with the teams at MONAT as the company experiences growth with its products, facilities and salesforce,” said Pena.

Jesus Asmitia Seacret Direct, Vice President of Latin American Operations Seacret Direct announced it has selected Jesus Asmitia for the role of Vice President of Latin American operations. This move comes as the company prepares for growth in Mexico and Central and South America.

“After 18 years of experience spanning sales, operations, field development, recruiting and training initiatives to improve direct selling, beauty, and IT industries, joining the Seacret family is a welcome opportunity,” Asmitia said. “I am honored to lead Latin America by example. Let the world know all the good we are here to do and ask other enlightened people to join us.”

“He sees business opportunities and has the vision to make the right moves, not just keeping us ahead of the game but changing the game,” said Izhak Ben Shabat, Seacret Founder & CEO.

Ryan Reigle Regal Ware, President and CEO Regal Ware, Inc. announced Ryan Reigle will take on the role of company president and CEO. Jeffrey A. Reigle will now become Chairman of the Board.

“We are fortunate to have someone of Ryan’s caliber and experience step up to lead Regal Ware,” Jeffrey Reigle says. “Ryan is a visionary with a proven track record of execution. He is a strong communicator who is customer focused with deep leadership capabilities. He is the right person to successfully implement our strategy while delivering exceptional value to our customers.”

“When I reflect on Regal Ware’s past, I see a history of progress, not a progress of history. Here at Regal Ware, we made things happen and made the world a better place. Reflecting upon how that happened, it only happened one way. It’s around the great people that have made up this organization for the past 75 years. I am fortunate to work alongside an incredible team of global employees and sales leaders to fulfill our mission of enriching life by bringing families together across the world,” said Ryan. DSN

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S T O C K

W A T C H

DIRECT SELLING C A P I TA L A D V I S O R S DIRECT SELLING STOCKS EXPERIENCE TOUGH MARCH AFTER MONTHS OF RECORD-BREAKING PERFORMANCE

F

OR THE FIRST TIME since October 2020, direct selling stocks endured a difficult month in March.

Each large cap stock within the tracking set either declined or underperformed and the Direct Selling Capital Advisors Selling Index (DSCI) fell 5.7 percent during the month, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) gained 6.6 percent. This is the first decline for the DSCI since October of last year and the first time since February 2020, when the DSCI began tracking this data. In spite of this new negative trend, the DSCI remains up 77.8 percent since February 2020, a massive lead on the DJIA, which gained only 29.8 percent. On a year-to-date basis, the index remains up 9.9 percent, compared to 7.8 percent for the DJIA. This new weakness in the tracking sets in the month of March is likely due to altitude fatigue and profit taking, and can be primarily attributed to three leading performers during the pandemic: eXp World Holdings (NASDAQ: EXPI), Medifast, Inc. (NYSE: MED) and Tupperware Brands Corporation (NYSE: TUP). All three stocks saw significant declines during March, but remain among the top three performers in the tracking set since the DSCA began tracking.

Fourth quarter and year-end financial results were strong within the large cap tracking set. In Q4, the smallest year-

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over-year revenue growth among the seven companies within this set was 12.6 percent, and the smallest EPS growth was 15.2 percent. These seven companies grew, on average, 38 percent and earnings per share by 41.5 percent. It’s important to note that this EPS average excludes TUP and EXPI, which had negative or exceptionally low EPS during Q4 2019 and would artificially skew the calculation higher.

In 2020, six of the seven companies grew 6 percent in revenue year-over-year, with average revenue growth of 21 percent and average EPS growth of 25 percent, taking the same exclusions into consideration as Q4.

LARGE CAP STOCKS n Tupperware Brands Corporation (NYSE: TUP) fell 13.6 percent during the month, but remains one of the leaders with gains of 827 percent since February 28, 2020.

TUP reported strong fourth quarter results, including revenue up 17.4 percent. Year-over-year comparisons, however, were behind analysts’ expectations, leading to a selloff of stock. Tupperware has stabilized its profitability and growth, setting the stage for additional growth in 2021, but having risen approximately 1,000 percent over the last year, the stock was due for a bit of pull back. In March, several of the companies’ executives purchased approximately $1.2 million in stock—a bullish sign.

Fourth quarter and year‑end financial results were strong within the large cap tracking set.

n Nu Skin Enterprises, Inc. (NYSE: NUS) increased 3.3 percent over the month and now stands 123 percent above its levels when DSCA began tracking. Despite 28 percent year-overyear revenue growth, analysts and investors were expecting higher numbers, and so the company is working to slowly recoup losses experienced during February when Q4 financial results were announced. Like TUP, this pullback is to be expected after a year of significant gains. n Herbalife Nutrition, Inc. (NYSE: HLF) traded significantly down in late February following the company’s earnings announcement. While the company has strong fourth quarter year-over-year revenue growth (15.6 percent), the stock

traded lower due to missed analyst expectations at both the top and bottom line. The stock was virtually flat (-1.6 percent) in March, and has continued to trade in a sideways, consolidating pattern. n Medifast, Inc. (NYSE: MED) has been a standout in the large cap tracking set, but declined 15.7 percent over the course of the month. It is still 166.5 percent higher than it was when DSCA tracking began. The company’s Q4 financial results beat estimates and included revenue that was up 55.3 percent year-over-year. Since then, the stock has traded sideways in a consolidating pattern and remains up 8.6 percent year-to-date. w w w. d i r e c t s e l l i n g n e w s . c o m 2 9

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S T O C K

USANA Health Sciences, Inc. (NYSE: USNA) traded higher following its Q4 and full year 2020 financial results on February 9. The stock continued to trade higher and ultimately reached a 52-week high of $102.58 on March 4.

It has traded in a bullish, sideways, consolidating pattern since then with its daily trading range tightening significantly.

USNA is consistently trading in the upper 90s, well within striking distance of a new 52-week high. n eXp World Holdings (NASDAQ: EXPI) reported preliminary fourth quarter results on March 2, including both record revenue (+122 percent year-over-year) and profitability, but the stock sank over the next several sessions. Over the course of March, the stock fell 24.6 percent but remains up 852.9 percent since DSCA began tracking 13 months ago. n

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W A T C H

Year-to-date, EXPI remains up 44.3 percent and is the leading 2021 performer among larger stocks. n Primerica, Inc. (NYSE: PRI) rose 4.7 percent in March and its year-to-date stock is up 10.7 percent. Since fall of last year, the stock has traded in a predictable, upward pattern.

On April 2, the company announced it had achieved a single month Investment & Savings Products (ISP) sales record of more than $1 billion in March.

SMALL CAP STOCKS Nature’s Sunshine Products, Inc. (NASDAQ: NATR) stood out in March, rising 27.9 percent over the course of the month and is now 157 percent above its February 2020 closing price.

The company reported financial results, which included

a quarterly net sales increase of 11 percent yearover-year to a record $101.7 million on March 10, resulting in the stock moving aggressively higher on stock trade. The company also announced a special dividend of $1 per share and a $15 million share repurchase authorization. NATR reported $92 million in cash on hand at the end of the year. The dividend and repurchases will cost the company an expected $36 million.

All small cap stocks within the DSCA tracking set outperformed throughout March, and have yearto-date as well, with all providing positive returns for 2021 and all but two doing so in March.

SHORT INTEREST DATA AND ANALYST SENTIMENT Short interest in industry stocks began increasing toward the end of February. Industry wide days to cover fell to 2.4, the lowest level since a 1.5 was recorded in August of 2020. USNA fell to 6.9 days to cover, its lowest level since July of 2020, and PRI fell to 1.5 days to cover, its lowest level since DSCA began tracking this data in March of 2020. EXPI also saw

short interest drop to 0.7 days to cover, its lowest levels since DSCA began tracking data.

The number of sell-side analysts maintaining “buy” and “hold” ratings on industry stocks remained flat, at approximately 97 percent. However, the number of analysts recommending “hold” as opposed to “buy” increased slightly. Analysts advising “sell” remained miniscule.

LOOKING AHEAD The first quarter of 2020 had not yet seen the impact that COVID-19 would have on the industry, and year‑over-year comparisons will reflect the strong positive trends we have been seeing within the tracking set. As the industry enters the second quarter, the year-over-year comparison will become more difficult, since this is when many companies within the tracking set began to experience improved numbers.

“While we expect to see continued growth, we also expect the rates of growth to slow somewhat as we move forward throughout the year,” said Stuart Johnson, CEO of Direct Selling Capital Advisors. DSN

Year-over-year comparisons will reflect the strong positive trends we have been seeing within the tracking set.

DIRECT SELLING CAPITAL ADVISORS is a boutique investment banking, business development and corporate finance advisory firm primarily focused on the direct selling vertical, as well as ancillary businesses. Located in Dallas, Texas, Direct Selling Capital’s core service offerings include both buy and sell-side M&A advisory, equity and debt financing, as well as joint venture and partnership opportunities. For more information please contact us at: info@directsellingcapital.com This is a summarized report; for more information, please contact info@directsellingcapital.com.

w w w. d i r e c t s e l l i n g n e w s . c o m 3 1

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D I G I T A L

M O M E N T U M

R A N K I N G S

D ire ct S e l l ing N ews

D I G I TA L MOMENTUM RANKINGS Direct Selling News in partnership with Direct Selling Capital Advisors presents the Direct Selling News Digital Momentum Rankings monthly list. The purpose of these rankings continues to be to evaluate and acknowledge the companies experiencing significant growth in their online presence within the last 30 days.

Components

The list represents months of analysis across the three core pillars of social media marketing: web traffic & SEO analysis, Facebook activity, and Instagram activity.

Eligibility

A company is included in the Direct Selling Capital Advisors Direct Selling Momentum ranking when it has an active website, at least one active social media account, and at least 50,000 followers or fans for a single account (Facebook or Instagram).

As noted, our initial ranking methodology focuses exclusively on three primary drivers of online presence: web traffic, Facebook activity, and Instagram activity. We’ve aggregated roughly a dozen metrics from these three sources and assessed their change over the last thirty days in an attempt to measure the growth in a company’s online audience, or momentum.

A brief explanation of our proprietary methodology follows.

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Web Traffic & SEO

We analyze basic web traffic statistics as a measure of general interest. These statistics seek to measure the number of individuals searching for, visiting, and clicking on links that direct them to the company’s domain. This domain includes the corporate website and (in most cases) the company hosted web pages for individual distributors. Additionally we analyze the number of third party sources referring internet users to the company website, as well as the number of associated keywords, branded phrases, or marketing jargon (hashtags, slogans, etc.) that are popular across the web. Assessing the change in these metrics over time creates an estimated increase or decrease in demand for the company across the web.

Facebook Activity

We gather a collection of metrics intended to measure thirty-day changes in both volume (count) and quality (engagement & communication with) of followers. Assessing the change in behavior on Facebook, we believe, is a valuable tool in determining improvements (or declines) of a brand’s social value.

Instagram Activity

As with Facebook, we focus on the thirty‑day change of our metrics as a measure of social attention, or momentum, assuming a significant change in attention indicates changes in social interest and brand awareness.

A Note on Facebook vs. Instagram

Given varying target markets and consumer profiles, companies seem to often focus on Facebook or Instagram, rather than both. To ensure appropriate credit is given to the correct outlet, our metric analysis and momentum calculation consider which platform appears to be the primary for each company. As an example, if a company has 20,000 Instagram followers and 80,000 Facebook fans, all Facebookrelated metrics will be weighted at 80‑percent (80/100) of the total weighted social media metric score. Similarly, all Instagram-related metrics will be weighted 20 percent. Few companies do not have an active official Instagram account, and so their social media metric is based 100 percent on Facebook performance and changes. There are no companies in the list for which an official Facebook profile does not exist.

T

HE FULL 100-COMPANY LIST saw minimal changes in fans or followers and engagement across both platforms decreased somewhat. However, web traffic across the industry stayed steady and managed to post

an average of 4 percent growth. Internationally, the top 25 outperformed the domestic 100, posting moderate follower growth and some big wins with fan engagement on both platforms. Engagement for International brands on both Instagram and Facebook saw 18 percent and 14 percent gains, respectively.

This will be the final issue of the monthly Momentum Index, and we will be shifting to quarterly publications with longer timelines that measure more consistent, long term growth in social media and web analytics. We’ll continue tracking performance for all companies as always and focus on quarterly rankings lists we hope will more accurately represent those companies in the industry continuously excelling in the Social Media space.

APRIL

TO P 5 0

MOMENTUM RANKINGS

I N T E R N AT I O N A L L I S T

1 FOREVER LIVING

26 REVITALU

1 ORIFLAME

2 TUPPERWARE

27 YOUNG LIVING

2 FARMASI

3 AMWAY

28 NATURE’S SUNSHINE

3 YANBAL

4 MONAT

29 31 GIFTS

4 GIFFARINE SKYLINE UNITY

5 MODERE

30 CHALK COUTURE

5 NATURA &CO

6 BEACHBODY

31 IMMUNOTEC

6 COWAY

7 LE-VEL

32 WORLD FINANCIAL GROUP

7 FABERLIC

8 JAFRA

33 JUICEPLUS+

8 AVON UK

9 PAMPERED CHEF

34 EPICURE

9 NATURALLY PLUS

10 PLEXUS

35 SCENTSY

10 THE BODY SHOP

11 DOTERRA

36 SEINT BEAUTY

11 TIENS

12 USBORNE BOOKS

37 YOUNIQUE

12 ZINZINO

13 JEUNESSE

38 NU SKIN

13 PM-INTERNATIONAL

14 SHAKLEE

39 STELLA & DOT

14 BELCORP

15 NEORA

40 4LIFE

15 MARY KAY INTERNATIONAL

16 PURE ROMANCE

41 MARY KAY

16 NEW IMAGE INTERNATIONAL

17 TOTAL LIFE CHANGES

42 UNICITY

17 POLA

18 YOLI

43 LIMELIFE BY ALCONE

18 VESTIGE MARKETING

19 XYNGULAR

4 4 HERBALIFE

19 INFINITUS

20 ORIFLAME

45 COLOR STREET

20 OMNITRITION

21 NORWEX

46 MELALEUCA

21 VORWERK GROUP

22 PARTYLITE

47 ACN

22 LYCONET

23 RED ASPEN

48 SENEGENCE

23 WARRANTY REWARDS

24 EXP REALTY

49 ZURVITA

24 ATOMY

25 BEAUTYCOUNTER

5 0 PRIMERICA

25 POLLENCO

For more information or questions, submit your inquiry to preston@directsellingnews.com.

DIRECT SELLING CAPITAL ADVISORS is a boutique investment banking, business development and corporate finance advisory firm primarily focused on the direct selling vertical, as well as ancillary businesses. Located in Dallas, Texas, Direct Selling Capital’s core service offerings include both buy and sell-side M&A advisory, equity and debt financing, as well as joint venture and partnership opportunities. For more information please contact us at: info@directsellingcapital.com This is a summarized report; for more information, please contact info@directsellingcapital.com. w w w. d i r e c t s e l l i n g n e w s . c o m 3 3

/ INDUSTRY NEWS /

based solely on a company’s customer-to-distributor ratio taking into consideration the following definitions:

Distributor—someone who

DOES have a distributor agreement in place

Customer—someone who DOES NOT have a distributor agreement in place n

n

R E C O G N I T I O N

BE CU STOM ERCENTRIC RECOGNIZED.

The CCR Program is

n

C U S T O M E R - C E N T R I C

Active is defined as each

customer and distributor must have made a product purchase during the last six months.

Active customer and distributor counts are limited to those in

Direct Selling News is excited to present the Customer-Centric Recognition (CCR) Program to celebrate companies that are leading the way toward a sustainable, customer-centric future for the industry. Qualifying companies utilize business models that boast high

the U.S. and Canada.

customer-to-distributor ratios and prioritize customer sales.

Companies must have been in business for at least one year and have a minimum of $5 million in annual revenue.

Qualifying companies must

DSN

attain: 5:1 up to 10:1 for Gold status and 10:1 or more for Platinum status.

DIRECT SELLING NEWS

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Companies who wish to learn more or submit a CCR Program Application can go to www.directsellingnews.com/ccr/ or contact editor@directsellingnews.com

D

IRECT SELLING COMPANIES with a strong retail base of satisfied customers are experiencing impressive growth and deserve recognition and acknowledgment for

their efforts. With evolving consumer expectations and regulatory scrutiny, customer‑centric equals success for everyone—distributors, direct selling companies, and the channel as a whole.

The DSN Customer-Centric Recognition Program acknowledges these companies.

GOLD

/ 5:1 up to 10:1

P L AT I N U M

/ 10:1 and above

MONAT GLOBAL

ACN

NEORA

BHIP GLOBAL, INC.

PERFECTLY POSH

IT WORKS!

TOTAL LIFE CHANGES

KYNECT

LE-VEL

LULAROE

NU SKIN, INC.

SCENTSY, INC.

w w w. d i r e c t s e l l i n g n e w s . c o m 3 5

FO R WA R D

T H I N K I N G

/ R E L AT I O N S H I P S

Meet Me at the Clubhouse Is Clubhouse the next powerful online business-building tool for direct sellers?

BY DAVID LEE

“

If you start to think about the possibilities, there’s a great opportunity to use this platform to grow an agency or gain clients.

— M I C H A E L S T E L Z N E R / C E O , S o c i a l M e d i a E x a m i n e r

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T

HE ABILITY TO DEVELOP genuine relationships while delivering value to a target audience is one of the main reasons why certain social media platforms are such a perfect fit for direct sellers. Now, Clubhouse is emerging as the next innovative businessbuilding app, attracting a wave of direct sellers.

What is It?

Clubhouse launched in the spring of 2020 and now has more than 1 million users at any given time. It’s a live audio-only conference social platform, much like a live podcast that allows listeners to jump in and participate. You can connect with speakers and listeners to grow a following and to follow others in your interest categories. The app lets you select and follow topics you are interested in and then suggests users, rooms and clubs to follow.

Rooms are much like physical conference rooms where speakers address an audience from a virtual stage, and can even invite audience members to join them on stage to speak. When you navigate the app, you start in the hallway, which includes several suggested rooms for you to join based on the topics, people and other rooms you follow. Clubs include members interested in a particular topic or industry. You can receive notifications whenever speakers or clubs launch

Clubhouse is a live audio‑only conference social platform, much like a live podcast that allows listeners to jump in and participate.

a room for a discussion. For now, you need an invite to join Clubhouse. When you join and participate, you are given a certain number of invites to send to others.

That’s the Differentiator?

Clubhouse is much more than just another conferencing platform. It’s a way for people to connect with and learn from speakers and other users within certain interests and industries. This makes it a terrific way to build a network and generate a loyal following. Because it’s live audio, there are no recordings or playbacks. This creates a FOMO (fear of missing out) mentality, which helps keep users engaged in an in-the-moment conversation.

Rooms are made up of three sections: 1. THE STAGE—where the speaker delivers the talk.

2. T HE FRONT ROW—showing people followed by the speakers.

3. T HE AUDIENCE—people in the room listening to the conference.

Rooms could be a large keynote-style event or a handful of people discussing a certain topic. This allows you to discover and follow others you meet in a room. Anyone who starts a room is the moderator, giving you control over who joins you on stage, and giving you the ability to mute people or grant others the role of moderator. Audience members

can pop in and out of public rooms whenever they want. There is an event calendar to help you keep up with upcoming events, speeches and discussions.

Unlike a one-way podcast or speech, Clubhouse speakers can invite audience members on stage to be part of the discussion. Members can also “raise their hand” by clicking the hand icon in the lower-right corner to ask to come on stage. This lets users hear different perspectives and ideas. People who follow you will be notified if you go on stage to speak, which helps grow a following.

You can partner with others who have larger followings so that you’re not always the only one on the stage.

Since there is no video, users don’t have to be shy about being seen or worry about their surroundings.

The only images shown are user profile pictures.

Why it Matters to Direct Selling

The functionality and purpose of Clubhouse are right in line with what powers the direct selling industry by developing relationships and providing value to a targeted audience. Users create a profile with bios that can include keywords around their industry. This helps the platform suggest users to follow and rooms to join. Profiles can link to your other social media accounts, which is important since there is no personal messaging feature.

The main benefit Clubhouse provides direct sellers is to be a go-to source for information, guidance or services. The social aspect creates connections and grows networks. The strategy is to answer questions and solve problems through audience discussions, testimonials, product experiences, business-building tips, market research, or simply hold educational events.

“I’ve already had many private conversations with people I’m interested in working with,” says Social Media Examiner CEO Michael Stelzner. “If you start to think about the possibilities, there’s a great opportunity to use this platform to grow an agency or gain clients.” DSN w w w. d i r e c t s e l l i n g n e w s . c o m 37

FO R WA R D

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/ L AU N C H I N G

Keywords The Key to Keywords How to get into the mind of your target audience.

W

BY DAVID LEE

Your target audience is online right now, letting you know what they want and need.

HEN YOU HEAR the term “keywords,” you probably think of blogs or search engine optimization. But understanding the power of keywords can shape your entire digital content strategy.

Online business and digital marketing expert Neil Patel says, “Keyword research is the blueprint for your online marketing efforts, driving every decision you make. Keyword research is how we keep our ears to the ground. Can you afford to fall out of touch with your audience?”

Your target audience is online right now, letting you know what they want and need. Understanding keywords allows you to get into the mind of your target market, directing your website content, blogs, emails, social media content, and even offline marketing.

So, what’s the secret sauce when it comes to creating this content? Get specific!

Why? Because your target market has specific questions and problems, and they’re searching for specific answers and solutions. The keyword-based online content you create provides those answers

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and solutions. It doesn’t take exhaustive research to reveal what keywords your target market is searching.

In fact, three free Google tools reveal a ton of valuable insight to help direct your online content strategy.

1

Related Searches

Perform a Google search related to your target market or business, then scroll down to the related searches section at the bottom. For example, a search for “lose weight coffee” reveals some more specific search terms that people are actually searching for.

They include: coffee to lose weight fast coffee and weight loss truth n smart coffee n skinny coffee n n

Click on any of the related search terms to see even more specific keyword searches.

Now What?

If this is the question you keep asking, we can help.

2 3

Google Trends

Some keywords are more relevant at different times of the year. Google Trends reveals when keywords are trending up or down in terms of the number of searches. It also shows you other keywords related to the ones you are researching, giving you more ideas. Sticking with the “lose weight coffee” example, a report revealed that “keto coffee” was the hottesttrending related search that peaked this January.

Google Keyword Planner

70+ direct selling clients since 2015.

300+ years of direct selling experience.

The most sought after consulting firm in the industry.

This is the most powerful and specific tool of the three. It’s part of Google Adwords, but you do not have to run ads to use Google Keyword Planner. It reveals the average monthly searches for specific keywords, and shows the level of competition based on the amount of money people are paying for ad clicks. A report also reveals other more specific keywords. The sweet spot is finding specific keywords that have a high monthly search volume. DSN

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StrategicChoicePartners.com/NowWhat

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Must Reads VIBE: ENERGY EQUALS RESULTS FASTER SQUARED AUTHOR: TONY JEARY WITH DANIEL MAROLD (RESULTS FASTER! PUBLISHING, 2021)

THE VIBE (ENERGY) of an individual or organization is the real differentiator in ensuring success and what separates the rest’s biggest successes. The Strategic Acceleration methodology of clarity, focus, and execution drive success and achieve results faster, and Vibe is the magic ingredient that supercharges all three. Today’s world values—and actually demands—RESULTS Faster! This book will help force multiply your results by revealing what Vibe is and how to get it, grow it, and keep it!

GRIT FACTOR: 15 ATTRIBUTES TO DOING LIFE BETTER AUTHOR: LOGAN STOUT (MORGAN JAMES PUBLISHING, 2021)

LOGAN STOUT the best-selling author of Stout Advice, has just released his

latest book titled Grit Factor. Personal development liberates people to reach their full potential and Grit Factor shares with the reader 15 attributes to help yourself and others do life better. In this book, learn from some of the world’s most successful people as they share a wealth of knowledge and experiences.

Grit Factor combines proven research, real-world experiences, and exercises to help those searching for their grit factor to be their best in all phases of life— personal, relational and professional.

THE INDICATOR NPR (APPLE PODCASTS) From the Planet Money podcast team, this podcast aims to explain something happening in the news in less time than it takes you to eat your breakfast and drink your first cup of coffee.

The hosts pick an indicator, such as something in a recent jobs report or a statistic from a recent study, and bring in exciting experts, everyday people, and case studies from around the world to help explain how the chosen indicator fits into the larger global economic story.

Common topics that impact everyday Americans. DSN

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YOUR CUSTOMERS ALREADY HAVE A PREFERRED FORM OF PAYMENT…DO YOU KNOW WHAT IT IS?

OU R SE RVICES I NCLU DE: ■ Gateway connectivity

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■ Secure tokenization

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With years of industry experience and the latest in machine learning and data processing technologies, we provide a customer-focused, customized gateway platform that helps you maximize revenue, control costs and deliver an excellent customer experience. Open new markets and grow sales internationally on a platform that will grow with you!

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management solution build on the latest machine learning and artificial intelligence tools.

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Simple is Hard

NOW IS THE TIME TO FIND WAYS TO SIMPLIF Y YOUR OWN STEPS TO SUCCESS.

BY PAUL ADAMS

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REAT STORIES AND GREAT MESSAGING MATTER.

Truly compelling messaging is told in a way that people understand. Appealing and compelling— yet simple.

The challenge is that making a story simple is really hard. If you ever see a product or brand represented very simply, know that hours and hours—perhaps weeks or months—went into making it seem so simple. Some of the most famous brands are represented simply. “Just do It” and “Think Different” come to mind. Think about how complicated those 2-3 words could have been said, yet those few words created passion and belief in Nike and Apple that no long sentence or paragraph could have.

In the direct selling channel, many of us find it difficult to simplify the story enough, so it is duplicable. We use scientists and experts to explain the product messaging for us. Can you imagine Nike using a shoe engineer to explain why the shoes work? Fortunately, they show imagery of people using the products—basketball, football, golf or playing with children in the park. Those images tell a big story without explaining how the shoe or clothing works.

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Or, what if, during one of those now-famous presentations by the late Steve Jobs, he talked about all the electrical engineering, manufacturing and microchips that went into making the products work?

Instead, he confidently demonstrated how easy it is to do amazing things with their products—elegant, smooth, wildly appealing and made for the cool kids.

Making the processes that people have to follow in your business simple is really hard too. For example, it sure is easy to use but do you actually think that Amazon’s famous “one-click purchase” was simple to create?

One of my favorite examples of making the process simple goes all the way back to the late 1980s. When you received a computer from Apple, inside the box were additional elements labeled “Open me first,” “Open me second” and “Open me third.” It made setting up a personal computer simple for someone who knew nothing about it at all. Which was most of us back then. Today, the elegance of Apple’s packaging and delivery is designed and engineered to create an amazing first experience. It is a hallmark element of their brand.

“

When you think you have made things as simple as possible, make it simpler.

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It’s our job to help resolve the fear so they can move forward with excitement.

The Effort to Simplify is Worth It

In your business, you may have complicated things, and now is the time to find ways to simplify your own steps to success. It won’t be easy—simple is hard.

I get to sit in the boardrooms and work sessions of a wide variety of companies in our space.

Regardless of size, I find there are similarities. n They want profitable growth. n They want their distributors to succeed. Sell more product and recruit more distributors. n They want to improve retention with their field. n They want to make ordering products easy and effective and delivered on time. n They want the back office to work well and be a valuable tool for their distributors. n They want to make appropriate investments into the tools the field uses. n They want to reduce issues involving compliance. n They want to spend as little as possible doing all of the above.

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You get the idea. They want a “volunteer army,” as John Addison calls it, to stay focused and share the product or service and attract others to do the same.

It sounds clear and easy to do, but decades of frustration and failure indicates otherwise.

Some companies have done much better than others. They have built and grown amazing businesses—faster than most traditional marketing companies. Some have launched and reached $100 million in revenue in a year or two. I don’t care what world you come from, that is truly remarkable.

Others, even after 10-20-30 years, never reach that level of success.

Why? n Is it the product? Maybe. n Is it the compensation plan? Possibly, but doubtful. n Is it field leadership? Certainly, a major factor. n Is its corporate leadership? Absolutely a factor, but not always for the reasons you might suspect.

One of the biggest factors, in my experience, is that companies tend to overcomplicate things.

The story isn’t clear and repeatable by the newest people in the company.

And, the processes of achieving success, especially in the early days, are not designed for someone who knows ZERO about the product or company.

If you think I’m wrong, take this challenge.

Sign up in your own company. Experience what a newbie experiences and see what you think. This is not easy for you to do because you understand too much. You’re too smart. Do your best to see everything through the eyes of a complete newbie.

I’ve done this experiment countless times and, more often than not, the corporate team is not happy with what they found.

What you may find is that the emails you send to new distributors are not very effective. The effort it takes to set up their own personal web site is more than you imagined. The training you provide to get started is lacking. The instruction on how to make a little money is designed for someone that fully understands the compensation plan rather than someone who has no clue about genealogy and is excited to, possibly, be able to make $300-500. The

starter kit you send (whether physical or digital) is, perhaps, a hodgepodge of items. Often, it is out of date and lacks a feeling that you care about the newbie.

Complication happens!

But how?

Perhaps, you, as a corporate leader or owner, had an idea to create something special. You jumped into a giant process to discover or design the best product or service that a large number of people will want to use and sell. Depending on a variety of factors, this process could have taken months or years. You learned all there was to know about every ingredient, specification, manufacturing possibility, packaging, trademark/ copyright issues, pricing, etc. You became an expert.

You also spent months working on a compensation plan with industry experts and consultants. Some of you may have started as distributors so you, certainly, knew how to maximize a compensation plan from the perspective of the field. But, you had to learn how to create one that would sustain and help grow a company. You had bills to pay, and people to hire.

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In the end, the goal is to help others have success as simply as possible.

Then they explain it…And explain it… And explain it.

Convinced that every person everywhere will love it, they are ready to conquer the world.

Then, they look at me and my team and see the look of either confusion or disbelief on our faces.

Remember, the folks that explained it are the experts.

They told me everything. But I didn’t understand it. Or, I didn’t get as excited as they had hoped.

What Happened?

You signed on the dotted line for a back-office provider. Leased an office. Purchased product. If you are like a growing number of companies, you found and contracted with a warehouse / fulfillment center where you store more product than you can afford.

Figured out all the ins and outs of taking credit cards and then paying the onslaught of distributors you are expecting. In other words, you became an expert—on EVERYTHING. Now, it’s time to take all your expertise and sell some product and recruit some distributors.

But, you know everything about everything. Even if you “dumb down” what you know, it is only dumb in your mind. The average person off the street may still see it as a complicated mess.

I have met with executives any number of times who explain their new product and business with me with great enthusiasm. They are, flat out, giddy over the product. It is life-changing /mind-altering GREAT. Perhaps it has a magical new ingredient or some new technology that will, no doubt, change the world.

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In my opinion, they gave me too much information and assumed I was as smart as they are.

They expected me to view it with the vast amount of knowledge they have and make sense of it.

However, I’m just a guy off the streets that didn’t have their knowledge. They confused me and confusion causes indecision.

When I was in an early sales/management job, I learned a lesson about selling to real people that has guided me ever since.

I sold cameras and home video equipment during the absolute heyday of cameras. It was when the now ubiquitous “auto” features first made their way to cameras and they took much of the guesswork out of photography.

The cameras would read the light and make adjustments for you so you had a better chance of getting a good image.

When I first got started, I was anxious to take my knowledge of photography and teach the prospect so they could make a good decision on their camera purchase. I did this over and over—explaining f-stop, shutter speed, ASA/ISO (film speed), flash settings, filters, etc. It was magical. I could tell anyone about photography.

Thinking ERP? Think Squire.

The problem was that I wasn’t selling very many cameras.

I was doing a lot of talking and making friends, but I wasn’t keeping up with the better salespeople.

Fortunately, I had a sales manager explain that people don’t want to know more about photography—they just want to take good pictures.

WOW! All this time, I was explaining photography to people that didn’t want to know all of that. I am sure they appreciated A NetSuite implementation the education but they wanted photos of their kids’ dance from Squire is unique: recital or flowers in the backyard, or memories from their family vacation.

From that point forward, I was determined to make the We take the time to understand person I was talking to feel like they could confidently take your business goals and good pictures. processes. Only then do we My sales grew dramatically. create a custom NetSuite I learned to see things simply, and you can learn it too. You solution that will meet your just have to know it’s needed and necessary.

It involves leaving your ego behind. Sure, you can look unique business needs. super smart and tell everyone everything you know but, in the end, you will be seen as a “know it all” and not very helpful.

In the end, the goal is to help others have success as simply as possible.

It is hard enough to keep distributors focused on doing the right activities the right way. The more we complicate it, the more they stall. As humans, we tend to want more info. We want confidence. We don’t want to look stupid or feel like we are being judged for what we don’t know. So, it is our job, as corporate leaders to make things simple and help our people do the right things right. If that requires hours and hours of training, we failed.

NETSUITE IS THE WORLD’S MOST DEPLOYED CLOUD ERP SOLUTION I encourage you to take a step back and view your business from the perspective of someone brand new. That person is excited and scared—searching for an ounce of knowledge and confidence to move forward in their new business.

Learn more at a briefing seminar at It’s our job to help resolve the fear so they can move forward USAGE OF TAGLINED with excitement.

LOGOS When you think you have made things as simple as possible, One-tagline version of full color logo The tagline "AUDIT.TAX.ADVISORY" make it simpler. only accompanies the logo in circumstances where context Making things simple is hard…but worth it. DSN requires clarification about what Squire can do

netsuite.squire.com ( 801) 225-6900

for current and potential customers (the audience).

For example, Squire.com and its subsequent web pages feature the onetagline version (HIGHER PERSPECTIVE ONLY) of the Squire logo because the subpage content PAUL ADAMS has been involved the direct selling throughout the siteinprovides adequate to visitors. channel for overcontext 30 years.

He is the founder of the Adams

Secondary-tagline version of full color logo

AUDIT · TAX · ADVISORY

Resource Group which provides clear, focused growth On the other hand, if the team attends strategies for direct sellingfinancial companies. a national trade show where Squire should differentiate itself from a neighboring financial software company, then trade show banners need to include the tagline, “Audit-TaxAdvisory.”

Treat the secondary tagline like it’s part

One-tagline version of white logo

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Renewal Re-energizing Growth

By Re-thinking Crises

BY BETH DOUGL ASS SILCOX

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Pressure everywhere was building, but no one could foresee what was around the corner.

SOMETHING not altogether good was

brewing in direct selling in late 2019.

The Direct Selling Association reported flat-line global sales performance of $35.2 billion, down slightly from 2018. China’s 100-day reviews of nutritional products halted companies from selling in China, surprising everyone. Continued compliance pressures in China clearly stressed sales in the channel. The domestic regulatory environment brought new challenges as well. And for many companies, sales just weren’t where they needed to be for continued market expansion. Pressure everywhere was building, but no one could foresee what was around the corner.

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®

Available Now

at Your Favorite Bookseller www.ultimategigresources.com

The gig economy is redefining how we work.

"Our motivation for taking on the research of the gig economy and writing this book is rooted in a belief that the gig economy is providing a new reality: flexibility and freedom in how work is done can be achieved.”

— John. T. Fleming

2020 COVID-19 could have compounded

lingering 2019 circumstances, but that is not what happened for these seven

direct selling companies.

C-suite strategic planning, course corrections, realignment

of corporate spending, new compensation structures, and the like were underway throughout the industry when pandemic struck in early 2020. COVID-19 could have

compounded lingering 2019 circumstances, but that is not what happened for these seven direct selling companies.

With the benefit of time and distance, 2020 sales numbers and some hindsight, these industry leaders take a short, retrospective look inside their companies during a year like no other. In so doing, they help the direct selling industry re-think crises while telling the stories of how their teams met disruptive challenges and leveraged 2020’s new

These industry leaders take a short, retrospective look inside their companies during a year like no other.

business reality to create a renewal that re-energized their field organizations and helped solidify their growth trajectories for 2021 and beyond.

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Herbalife Nutrition JOHN AGWUNOBI, CHAIRMAN & CEO, SPOKE WITH DSN ON THE 2020 RENEWAL.

FOUNDED / 1980 TOP EXECUTIVE / JOHN AGWUNOBI, CHAIRMAN & CEO PRODUCTS / PERSONAL CARE & WELLNESS, FOOD & BEVERAGE, COSMETICS

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HERBALIFE NUTRITION PLOTTED A STRATEGY MORE THAN THREE YEARS AGO to continue the development of high-quality, science-based products that leverage global consumer trends and local preferences. Simultaneously, they’ve provided their distributors with the tools and tech necessary to efficiently run their businesses, all while focusing on world-class training and education that creates the Herbalife “distributor difference” in terms of organizational leadership and customer service.

Herbalife headed down this familiar and fortuitous path as they rang in 2020. When the challenges and opportunities of the next 12 months were behind them, theirs was an unprecedented year.

“2020 was our best year ever. Our full-year 2020 results of 14 percent net sales growth exceeded our pre-pandemic expectations,” John Agwunobi, chairman and CEO, says.

Demand for Herbalife’s nutrition products, combined with the entrepreneurial spirit and tenacity of its field of distributors, led to 2020’s record sales. But the strength of this distributor base is not new. In fact, they delivered year-over-year net sales growth in nine of the company’s top 10 countries during Q4 2019.

“One thing that is truly special about Herbalife Nutrition is the way our staff and distributors come together in the face of a challenge,” Agwunobi says.

That was, perhaps, never clearer than during 2020.

It didn’t take long for Herbalife to shift their thinking in a pandemic-driven world. A series of quick decisions required employees to work from home where it was feasible, instituted safety measures at factories and distribution centers, partnered them with suppliers to ensure continued production, and leveraged relationships with technology providers to increase capacity so they could stay connected with each other and with distributors around the world.

“Once we addressed the critical short-term situation, we began to think more long-term. We shifted to a completely virtual environment for our distributor events around the world, considered how

we might leverage those events to motivate and inspire distributors who may not otherwise have been able to attend and continued to focus on our proven strategy,” Agwunobi says.

Every decision they made had the health and safety of their distributors and employees at the forefront. Virtual meetings and trainings of all sorts replaced in-person gatherings, online ordering and take-out replaced in-person nutrition club consumptions, and online workouts with distributors and experts replaced exercising in fit clubs and other locations.

But the largest virtual undertaking was their annual Honors event for 5,000 top distributor leaders. In a matter of weeks, during the early days of the pandemic, Herbalife engaged a production company to help them take the event virtual, and they set about leveraging the potential tied to this new digital business reality.

In the end, Agwunobi says, “We have been able to reach approximately two and a half times the number of distributors with our virtual events than we did when we held them in person.”

Keeping up with product demand as sales soared, however, did present its challenges. But Agwunobi says Herbalife’s second-to-none operations team continued to supply distributors with products with little or no disruption.

The events of the past year have confirmed several things for Herbalife, not the least of which is the dedication, passion, and innovative spirit

of its distributors and employees, who offered up flexibility, resiliency and can-do attitudes throughout 2020.

“During this most challenging time, our employees and distributors came together to support their communities and each other.

Whether it was providing good nutrition to frontline workers, donating products and resources to feed those in need, or simply checking in on fellow teammates, our care for others was at the forefront of our response. I’m extremely proud to say that helping others is the hallmark of our company,” Agwunobi says.

Now, they also more thoroughly understand the important role Herbalife plays in the daily lives of millions of people. They were reminded over and over in 2020 that providing quality nutrition products to help people become healthier and offering a business opportunity that can generate supplemental or full-time income for those wanting to create their own businesses changes lives and improves communities all around the world.

“We have always thought of ourselves as leaders in the industry. Throughout 2020, I think we have proven that is true,” Agwunobi says.

And based on Herbalife’s 2020 results, it is clear their strategy to focus on compelling products, powerful technology and enhanced distributor education is working. No doubt, they will continue to execute against this strategy throughout 2021. w w w. d i r e c t s e l l i n g n e w s . c o m 5 5

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Le-Vel JASON CAMPER, CO-CEO & CO-OWNER, SPOKE WITH DSN ON THE RENEWAL IN 2020.

FOUNDED / 2012 TOP EXECUTIVES / JASON CAMPER & PAUL GRAVETTE, CO-OWNERS & CO-CEOS

PRODUCTS / NUTRITIONAL HEALTH & WELLNESS

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CREATED ON A CLOUD-BASED PLATFORM, LE-VEL’S VIRTUAL NATURE is something its field has passionately touted since 2012. But in 2019, Le-Vel felt they were missing the essence of direct sales—the human element. Had they gone too virtual?

“It’s kind of funny, the irony of it all, but going into 2020, we were actually hyper-focused on more meetings and getting more of the human element involved,” says Jason Camper, Co-CEO/Founder.

So, when 2,000 of Le-Vel’s field gathered for an incentive trip in February 2020 at Riviera Maya, Mexico—just weeks before the pandemic—they huddled up 150-200 top performers and talked tough love about getting back to the human element in their business.

Coronavirus had other plans, however, and forced Le-Vel into a true 100 percent virtual environment.

But Camper says, “That kind of round table—had we not had that in February—I’m not quite sure how the following month would have transpired.”

However, between March and the end of May, Camper says, “We saw our monthly revenue grow by $10 million. That’s pretty substantial. It hasn’t stayed there. We’ve seen a little of that subside, but overall, year-over-year, month-over-month, we’re still greater than where we were.”

But Camper’s not quick to assume that the pandemic was unequivocally the reason for any company’s growth or lack thereof. “I can say it had something to do with it, but I can’t say fully it was pandemic related. We’ve seen upcycles and downcycles in our business—where we do drop by this, and we do jump by that—since we started the company,” he says.

Skyrocketing sales may have happened for Le-Vel because people had more time to talk about and sell products during quarantine, health consciousness increased, or economic factors came into play. But Camper believes most meaningful was that February meeting. “We were ready to execute on the company whether there was a pandemic or not because everybody was hyper-focused.”

Duplication 101 is having everybody on the same page and beating the same drum, so the field is able to do what it needs to. They scrapped the human element plan and expanded their existing virtual model adding massive Zooming and online training.

Camper and co-founder Paul Gravette tried to do everything they could to check all the boxes for their field. “I was very visual and accessible through Zooms. I was saying no to nothing. Yes. Yes. Yes.” Camper remembers.

As much as Camper hates to admit it now because the world is “Zoomed out,” the video aspect of letting people see him and the rest of the corporate team as much as they could, even though it was virtual, was very meaningful. It built trust and laid a foundation that would not have otherwise been possible.

But Le-Vel’s 2020 success wasn’t as simple as executing a virtual business model. Sure, it played a part, but Camper points to leadership that’s committed to going to the next level, year over year over year despite a pandemic, despite virtual events or live events—is their secret sauce.

“You get people together who are inspired and empowered to go do something, and that’s how you move the needle. That’s how we started moving the needle in 2020,” Camper says.

There’s an almost “euphoric feeling” when everybody’s fired up about increased sales. “I like it more, what I see what it’s doing for the morale in the field versus what it’s doing for the company’s financials,” Camper says. Their top line grew as they discovered better ways to lead, teach and train.

But 2020 was chock full of distribution challenges, as a spring e-commerce boom and shuttered retail shops caused carrier overload and fulfillment bottlenecks.

“That in itself was bar none the biggest challenge of 2020 for us. If you had given me the option going into 2020, grow sales by $10 million a month or experience these types of shipping issues. I would have said, ‘I don’t want the growth. Just let me flawlessly execute shipping because I’m not going to potentially lose a consumer base that I’ve worked so hard to build up,’” Camper says.

With fulfillment time frames finally normalizing, Le-Vel is working to make it up to affected customers.

They are also looking for ways to foster a strong human element while still being pinned into a virtual model by the pandemic.

“Once the vaccines and people in the world deem it okay to get back to events, we are absolutely going to go bonkers!” Camper says.

Meanwhile, they did gather this February in Cabo San Lucas to celebrate 2020 and renew their commitment to Le-Vel. “We gambled and had no idea how it was going to turn out. But the Hard Rock Hotel let us put on an incentive trip there. We had 2,000 people and the local testing laboratories. We tested 2,000 people and were able to put on an event,” Camper says. w w w. d i r e c t s e l l i n g n e w s . c o m 57

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Nature’s Sunshine TERRENCE MOOREHEAD, CEO, SPOKE WITH DSN ON THE RENEWAL IN 2020.

FOUNDED / 1972 TOP EXECUTIVE / TERRENCE MOOREHEAD, CEO

PRODUCTS / PERSONAL CARE, WELLNESS, COSMETICS

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WITH A WORLDWIDE LISTENING TOUR, THINK‑TANK SESSIONS and executive committee analysis behind them, Nature’s Sunshine embarked on a fast-track relaunch in 2019. By spring, CEO Terrence Moorehead says a new five-point global strategy was taking shape, and they spent the closing quarters that year filling in details.

Doubling distributors’ businesses—that was the premise underlying Nature’s Sunshine’s relaunch.

They knew it would take brand work, work on the overall distributor and consumer experience, as well as building out digital capabilities and extending an already extensive lead in manufacturing and quality.

They didn’t want to choke on everything they were trying to accomplish, Moorehead remembers. But they implemented what they could early on, laying the building blocks for the rest of the strategy. They got the economics of the business right, made sure the P and L and balance sheets were moving in the right direction and slotted the right people in the right jobs at the right time doing the right things with the right motivations.

By their own design, Nature’s Sunshine was poised for renewal in 2020, but Moorehead says, “What we didn’t know about, of course, was COVID-19. That threw a wrench in a lot of different markets. It made us hesitate as to whether or not to pull the trigger on something like a new business model.”

Whatever their apprehensions, the major tenets of Nature’s Sunshine’s new strategy were both urgent and important. So, they muscled through, despite shattered plans for face-to-face experiences and an underlying wish they’d begun a decade sooner.

“Everyone believed in the strategy. Everyone knew what we had to do, and there was really no need to stop or put the brakes on. As a matter of fact, you could make an argument that we needed to try to accelerate things,” Moorehead says.

“We’d spent so much time on that, when the pandemic hit, and everyone had to start working remotely, instead of people being lost, everybody knew what their role was,” Moorehead said.

Forethought in management operations processes, as well as the previous year’s investment in a global, virtual communications platform, kept Nature’s Sunshine on track and allowed them to even move call centers to remote work.

“We felt confident. When you have the best team in the world and you have the best practitioners, we put out there what we believed they could handle,” Moorehead says.

Their effective communications strategies re-ignited awareness and long-dormant relationships. Knowing newness and change is absorbed at different rates, they recalibrated how best to bring everyone along, in some instances shifting to accommodate but not to compromise.

Those efforts “elevated the level of activation across the board,” Moorehead says.

Their only path forward, thanks to the pandemic, was a virtual one. They used every tool available— Zoom calls, Zoom webinars, texts, emails, one-on-one phone calls, pre-recorded training modules, even animated training modules—to come at people frequently and in multiple dimensions.

Moorehead thinks in some ways, the circumstances of 2020 opened up people’s minds in the field and rise to the relaunch challenges. But the management team “would’ve walked through fire to make sure that our distributors were taken care of and that the company would be relaunched effectively,” he says.

“We certainly didn’t imagine that the results would be as positive as quickly,” Moorehead says.

After 20 years of declining sales, the company bested their record when Q4 2020 net sales increased 11 percent to a total of $101.7million, up from $91.7 million in 2019.

“It put us on this new trend line and new trajectory, where people really are taking a new interest in the brand and a new interest in their businesses, unlike we’ve ever seen before,” Moorehead says.

Relaunch is never a straight line to success, a message Nature’s Sunshine broadcasts widely to its sales field. Large-scale business changes create winners and losers, as well as emotional responses, while a company learns and fine-tunes the functionality of its creations.

“The brilliance of the North American management team was managing the change day-to-day. That required a lead-up, sometimes daily meetings, weekly field meetings, partnering with distributors and consultants on idea generation, what’s working and what’s not working. But then the same level of intensity had to occur after the launch as well,” Moorehead says.

Change management and touch management augments what they believe is a groundbreaking business model and an industry-leading go-tomarket approach. They have shifted messaging from relaunch training to aspirational business growth education, and along the way, picked up a lot of new people who are excited about what Nature’s Sunshine is all about in this new era.

Nearly 50 years encapsulating herbs in America, Nature’s Sunshine differentiates itself through its commitment to science, manufacturing, quality, testing and third-party accreditations that surpass industry leaders and norms, as well as its unique, omnichannel distribution network of herbalists, dieticians, homeopathic healers, and herbal retailers.

Moorehead says the company always maintains a growth posture and a certain level of optimism. It’s a growing market and more people are engaged in taking care of their health than ever before.

“We want to make sure that we are there to be a lead option for those consumers who are really serious about their health and want a product they can believe in, trust and know it’s going to deliver results for them,” Moorehead says. w w w. d i r e c t s e l l i n g n e w s . c o m 5 9

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Princess House LYNNE COTÉ, PRESIDENT AND CEO, SPOKE WITH DSN ON THE RENEWAL IN 2020.

FOUNDED / 1963 TOP EXECUTIVE / LYNNE COTÉ, PRESIDENT & CEO

PRODUCTS / HOME DÉCOR, KITCHENWARE, FOOD & BEVERAGE, WELLNESS

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IN 2019, PRINCESS HOUSE SALES WERE IN DECLINE FOR THE THIRD YEAR, and the company’s programs and communications strategies struggled to motivate or induce growth. Still, their discouraged field leaders remained loyal, and when three-months of evaluation wrapped at year’s end, Lynne Coté—part of the Board’s review—joined Princess House as president/CEO in January 2020.

Coté was at the helm for only eight weeks when the pandemic came calling, but it had been an introspective and constructive couple of months.

Leadership re-organization began with clarification of roles and responsibilities, and they identified company strengths, weaknesses, current challenges and anticipated future ones. (The pandemic was not on their list.)

After redefining their mission and values, they got to work on strategy and tactics—tech enhancements, an innovative framework, improved training and tools, experiential opportunities, as well as leadership development, cultural connectivity and market expansion.

Then spring hit hard with lockdowns, transitioning to work from home and plummeting sales in the first weeks of the pandemic. Soon Princess House measured a first-quarter decline of 7 percent compared to 2019.

“Our discussions at the executive level were all about ACTION. What could we do that would encourage the field to try different things and to pivot to a digital environment?” Coté remembers.

Fortunately, that deep dive Princess House took just months prior proved invaluable to creating opportunity through chaos. “In fact, that became our rally cry to the field that the time was NOW. Because we had the products people needed during the crisis, it was up to us to create the opportunity,” she says.

A shift to Zoom extended the reach of grounded Regional Sales Managers to train the field, let Coté get to know Boston area staff from her home in North Carolina, and opened a first-ever transparent line of

communication with the field. They created deep discount promotions for April that utilized inventory.

They stopped demotions, extended payment terms, and lengthened incentive selling periods.

“Our goal was to let the field know we had their backs, and together we were going to help each other continue and even grow our business. By the middle of April, we saw our sales begin to increase double digits,” Coté says.

Even as sales began to pivot in April, recruitment was nil. So, Princess House offered a limited time only, discounted entry fee in May, which grew their consultant base 50 percent. With the existing field selling well, the challenge became on-boarding a lot of people fast.

Coté says a good portion of the recruiting was done at the consultant level rather than the leader level. So, they made it simple for consultants to onboard new team members with a one-page document. It worked.

“We saw the activity rate of new consultants in May, and we knew that we were going to far exceed our expectations for 2020,” Coté says.

Laser-focused, Princess House doubled their business every single month from April forward, but Coté says, “The huge growth in our business was not easy on us or the field. We just did not have the inventory to support this growth.”

With 120-day lead times out of China, feeding inventory became their biggest challenge and

was further complicated by the inability of UPS to support increased levels of service needed, especially on the West Coast. This reduced level of service put Princess House behind 12 weeks in shipping. “We were very nimble though in setting up FedEx, USPS, and even a private delivery carrier. We even set up a pop-up will-call center for leaders to come and pick up their customers’ orders,” Coté says.

Princess House’s trajectory continues upward in 2021 following a 2020 renewal that Coté says “completely changed the company.” Inventory purchase levels are up, and warehousing has expanded by 200,000 square feet. While the L.A. port situation and lack of trucking carriers still make logistics difficult, Princess House products remain relevant in the marketplace. “The trend to home cooking is not going away any time soon,” Coté says.

Looking back now, Coté believes the key to their renewal was the combination of supporting the field with tools they could use, transparent communication that made them feel like partners, and a leadership team that almost immediately became a high-performance executive team equipped to create opportunity out of chaos.

“I firmly believe the company has a renewed sense of purpose after recent years of declining results. I heard when I was consulting in December that there was no more growth to be had in the current market—I do not believe that is the thought now,” Coté says.

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Prüvit BRIAN UNDERWOOD, FOUNDER & CEO, SPOKE WITH DSN ON THE RENEWAL IN 2020.

FOUNDED / 2015 TOP EXECUTIVE / BRIAN UNDERWOOD, FOUNDER & CEO

PRODUCTS / HEALTH & WELLNESS

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EVENTS—LIVE, IN-PERSON EVENTS—CREATE THE HEARTBEAT AND CULTURE OF PRÜVIT. So, it was only logical that pre-planning for 2020 contained a huge dose of events, as the company’s excitement grew about expanding into more international markets; then, the world slammed shut in March.

“We were locked down, and the struggle came from uncertainty of knowing if or when things would reopen,” CEO Brian Underwood says.

Because Prüvit offers a premium product, they had to ask themselves a tough question. “What if people’s fear causes them to come off of autoship because they think it’s just a luxury in their lives?”

Despite their firm belief that their product is a necessity in the lives of their customers, due diligence dictated that Prüvit’s C-suite float all sorts of potential worst-case scenarios last spring; then, they prepped for them.

“We immediately took precautions and looked at how we could create a down-sell if needed,” Underwood says.

But they never had to use it.

Instead, they dealt with a brand-new reality and came out shining.

“One of the greatest things about our company is that our core philosophy is all about being truly adaptable. Once the pandemic hit, we were used to being a speedboat in the water anyway. Even in just our marketing feel, we would shift course very quickly,” Underwood says.

As their internal team transitioned to remote work, they kept the same harried pace that was their norm and morphed this new coronavirus reality into a huge opportunity.

They stepped up, swallowed hard and did what they had to do—canceled all in-person events. “We just wrote it off really early and leaned heavily into virtual settings,” Underwood says.

They carried forward strengths from 2019, like consistent outcomes and a focus on creating similar

feelings of connection with the community and re-anchoring people to Prüvit’s vision and mission.

“Getting that emotional connection involved is really important,” Underwood says.

With great pleasure, they watched Prüvit’s volume rise thanks to the amount of education the company created. They shifted to high-production virtual events delivered at increased frequencies and introduced new products, which also increased the frequency of new experiences for consumers.

“Our field outperformed themselves. We did a lot more of what we were already doing, which included driving experiences and creating events for them—whether it was new flavor drops, sales or training,” Underwood says.

“The surprise for us was that our 2020 sales grew tremendously in the domestic U.S., simply because

people had an urgency to find a plan B, and we leaned into that,” Underwood says.

Of course, there were disappointments like the inability to meet international growth projections, but stagnation had everything to do with the pandemic.

“As we were opening up new international markets, we met challenges by increasing communication with the international leaders who had already created the demand in those markets. Fortunately, we were able to create some stability in those sales, even in the pre-pre-launch stage. Our leadership got resourceful to maintain the market and use it to their advantage,” Underwood says.

Underwood thinks that’s the most exciting element to 2021—picking back up that international expansion and running with it.

For Prüvit, 2020 brought a renewal of sales growth, as well as added perspective because it forced everyone to slow down a bit, whether they wanted to or not.

“It gave everyone an opportunity to reset and refresh and also look at long-term effects of how to create more efficiency. I think we will see that industry-wide,” Underwood says.

Virtual events, for example—he doesn’t see them going away anytime soon. “If done right, you can get just as much impact. The challenge moving forward is to maintain those efficiencies while also replicating the feel of live experiences and human connection as well,” Underwood says.

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Total Life Changes JOHN LICARI, CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER, SPOKE WITH DSN ON THE RENEWAL IN 2020.

FOUNDED / 2003 TOP EXECUTIVES / JACK FALLON, CVO & JOHN LICARI, COO

PRODUCTS / HEALTH & WELLNESS

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“WE WERE ALREADY EXPERIENCING QUICK MOMENTUM IN QUARTERS THREE AND FOUR IN 2019, which carried over into 2020. We were very optimistic that we would see 2020 sales increase by 20 to 30 percent or even higher than the previous year,” recalls John Licari, Total Life Changes, chief operating officer.

What TLC didn’t expect was the lightning speed at which those numbers would arrive in 2020.

Essentially, TLC planning for 2020 called for more of the same—aligning and expanding goals to continue training and educating new and existing Life Changers on the benefits of following one duplicatable system that the masses could understand and implement quickly.

TLC intended to continue monthly events throughout 2020 in the USA, Europe, FSU, and Latin America that focused on sampling products, follow-up, and conversions that leveraged their 10-5-2 onboarding system and strengthened their duplication model.

Already in place was a “retail-to-recruit” sales system aimed at generating brand-new customers, and 2020’s plan to develop four samples in four languages would enhance face-to-face sampling and bring convenient, sampling order/delivery to those using TLC’s mobile app.

There was no real predicting what sales and business would look like for 2020 after the pandemic overtook normality, but Licari says TLC was pleasantly surprised as they continued their positive momentum.

“We were not aware that this was going to happen so quickly. We realized that what we were going through was an opportunity, but at the same time, we faced significant challenges. We were not prepared to handle the massive call volume, the increase in orders, and the incredible interest in joining TLC as an independent representative,” Licari says.

To cope with the pandemic changes, TLC shifted to daily, consistent communication with the sales field via social media channels to provide updates and hope, improved their onboarding process and upgraded

their phone system to include more robust callback options and self-help features aimed at efficiency.

And as they rapidly overshot pre-pandemic sales projections for the year, every department from the top down worked side-by-side to keep customer service and warehouse processing running smoothly despite increased volumes of orders.

Adding warehouse space, scaling warehouse staff, accommodating packaging changes necessary for vendor product replacements, and implementing daily pickups from their main warehouses so orders could be shipped ASAP—all this was key to ensuring TLC’s performance went beyond expectations.

It took people to get it all done—the internal support from TLC’s executive team and reaching out to local communities for new employees. They created a formal Human Resources department for the first time as they hired more and more people.

Field numbers were simultaneously escalating, and Licari says, “Our biggest challenge was onboarding a ton of new people and continuing to serve the existing people at the high level that they were used to. We had to stay fired

up and committed to supporting everything that was happening, and never giving up and staying positive.”

Thinking back on the rapidly accelerated growth of 2020, Licari says, “Whatever percentage we were set up to accept, we went above and beyond to make sure we could process even more than that because we knew this was an opportunity that we may never get again.”

TLC is taking steps now to sustain that growth and continue 2020’s renewal twofold. “We have not slowed down on improving our technology; we are currently being onboarded with Salesforce and new retail e-commerce and back-office experiences,” Licari says. They’ve also committed to a more rigorous schedule of communication, broadcasts, social media engagement and training.

Licari believes that TLC cemented its place in the health and wellness market by working harder during the past year and observing consumer behavior to maximize reach and continue to keep the positive momentum. They beat the odds and proved that there isn’t anything they can’t do with loyal and committed staff. And they grew to appreciate, on an even greater scale, what Licari identifies as the company’s greatest asset—their culture.

“And when that was taken away from us [due to the pandemic restrictions], that was a challenge because we were used to being this close-knit family that shared a lot of time. We learned that our culture here is very special, and when we can’t be together, it’s hard for many of us to deal with that,” Licari says.

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USANA KEVIN GUEST, CEO, SPOKE WITH DSN ON THE RENEWAL IN 2020.

FOUNDED / 1992 TOP EXECUTIVE / KEVIN GUEST, CEO

PRODUCTS / HEALTH & WELLNESS, PERSONAL CARE, COSMETICS

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AS USANA MOVED INTO 2020, THE YEAR STARTED STRONG. A surprise, 100-day nutritional supplement review by the Chinese government had slowed their business in 2019. Still, they realigned their operational spend, invested in IT infrastructure, devised a new road map focusing on new categories, and started building momentum in their non-China markets.

By late 2019, business was normalizing and in the first-quarter 2020, CEO Kevin Guest leapfrogged internationally—China, Korea, Mexico, The Philippines, Italy and Romania.

“I was actually in China when news of the pandemic there began to break, and our team began to contingency plan in late January and early February for this [COVID] to have a more wideranging impact,” Guest says.

Guest found himself one step ahead of country lockdowns amid pandemic and in a race to get back to the U.S. They were fortunate to learn from their China and Korea operations early in 2020, which helped the U.S. team act more swiftly once the health threat arrived.

“Still, I don’t think anyone could have predicted the magnitude or speed of what we’d face here and in each of our markets around the world,” Guest says.

USANA maintained a crisis communications and action plan, so that’s where they started. They didn’t overanalyze, instead they got to work and created global COVID task forces with authority to move forward, bypassing bureaucracy. Daily shifts and changes in-country could be life and death. USANA had to be a very nimble global organization.

“The COVID task force approach helped us get away from the silos and helped the efficiency of our decision-making processes tremendously,” Guest says. “I delegated a lot of the decision making to other officers in the company and other general managers around the world, so that they could feel empowered to make these huge decisions and follow through on them. And I’m so glad that I did.”

Prioritizing employee and customer safety, USANA immediately purchased employee laptops and kicked into a work-from-home environment. They even set firm dates to revisit the policy, which gave employees clarity and security about planning for childcare.

Supply chain concerns mounted as demand for health products grew. They increased inventory load to assure continued manufacturing and sought contingency suppliers of raw materials and ingredients. They found sources equal in quality and less expensive.

“This time last year was all-hands-on-deck, and we always seemed to be a few steps ahead of what was going on, fortunately,” Guest says.

“What happened for us in 2020—because of where we were in 2019—accelerated our strategic objectives versus disrupting them, which was very, very helpful for us as a company,” Guest says.

With a whole host of predictive analytics at their disposal, USANA knew momentum was on their side as early as Q4 2019. Trends indicated markets outside China were strengthening too. When Q1 2020 hit—before the full effect of the pandemic—they knew where they were headed from a sales/momentum perspective. After Q2 2020, USANA felt more confident, and the publicly-traded company raised its financial outlook to the street.

“From that point on, momentum continued to build, our sales results accelerated, and we ultimately delivered $1.135 billion in sales for the year, or 7 percent sales growth compared to 2019, which to me is an unbelievable year, especially given the continued challenges from the pandemic,” Guest says.

There were curveballs, like the effects of the U.S. banning the WeChat platform used so widely

in China, and the necessity to shift 19 remote in-person training centers in China to 100 percent online. And some pandemic related challenges linger—as ships still languish offshore due to customs slowdowns in some ports.

But the pandemic highlighted USANA’s strengths and has driven positive change. They launched and accelerated many global digital initiatives in 2020, including an improved mobile platform, expanded payment options, quick and simple product education, ways to capture and respond to consumer voices, improved SEO, and easier ways to share USANA experiences with others.

The ability of USANA’s field to utilize these tools and move to more social media-focused selling, to take advantage of additional company-sponsored promotions and incentives did a lot to drive the company’s results.

“For us, we, fortunately, have a very strong business with a lot of customers that love our products, and we had that base—regardless of what happened at the beginning of 2019—that carried us through this unprecedented year of 2020,” Guest says.

Sustaining a growth trajectory in 2021 will include production and launch of a new health drink line, as well as looking at international expansion as a continued growth strategy. But meeting new challenges, like even more intense cybersecurity and normalizing an in-person and digital hybrid event management strategy, is vital too.

Looking back, Guest is grateful for USANA’s culture and the core values of its employees that had, in the normal course of business, intuitively created systems that served them so well in crisis. That culture, he says, is too valuable to lose and with more than 100 new employees, who have never come to work in USANA’s world headquarters and he has never met or seen personally, Guest worries.

“I’m glad we had this great culture which got us through really, really potentially challenging times, but my worry now going into 2021 is, ‘How do I, as the CEO of the company, how do I maintain that culture on a global basis that took us 28 years to create?’ ” Guest asks.

He, like so many other CEOs, is not alone in this worry. DSN w w w. d i r e c t s e l l i n g n e w s . c o m 6 7

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Meaningful Data Rules HOW TO GATHER THE RIGHT E-COMMERCE CUSTOMER INFORMATION AND MAKE IT WORK FOR YOU

BY N OA H W E S T E R LU N D W I T H H E AT H E R M A R T I N

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Adopting a data-driven approach to customer acquisition isn’t as elusive or resource-intensive as you might think.

Meaningful data is one of the tech benchmarks of a strong e-commerce strategy.

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E LIVE IN A DATA HUNGRY WORLD.

And it’s getting hungrier.

According to a 2019 Deloitte report, the volume of data that companies are collecting about their customers is expected to reach 175 zettabytes by 2025. That’s a lot of content. For scale: It would take 3.9 billion of the most powerful iPhone 12s to hold one zettabyte of data.

But all the data on the planet won’t help you if it’s not meaningful data, which often makes the difference between feast and famine in the retail industry. In our first issue of 2021, we told you that meaningful data is one of the tech benchmarks of a strong e-commerce strategy. Data collecting can be intimidating, but adopting a data-driven approach to customer acquisition isn’t as elusive or resource-intensive as you might think. It doesn’t require a huge investment in artificial intelligence or a complete business intelligence department. You simply need a strategy of collecting the right data, analyzing that data, and implementing changes based on that data.

Collecting Data

Many companies realize they have valuable customer data but don’t always have the discipline to sift through it to find what story it’s telling them.

The first step toward being more intentional about your data gathering is to differentiate the data you’re collecting—divide it among three buckets: transactional, activity, and external. n

n

TRANSACTIONAL DATA. This is data that outlines who bought, when they bought, and how much they bought. Sometimes you collect this information along with demographic data (e.g. age, gender, etc.). But always be thinking about what else you can collect. The more information you gather about who is buying, the easier it is to understand who your customers are and build marketing personas that allow you to target your most profitable groups.

ACTIVITY DATA. This data is about distributors, prospects and customers and how they interact.

It’s the kind of deeper-level data that helps you measure the effectiveness of your marketing and sales efforts. For example, you might track a particular YouTube video or sample your distributors are sharing and how often those shares led directly to a purchase—also track how many shares and samples it took to land the buy.

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PERSONAL DATA FOR A PRICE.

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EFORE YOU BEGIN CAPTURING INFORMATION about your prospects and customers, make sure you’re

complying with privacy laws. In the United States, these laws vary by state. In Europe, companies must comply with the General Data Protection Regulation.

Even compliant retailers have an uphill climb when it comes to collecting shoppers’ personal information, though. According to another Deloitte study, only 5 percent of consumers trust the retail industry to protect their personal information. Yet, that same study notes that nearly 75 percent of consumers are still willing to share personal data with a retailer in exchange for better pricing, special discounts, or exclusive offers.

Direct sellers can take advantage of this willingness, and it doesn’t have to be complicated. Give consumers a reason to trade data for rewards. It’s common practice to get an email address for a coupon or to reward a subscription or autoship with a small discount.

Maybe offer a reward for taking a survey that allows you to collect more information.

This can give you an opportunity to collect data from consumers that will allow you to build more targeted marketing campaigns. It can also be a great opportunity to test various offers and find the one that is most effective for your company.

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EXTERNAL DATA. This is more unstructured data— like what you get from social media listening (as opposed to monitoring). Social media monitoring is the practice of using often-automated analytics to catch negative comments on social media so that you can respond to, redirect or minimize the effects of a conversation. Social listening is gathering all of the conversations and analyzing them for customer trends, preferences, purchasing triggers, etc.

Social listening can help you understand who is using your product and why they’re using it. This is powerful not just from a compliance standpoint or addressing concerns, but it can help you understand which audiences are really engaging with you. Is

“

Social listening can help you understand who is using your product and why they’re using it.

_______________________ World Class it the audience you expected? Is it just distributors?

Because if all the chatter is about the business opportunity, you know you need to do something to drive more conversations with and among customers.

Analyzing the Data

Good data analysis will help you drive more customer interactions and engagement. Just make sure you’re drawing relevant conclusions.

For example, if you change ten things at once and you see a lift in sales, who’s to say which one of the ten caused the lift? Try one change at a time and measure all the possible effects it could have had. For example, maybe you want to test a lower price point.

Consider using a coupon code first and then tracking overall responses to that code, as well as whether the

RECOGNITION For World Class

PERFORMANCE

_______________________

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purchases are coming from existing customers or new customers. Look at whether those new customers are in your typical demographic or if you’ve started to capture a new market segment.

Keep an eye on field activity, too—because it could be that you just got the field excited and their increased activity level boosted sales, and it had little or nothing to do with the lower price point.

Anything is possible, but if you don’t capture data on all of these things, you won’t be able to isolate the effect.

It’s also important to take into account market forces that could be contributing to a sales spike.

Use your social listening tools to determine if there’s chatter that links the sales surge to something like a new company leader who’s on fire or a phenomenon like the COVID-19 pandemic, which prompted a surge in immune system product sales.

Good analysis, in which you distinguish coincidence from causation, gives you clarity on what kinds of things you want to consistently measure. These will become your key performance indicators.

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Implementing Changes

Insights you gain from meaningful data collection may confirm that your current sales and marketing strategies are working. But they might reveal that you have an opportunity to do things differently, which can make you feel like you’ll have to turn an ocean liner around. An organizational or a strategic overhaul based on solid data will make the temporary discomfort worth it. But not all changes are massive. Keep in mind that sometimes it’s a single, small change or a combination of a few small things that can make big differences.

Committing to Quality

Traditional retailers tend to have an advantage over direct selling companies when it comes to data collection and analysis because they are more centralized. It’s more complicated in network marketing because we use distributors to directly interact with prospects, and those interactions aren’t recorded unless we provide our distributors with sales and marketing automation tools that can document those interactions.

We do have the edge over conventional retailers when it comes to relationships with customers, though. If we augment those personal connections with a disciplined, informed approach to understanding and leveraging what we learn about our buyers and prospects, nearly every byte of data we collect will mean something. DSN

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INCRUISES /

inCruises: Sights Beyond the Horizon With consistent growth, even in the midst of a challenging year for the travel industry, inCruises is positioned to sail even further into an exciting future.

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BY JENNY VETTER

HILE TRAVELING the world is on nearly everyone’s bucket list, very few families have the means to

pack a suitcase and jet off to exotic locations. Frank Codina and Michael Hutchison are determined

FOUNDED:

2015 HEADQUARTERS:

Puerto Rico

to change that, disrupting the cruise industry and

TOP EXECUTIVE:

making travel accessible to families around the

Frank Codina, COO and Co-Founder Michael Hutchison, CEO and Co-founder

world. With consistent growth, even in the midst of a

PRODUCTS:

Cruise Memberships

challenging year for the travel industry, inCruises is positioned to sail even further into an exciting future.

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We gave people that sense of certainty, that we were there to take care of them.

— M IC H A E L H U TC H I SON / CEO and C o - Fo u n d e r, i n C r u i s e s

A Company of Destiny

Co-founders Frank Codina and Michael Hutchison brought distinct yet complementary sets of skills to their initial conversations about building a travel company within the direct sales industry. Codina, an industry veteran of nearly three decades, was coming off the heels of a business launch that didn’t quite measure up to his expectations. Hutchison had largely focused on leadership development, both in his work with Tony Robbins early in his career and later as a consultant and author. The two men had known each other for years but had never collaborated until lightning struck in 2015.

“Cruising is a passion of mine and my wife and our boys,” Codina explains. “We love to cruise and we said, ‘Hey, let’s think of the cruise industry as a potential positive disruption and do something innovative.’ We thought about a Membership model, and I realized that I was going to need a strong partner. I needed somebody who’s really good at communications and marketing because I can’t do everything. I can’t do the financial part and the technical part and also be the spokesperson.”

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Coincidentally, Hutchison had just walked away from a prospective travel technology venture overseas and was looking to shake up the travel industry as well.

“Frank and I hit it off with the pain and frustration that the average families can’t go on vacations,” he says. “Many people go into debt. That’s what I think emotionally brought us all together.”

From the very beginning, they believed their idea was a “company of destiny” and dreamed up inCruises, a cruise membership program that serves families all over the world. The company was officially launched in January 2016, offering a membership that costs $100 per month, earning Members 200 Cruise Credits for every payment.

These Cruise Credits are then redeemed for cruises booked through the inCruises system, giving

Members exclusive access to prices the company has negotiated with more than 5,000 cruises around the world. The inCruises field team is made up of almost 100,000 “Partners” who join the company’s Independent Partner Program to earn commissions, bonuses and other incentives by referring new Members.

Today, inCruises has served over 773,000 Members, operates in 160 countries, and is supported by a corporate team of 67 employees. inCruises has helped more than 171,000 passengers book their dream cruise vacations. Over 90 percent of all inCruises passengers were first-time cruisers, an exciting statistic for a company focused on making travel affordable.

By the end of 2019, the company had reached the $100 million annual revenue milestone and was on track for an even more exciting 2020.

Today, inCruises has served over 773,000 Members, operates in 160 countries, and is supported by a corporate team of 67 employees.

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“

Let’s think of the cruise industry as a potential positive disruption and do something innovative.

— F R A N K C O D I N A / C O O a n d C o - Fo u n d e r, inCruises

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Thriving Amidst Challenges

The global cruise industry was forced to navigate significant financial and public relations challenges in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. inCruises grew 10 percent last year, possibly one of the only travel companies with positive growth in 2020.

“When the pandemic hit, airlines and hotels and cruises all decided not to give refunds,” says Hutchison. “They wanted to hang on to that revenue and keep it on their books. We went the opposite direction. We refunded our customers, so one hundred percent of our customers who asked for a cruise booking refund, we gave it to them, in cash.

We did not give them a future cruise credit or a travel voucher, like so many others did. We gave people that sense of certainty that we were there to take care of them.”

Customer refunds were only part of inCruises’ thoughtful response to a difficult season. Codina and Hutchison decided to advance payments to the cruise lines, negotiate cruise credits and found new ways to support their cruise line Partners.

“We met with every single financial partner we have,” adds Codina. “We have many—bank processors all over the world, financial providers, payouts, all kinds of things. And they all wanted to know if we were going to weather the storm. It was obvious from the very beginning that we were going to make it through. We were set up for success.

Our model is very flexible, our cost basis is very low, and we’re debt-free. So, we could afford to go the distance.”

As a lifelong advocate of leadership and positivity, Hutchison knew he could serve the inCruises team in even more ways.

“I wrote an e-book called SOS, How to Survive in Turbulent Times and put it out to our teams,” he says. “(I suggested) they start sharing excerpts on social media and let that be the conversation—that you’re trying to help, you’re trying to give back.

The decision to write that book is what prompted us also to triple down in the area of leadership development. We tripled the number of courses that we offered and did what we profess.”

The inCruises Leadership Academy was an integral part of the company’s field team training program prior to 2020 but expanded significantly last year. The Academy currently offers courses w w w. d i r e c t s e l l i n g n e w s . c o m 81

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The Next Port of Call

“

We were set up for success.

Our model is very flexible, our cost basis is very low and we’re debt-free. So, we could afford to go the distance.

— F R A N K C O D I N A / C O O a n d C o - Fo u n d e r, i n C r u i s e s

in 17 languages and averages over a thousand course completions a day. This focus on leadership development has always been important to both founders, but it is a particular passion of Hutchison.

“We’re grateful that we are the world’s largest subscription-based cruise Membership club, but I’ve always had this bigger vision that at our core, we’re a leadership development company,” he says.

“My entire career has been helping people to grow, to stretch, to experience, to become more. On the surface, we are a cruise Membership club, but we’re bigger than that.”

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With Members eager to cruise again, Partners who feel supported and an industry on the road to recovery, inCruises is extremely positive about what’s beyond the horizon.

“Twenty new ships will debut in 2021, each will cost the cruise lines about $950 million,” says Hutchison.

“I challenge anyone to compete with a $20 billion product launch in 2021.”

Looking ahead, the company intends to expand into other travel sectors, even more international markets and hit $1 billion in revenue, with a goal of quickly reaching legacy company status.

Codina and Hutchison are also excited about a different kind of ship on the seas. The company recently partnered with Mercy Ships, an international organization that operates hospital ships throughout the world, providing humanitarian aid, lifesaving surgeries and healthcare.

“I’m really excited about this partnership because it’s a way of truly giving back in a way that really resonates with our Members,” says Codina. “Our Members love cruises, and if cruises and cruise ships can be used for an incredible purpose like this, then it gives them this warm feeling inside. Our Partners are now matching us. If they match us, we’re going to increase the amount donated. We lead first.”

While 2020 may have paused inCruises’ explosive pattern of growth, the company and leadership are more excited than ever about the possibilities that lie in 2021 and beyond. Codina and Hutchison view last year as a season of stress testing that challenged the fortitude of what they had built together. And they’re thrilled to see the validation of what they knew all along—that inCruises is a “company of destiny,” built to last and positively change the cruise industry forever. DSN

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C O M PA N Y

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T H E

H A P P Y

C O.

THE HAPPY CO. /

Come on, Get Happy!

The Happy Co. launches its new name and brand refresh as it prepares to spread happiness around the world.

B

BY SARAH PAULK

EFORE IT WAS The Happy Co., Elevacity was skillfully distributing joy. More than 410,000 customers

enrolled within the company’s first two years of business—an almost 10:1 customer-to-distributor ratio—bringing in $15 million in sales each month.

As people joined for the mood-enhancing and nootropic science-based products, they stayed for the warm and fun company culture. Organically, happiness became Elevacity’s trademark characteristic.

FOUNDED:

December 2017 HEADQUARTERS:

Plano, TX

B

P W

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TOP EXECUTIVE:

Bo Short, CEO Garrett McGrath, President Clare Holbrook, CMO Tony Chaplin, COO PRODUCTS:

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C O.

“

Everything about the new brand name and our new visual identity oozes with happiness.

— C L A R E H O L B R O O K / Chief Marketing Officer of The Happy Co.

“Happy beverages” led the way as the company focused on infusing happiness into every facet of the business. Conference calls and conventions were made family-friendly and familiar. Field leaders built communities that encouraged connection and conversation through video calls that consisted of morning chats over coffee or afternoon walks.

Distributors, customers and corporate staff alike were living out the happiness lifestyle. Still, the leadership knew the company had room to grow, and capitalizing on that potential needed to begin with a name that spoke volumes without any explanation.

“Our previous brand helped build a big company, but we knew our potential was greater,” says Bo Short, CEO of Elevacity Holdings, LLC and Elevacity International Holdings, LLC. “This rebrand is more indicative of whom we are becoming—names matter. Words matter because they have power when used properly. What these particular words do is create a goal for each of us to reach for each day.”

Enlisting the help of BVA, a premier digital marketing agency whose clients include Red Bull energy drink and Kylie Cosmetics, the leadership team embarked on a lengthy creative evaluation and brand refresh.

The result is The Happy Co. “Everything about the new brand name and our new visual identity oozes with happiness,” says Clare Holbrook, Chief Marketing Officer of The Happy Co.

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“We believe that everyone deserves to be happy, and our vision is to create a happier world together, one person at a time. By launching The Happy Co., we are perfectly positioned to expand globally knowing that our brand is in total alignment with our vision, mission and culture.”

Utilizing a color palette that exudes warmth and happiness—like Sunset Orange, Happy Place Yellow and Tickled Peach—the new company logo features a softer and more gender-neutral appeal, with art that mimics both sunbeams and a smile. One of the hallmarks of the company’s mission and vision

is the belief that everyone deserves to be happy, so evoking a sense of surprise and delight through the design was a high priority.

“A sunrise symbolizes a new beginning, a fresh start, a happy start,” Holbrook says. “Pairing our company name with the sunrise in our logo signifies that happiness can be found with The Happy Co.”

The Future of Happiness

The “Co.” included in this refresh doesn’t only stand for company, but a list of very intentional descriptions that align with the brand’s overarching mission and culture: connection, community, collaboration, co-creation and more.

“The goal for the rebranding is to live up to the name,” Short says. “If we do this right, we’ll have people who won’t just make a lot of money, but who will be better moms, dads, friends and neighbors.

We have been presented with a unique opportunity; our rapid growth combined with the leadership of our remarkable Brand Partners has enabled us to impact millions of people around the world in a very positive way.”

Also included in the rebranding is a rollout of happiness-focused product packaging and

messaging, but it’s about more than looks. This brand renovation will create a customer-first, mobile-first brand identity that holds its own in an industry that is becoming heavily reliant on social media and digital platforms to do business.

“The launch of the new brand is just the beginning of a new vision for the future of our company and its ever-growing ecosystem of products,” Holbrook says. “We’re always looking to innovate and produce new offerings that enhance the lives of our customers and Brand Partners.”

Building and growth begin with a solid foundation. The new name, look and feel that arrived with this meticulous rebranding process has laid the groundwork for big developments already on the horizon. The company’s leadership recently announced an investor infusion of $30 million, plans for expansion into Asia and the securing of its direct selling license in South Korea.

“Timing is so important and I believe we are embarking on this journey at the best time,” Short says. “This will be a global enterprise by the end of 2021. That’s exciting because we have the resources to do it properly. We can and will do this the right way.” DSN w w w. d i r e c t s e l l i n g n e w s . c o m 87

W O R K I N G

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Data is a Friend of Mine How to build a lasting friendship with your data through access, data quality and tools.

B Y D A V I D K E L LY

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Data provide valuable insight into forecasts, predictions and trends.

D

ATA FROM DIRECT SELLING SOFTWARE has been a friend of mine for decades now but not without challenges. We

have had our ups and downs as I have encountered issues with data access, data quality, and the advent of reporting

tools. Data can be your friend too.

There is little argument regarding the potential of data.

Its most straightforward use amounts to a tally of sales units or money, answering the question How much did we sell?

Yet data provide valuable insight into forecasts, predictions and trends. With the right access, data quality and tools it is conceivable to not only tally sales but predict how much will be sold between 6:00 pm and midnight on Friday. The opportunities are endless—with close attention to access, quality and tools.

Access to your data is a key quality to the timing and reliability of your new friendship. Data begins as a collection of data dimensions or categories such as product types or customer types, followed by transactions like a product receipt, a new customer or a sales order.

These data seemingly disappear into a labyrinth called a database. In more complex systems, there may be synchronization of data across multiple databases.

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Access to these data or databases is paramount to building the new friendship. Access to only a library of reports is akin to a casual acquaintance. A meaningful relationship can only be attained with permission granted to access all of the data.

“Garbage in garbage out” (GIGO) is a classic simplification of the data quality issue. Quality is key to a solid production of reliable data results. The phrase GIGO clearly points to the culprit. Data validation or policing the quality of the data during entry is key. The simplest example is represented by the age-old problem of misspelling a customer’s state. FL should be the only valid entry for Florida and not FLA.

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However, data validation is more than a list of acceptable values. Programmers must be keen to address computations or algorithms with multiple variables to guarantee accurate results. Data architectures must enforce data integrity to ensure that all data relationships are valid. Consider the issue of a Sales Order without a valid Customer.

There are many data analytical tools available in the marketplace today. The complexity of data export and migration, however, can cause unforeseen issues requiring competent data analysts. Additionally, a new reporting environment may require technical assistance and training.

Consider that even a data export to Excel can alter data in ways that affect your results.

In the absence of a budget for analytical tools, programmers and analysts, it is best to rely on reporting tools provided with your Direct Selling software. A directly embedded reporting tool aids in avoiding issues regarding access to data and export challenges. Add a wellarchitected Direct Selling database with adequate data validation rules, and GIGO is solved too.

Build a lasting friendship with your data through access, data quality and tools. Ensure that you have unfettered access. Be certain that your system enforces data quality and look for systems that have a rich set of reports and tools to provide the freedom to get to know your new friend. DSN

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D S A

M E S S AG E

/

The Inspired Movement and Our Impending Reunion

T

HESE PAST MONTHS have provided us with time—some might argue too much time—to consider who we are: our history, the legacies we’ve carried forward, and how we are poised to drive ahead.

Across the decades, we have called direct selling different things. At times we have referred to direct selling as an “industry.” More recently, we have referred to ourselves as a “channel” to reflect how our field organizations are a strategy used by companies to reach consumers without involving retailers.

As I have been thinking about what is next for DSA members, I have seen direct selling become the best version of itself yet. Today, I view our community as a force, bound by a shared drive to innovate and an unfailing resiliency. We hold in common a passion for creating the products people love and the brands that stand for individual empowerment. This calling is one we all hear; it is what has galvanized our community to make us a stronger force than ever before.

My impression crystalized as DSA held the conversations that would reveal a format for DSA ENGAGE 2021: Annual Meeting that delivers maximum value while meeting all DSA members and Supplier Partners where they are.

During these conversations, many reflected on the losses sustained by direct selling community members, but all noted their strong desire to resume the more normalized rhythm of our business lives. Company leaders shared their growing faith in re-joining in-person events and

MELISSA K. BRUNTON Senior Vice President, Education & Meeting Services, DSA

#COMMUNITY #STRONGERTOGETHER

engaging in a reunion of our community by late fall 2021.

For 2021, the annual meeting experience will follow a blended format that allows individuals to engage—first virtually and then in-person or virtually—in a manner of their own choosing. As we all know now, there’s no such thing as back to normal—only forward to better.

DSA ENGAGE 2021: Annual Meeting will present two opportunities to engage about where we stand today and where we’re headed: n Learn, network and connect virtually from your desk at DSA’s virtual event—DSA ENGAGE 2021: The Virtual Conference—taking place online from June 7–9 and convening top leaders and executives from throughout the industry who will share how they are continuing to transform their businesses after months that have changed our lives. n Reunite in-person with your colleagues at DSA ENGAGE 2021: Vision Forward to Better on November 1–3, 2021, in New Orleans, LA, and enjoy the excitement of rousing general sessions, the resources from a solution-filled expo and roundtable discussions that will help you fine-tune your plans for 2022.

There is no doubt in my mind that these events will become a celebration of who we are, be it an industry, a channel, or a movement of individuals with a shared desire to empower individuals and their independence.

Visit www.dsa.org/annual-meeting/ and get registered today! DSN w w w. d i r e c t s e l l i n g n e w s . c o m 93

AccountingSuite tracks orders, inventory, and projects in the cloud. Our affordable Direct Seller Edition is perfect for individual sellers or companies may buy in bulk at a discount to include in a seller package to create another revenue stream.

LACORE PAYMENT TECHNOLOGIES

900 Wilmeth Road, McKinney Texas 75069 Info@lacoretechnologies.com www.lacorepayments.com/ LaCore Payment Technologies is a payment platform designed to support direct selling companies globally. Our services include: Global connectivity to 150 countries in 50 currencies, including direct connectivity to most alternative payment types, secure tokenization, customized fraud solutions, including our proprietary Fraudhawk™, advanced reporting tools, and online dispute management.

C R E D I T C A R D/ PAY M E N T P R O C E S S I N G

600 California Street, 12th Floor San Francisco, CA 94108 888-328-8275 www.accountingsuite.com

C O M M I S S I O N PAY M E N T S E R V I C E S

ACCOUNTINGSUITE

COMPLETE MERCHANT SOLUTIONS

727 North 1550 East 3rd Floor, Orem, UT 84097 877-267-4324 www.cmsonline.com Complete Merchant Solutions (CMS) is a full-service US merchant account provider representing multiple banks. CMS safely and securely supports many types of payment processing for direct selling companies.

SQUIRE

PAYQUICKER

METRICS GLOBAL, INC

1329 South 800 East Orem, Utah 84097 801-515-0977 www.squire.com

400 Linden Oaks, Suite 320 Rochester, NY 14625 844-258-3006 www.payquicker.com

1160 N. Town Center Drive, Ste. 100 Las Vegas, NV 89144 702-757-9600 www.metricsglobal.com

For nearly 50 years, Squire & Company has provided financial excellence and NetSuite expertise for clients in the Direct Selling industry. We offer personal service, responsiveness, and expertise in all areas.

Instantly make secure and compliant global payouts to your distributors in local currency with PayQuicker’s fully customizable, client-branded solution. We offer secured bank accounts with prepaid debit cards, virtual cards and more—all through a single point of integration.

We are the industry’s leading payments partner, long-established advocate, and problem-solver. Our unified commerce & payments platform will connect you to a global marketplace, enable your international expansion strategy, and fuel your exponential growth plans. Let us show you how.

Contact Us: info@metricsglobal.com

INTERNATIONAL PAYOUT SYSTEMS INC.

STRATEGIC CHOICE PARTNERS

NEXIO

540 NE 4th St. Fort Lauderdale, FL 33301 866-218-4668 i-payout.com

More payment options in 150 countries via the most flexible and customizable software solution. Unbeatable pricing.

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C O N S U LTA N T S /M A N A G E M E N T

C O M M I S S I O N PAY M E N T S E R V I C E S

A C C O U N T I N G S O F T WA R E /S E R V I C E S

VENDOR DIRECTORY

2201 Long Prairie Road, Ste. 107-316 Flower Mound, TX 75022 407-891-9265 https://strategicchoicepartners.com/ SCP offers the most holistic consulting services specific to direct selling companies today. We’ve worked with more than 70 companies over the last three years alone, and served more than 250 years collectively in the industry.

727 N 1550 E, 3rd Floor Orem, UT 84097 1-877-551-5504 www.nexiohub.com Nexio manages the chaos of payments offering: • Faster roll out for distributors or partners • Simplifies payment processing for corporations Nexio does this by being integrated with the majority of back-office software solutions in the Direct Sales Industry.

P.O. Box 10,000 Lake Buena Vista, FL 32830-1000 321-939-7129 www.disneymeetings.com World-class convention hotels in destinations around the world. Discover the magic of Disney for your meetings, events or incentives.

Handle fulfillment for 5 of the DSA top 100 companies. DSA member with 15 fulfillment centers, nationwide, for 1-2 day delivery to 98% of the U.S. Offering discount parcel solutions, kitting, same-day shipping, and a full menu of value-added services.

LACORE LOGISTICS 900 Wilmeth Road, McKinney Texas 75069 214-817-4802 www.lacorelogistics.com LaCore Logistics provides distribution and order fulfillment services. Our highly automated distribution center provides both domestic and international direct-to-consumer shipping solutions. We offer omni-channel fulfillment solutions ranging from marketplace fulfillment for leading marketplaces to businessto-business fulfillment for leading retailers.

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VERST E COMMERCE FULFILLMENT

Single Source Solutions, Order to Delivery B2C Solutions, On-Time Order Fulfillment, Real-Time Inventory Visibility, NHP Site Compliant, SOP/GMP Compliant, and locations across Canada.

Verst offers robotic picking, 99% order accuracy, 6.5+M sf scalable warehousing space, air/rail-served, 1-2 days to over 85% of the U.S. Services include pick-pack, labeling, kitting, and custom packaging.

Our Business Is… An Extension of Your Business

A2B FULFILLMENT

GLOBAL ACCESS

BARTHA

150 Stewart Parkway Greensboro, GA 30642 866-843-3827 www.a2bf.com

9815 S. Monroe Street, Ste. 510 Salt Lake City, UT 84070 877-811-8108 www.globalaccess.com

Since 2001, a2b Fulfillment has been helping companies work smarter by outsourcing business support services, including order fulfillment, customer care, and valueadded solutions. Its same-day fulfillment philosophy ensures that customers aren’t waiting, and its one-call customer service resolution standard keeps them coming back.

International expansion expertise and technology and logistics solutions that grow clients’ businesses and brands around the world.

277 W. Nationwide Blvd., Ste. 125 Columbus, OH 43215 614-222-6121 www.experiencecolumbus.com A 20,000-seat arena and 100+ unique restaurants surrounding our convention center makes Columbus feel custommade for direct selling conventions. With arts, live music and more, there’s always something to do in the capital of under-theradar cool.

D I S T R I B U T I O N / F U L F I L L M E N T/ LO G I S T I C S

4505 Newpoint Place Lawrenceville, GA 30043 678-377-8585 Sales@AmwareLogistics.com www.AmwareLogistics.com

1615 Clark Blvd.

Brampton, Ontario L6T 4W1 905-564-2115 x2 www.canadacartage.com/logistics

300 Shorland Dr., Walton, KY 41094 800-978-9307 www.verstlogistics.com

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600 N. Cassady Avenue Columbus, OH 43219 800-363-2698 www.bartha.com PMS 70% Black

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1000 S. Pine Island Road Plantation, FL 33324 800-722-2449 www.AtlantisBahamas.com/meetings Create lasting memories for your top producers. Reward & WOW them with a resort experience nestled in the world’s largest open air aquarium.

MULTI IMAGE GROUP

E.A. DION, INC.

1701 Clint Moore Road Boca Raton, FL 33487 800-523-2682 www.mig.cc

33 Franklin McKay Road Attleboro, MA 02703 800-445-1007 www.eadion.com

A full-service event production company specializing in helping DSA’s tell their stories. Creativity + Technology = Unforgettable Experiences.

Dion’s jewelry solutions are perfect for career path, sales & recruiting, corporate anniversaries and incentive travel recognition awards.

HANNA SHEA

FOSSIL GROUP

1835 W Chandler Blvd 103, Chandler, AZ 85224 844-344-7177 www.hannashea.com

901 S. Central Expressway Richardson, TX 75080 469-730-7619 www.fossil.com

Since 2007, Hanna Shea Executive Search has been the go-to search firm in support of the direct selling industry. Hanna Shea finds top talent for companies in need of building or improving an executive leadership team for organizational success.

Fossil Group is a global watch company specializing in the innovation and design of watches, wearables, jewelry, and leather goods. Our owned brands include Fossil, Michele, Misfit, and Skagen, and licensed brands, Armani Exchange, Diesel, Emporio Armani, kate spade new york, Marc Jacobs, Michael Kors, Misfit and Tory Burch.

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INCENTIVES/RECOGNITION

Fresh. Exciting. Bold. Your field deserves the best and we help you deliver. Out-of-the-box creative production with experienced show management. We execute on budget and make you look AMAZING!

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5840 Red Bug Lake Rd, Ste. 140 Winter Springs, FL 32708 407-915-9060 www.katapultevents.com

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KATAPULT EVENTS

M A R K E T I N G/ B R A N D I N G

E X E C U T I V E R E C R U I TM E N T

EVENT PRODUCTION

VENDOR DIRECTORY ROYAL CARIBBEAN INTERNATIONAL

1080 Caribbean Way Miami, FL 33132 Royal Caribbean International’s Corporate Sales Team 800-529-6916 www.royalcaribbeanincentives.com ICONIC SHIPS. EPIC ADVENTURES. ULTIMATE EVENTS. Royal Caribbean® transforms events into the ultimate productivity paradise. Impress your attendees with epic venues, vibrant restaurants, onboard thrills and beautiful destinations.

PROGRESSIVE LABORATORIES 3131 Story Road W Irving, TX 75038 972-518-9660 www.progressivelabs.com 40+ years of quality manufacturing of nutritional formulas specializing in capsules and powders. FDA registered and 3rd party UL certified facility.

HARLAND CLARKE 2435 Goodwin Lane New Braunfels, TX 78132 sales@dsa.harlandclarke.com http://dsahome.harlandclarke.com/ Harland Clarke provides customer engagement solutions that help connect your business and salesforce with their customers. Harland Clarke provides relevant business building products and solutions to direct selling companies and have developed turn-key, customized solutions designed to provide additional profit centers for your company while ensuring brand compliance and standardization.

SUCCESS Partners is a full-service agency that creates strategies and solutions for direct selling companies to strengthen their brand, engage customers and boost their bottom line.

NOW TECH 5800 Democracy Drive, Suite 100 Plano, TX 75024 310-428-9936 www.now-tech.com The most comprehensive and powerful business management solution for direct sellers. We put more than 35 years of industry experience into creating strategies and tools to consistently grow your business. Contact us for a demo today.

SMART OFFICE SOLUTIONS, INC.

217 N. Westmonte Drive, Ste. 1007 Altamonte Springs, FL 32714 800-891-8601 www.SmartOfficeSolutions.com Your mobile strategy should be as smart as the phone in your pocket. Make a powerful statement about the value of social networks and personal connections with the SmartMobile app. Transform every share, text, call, and email into a positive sales and recruiting result.

SOCIALSALES.IO 2024 W. 15th St., Ste. F-324 Plano, TX 75075 214-659-1549 hello@socialsales.io www.socialsales.io Convert your social fans into paying customers. Our global SaaS platform includes the tools your sales force needs to succeed in today’s social selling environment. Scalable to fit any sized organization from startups to large global enterprises.

S O F T WA R E / T E C H N O LO GY S O LU T I O N S

5800 Democracy Drive, Suite 100 Plano, TX 75024 800-752-2030 www.successpartners.com

MOBILE APPS & COMMERCE

SUCCESS PARTNERS

S O F T WA R E / T E C H N O LO GY S O LU T I O N S

MOBILE APPS & COMMERCE

M A R K E T I N G/ B R A N D I N G

TO BE INCLUDED IN THE VENDOR DIRECTORY, CALL 1-800-279-5249

DIRECTECH LABS 929 Colorado Ave Santa Monica, CA 90401 310-730-1246 CustomerCare@directechlabs.com www.directechlabs.com The AI-powered messaging and analytics platform. Be a better opportunity in the gig economy. Actionable dashboards and automated opportunities that get your field and customers engaged into measurable action anywhere in the world.

BYDESIGN TECHNOLOGIES

EXIGO

9503 Princess Palm Avenue Tampa, FL 33619 813-253-2235 www.bydesign.com

1600 Viceroy Dr., Suite 125 Dallas, TX 75235 214-367-9933 www.exigo.com

Award winning SaaS solutions including Geneology Management & Commissions, Inventory, Replicated Websites, Premier Rep Tools, Branded Mobile App, Virtual Parties, E-vites, Hostess Rewards, Bookings, Social Sharing, Promotions, & Shopping.

The global leader in cloud-based Platformas-a-Service (PaaS) for direct selling companies. An open framework for billiondollar giants to startup companies. Exigo supports MLM, Party Plan and Affiliate models, operating in single global markets.

DIRECTSCALE

INFOTRAX SYSTEMS

1510 N. State St. Orem, Utah 84057 801-701-3285 www.directscale.com

1875 S. State Street, Ste. 3000 Orem, UT 84097 801-431-4900 www.infotraxsys.com

The most customizable enterprise SaaS platform for managing all aspects of your direct selling, affiliate and influencer marketing business. Edit your comp plan and test it against your live data! From startup to billion dollar company, it automatically scales to meet your needs so you never have to upgrade again.

Software & SaaS solutions for startup, emerging, and global direct selling companies. See our ad on the back cover.

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Global Operations Management Software.

Advanced Comp Plan Programming. Sales Force Backoffice & Automation. Web Site Design & Replication.

JENKON

TO BE INCLUDED IN THE VENDOR DIRECTORY, CALL 1-800-279-5249

THATCHER TECHNOLOGY GROUP, LLC 55 Shuman Blvd., Ste. 350 Naperville, IL 60563 866-698-3848 www.thatchertech.com

Thatcher Technology Group provides Sales Force, Compensation and Incentive Management Software for the Direct Selling Industry.

XIRECT SOFTWARE SOLUTIONS

915 Broadway Street, Ste. 400 Vancouver, WA 98660 360-256-4400 www.jenkon.com

686 E 110 S Unit 104 American Fork, UT 84003 385-448-1800 www.xirect.com

From Startup to Enterprise, Jenkon provides Direct Selling companies an award-winning, scalable platform unifying the future of direct selling: Openness, connectivity, omni-channel and conversational marketing.

Scalable software from startup to enterprise. Your delivery expert in Commissions Calc / Consulting, Replicating Websites, E-Commerce, Reporting, Promotions, Localization, Multi-Currency, and more- The Perfect Cloud-based Direct Selling Software Partner!

TO O L S , R E C R U I T I N G & T R A I N I N G

1208 E. Kennedy Blvd., Ste. 222 Tampa, FL 33602 813-277-0625 www.idstc.com

S O F T WA R E / T E C H N O LO GY S O LU T I O N S

INTERNATIONAL DIRECT SELLING TECHNOLOGY CORP.

SUCCESS PARTNERS 5800 Democracy Drive, Suite 100 Plano, TX 75024 800-752-2030 www.successpartners.com SERVICES THAT SPARK GROWTH. From sampling and physical starter kits to digital marketing, we’ve got you covered.

We serve by working alongside you to design, develop, and deliver solutions that benefit you, your distributors, and your customers.

“

DSN reflects the beating heart of the Direct Selling industry. It gives Metrics Global visibility and a place to be visible in a unique industry

MW2 DIRECT 2033 Gateway Place, 5th Floor San Jose, CA 95110 408-573-6310 www.mw2consulting.com/direct Combine the Magento Platform with powerful social and direct selling features available in the MW2 Direct platform.

Solving Digital Transformation for direct selling with personalization, party management, influencer marketing, commission, analytics.

9 8 D I R E C T

S ELLING NE WS

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M AY 2 0 2 1

TA X S E R V I C E S

S O F T WA R E / T E C H N O LO GY S O LU T I O N S

VENDOR DIRECTORY

SOVOS

where understanding

200 Ballardvale Street, 4th Floor Wilmington, MA 01887 1-800-334-1099 www.sovos.com

one another’s needs are

Save time and money with a smarter tax information reporting solution. Sovos solutions keep up with regulatory changes, perform TIN verifications, and automate your organization’s entire 1099 and 1042-S federal and state reporting process.

particularly paramount.

—JASON SH E RWO OD / E xe c u t ive C r e a t ive D i r e c t o r, Metrics Global

TH S E AV DA E TE S

!

There’s No Such Thing as Back to Normal— We’re Moving Forward, Stronger than Ever Before

Two opportunities to engage about our insights for where we stand today and where we’re headed:

VIRTUAL CONFERENCE

J U N E 7– 9

IN-PERSON NEW ORLEANS

N OV. 1–3

As we assess the insights gained through these most transformative months and look ahead toward what’s next, DSA ENGAGE 2021: Annual Meeting will provide two opportunities for executives from across the industry and around the world to unite to discuss current trends, challenges, and issues during a content-rich schedule of education and networking sessions.

NOVEMBER KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

Announcing the two-part DSA ENGAGE 2021: Annual Meeting experience: • Learn, network and connect virtually from your desk at DSA’s virtual event—DSA ENGAGE 2021: The Virtual Conference— taking place online from June 7–9, and convening top leaders and executives from throughout the industry who will share how they are continuing to transform their businesses after months that have changed our lives.

DR. MEHMET OZ Surgeon, Best-Selling Author and Television Personality

• Reunite in-person with your colleagues at DSA ENGAGE 2021: Vision Forward to Better on November 1–3 in New Orleans, LA, and enjoy the excitement of rousing general sessions, the resources from a solution-filled expo and roundtable discussions that will help you fine-tune your plans for 2022.

Make the most of your membership investment; join us for DSA ENGAGE 2021: Annual Meeting online on June 7–9, and in-person in New Orleans, LA, on November 1–3.

ANNUALMEETING.DSA.ORG

MARK SCHULMAN Musician and Speaker

MAINSTREAMING THE CHANNEL DSEF Fellows Make a Difference for Direct Selling Through their direct selling-related research, co-created teaching content, and case studies, nearly 250 DSEF Fellows from universities across the US are changing how direct selling is taught

“It has been a privilege to serve as a DSEF Fellow.

I have been able to include multiple direct sellingrelated case studies in the fifth edition of a textbook on entrepreneurship and to complete multiple innovative academic and industry research projects. Each experience has resulted in growth and opportunity. The results have been clear and measurable.

Dr. Caroline Glackin Associate Professor of Entrepreneurship Fayetteville State University

“As a DSEF Fellow, I was able to develop a teaching case that connected my research interest in effectuation and social entrepreneurship with the founders of Trades of Hope. As a bonus, many students were introduced to the direct selling distribution channel as an avenue for social entrepreneurship.

Dr. Christine Mollenkopf–Pigsley Assistant Professor & Program Director in Applied Organizational Studies Minnesota State University, Mankato

and viewed. Here’s what they have to say about their partnership with DSEF.

“As a DSEF Fellow, I have access to a rich variety of teaching materials, including case studies, videos, peer-reviewed research, and teaching notes. These materials inform and complement concepts I discuss in the classroom, and help me keep my content current. By participating in DSEF-hosted functions, I’ve had the opportunity to network with the leadership of direct selling organizations from around the world, which has led to several top executives visiting our campus as guest speakers.

Dr. Adam Mills Assistant Professor of Marketing Loyola University New Orleans

1667 K Street, NW, Suite 1100, Washington, D.C. 202-452-8866

•

info@dsef.org

•

www.dsef.org

HELP YOUR DISTRIBUTORS WIN THE CHALLENGE: The direct selling model puts customer acquisition in the hands of untrained (but excited!) salespeople.

THE SOLUTION: The NOW platform is an all-in-one digital tool proven to accelerate prospecting and sales.

•

Amplify your selling systems with automated & intelligent follow-up.

•

Ensure success with smart prompts that coach distributors on what to do next.

•

Engage your customers with social selling tools that are proven to convert.

PROVEN TECHNOLOGY FROM A TRUSTED PARTNER.

info@now-tech.com • 310.428.9936

EXPAND YOUR HORIZONS Looking to explore new markets? FlexCloud can make it happen.

Our multi-faceted platform is equipped to handle everything from currency exchange to market-specific comp plan requirements. And the best part? Our expert teams have done it all before. Ready for your next big adventure?

It’s time. Take off with FlexCloud.

801.431.4900 | infotraxsys.com