September 2021 Direct Selling News

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DIRECT SELLING NEWS

VOLUME 17 / ISSUE 9

SEPTEMBER 2021

The New Marketing Democracy Partnering With Distributors Is Vital

FEATURE / THE FUTURE OF WORK PROTECTING YOUR BUSINESS / FIVE THINGS YOU SHOULD DO NOW PRINCESS HOUSE / A NEW ROADMAP FOR A LEGACY ORGANIZATION RED ASPEN / STANDING UP, STANDING OUT & STANDING TOGETHER

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EMCEE & KEYNOTE

KINDRA HALL Author, Speaker & SUCCESS Chief Storytelling Officer

Kindra is the go-to expert for storytelling in business and beyond.

She is trusted by global brands to deliver messages that inspire teams and individuals to better communicate the value of their company, their products and their individuality through strategic storytelling.

She’s also the bestselling author of Stories that Stick. Her highly anticipated second book, Choose Your Story, Change Your Life releases January 2022.

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STUART JOHNSON Founder & CEO / Direct Selling News, NOW Technologies and Direct Selling Capital Advisors

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Stuart has served the direct selling industry for more than 35 years as sole Founder and CEO of SUCCESS Partners and Direct Selling News. His passion for the channel encompasses a broader commitment to build and connect the direct selling community through exclusive industry events such as Direct Selling University and the DSN Global Celebration.

SHAMA HYDER Founder & CEO Zen Media

KEYNOTE SPEAKER

KEYNOTE SPEAKER

Shama is a visionary strategist for the digital age, a web and TV personality, a bestselling author and the award-winning CEO of Zen Media—a global marketing and digital PR firm. She has been named the Millennial Master of the Universe by FastCompany. com. Shama has also been honored at both the White House and The United Nations as one of the top 100 young entrepreneurs in the country.

Simon’s purpose is to spark listeners to lead countries, companies and communities differently.

He goes beyond feel-good content to deliver practical strategies, based on his 30 years of experience in hospitality industry, including serving as sales director for Disney Institute, based at Walt Disney World Resort.

SIMON BAILEY Author, Speaker and Success Coach

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AL BALA, President & CEO, Mannatech JACOB MCLAIN, SVP & Chief Strategy Officer, MONAT KAMI PENTECOST, Chief Networking Officer, It Works!

NOAH WESTERLUND, EVP, NOW Technologies

TYLER WHITEHEAD, CEO, Arbonne ROW II

JIM CALDWELL, CMO, LifeWave JESSIE LEE WARD, Entrepreneur, Coach and Rank 10 Prüvit Leader MELISSA THOMPSON, Founder & CEO, BELLAME JENNIFER ASHBY, Founder & CBEO, Savvi

ROW III

HEATHER CHASTAIN, Founder & CEO, Bridgehead Collective WAYNE MOOREHEAD, Marketing, Branding and Direct-to-Consumer Industry Expert DANNY LEE, President & CEO, 4Life JACK FALLON, Founder & CEO, Total Life Changes ROLF SORG, Founder & CEO, PM-International

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C O N T E N T S S E P T E M B E R

2 0 2 1

F E AT U R E

The Future of Work B Y C O U R T N E Y R O U S H

Protecting Your Business: Five Things You Should Do Now B Y J O H N C .C . S A N D E R S , J R . A N D

44 62

K AT R I N A G . E A S H

74 SPOTLIGHTS

70 CEO Roundtable featuring

Michele Gay/LimeLife by Alcone, Joni Rogers-Kante/SeneGence, Sarah Shadonix/Scout & Cellar and Amelia Warren/Epicure

74 Princess House

A New Roadmap for a Legacy Organization B Y J E N N Y V E T T E R

80 Red Aspen:

Standing Up, Standing Out and Standing Together B Y J E N N Y V E T T E R

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SEPTEMBER 2021

I N EV ERY ISSU E 10-11 AD INDEX // 13 FROM THE EDITOR // 15 INDUSTRY NEWS // 36 FORWARD THINKING // 87 DSA MESSAGE // 88 SUPPLIER DIRECTORY //

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54

DIRECT SELLING NEWS

Serving the Direct Selling and Network Marketing Executive Since 2004 A SUCCESS Partners Company

FOUNDER AND CEO

Stuart P. Johnson PUBLISHER

Shelley Rojas

COVER STORY

CONTRIBUTING EDITOR

John Fleming

THE NEW MARKETING DEMOCRACY

EDITOR

With an industry-wide shift toward customer acquisition, partnering with distributors is more vital than ever before. B Y S A R A H P A U L K

ART DIREC TORS

Patricia White editor@directsellingnews.com C R E AT I V E D I R E C T O R

Susan Douglass

Laura Castillo Jenny Paredes PRODUCTION M ANAGER

Virginia Le COPY EDITOR

Peter Tepp BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT M ANAGER

Jerilyn Taylor advertising@directsellingnews.com CONTRIBUTORS

David Lee Sarah Paulk Lisa Robertson Courtney Roush Jenny Vetter

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Exigo

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NOW TECH a SUCCESS Partners Company 310-428-9936 / SUCCESSPARTNERS.COM PAGES 1, 69, INSIDE BACK COVER

IDSTC Impact This Day

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HARLAND CLARKE

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SALES@DSA.HARLANDCLARKE.COM / DSAHOME.HARLANDCLARKE.COM PAGE 51

Direct Selling Association

LaCore Payments

DSEF

202-452-8866 / DSA.ORG PAGE 85

Direct Scale

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INFO@LACORETECHNOLOGIES.COM / LACOREPAYMENTS.COM PAGE 53

202-452-8866 / DSEF.ORG PAGE 86

Amware Fulfillment

678-377-8585 / AMWARELOGISTICS.COM PAGE 25

Nexio

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Squire

Direct Selling Capital Advisors

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Infotrax

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/ FROM THE EDITOR /

Building Your Brand is Vital YOUR BRAND IS NOT WHO YOU SAY IT IS. It’s who they say it is. That mantra is well-worn because it’s true. The message and brand association are always in the hands of consumers, and in the case of direct selling, the distributors.

In our cover story on page 54, find out what is vital according to some top momentum builders/chief marketing officers in the channel.

In this quickly changing world, the future of the traditional workplace is ever-changing. Our first feature, The Future of Work, provides research, expert advice and examples of how companies are handling this ever-changing work environment. You can read about it on page 44.

At DSN, we were delighted to have the contributions of John C.C. Sanders, Jr. and Katrina Eash from Winston & Strawn. In Protecting Your Business found on page 62, they cover the five things you should do now to protect your businesses regarding the FTC. They detail how proactive engagement now can significantly minimize legal risks later.

On page 70, we bring you excerpts from our first CEO Roundtable Podcast. Joni Rogers-Kante of SeneGence, Sarah Shadonix of Scout & Cellar, Michele Gay of LimeLife

by Alcone and Amelia Warren of Epicure all came together to discuss issues, trends and opportunities facing the channel. Make sure you are tuning in to all of our DSN Podcasts. We have the Executive Insights Series, the Direct Approach with Wayne Moorehead series and more. So please check out directsellingnews.com/listen-watchcategory/podcast/.

We are excited to have two company features this month.

Please check out the feature on Princess House found on page 74 to discover how 2020 brought a new company structure and a clear roadmap for this legacy organization.

“The consultants in the field could have become our

opponents. Instead, they became our partners. I now feel we’re at this point where we can conquer anything together.

They have become a culture of figuring things out; they’ve become very innovative. I think unleashing that power can bring us to do and try anything we want to try,” states Lynne Coté, President and CEO. Our second company feature is on Red Aspen. This exciting company led by Jesse McKinney as CEO, Amanda Moore as COO and Genie Reese as CSO are inspiring women to pursue their purpose. “We don’t want to be your passion and your purpose—whatever that might be—we want to help fuel it,” says Jesse McKinney, Chief Executive Officer. Read their story on page 80.

Our annual Best Places to Work nominations are coming in. Best Places to Work in Direct Selling celebrates the important role companies play as employers in the marketplace and highlights companies setting the bar for establishing and nurturing work experiences and environments that bring out the very best in people. The company nominations are open until October 22. You can nominate your company or learn more at directsellingnews. com/achievements/best-places-to-work/.

Our Fall Direct Selling University event is coming up soon.

We are putting together the most influential, knowledgeable and exciting speakers for our event on October 14-15. Learn from 30+ speakers representing over $20 billion in revenue and billions in year-over-year growth!

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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/ INDUSTRY NEWS /

The Month in News Affecting Our Channel 17 / Recent Expansions 18 / News In Brief 22 / In Memoriam 24 / Executive Announcements 28 / Direct Selling Capital Advisors Stock Watch 32 / Customer-Centric Recognized Companies

P re s e nte d by D i re ct S e l l i n g N ews

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E X P A N S I O N S

R ECENT E XPAN S I O N S OOLA LAUNCHED IN AUSTRALIA

MONAT EXPANDED TO SPAIN

AND NEW ZEALAND

MONAT GLOBAL UK Ltd launched in Spain.

Oola announced the commencement

“This further European expansion supports

of its international expansion, which will

our continued global growth plans to

begin with Australia and New Zealand.

bring our products, business model, and

“The more we grow, the more we

philosophy to new audiences across Europe.

can help spread the life-changing Oola

Our extensive research has shown us that

Lifestyle. We are ahead of schedule in

Spain has strong potential to embrace

our global expansion, and Australia and

our business program and ensure another

New Zealand are only the beginning. We

successful expansion into Europe,” said

are excited to bring greater opportunity

Stuart MacMillan, President of MONAT.

and economic growth to everyone who aligns with Oola,” said Travis Ogden, Co‑founder and CEO.

S PA I N

PA N A M A

THAIL AND

AU S T R A L I A

EXP WORLD HOLDINGS LAUNCHES IN PANAMA eXp World Holdings announced the expansion of its real estate operations into Panama. The company, which is the holding company for eXp Realty, will operate under the banner of eXp Panama. Michael Valdes, President of eXp Global, will lead the expansion process, while Luis Pimentel will lead eXp Panama’s brokerage operations.

“The opening of Panama is one more critical step in the expansion of eXp in the Caribbean and Latin America region (CALA),” Valdes said.

DOTERRA OPENED OPERATIONS

NEW ZEAL AND

IN THAILAND doTERRA announced the expansion of its presence in Southeast Asia with the grand opening of its operations in Thailand. doTERRA Thailand will be headquartered in Bangkok’s financial district and will offer 80 products to its local Wellness Advocates.

“The opening of doTERRA Thailand is a direct result of the effort and commitment of amazing Wellness Advocates and customers.

The Thai people have a great appreciation for health and wellness, and doTERRA’s pure and natural products align with their wants and needs,” said Johnathan Kunz, Vice President of Asia Pacific Markets. w w w. d i r e c t s e l l i n g n e w s . c o m 1 7

/ INDUSTRY NEWS /

N E W S

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B R I E F

NEWS IN BRIEF

For the full articles, visit directsellingnews.com/ category/news/

DSA of Canada Reports 26 percent Industry Growth in 2020

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he Direct Sellers Association of Canada (DSA), in a report releasing industry growth data for the channel in Canada in 2020, announced significant growth of 26 percent year-over-year and $4.15 billion in retail sales. The number of Canadian consultants also grew to 1.39 million, a 20 percent increase over 2019.

“Direct selling is an important retail channel, which delivers a wide range of products and services to Canadians,” said Peter Maddox, President of the DSA. “Over this past year, direct selling has become a necessary channel for consumers to access goods and services during the pandemic and has played an integral role in helping Canadians find alternate ways to earn extra income.”

The growth of the channel within Canada is much higher than the U.S., which grew 13 percent, and Australia, which grew 11 percent.

This growth rate will be an important data point to consider as the channel moves into a postpandemic economy.

“The direct selling opportunity has always been the first step to entrepreneurship,” said Maddox. “With more people re-thinking their careers or looking for supplemental income, this flexible and inclusive channel has provided a fundamental way for Canadians to grow their entrepreneurial skill set.” DSN

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SeneGence Named Official Presenting Sponsor of Miss USA and Miss Teen USA

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eneGence announced a new partnership with the Miss USA organization and will be the new official presenting sponsor of Miss USA and Miss Teen USA. “Many years ago, I participated in a Miss USA event selling LipSense to their attendees,” said SeneGence Founder and CEO Joni Rogers-Kante.

“At that time, I never would have believed that SeneGence would be a sponsor of the iconic Miss USA Pageant. Miss USA and SeneGence are two organizations that are deeply aligned with the advancement and empowerment of women, and we are delighted with this partnership.” DSN

Avon Partners with Feed the Children to Celebrate 135th Anniversary

A

von, in celebration of its 135th anniversary, is partnering with Feed the Children to provide donations for every product purchased.

The Feed the Children/ Avon Box is delivered to women and their families year-round who struggle with food insecurity.

Avon has partnered with Feed the Children since 2004. DSN

House Votes to Restore FTC’s 13(b) Power

T

Mary Kay Joins the Generation Equality Forum Global Action Coalitions

he unanimous ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court declared that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) had been improperly utilizing Section 13(b) of the FTC Act. That ruling is now being overturned through the restoration of Section 13(b) in a bill passed by the House.

The Consumer Protection and Recovery Act passed 221-205, split almost entirely down party lines. Those in opposition to the bill expressed concern for “broad overreach” by the FTC and a need for statutory guardrails that would safeguard due process and protect legitimate businesses from being unfairly targeted or punished.

The White House publicly supported the bill in a statement saying, “The Administration applauds this step to expressly authorize the FTC to seek permanent injunctions and pursue equitable relief for all violations of law enforced by the Commission and ensure that the cost of illegal practices falls on bad actors, not consumers targeted by illegal scams.”

The bill will now face tougher scrutiny in the Senate. DSN

M

Plexus Partners with Feeding America

The FTC Retains Injunctive Powers. Proves Past Behavior is Presently Punishable

F

or the third consecutive year, Plexus Worldwide joined Feeding America with the goal of ending food insecurity. Through its Nourish One Program, the company contributed over $1 million to Feeding America, which supplied more than 10 million meals throughout the U.S. “I’m humbled by the overwhelming determination our Plexus family has shown in making the Nourish One initiative a success,” said Alec Clark, President and Founder of Plexus Worldwide. “Our partnership with Feeding America speaks to our vision of hope, health, and happiness for every American. We believe that no one can be complacent–we all have to play our part in ensuring that no family goes hungry.”

“We’ve seen within our community and throughout the country the significant effect the pandemic has had,” said Tarl Robinson, CEO and Founder of Plexus Worldwide.

“The increase in Americans suffering from food insecurity makes our partnership with Feeding America even more critical. We’re honored to be a part of this vital effort and are determined to play a key role in the fight against hunger.” DSN

ary Kay has released a position paper echoing the strategy of the European Union on gender equality and joined the Generation Equality Forum Global Action Coalitions.

In the paper, Mary Kay announced support for the EU proposal to increase the representation of women on corporate boards and encouraged supplier diversity programs and inclusive procurement programs.

“Discriminatory laws, gender bias and stereotyping, violence against women and girls–these are all global issues and must be tackled in partnership with the public and private sectors and civil society organizations across the world,” said Julia Simon, Chief Legal & Diversity Officer at Mary Kay. “Achieving gender equality is critical to the survival of the planet and the rebuilding of more sustainable and thriving economies and societies.” DSN

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n a recent decision regarding a 2019 complaint made by the FTC against Neora and affiliated parties citing that the company was operating as an illegal pyramid scheme, the court found that “the FTC did not need to obtain a prior preliminary injunction or temporary restraining order via the administrative process prior to seeking a permanent injunction under Section 13(b).”

The FTC and the court both agreed with Neora, however, that the recent AMG Capital court decision prohibited the commission’s ability to seek equitable monetary relief using Section 13(b) and the court dismissed the FTC’s request for consumer redress, restitution, refunds and disgorgement of ill-gotten gains.

The recent court ruling proves that the FTC can go after injunctive relief, inflicting significant damage to a company’s business operations or ultimately even shut it down, for direct selling companies who find noncompliance issues within their compensation model or distributor actions—both past and present. DSN w w w. d i r e c t s e l l i n g n e w s . c o m 1 9

/ INDUSTRY NEWS /

N E W S

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B R I E F

For the full articles, visit directsellingnews.com/ category/news/

Neora Celebrates its 10th Anniversary

PM-International Partners with Korea Paralympic Committee

P

M-International Korea announced a partnership agreement with the Korea Paralympic Committee.

“We think PM-International Korea and the FitLine products will greatly help to improve the performance of the national team members who are in their final preparation for the Tokyo Games,” said ChungYeon Yang, secretary general of the Korean Paralympic Committee.

All of the company’s FitLine nutritional supplements are included on the Cologne List, a list that provides assurance for athletes through transparent testing and analysis of products to ensure they are free from doping substances.

“PM-International Korea and the FitLine brand are already supporting the Korean Wrestling Federation (KWF), Korean Table Tennis Association (KTTA), and the Korean Professional Golf Association (KPGA), contributing to athletes’ improved performance,” said Alex Oh, Sales GM of PM-International Korea. “We sincerely hope that our FitLine products also help the national team top athletes who participate [in the] Tokyo Paralympics to achieve the highest results.” DSN

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he company launched in 2011 with one skincare product and saw sales skyrocket within the anti-aging market before leveraging this growth to develop full lines of skincare, hair care, wellness and weight management products.

In ten years, the company has generated more than $2 billion in cumulative sales and ranked #12 on Inc. 500’s America’s Fastest-Growing Private companies List, became a Direct Selling Association Top 20 member and was the youngest company to earn the honor of being included in the top 50 of Direct Selling News’ DSN Global 100 list.

The company’s clean, performance-driven formulas have built a loyal customer base, attracting 2.3 million Preferred Customers and selling more than 40 million products worldwide.

CEO and Co-Founder Jeff Olson attributes this growth to the company’s three-part model, which includes results-driven products, an instant-gratification compensation model, and a culture of empowerment.

“We believe in you until you believe in yourself,” Olson said.

Empowering Change for the Better

Neora’s culture has been driven by the desire to create a place where “people can build the business they’ve always wanted,” which for many Brand Partners includes the flexibility to work from wherever they are, cultivate meaningful work relationships and support their life goals through supplemental income.

What began as a small startup is now a multibillion-dollar leader in the industry. As the company looks to the next decade, its leaders point to servant leadership as their roadmap to future success, and believe they are perfectly positioned to embrace the future by helping others over the years to come. DSN

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/ INDUSTRY NEWS /

N E W S

I N

B R I E F

IN MEMORIAM

For the full articles, visit directsellingnews.com/ category/news/

Luce was a sought-after consultant in the industry, advising more than 100 companies in his career, including both powerhouse brands and startups, like Tyra Beauty, Ruby Ribbon, Princess House, Avon and Amway.

Industry Legend Alan Luce

I

ndustry legend Alan Luce passed away surrounded by family in his home.

Luce was a sought-after consultant in the industry, advising more than 100 companies in his career, including both powerhouse brands and startups, like Tyra Beauty, Ruby Ribbon, Princess House, Avon and Amway.

As the Founder & CEO of DK Family Learning, Luce took the company from startup to $40 million within its first four years.

Luce was a veteran direct seller and held many senior management roles at large companies like Tupperware and PartyLite gifts, and began his career in direct selling as Associate General Counsel for the Direct Selling Association. Luce was an active member in the DSA and the Direct Selling Education Foundation, and served on the boards and as Chairman of both organizations.

In 2002, he was recognized for his vision and leadership in DSEF when he was selected to receive the Circle of Honor award and was later inducted into the Direct Selling Hall of Fame in 2005.

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Most recently, Luce served as the Senior Managing Principal at Strategic Choice Partners, a direct sales consulting firm.

“One of God’s greatest blessings He’s given me on this earth is getting to know and work so closely with Alan as a partner and mentor these last several years,” said Brett Duncan, Founding Partner with Strategic Choice Partners.

“I’m going to miss him a lot, but I’m so glad I got to know him like I did, for the time that I did.”

John Fleming, a DSN Direct Selling Legend, remembers Luce as a friend with vast intellect and direct sales insight, and someone who added value to his life and to the lives of so many others.

“His intellectual capacity and insights were always admired and fortunately, for so many of us, we were able to learn, benefit and grow,” Fleming said. “Alan often knew what I wanted to learn, and his graciousness was always the accelerator that I needed. Those of us familiar with Alan’s long and steadfast commitment to the direct selling channel of distribution are fortunate that we have been able to have Alan on our pathway. We know that Rich, Jay, Mary K and Mary C welcome our friend. We will miss you but never forget you!” DSN

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

For the full articles, visit directsellingnews.com/ category/news/

EXECUTIVE ANNOUNCEMENTS

Lea Brister May

François Renard

Stephanie O’Farrell

Solvasa, Vice President of Sales Solvasa announced the appointment of Lea Brister May to the role of Vice President of Sales.

Brister May brings a decade of direct selling experience, including growing a multimillion-dollar sales organization, and was previously the Assistant Attorney General for the Massachusetts Office of the Attorney General.

Brister May is also a member of the Central Arkansas Radiation Therapy Institute Board of Directors and a board member of the Arkansas Zoo Foundation.

Amway, Chief Marketing Officer Amway appointed François Renard to the role of Chief Marketing Officer (CMO). Renard comes to Amway from a previous global CMO position and will now report directly to Amway Chief Executive Officer Milind Pant.

As Amway CMO, Renard will lead a global team focused on customizing the online, mobile and social consumer experiences, and will attract customers and strengthen existing customer relationships through brand, product and digital experience development.

“François is a passionate, energetic, digital and consumer-centric international marketer and we are thrilled to have him join the Amway Global Leadership Team,” Pant said.

Nature’s Sunshine, Vice President Marketing for North America Nature’s Sunshine appointed Stephanie O’Farrell to its executive marketing team.

O’Farrell joins the company as the new Vice President Marketing for North America. Recently recognized as one of the Utah Business Journal’s “40 under 40,” O’Farrell has more than 14 years of experience managing multimillion-dollar P&L’s within complex organizations.

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Yan Bin Ma, M.D. Kyäni, Scientific Advisory Board Kyäni welcomes medical science expert Yan Bin Ma, M.D. as the newest addition to its Scientific Advisory Board.

Dr. Ma’s experience in Chinese and Western medicine practice, as well as epidemiology, preventative medicine, alternative medicine and medicinal nutrition science will offer the board insight into trending research and provide expert input for product development and ingredient formulations. Dr. Ma will focus her experience and insight on the Kyäni Chinese market.

“We are so fortunate to continue to grow our Scientific Board with committed, passionate health professionals who are not only experts in their fields but are committed to helping people change their health through lifestyle and supplementation,” said Kyäni President Katy Holt-Larson. “Dr. Ma’s expertise in nutrition and the human body, as well as her experience working globally in this industry, make her an excellent partner for Kyäni.”

Dr. Ma also has extensive experience in medical science teaching and research with a specialty in inherited disease and hematology, and two decades of experience in the direct selling industry.

“I love the direct selling industry because it is a platform to spread healthy living to thousands around the world,” Dr. Ma said. “I love Kyäni’s vision and mission to bring hope for a better life through wellness and opportunity, and I am happy to play an integral part in fulfilling this mission.”

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w w w. d i r e c t s e l l i n g n e w s . c o m 2 5

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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

Camelle Kent Thirty-One Gifts, Chief Executive Officer Thirty-One Gifts appointed Camelle Kent to the role of Chief Executive Officer.

Kent will succeed Elizabeth Thibaudeau, who has functioned as acting CEO since last July when investment firm Kanbrick became strategic partners and owners with Founder Cindy Monroe. Thibaudeau will remain a member of the Board of Directors for the company.

“Camelle has had a remarkable career and a proven track record of growing impactful brands,” said Kanbrick Co-Founder Britt Cool. “She is an impressive leader, and we are excited for her to build on the strong foundation we have at Thirty-One. We’re grateful to Elizabeth for stepping in to support the business during an important time of transition and making many meaningful contributions to the business, as well as her commitment to stay actively involved on the board.”

“I’m thrilled to have Camelle leading the next chapter of Thirty-One,” said Monroe. “I’m proud of where the business is today, and excited to partner with Camelle and Kanbrick to continue building on our 18-year legacy, mission, and culture.”

Kevin Manion NewAge Inc., Chief Financial Officer NewAge, Inc. appointed Kevin Manion to the role of Chief Financial Officer.

“We are thrilled to have someone of Kevin’s background and tremendous track record of experience join our cause at NewAge,” said Brent Willis, Chief Executive Officer of NewAge. “As we have evolved, we have continued to strengthen the management team and our organizational capabilities, and Kevin is a perfect embodiment of that evolution. Kevin will be an incredible addition to our global operations as we scale NewAge to the next level.”

Deb Bursley Sunrider International, Chief Marketing Officer Sunrider International appointed Deb Bursley to the role of Chief Marketing Officer.

“Deb’s experience leading top marketing teams for major direct selling companies will greatly benefit Sunrider as we continue to grow our brand,” said Sunrider CEO Sunny Beutler. “She has a superb reputation, and we are confident Deb will be able to contribute significantly to the growth, development, and excitement of our teams and Independent Business Owners.”

Bursley also brings experience in corporate and subsidiary branding, product branding, product development, communications and social media.

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Seth Siegler eXp World Holdings, Vice President Technology Innovation & Real Estate Services eXp World Holdings promoted Seth Siegler to the company’s new role of Vice President, Technology Innovation & Real Estate Services.

In this role, Siegler will help scale the company’s innovation and technology department to better serve agents, brokers and customers. Prior to this new promotion, Siegler led the development of technology for lead distribution and enhanced internal processing tools.

“Technology matched with an agent-centric focus is what sets eXp Realty apart,” said Glenn Sanford, Founder, Chairman and CEO of eXp World Holdings. “Working with Seth, I have witnessed his significant contributions to the company and our success. The products and services he has created have already made an impact including the development of our iBuyer program and our recently-launched lead generation platform, SUCCESS® Experts. He has a host of other products in the pipeline for 2021.”

Siegler brings almost two decades of experience in the real estate industry to the role and is a three-time Inman Innovator Award finalist.

“I originally joined eXp because of its clear-to-see appetite for changing the way this business works, for the better,” Siegler said. “Getting the opportunity to further that mission by developing deeply innovative and novel technology for the company and its agents is a dream come true.” DSN

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/ INDUSTRY NEWS /

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 DSCA: DIRECT SELLING STOCKS INDEX DECLINES 7.4 PERCENT AFTER MONTHS OF IMPRESSIVE GAINS

T

HE DIRECT Selling Capital Advisors Direct Selling Index (DSCI) declined 7.4 percent in July 2021, underperforming the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA), which gained 1.3 percent during the month. Declining performance was spread across the index, with six members—The Beachbody Company, Inc. (NYSE: BODY); Betterware de Mexico, S.A.B. de C.V.’s (NASDAQ: BWMX); Tupperware Brands Corporation (NYSE: TUP); NewAge, Inc. (NASDAQ: NBEV); Educational Development Corporation (NASDAQ: EDUC); and Sharing Services Global Corporation (OTC: SHRG)—each declining more than 10 percent in July. LifeVantage Corporation (NASDAQ: LFVN) was the only direct selling stock within the index to post a double figure percentage gain. In total, 12 of the 17 stocks in the DSCI lost value during the month.

Even taking these losses into consideration, the DSCI has gained a cumulative 99.6 percent since the index began tracking stocks on March 1, 2020. The DJIA gained only 35.9 percent during the same period. Year to date, the DSCI has grown 26.3 percent, outpacing the DJIA’s gain of 14.2 percent.

This recent decline corrects some of the outsized gains that occurred during May, which saw an 18.4 percent increase, and June, which saw an additional 2.2 percent growth.

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Many of the tracking set’s Large Cap stocks have posted their second quarter results and reported impressive gains.

Of the seven large cap companies, the year-over-year revenue growth reached 42.3 percent. EXPI led the group with 183 percent growth and Medifast was also a standout, with a 79 percent increase.

The third and fourth quarters of 2020 set an exceptionally high bar for year-over-year results within this tracking set.

The DSCA forecast still anticipates impressive performance for these companies, but investors are adopting a “sell the news” mentality and maintaining a more cautious approach, which has led to the recent decline.

Given these data points, August appears to be a potentially challenging month for performance in spite of impressive financial results.

“Looking at the remainder of the year, the outlook is somewhat murky,” said Stuart Johnson, Direct Selling Capital Advisors CEO. “The resurgence of COVID-19 has made things difficult to predict. While we believe the industry is now well equipped and prepared to handle any resulting business disruptions based on performance over the last 17 months, we don’t know if the impact on consumer behavior will be similar. Regardless, we continue to expect record domestic direct selling revenue in 2021 and our long-term outlook for the industry remains decidedly bullish.”

Declining performance was spread across the index, with six members declining more than 10 percent in July.

LARGE CAP STOCKS n Betterware de Mexico (NASDAQ: BWMX) fell 15 percent in July, reversing a 15.2 percent gain in June. Shares continue to be up by 26.4 percent since the beginning of the year and 351.2 percent since it began trading in March 2020 after merging with SPAC DD3 Acquisitions Corp. BWMX serves three million households through distributors and associates in approximately 800 communities in Mexico. The company’s year-over-year revenue grew 82 percent in the second quarter of this year, with an EPS growth of 61 percent. n Tupperware Brands Corporation (NYSE: TUP) declined 12 percent in July to bring its year-to-date losses to 34.6 percent. Even so, the decline only slightly offsets the company’s approximately 800 percent gain in 2020. In late June 2021, TUP’s Board of Directors authorized a $250 million

stock repurchase plan, equivalent to 20-25 percent of shares outstanding, reasoning that the company’s turnaround plan had successfully improved its liquidity position. TUP also announced a $58 million prepayment of its term loan, continuing the transformation of the Company’s balance sheet. n Nu Skin Enterprises, Inc. (NYSE: NUS) shares declined 5.2 percent in July. Shares are down a total of 1.6 percent for the year, but up 127.6 percent since March 2020.

Revenue increased 15 percent year-over-year and EPS grew 42 percent. As a result, NUS boosted its full-year 2021 EPS guidance to $4.30-$4.50, a 5 percent increase from the guidance it issued just three months before. n Herbalife Nutrition, Inc. (NYSE: HLF) declined 3.4 percent in July, but overall the shares have gained 57.4 percent 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

since March 2020. Net sales in the second quarter reached $1.6 billion, up 15 percent from a year ago. Adjusted EBITDA also rose significantly, reaching $262 million, 18 percent higher than in the same quarter of the previous year. n Medifast, Inc. (NYSE: MED) stock was the only large cap direct selling stock to increase in July, rising 0.9 percent.

Revenues during the second quarter increased 79 percent from the previous year’s period. Diluted EPS also grew, reaching $3.96, a 113 percent spike from the previous year.

MED is now boosting its full-year 2021 revenue guidance to $1.425-$1.475 billion. MED shares have increased 49.2 percent since year-end 2020 and 259 percent since March 2020. n USANA Health Sciences, Inc. (NYSE: USNA) shares fell 7 percent in July. The company’s year-to-date gains now stand at 22 percent. Second quarter net sales and diluted earnings per share jumped 30.1 percent and 41.7 percent, respectively, from the same period during 2020. The stock declined about 5 percent following the financial report

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W A T C H

but DSCA analysts expect the stock to reverse higher.

Since March 2020, USANA shares have increased about 44 percent, beating the Dow’s 36 percent cumulative price increase. n eXp World Holdings (NASDAQ: EXPI) declined 7.4 percent in July. However, since March 2020, the shares have risen 651.5 percent. The company’s second quarter revenue increased 183 percent year-over-year to a record $1 billion, and its real estate agent roster expanded 83 percent.

EXPI also declared a $0.04 per share quarterly cash dividend to shareholders, its first-ever dividend. Even after repurchasing $55 million of stock in the second quarter, the company’s cash balance increased $44 million. With these announcements, the stock saw a 36 percent increase in price on August 4 and the stock has remained in a general upward trend since that time. n Primerica, Inc. (NYSE: PRI) was the third-best performer among the large cap stocks in the DSCI in July, declining by 4.5 percent and standing 33 percent higher than its

Days to cover have increased 150 percent after bottoming in February and now stands at its highest level since May of 2020.

March 2020 levels. The company’s second quarter financial results surpassed analyst expectations with year-over-year revenue of 24.3 percent and EPS growth of 32.4 percent.

of $124 million and improved operating results. Since the release of these earnings, NBEV traded generally higher, before pulling back some over the last several sessions.

SMALL CAP STOCKS n LifeVantage Corporation (NASDAQ: LFVN) was by far the best performing small cap in July, with a 10.5 percent growth rate. The stock is now down an aggregate 13.9 percent over the first seven months of 2021. n Educational Development Corporation (NASDAQ: EDUC) fell 15 percent during July in spite of solid second quarter earnings. This decline brought the stock’s year-to-date loss to 29.9 percent. Net revenues increased $2.5 million, or 6.5 percent, in the quarter, and nearly all of these incremental revenues fell to the bottom line, as pretax earnings rose $1.9 million, or just over 80 percent. n NewAge, Inc. (NASDAQ: NBEV) has a year-to-date decline of nearly 28 percent and has continued a downward trend with a loss of 14.3 percent in July. The company’s second quarter results included record revenue, however,

SHORT INTEREST AND DATA ANALYSIS Short interest in industry stocks continued to increase through mid-July. Days to cover have increased 150 percent after bottoming in February and now stands at its highest level since May of 2020. A larger number of investors have begun betting against direct selling stocks, but any more movement toward an increase in short interest could result in a bullish short squeeze.

The number of sell-side analysts maintaining buy and hold ratings on industry stocks jumped to around 97 percent, from a dip to 90 percent in June. The number of hold recommendations increased as related to the number of buy recommendations. The percentage of stocks that analysts recommend selling fell to 3 percent, versus about 10 percent in June. DSN

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.

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/ INDUSTRY NEWS /

The CCR Program is based solely on a company’s customer-to-distributor ratio taking into consideration the following definitions: n

Distributor—someone who

DOES have a distributor agreement in place

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

n

n

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 the U.S. and Canada.

Companies must have been

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

R E C O G N I T I O N

BE CU STOM ERCENTRIC RECOGNIZED. 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 customer-to-distributor ratios and prioritize customer sales.

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.

DSN 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.

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NOMINATIONS ARE OPEN AUGUST 1 - OCTOBER 22!

To nominate your company, please go to www.directsellingnews.com/achievements/best-places-to-work/ The Best Places to Work in Direct Selling will be featured in our April 2022 issue.

DIRECT SELLING IS THE ORIGINAL PEOPLE BUSINESS. Measuring field engagement is critical to any company’s success, but the field is only part of the people equation. Once again, Direct Selling News has partnered with HR technology company Quantum Workplace to celebrate the important role direct selling companies play as employers in the marketplace and to identify the best of the best when it comes to creating engaging work environments.

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The Name You Trust.

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Unlikely Brand Ambassadors: College Athletes Why direct selling companies should pay attention to the NCAA’s landmark “Name, Image, Likeness (NIL)” rule changes.

A

BY DAVID LEE

According to ESPN, star athletes could earn $500,000 to $1 million per year leveraging their social media followings, roughly $100,000 to $500,000 per year doing commercials, and $100,000

UBURN QUARTERBACK BO NIX announced (to his 94,000 Instagram followers) a deal with Alabamabased sweet tea brand Milo’s. Oklahoma quarterback Spencer Rattler signed an ambassador deal with fast-food chain Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers. Texas Longhorns running back Bijan Robinson charges $155 for a personalized Cameo video message. Other college athletes have started their own apparel brands.

WHAT’S HAPPENING: Thanks to a transcendent Supreme Court ruling in June, college student-athletes can now earn money leveraging their name, image and likeness. This is unprecedented territory for college sports but could open countless opportunities for marketing deals and sponsorships. While the NCAA will work with Congress to create new national rules and guidelines, most states have passed their own laws regarding the issue. Most laws do not allow athletes to be associated with their universities in marketing deals.

Meaning, Bo Nix cannot wear an Auburn Tigers jersey in a Milo’s Tea ad.

WHY IT’S A BIG DEAL: College sports is huge. The total athletics revenue reported among all NCAA athletics departments in 2019 was $18.9 billion. By comparison, the NFL generated roughly $16.6 billion in 2019, and the NBA generated a little more than $8 billion for the 2019-20 season. Each of the last

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to $500,000 per year with apparel deals.

Thinking ERP? Think Squire.

NCAA NAME, IMAGE, LIKENESS CHANGES SUMMARIZED

4INDIVIDUALS CAN ENGAGE in NIL activities that are

consistent with the law of the state where the school is located. Colleges and universities may be a resource for state law questions.

4INDIVIDUALS CAN USE a professional services provider for NIL activities.

4COLLEGE ATHLETES WHO ATTEND a school in a state

A NetSuite implementation from Squire is unique:

without a NIL law can engage in NIL activity without violating NCAA rules related to name, image and likeness.

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4STATE LAW AND SCHOOLS/CONFERENCES may impose

processes. Only then do we

reporting requirements.

create a custom NetSuite solution that will meet your unique business needs.

three College Football National Championship games commanded roughly 28 million viewers. Trevor Lawrence, one of the most hyped stars to come out of college football in years and the No. 1 pick in the 2021 NFL Draft, has 980,000 Instagram followers.

Smaller, local businesses to major national brands are already signing college players to deals. According to ESPN, star athletes could earn $500,000 to $1 million per year leveraging their social media followings, roughly $100,000 to $500,000 per year doing commercials, and $100,000 to $500,000 per year with apparel deals. So, the market opportunity is huge.

WHY IT MATTERS FOR DIRECT SELLING: Direct selling companies partnering with athletes as ambassadors or even field distributors is nothing new. The Direct USAGE OF TAGLINED Selling Association’s 2020 industry overview revealed the LOGOS “wellness” sales category jumped to 37.4 percent of all The tagline "AUDIT.TAX.ADVISORY" categories, by far the largest.

It’s an excellent fit for some only accompanies the logo in circumstances where context requires of the best young athletes inclarification the country. about what Squire can do for current potential customers While college athletes juggle busyandschedules filled (the audience). with class, practice and workouts, they may welcome For example, Squire.com and its subsequent web pages feature the oneambassador or even distributor opportunities that don’t tagline version (HIGHER PERSPECTIVE ONLY) of the Squire demand a lot of their time. Athletes were some of the logo because the subpage content early social media influencers, and the many top high school throughout site provides adequate context to visitors. recruits come into college with tens of thousands of social On the other hand, if the team attends media followers. DSN a national financial 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

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Geared Up How Prüvit’s apparel strategy creates a unique culture.

B

BY DAVID LEE

RANDED GEAR CAN BE A TERRIFIC WAY FOR direct selling companies to increase exposure and facilitate culture throughout the field. Today’s effective strategy has evolved from slapping some logos on shirts to creating well-planned and well-executed campaigns. Branded apparel is no longer just for the most enthusiastic field distributors. Direct selling companies with successful strategies create apparel that distributors genuinely want.

Maleah Martin, Vice President of Brand Management for ketone supplement company Prüvit, says the company’s branded gear strategy ranks in the top tier of the most important marketing and branding initiatives.

For Prüvit, the goal is to create a transcendent brand. Just like the products, the company wants promoters to feel their best when wearing branded apparel. “Our CEO, Brian Underwood, started this whole vision with a ketone supplement,” Maleah says. “But when you create an environment where people can get passionate about something, it bubbles over naturally into everything else.

How people look and feel is really important to them, and that includes how you dress.”

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“

When you create an environment where people can get passionate about something, it bubbles over naturally into everything else.

— M A L E A H M A RT I N / P r üv i t Vi c e P r e s i d e n t o f B ra n d M a n a g e m e n t

Promoting Gear, the Right Way Keeping it Fashionable

Creating fashionable, practical gear that distributors naturally make part of their everyday lives is a core goal. “They want to say ‘this is who I am, this is my company,’” Maleah says. “We really drive that home with our promoters that this is their company, they own it just as much as we create the image behind it, and they have just as much hand in creating the image as we do.”

Maleah says a key to their success is avoiding cookie-cutter fashion, providing several fashionable items, and keeping options fresh. Quality, material, texture and even special reflective printing are also important. “Make something that’s real, that real people can get behind and be passionate about it, and feel good when they’re doing it,” she says. Of course, understanding your core culture is a must.

For Prüvit, much of its branded apparel matches its product branding around bio-hacking, peak performance and helping people be better in every aspect of their lives.

When it comes to choosing the right fashion and types of gear, Maleah’s approach doesn’t focus on analytics and metrics. It’s more trial and error, testing out how certain designs or styles are received. “People are not analytics,” she points out.

“If you make it too formulaic, it’s not natural. It’s not honest. It’s not genuine.”

Prüvit also involves its field of promoters when selecting branded gear, asking them what they want. “I don’t want to be the trend. I want to create the trend. And that means the really fun opportunity and creative side to work directly with our promoters,” Maleah adds.

Promotion and creating excitement for new or limited-edition apparel is also crucial. Some companies utilize photo shoots or fashion shows, launch videos, and sprinkle several teasers for upcoming apparel lines. Maleah says that doing limited-edition apparel gives them the flexibility to speak to different people within their market. These short-run items can be created for specific audiences.

Prüvit does two seasonal apparel launches per year, and Maleah likes to sprinkle teasers and Easter eggs throughout in-person and virtual events to tease upcoming items. For example, speakers at an event might wear a shirt or hat that’s part of the upcoming winter launch. “Everyone’s just on the edge of their seat like ‘where can I get these things?’” she says. “I actually do secret drops of our products into our apparel as I feel is appropriate.

Maybe that gets the product into their hands, too.

It’s very synergetic how we operate. We try to tie gear into the product, and the product into the gear because it’s all one world.”

Understanding that branded gear can be a terrific gateway to the company and products, Prüvit does not limit its gear website to promoters nor require a referral code. It’s open to anyone. The company’s brand strategy goes beyond counting on its promoters to wear branded gear. Whether someone is a customer using the products to just someone who likes to wear the apparel, it’s a win for Prüvit. DSN

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Must Reads LEADING IN TOUGH TIMES: OVERCOME EVEN THE GREATEST CHALLENGES WITH COURAGE AND CONFIDENCE AUTHOR: JOHN MAXWELL (CENTER STREET, 2021)

IN HIS LATEST BOOK LEADING IN TOUGH TIMES, #1 NEW YORK TIMES bestselling author and world-renowned

leadership expert John Maxwell gives you the ultimate guide to help your team survive and even thrive when the unexpected happens. Using content from his previous bestselling titles, Maxwell helps leaders identify their team’s main challenges, take stock of their liabilities, understand what they can control, and use challenges as opportunities to rethink the way they do things. He ultimately gives leaders the tools to grow their teams during difficult times. Through humor, in-depth insight, and examples, internationally recognized leadership expert John C. Maxwell reassures leaders that they can still lead well and help people develop the skills they need to become great leaders, even when times are tough.

POSITIVE INTELLIGENCE: WHY ONLY 20% OF TEAMS AND INDIVIDUALS ACHIEVE THEIR TRUE POTENTIAL AND HOW YOU CAN ACHIEVE YOURS AUTHOR: SHIRZAD CHAMINE (GREENLEAF BOOK GROUP PRESS, 2012)

I

N THIS NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER, Shirzad Chamine reveals how to achieve one’s true potential for both professional success and personal fulfillment. His groundbreaking research exposes ten well-disguised mental Saboteurs. Nearly 95 percent of the executives in his Stanford lectures conclude that these Saboteurs cause “significant harm” to achieving their full potential. Positive Intelligence (PQ) measures the percentage of time your mind is serving you instead of to sabotaging you. With higher PQ, teams and professionals ranging from leaders to salespeople perform 30-35 percent better on average. With Positive Intelligence, you can learn the secret to defeating these internal foes while feeling happier and less stressed.

HUSTLE AND FLOWCHART - TACTICAL MARKETING PODCAST WITH MATT WOLFE & JOE FIER (EVERGREEN PROFITS) Matt and Joe invite the most successful entrepreneurs, marketers, traffic ninjas, and business thinkers for a bit of a chat. They dive into the best tactics that are working right now and dig deeper and deeper until all questions are answered on the topic. They manage to extract specific business growth strategies that listeners can try for themselves. They are a quirky duo with a fun show that is packed with insight and ideas. DSN

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THE FUTURE O F WO R K COVID turned the traditional workplace on its head. How are direct selling companies managing the prospect of returning to

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the office—or will they?

BY COURTNEY ROUSH

T THE TIME OF THIS WRITING, 334,600,700 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been administered in the United States, representing 52.3 percent

of the population and prompting, at least for some companies, a return to the office— whether on a full- or part-time basis—after more than 18 months of remote work. The mere consideration of a hybrid or entirely remote working arrangement is groundbreaking when you consider that telecommuting was in large part a rarity in corporate America before the pandemic. Surveys and statistics that attempt to measure public sentiment about remote work are all over the Internet right now. Their results are affected by such factors as sample size and respective industry sectors of the respondents.

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A hybrid approach, consisting of work hours both in the office and at home, was the preferred format of our respondents.

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ESPITE THE DIVERSITY of attitudes about what constitutes the best working environment, one reality is hard to dispute. The global pandemic has forced a reckoning of sorts about what’s really necessary for employees to be productive, and the truth is that there is no single answer. However, granting employees flexibility in their workplace environments may lead to improved morale, longer tenure and a competitive advantage for those companies who potentially can cast their nets wider for talent. The industries with the highest number of remote workers are healthcare (15 percent), technology (10 percent) and financial services (9 percent), according to video conferencing company Owl Labs.

In March 2021, Prudential commissioned a survey entitled Pulse of the American Worker: Is This Working? A Year In, Workers Adapting to Tomorrow’s Workplace. This study of 2,000 adults working full time found that 87 percent of American workers who have been working remotely during the pandemic would prefer to continue working remotely at least one day a week, post-pandemic. Among all workers, 68 percent say a hybrid workplace model is ideal. That’s a double-digit percentage point jump from a similar question in a survey conducted in fall 2020. It suggests that the pandemic has highlighted what American workers value most in their respective places of employment.

Further, these responses indicate that such perks as flexible schedules and the reduction or elimination of daily commutes potentially outweigh any drawbacks associated with remote work,

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like isolation and increased work hours. Most consequential, the survey found that employees who don’t have access to the benefits they want post‑pandemic are prepared to seek them elsewhere if necessary. Nearly half of current remote workers (42 percent) say if their current company doesn’t continue to offer remote-work options long term, they’ll look for a job at a company that does.

It’s not just employees who have had a few revelations during the pandemic. Their employers, too, are reconsidering what the optimal work environment looks like. We reached out to several direct selling companies to find out how they’re managing the future of their respective workplaces and what they’ve learned in the process. Here’s what we learned:

Hybrid Format Preferred

A hybrid approach, consisting of work hours both in the office and at home, was the preferred format of our respondents. That decision was usually based upon employee feedback, which drew companies’ attention to the fact that the pandemic was having disproportionate effects on caregivers of preschool and school-age children and elderly family members, as well as those with preexisting health conditions. At the same time, direct selling executives recognized that there were inherent challenges associated with a purely remote work environment – namely, maintaining strong and personal culture, bringing new employees into the fold and continuing to recognize, motivate and engage existing employees.

While leading a Zoom call several months ago, It Works! Founder and CEO Mark Pentecost looked at the faces staring back at him from his computer screen and had a revelation. He recalled the incident during a Direct Selling News Executive Insights interview with Stuart MacMillan, President of MONAT Global: “I was looking at the different people in the Zoom, and I’m like, ‘Oh my goodness, I haven’t said good job to her, or I haven’t congratulated that person.’ It really overwhelmed me. How do I show appreciation?

My background’s coaching. I coach someone who’s maybe underperforming, or tell someone who’s really knocking it out of the park that ‘I see you.

Nice job, I really appreciate it.”

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IN JANUARY 2021, Oakland, California‑based management consulting firm Great Place to Work released the results of its survey of 79 executives from

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56 Fortune 500 companies.

HE SURVEYORS wanted to gauge leaders’ thoughts and plans for returning to the workplace, or if a return was in their plans at all. Pre-COVID, the average percentage of employees working from home for these companies was just 16 percent.

Perhaps not surprisingly, executives were divided on the subject of how working from home has affected company culture and productivity: 50 percent of executives surveyed believed productivity wasn’t impacted by remote work. n

30 percent of executives believed teams were more productive while working from home.

n

20 percent reported mixed impacts across teams and business units, with some improving while others appeared to be suffering. n

A D D I T I O N A L LY: n Most leaders were targeting a return to the workplace within the next 7-12 months. n Camaraderie and morale (61 percent) and collaboration (45 percent) were the top ways executives expected returning to the office would improve company culture.

Over half (58 percent) anticipate reducing their office space by at least 10 percent from pre-COVID needs, and over one-third expected to reduce their office space by 25 spaces. n

n Three out of five executives believe up to 25 percent of their workforce will continue to work remotely full time.

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It Works! reopened its corporate office June 1 as part of a hybrid work solution for employees. “Our secret sauce is the hugging and acknowledgment and pats on the back. It’s not as easy to do that out of your home,” Pentecost says. “There are three things I’m focused on— boosting engagement, encouraging collaboration, and increasing morale. I wanted to make sure our field team knew how much I appreciated how they’re working through this period. And those are the three things that I realized people needed the most.”

Following a lot of discussions, Team National recently announced its 2021 hybrid plan for employees. “We’re allowing most staff—a few job descriptions aren’t favorable to work from home, so those staff are in house, such as our network administrator—but most may choose to work from home daily, come in daily, or split their time in any given week,” says Angela Loehr Chrysler, President and CEO. “All new hires must be in office for their probationary 90 days for training and then, if eligible, they can request work from home. But to keep our fun, family-friendly, ‘treat others the way you want to be treated’ culture, we require all staff to be in the office every other month for two to four days by department.” Department heads will coordinate their team members to be together those two to four days to encourage in-person collaboration and discussion. Staff members also will be required to be in the building for special events. Team National’s first all-staff day took place July 16 when one of the company’s top leaders was in the office for a special event.

“Isagenix is currently working on a phased approach to welcoming employees back to the office at its Gilbert, Arizona, headquarters—voluntarily, with encouragement and incentives—given our culture thrives on in-person interaction and collaboration,” says International Chief Legal Officer Justin Powell.

“From a more long-term perspective, we’re revisiting our remote work policy, which represents a hybrid approach, and expect to expand it to allow maximum flexibility for eligible employees to work remotely on a more regular basis as long as business needs are being met.”

Mental Health Comes into Sharper Focus About one-third (31 percent) of all respondents participating in the Deloitte Global 2021 Millennial and Gen Z Survey reported that they have had to take time off of work since COVID due to stress and anxiety. It’s incumbent on employers, then, to support employees’ mental health through any means possible—and reconnect with their purported and respective missions.

Referencing the Deloitte survey, Brent Willis, CEO of NewAge, says, “The incremental stress of COVID coupled with an accountable and performanceoriented work culture is a change. So, we focus on over-communication, building the right culture, and engaging with all associates so they feel heard, valued and connected to the purpose and cause of the company.”

For NewAge, COVID has left an imprint on the company’s culture, inviting an even more egalitarian, collaborative style as employees leave individual offices behind for a new space that allows them to more easily engage with coworkers—whether they’re three desks down or working remotely.

“NewAge is completely redoing the office model of old,” says Willis. “We’re going to hybrid systems, hoteling, building social studios in every location around the world for brand partners, and creating community hang-out spaces, so our offices have become ‘multifunctional hubs’ instead of desks with stacks of paper and pictures of grandma. We’re creating multifunctional collaboration, coordination and training spaces, and eliminating many of the expensive mega shrines of the past. Even the CEO has no door—just a few comfy chairs for meetings and a stand-up desk.

“We love the value of social connection, instant coordination and informal communication that has historically come from an in-office work environment,” he continues. “But we have learned that with all of the digital connectivity tools available today, you can achieve all those things without physically being in the same space all the time.”

The Takeaways Preparation is key.

If the pandemic taught us all anything, it’s the critical importance of preparation. Those companies who had the technical infrastructure in place before the pandemic were more agile and could pivot to remote working environments more easily.

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In the process, companies reaped the benefit of several key learnings they plan to incorporate into their ongoing operations. “Working remotely helped us better utilize technology to improve collaboration with our international offices, so we’ve been increasing our efforts to work more seamlessly together,” Powell says.

For Young Living, the pandemic has served as a reminder of the value of sound crisis management procedures. The company established a crisis communications process and application where employees could receive real-time updates and remain informed as local and national agencies set health and safety guidelines. “It’s very important to have a plan and to be able to communicate to your entire workforce as quickly as possible when a major crisis occurs,” says Gene Schrecengost, Chief Human Resources Officer for Young Living.

“What surprised us was that employees continued to stay positive and connected, even through such consistent change.”

Involve employees in decision-making.

As Mary Kay so wisely said, “People will support that which they create.” Taking the pulse of employee sentiment about optimal work environments has served direct selling companies like Isagenix well.

The company deployed an anonymous survey to its U.S. workforce to gather feedback, “which we felt was a critical component to our return-to-office planning,” says Powell. “The survey was designed to measure current and future attitudes around coming back on-site at our headquarters. We’re taking that into account as part of our return-tooffice plans.”

As for It Works! hybrid work style, “I want it to be led by our employees,” Pentecost said in his Executive Insights interview with MacMillan in July. “I want them to tell me what they need to be the most efficient. The world’s never going to be the same.

We’re going to go back, and it will be different.

There are no rules we need to follow. How much do we need to be in the office? What departments never need to be in the office? Who needs the collaboration and people? We’ve started opening the office so that if you want to come into the office, you’ll be able to. We’ll be there. We’ll sanitize. We’ll

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“

What surprised us was that employees continued to stay positive and connected, even through such consistent change.

— G E N E S C H R E C E N G O S T / C h i e f H u m a n R e s o u r c e s O f f i c e r, Yo u n g L i v i n g

keep it safe. We’ll have some rules, but we’re not going to tell you yet that you have to come back, or you have to do this.”

Have clear guidelines in place.

Plexus’ new policy includes clear eligibility guidelines and best practices for effectiveness and team collaboration. “When the pandemic hit, many officebased organizations had to move quickly to transition teams to work from home,” says Mary Beth Reisinger, the company’s Chief Human Resources Officer. “This is not the same as deliberately offering a telecommuting option. One was out of necessity; the other was intentional. Setting rigor around what telecommuting looks like, giving leaders the flexibility to determine what schedule works for their teams, being intentional

about culture-building, and lots of communication are a few vital elements. Additionally, we held mandatory training for leaders to focus on team building, accountability, and measuring performance.”

“Challenges with a flexible working situation are likely the same at any company,” says Schrecengost. “We worked with our Legal team to establish a ‘Ways of Working Policy’ in which we outlined the expectations for all employees eligible for flexible working arrangements. This policy allows everyone to be on the same page about meeting performance standards and keeping in communication with each other as we move into a blended working environment.”

Keep employees around the campfire through any means available.

Direct selling companies, like the independent distributors they serve, in large part have been founded on strong cultures.

Gathering one’s employees around the campfire, so to speak, will almost certainly be a challenging prospect when they’re rotating in and out of the office. Companies like Plexus are striving to create a happy medium between offering greater flexibility and maintaining the kind of culture they need to gain employee buy-in, fulfill their objectives and keep retention high.

Fridays are sacred days at Plexus, reserved for events like team celebrations, cultural initiatives, weekly raffles, so “our hybrid work environment offers eligible team members the choice of working from home two days per week, with the exception of Fridays,” says Reisinger. “We recognize that we will have to be more deliberate at maintaining a team-like atmosphere, so we’ve trained and tasked our leaders with cultivating an inclusive and dynamic team environment.

“Although 2020 was a strong year for our business, we learned that the stressors of the pandemic and an overnight shift to work from home were not optimal for our team members,” she continues. “Innovation and cross-functional collaboration slowed, and our new hires didn’t get the benefit of cultural immersion. A key takeaway was that we would need some additional structure and imagination to ensure that moving to a hybrid work environment going forward would still support and preserve those things.”

Young Living “struggled to stay connected as a greater team,” Schrecengost says, “so our Employee Experience teams held weekly ‘happy hours’ where our employees could connect and laugh with our executives and leaders over video conference. This helped employees feel more connected even though we were working apart.”

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Reassess periodically.

Companies generally are approaching the transition to hybrid work on a contingent basis; they’re rolling it out, seeing how it goes and intend to revisit it after a trial period. Team National, for example, will review its work from home policy at the start of 2022, Loehr Chrysler says, to determine if adjustments need to be made or if it should remain as is. At this time, the company has 20 employees who split their time in and out of the office and another 23 who work from home daily.

The Future: Remote Work as an Employee Benefit?

As our economy continues to recover and employees feel emboldened to start making changes in their respective careers, direct selling companies will inevitably begin to consider how they can distinguish themselves in a competitive market. Could offering such benefits as remote work tip the scales in your company’s favor? The following statistics, compiled by Findstack.com, are worth considering: n 99 percent of people would choose to work remotely for the rest of their lives, even if it was just part-time (source: Buffer). n Remote workers save around $7,000 per year in transportation, food and childcare (TECLA).

Companies that allow remote work see an average increase of $2,000 in profit per remote worker (Stanford). n

64 percent of recruiters say that being able to pitch a work-from-home policy helps them find high-quality talent (IWG). n

n In 2017, there was a 50 percent decrease in resignations in companies that allowed remote work (Stanford).

“Remote work has allowed more flexibility for our employees to effectively meet the demands of their jobs as well as balance their family responsibilities, which employees have shared reduces their stress levels,” says Powell. “In a survey of our U.S. employees, they reported that remote work has had a positive impact on their personal productivity, work satisfaction, and collaboration.”

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Remote work has allowed more flexibility for our employees to effectively meet the demands of their jobs as well as balance their family responsibilities, which employees have shared reduces their stress levels.

— J U S T I N P O W E L L / I n t e r n a t i o n a l C h i e f L e g a l O f f i c e r, I s a g e n i x

This isn’t to imply that remote work is without its complications. Social media management software company Buffer found that the three biggest challenges associated with remote work are unplugging after work (22 percent), loneliness (19 percent) and communication (17 percent). Seventy percent of remote workers report receiving regular training from their companies (TalentLMS). Fifty-four percent of IT professionals consider remote workers to pose a greater security risk than traditional workers (OpenVPN).

No Single Solution

Ultimately, what determines the ultimate success or failure of any new workplace policy differs from company to company.

“I think this is a case where one-size-fits-all solutions unfortunately do not exist; different conditions may call for different approaches,” said Raffaella Sadun, professor of business administration at Harvard Business School, in an article for Harvard Business Review {“COVID Killed the Traditional Workplace. What Should Companies Do Now?” by Dina Gerdeman; March 8, 2021). “A practical piece of advice is thus to be proactive and elicit workers’ preferences and explore different approaches now. The return to the office may not be as simple as we imagined at the beginning of the pandemic.” DSN

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M A R K E T I N G

D E M O C R AC Y

THE NEW

M A R K ET I NG DE MO CR AC Y WITH AN INDUSTRY-WIDE SHIFT TOWARD CUSTOMER ACQUISITION, PARTNERING WITH DISTRIBUTORS IS MORE VITAL THAN EVER BEFORE.

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HIEF MARKETING OFFICERS ARE THE MOMENTUM B U I L D E R S . T H E Y C R E AT E B R A N D A W A R E N E S S ,

C U LT I V AT E C U S T O M E R L O YA LT Y, P O S I T I O N T H E B R A N D IN THE MARKETPLACE AND DRIVE DEMAND. THESE FUNDAMENTAL PRIORITIES have remained the same across decades, and as the market landscape and the customer needs within it have evolved, so too has the role. Today’s Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) takes on those consuming core tasks and then some, from maintaining social relevance to developing multi-platform campaigns, and the list continues to grow.

“Things are happening in a year or two that used to take ten,” says Wayne Moorehead, an industry veteran, former CMO/CBO and the host of the Direct Selling News podcast Direct Approach. “We need to be super nimble, willing to adapt and forward-thinking so that we can see what is coming around the corner.”

Even more challenging is that not all marketing experience translates across industries. This is true in the direct selling space, where Mark Stastny, Chief Marketing Officer for Scentsy, has watched marketers try to apply the same strategies that worked in retail to the direct selling space, with little success.

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In direct selling, every distributor is a member of the marketing team.

Empower and Engage

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We need to be super nimble, willing to adapt to forwardthinking so that we can see what is coming around the corner.

—WAY N E M O O R E H E A D / M a r k e t i n g , B r a n d i n g and Direct-to-Consumer Industry Expert & Host of D i r e c t A p p r o a c h Po d c a s t

“Marketing means very different things in direct selling than it does in other channels,” states Stastny. His advice to marketers entering the direct selling channel for the first time: patience.

“I would tell them to start with understanding the different dynamics and the fluidity of marketing, understanding the concept of democratization of the brand and learning how to align your values and your messaging platforms with your distributors,” he says. “Then, be willing to step back and trust and empower them—that might be the biggest hurdle for someone coming into the channel for the first time.”

There’s a marketing adage that states, Your brand is not who you say it is. It’s who they say it is. That mantra is well-worn because it’s true. The message and brand association is always in the hands of consumers, and in the case of direct selling, the distributors.

Not to say that CMOs don’t need to create a clear and consistent brand story that is supported by strategy, relevant content and assets, but it’s an unspoken reality that distributors are inclined to create and publicly publish their own personalized content and assets. In direct selling, every distributor is a member of the marketing team.

In this new marketing democracy, companies are echoing the recent shift in the industry from focusing entirely on distributors to placing customers front and center. This isn’t about demoting distributors but rather locking arms with them as equals. Customers are the focus, but distributors are the partners.

The sticking point, of course, is retention and keeping distributors engaged.

“We still look to associates to build and nurture the relationship because they are running their businesses,” says Dan Macuga, USANA Chief Communications and Marketing Officer. “But the reality is—many associates just don’t stay forever, even though we’d love them to. When they leave, the relationships get fractured, so we’re (corporate) providing incremental value to the customer during the life of their purchase to expand the relationship.

That way, if anything ever happens, you don’t fracture that piece. The company steps in and helps manage the relationship. If an associate pauses their business for four months, they can come back, and their customers are still there.”

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OVERALL CORPORATE STRATEGY CHOOSE the channels where you will compete, which product categories you’ll leverage to win, and the ideal customer demographic.

Tethering to the Brand Anchor

BRAND STRATEGY

PRODUCT STRATEGY

DECIDE what differentiates you from competitors, position yourself in the marketplace and in the mind of the consumer by creating intentional customer experiences.

DEFINE your brand anchor and curate a precise method to deliver value to a specific audience with a specific product or service.

Essential to this new customer-focused strategy is the leveraging of key brand associations. Also known as anchors, these associations can be found through active social listening and paying attention to how customers describe their brand experience.

When mobilized efficiently, they become the nucleus for all strategies, product launches and campaigns.

For Scentsy, that anchor was clearly fragrance, and Stastny says the moments of struggle that the company has faced over the years can be traced to decisions that strayed from that anchor.

“Brands are elastic, but they can be stretched too far,” Stastny says.

Scentsy’s product portfolio does include seemingly extraneous categories, like pet care, but Stastny points out that the company only offers products within those categories that tie to fragrance.

“We don’t go into any other aspects, even though we might be very successful marketing them,” Stastny says. “We anchor in and around the fragrance experience, and we basically say we are going to stay within the swim lane of fragrance.”

Tethering all strategic decisions to the anchor can accelerate momentum and prevent product flops because it is customers—not marketing teams—who decide whether or not a brand has permission to enter new categories.

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The Emergence of New Titles

There is an org chart for creating an anchor-based winning strategy, beginning with the development of a corporate strategy, then cascading to brand strategy, product strategy and, finally, sales and marketing strategy. Each layer requires a shared understanding of what constitutes a win, and which categories, product niches, channels and ideal customer fits into that game plan.

But as the role of CMO continues to evolve, and the responsibilities it entails along with it, the marketing org chart is changing as well.

New titles, including Chief Digital Officer (CDO), Chief Reputation Officer (CRO) and Chief Brand Officer (CBO), are emerging as separate positions with different but complementary priorities.

Candace Matthews, who recently retired from her role as Amway’s Chief Reputation Officer, was one of the first within the industry to hold the title.

CROs, she explains, are responsible for anything that impacts the company’s brand, and at Amway that included sustainability, reputation both on and offline, and supporting women’s empowerment initiatives. CROs not only select and prioritize goals that build the company brand, but they also tell the story in a way that draws distributors, staff and customers into the journey along with them.

4 MARKETING & SALES STRATEGY PARTNER with distributors to drive desired customer behavior like awareness, purchase and loyalty across all touchpoints of the brand.

“I [was] part of a big organization and it takes a village and a globe to manage the Amway brand, but if we look specifically at some of the goals that our team [was] working on, [my role was] really being the beacon and guiding the rest of the organization,” Matthews says.

Spreading niche expertise roles across the executive team is becoming the new norm, and although each title has unique priorities, healthy teams will be in constant communication to ensure they share a seamless vision. That also means that all teams that are distributor- or customer-facing should either report to or work closely with the CMO to ensure marketing integration across channels and functions and to prevent marketing silos.

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Within our industry, what one does in a good way impacts others and in a negative way impacts others.

— C A N D A C E M AT T H E W S / R e t i r e d C h i e f R e p u t a t i o n O f f i c e r, A m w a y

Macuga witnessed the power of streamlined leadership firsthand when his company combined the title of Chief Communications Officer and Chief Marketing Officer into one position.

“I love it because every single touchpoint with a customer is sourced through one group,” Macuga says. “We’re working together and communicating, whether it’s PR, social media, internal and external communications, investor relations—all of it goes together with our marketing, customer service and creative events teams. If you’re not folding your reputation management officer role into your marketing and communications, you’re missing out on an opportunity to ensure that your brand is represented in a seamless manner at all touchpoints in the customer journey. It needs to line up with the main narrative of your company.”

Positive Impact Management

All of these roles—CMO, CDO, CRO and CBO— contribute to the assembling of creative content that build healthy brands, including product testimonials, data-backed clinical studies, beneficial media coverage and corporate social responsibility initiatives. The goal, Moorehead says, is to generate enough positive content that it surpasses the channel’s stigma and the embedded messages that go along with those negative perceptions.

“There are so many conversations happening now that are in the public domain,” Moorehead says.

“You have to join the conversations and hope to positively impact them.”

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This push for positive content is more than good press. It’s a vital strategy that includes listening to online feedback, paying attention to search results that are attached to your brand and respectfully engaging in conversation so that when a crisis does arise, the marketing team is not only ready to react but is also building on a preexisting and proactive commitment to lead the conversation.

When taken digital, these marketing fundamentals also feed search engine optimization (SEO), which floats a brand’s desirable content above the clickbait headlines and trolling comment threads.

“There is going to be negative out there,” Moorehead says. “Ask yourself: From an SEO standpoint, does our brand have enough positive content out there that is going to rank above the negative and the noise?”

In the direct selling industry, the roles of the CMO and those who hold the titles that encircle it are tasked with hyping products, boosting profit margins and building a strong customer base. But they are also charged with opening doors for others and developing opportunities for people who may not have been given a chance to succeed in traditional corporate America. On a grand scale, the leaders in these roles have the power to impact everyone within the industry—both positively and negatively.

“Within our industry, what one does in a good way impacts others and in a negative way impacts others,” Matthews says. “It’s something we should be more cognizant of and be putting more effort behind to make sure that we elevate this entire industry. It’s critical for all of us to be doing it. Really think about leaving everything you touch better than the way you found it.” DSN

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Protecting Your Business: Five Things You Should Do Now PROACTIVE ENGAGEMENT NOW CAN SIGNIFICANTLY MINIMIZE LEGAL RISKS LATER

BY JOHN C.C. SANDERS, JR. FOUNDING PARTNER/DALL AS A N D K AT R I N A G . E A S H , PA R T N E R

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HE FTC HAS MADE IT a “top enforcement priority” to protect “hard-working consumers from losing money to illegal pyramid schemes or other business opportunities that make deceptive earnings claims.” If not careful, your company, like AdvoCare, Neora, and Success by Health, could become the FTC’s next target and face warning letters, injunctions, lengthy court battles, and millions of dollars in legal fees.

Senior management could also be personally liable for perceived bad acts.

In this environment, executives must proactively work with their company’s legal department to ensure their organization’s operative agreements, compensation plan, and compliance department have measures in place to minimize legal exposure.

Your proactive engagement now can significantly minimize legal risks later if you focus on the five key elements below.

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companies utilize business models that boast high ER-CE N OM T

customer-to-distributor ratios and prioritize customer sales.

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While operative agreements define the relationship between the company and its distributors, it is the compensation plan that often faces the most scrutiny, at least from the FTC. In fact, the FTC reminded all direct sellers during a panel at the 2021 MLM Conference that it continues to focus on compensation plan structure to determine whether it believes that a company is a pyramid scheme.

a customer-centric future for the industry. Qualifying

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LOOK AT HOW YOUR COMPENSATION PLAN IS STRUCTURED

celebrates companies that are leading the way toward

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

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The Customer-Centric Recognition (CCR) Program

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Your operative agreements define the relationship between the company and its distributors. When drafting and revising these agreements, you must pay particular attention to provisions regarding modification of the agreements, class action waivers, and dispute resolution. These provisions are often the focus of legal challenges.

For example, you must ensure that the arbitration and modification provisions are drafted so as not to render the class action waiver unenforceable.

Often, a company’s operative agreements allow the company to unilaterally modify them. Plaintiffs’ lawyers love to exploit these modification provisions to argue that the contract is illusory, and thus the arbitration and class action waiver provisions are invalid. You must, therefore, diligently review the operative agreements to ensure they include a fully enforceable arbitration and class action waiver that complies with the law of the state that governs the agreements.

As another example, you must review modification and dispute resolution provisions in each operative agreement to ensure they do not contain any differences—no matter how seemingly small—that would conflict in a way that makes them unenforceable. Litigants will use these inconsistencies to invalidate otherwise sound arbitration and class action waiver provisions, subjecting the direct seller to expensive and protracted class-action litigation in the court system.

So, consistency is key.

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

Submit Your CCR Program Application Today

DSN DIRECT SELLING NEWS

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

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Minimizing legal risks requires attention and diligence from all stakeholders, including top executives.

Notably, the FTC is becoming increasingly focused on how distributors boost their commissions through products purchased by other distributors and not product sales to end users. This arrangement is the hallmark of a pyramid scheme. Direct Sellers, however, can minimize the risks associated.

First, if your compensation plan allows selfpurchases by the distributor or purchases by other distributors to count toward rank advancement and commissions, decrease the amount of product that counts toward such incentives. This will also minimize inventory loading and a distributor’s ability to manipulate the compensation plan by purchasing product themselves or increasing their downline solely to capture the purchases made by other distributors.

Second, direct sellers must have a fully operational and easy to use “undo option,” which allows distributors to return products if the business opportunity fails. By implementing an “undo option,” a company can easily demonstrate to the FTC or a court that there is an appropriate mechanism to allow unhappy distributors to easily part ways with the company and get their investment back.

There are, of course, other compensation plan red flags that direct sellers must look out for, such as threshold rewards that require a distributor to purchase a certain amount of product every month to engage in the business opportunity. And, luckily, there are quite a few ways to modify compensation plans to eliminate these red flags without causing too much pain to the company’s bottom line. In sum, direct sellers need to take a hard look at their compensation plan to ensure they have eliminated the red flags that will bring the FTC knocking.

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Element #3:

HAVE A PREFERRED CUSTOMER PROGRAM

Another key business element that all direct selling companies must have is a preferred customer program that encourages sales to, and greatly rewards distributors for, sales to preferred customers.

Some individuals sign up as distributors for the sole purpose of receiving the volume discount with no intention of growing a business. To the FTC, the lack of business growth suggests that these individuals were tricked into a business opportunity with no exit strategy. By implementing a preferred customer program, individuals who would otherwise sign up for the business opportunity for the discount alone can self-identify as a preferred customer instead and reap the benefits of the discount without the need to become a distributor.

Element #4:

EVERY COMPANY MUST HAVE A ROBUST FIELD EDUCATION PROGRAM

Without a preferred customer program, the company would be forced to reverse engineer its data to prove to the FTC which business opportunity participants are actually “end-user” consumers and have not been duped by the system. This backward approach will only expose the company to additional scrutiny. Thus, implementing a preferred customer program allows the company to clearly differentiate between end-user consumers and business opportunity participants and prove the value of their product/services through significant end-user sales.

Fourth, direct selling companies should also be implementing a company-sponsored training program that educates the field on the company’s policies and procedures, and preferably, the training program will happen at registration for the business opportunity.

The education program must discuss, among other things, how to properly promote the business opportunity without making improper income and product claims. Defining improper claims is not enough. Rather, this training should provide multiple examples for distributors to learn how to identify improper claims and to explain the proper way for describing the company’s products and the business opportunity to others. 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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A functioning compliance program that is supported by company executives is critical to defending your company against FTC scrutiny and litigants.

Often, distributors make improper claims unknowingly because they do not understand the implications of their statements or how they are viewed by the FTC. For example, a distributor might make a truthful claim about his or her business results but fail to include the required income disclosure statement explaining the typical results of a distributor. The FTC views this as a misleading claim even if the distributor’s statement was based on his or her personal results. This is critical for top-level distributors, as many FTC investigations are initiated because of improper income and product claims made by top-level individuals.

Importantly, this training should come from the company itself at the beginning of its relationship with the distributor, and the company should maintain records showing completion of the program. The company should not, however, require its distributor base to engage in any recruitment training or support as such a requirement would be used by litigants to argue that the company’s distributors are actually employees.

Element #5:

MUST HAVE A HIGH-FUNCTIONING COMPLIANCE PROGRAM

Finally, a functioning compliance program that is supported by company executives is critical to defending your company against FTC scrutiny and litigants.

Once you have well-drafted policies in place that clearly outline prohibited conduct, your focus should be on the strength of your compliance program. It is not enough to have a compliance department. Instead, you must ensure that your

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compliance department is adequately staffed, is identifying distributor violations of the policies, and is imposing corrective measures when necessary.

Additionally, your compliance department must be well-versed in the policies to ensure that it is consistently communicating and applying them to all distributors.

Your compliance department’s documentation and evidence against distributors for policy violations will be key evidence in an FTC enforcement action or litigation. Thus, consistency is critical to show that no distributor, including high earners, is above reproach. You want to show that you and the company take violations of the policies seriously, especially with respect to compensation plan manipulation and improper claims. Even more important is that your company can show that distributors who violate these policies are actually punished for their actions.

Conclusion

Minimizing legal risks requires attention and diligence from all stakeholders, including top executives. These five elements are the perfect starting point to making changes that will better protect you and your brand. The work you proactively put in now will minimize the need to face an FTC investigation or litigation later. DSN

JOHN C.C. SANDERS, JR. is the Founding Partner/Dallas and KATRINA G. EASH is a Partner at Winston & Strawn. Winston represents dozens of direct selling companies in a wide range of disputes and consulting matters.

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THE PODCAST

RoundTable w/ Joni Rogers-Kante Sarah Shadonix Michele Gay Amelia Warren To watch or listen to the entire interview, visit DirectSellingNews.com.

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OR OUR LATEST DSN PODCAST, we were ecstatic to bring together four successful and pioneering CEOs—Joni Rogers-Kante, Founder and CEO of SeneGence, Sarah Shadonix, Founder and CEO of Scout & Cellar, Michele Gay, Founder & CEO of LimeLife by Alcone & Amelia Warren, CEO of Epicure—to discuss issues, trends and opportunities facing the channel.

The podcast is LOADED with powerful insights and remarkable candor—they share the challenges, opportunities, successes and struggles each has encountered on their journey and offer straightforward advice and insight on how to navigate and maximize the current growth the channel is experiencing.

Here is a partial look at the questions asked and the dynamic answers provided.

JONI ROGERS-KANTE: I’m so looking forward to not only hearing the questions but in the spirit of direct sales, of sharing and helping one another succeed.

I can’t wait to hear the stellar answers from each of the ladies.

We know, of course, that the relationship between corporate and direct sellers is paramount. But in today’s world, where so much is being automated, and a lot of the communication is done remotely, how do you build deep relationships with your distributors, and how do you maintain that?

SARAH SHADONIX: You hit the nail on the head in the question, insofar as having a close personal relationship, having a meaningful relationship. Building community is so essential in our industry. The last 18 months have made that particularly challenging because we haven’t been able to gather in person in the way that is so meaningful in our industry. We’ve had to be particularly thoughtful to drive home this relationship, to really build upon this relationship.

So, when they’re finding ways to connect with our field, to engage with our field, to continue to build community while virtual, it has been a challenge that we’ve embraced wholeheartedly. In fact, it’s been a business opportunity for us. We’re a clean-crafted wine company, so providing an opportunity to engage and grow your business virtually has always been on our roadmap, but we never prioritized it.

Kind of the silver lining of COVID for us was a chance to pivot, and dive in, and provide that opportunity to our field for them to be able to engage in the business, grow their community virtually.

AMELIA WARREN: Some of the things that we found particularly effective, it’s about being even more intentional with how we’re communicating and engaging our community of entrepreneurs.

Every Friday, our entire executive team get on a Zoom call together, and we spend 30 minutes engaging our sales force every week doing recognition, asking them how they’re doing.

I’ve got standing meetings with a number of our top folks monthly, so engaging them on a regular basis in terms of, again, what’s happening, how are you doing? We’ve tasked our social media team with just keeping a finger on the pulse of what’s happening with folks, again, personally and professionally, and then elevating that to our executive team meetings, wherein we have a time in our executive team meeting on a weekly basis wherein we’re sharing news and headlines from the field.

The other piece as well is just we’ve increased the amount of communication we’re doing with our field.

MICHELE GAY: I think my answer to this is I think I give us a D minus on this over the last 18 months. When COVID hit, my biggest concern was the warehouse. You have to focus where the fire is the strongest and the hottest, and for me,

“

making sure that our warehouse workers were safe, that they were in a safe environment, that we could keep the warehouse moving was essential. All of my focus, and my executive team’s focus, was on how do we keep the wheels on the bus?

And what happened during that time, is that our executives, our teams, everyone from a brand-new beauty guide to the top leader, needed a hug from us.

They needed a place to feel safe.

They were scared and confused.

They didn’t know how to pivot.

And in my mind, it was like, “You want me to keep the wheels on the bus. That’s what you want.” But in their minds, what they needed is they needed us to be there for them emotionally.

I feel like everyone who came before me, including Joni, have been mentors.

— M ICH EL E G AY

JONI ROGERS-KANTE: I think our company did that part right. But we failed in another area.

First of all, it was easier for me, because I have a much larger team, so I got to hand over the operational part to our very capable President.

I along with the sales and market team, events team, just concentrated on the field. That’s what we did 24 hours a day, seven days a week. We engaged as many of our leaders as we possibly could in our daily social activities. We showed up absolutely every day with some of the leaders, one of the leaders. w w w. d i r e c t s e l l i n g n e w s . c o m 7 1

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What we did poorly was engage the new distributors who came on board during that period of time. I think that those tens of thousands who signed up during that long period of the COVID stay-at-home are no longer in our system. I don’t think we did a good enough job reaching out to them and touching them, embracing them, and giving that place of security and nurturing that we were able to extend to the other distributors who already were embedded within our culture. So that is a problem, a challenge, that our company is working on, which will lead to overall retention.

MICHELE GAY: We’ve just been talking about the last 18 months and how crazy it is. So, what has been the most unexpected challenge and benefit of the last year and a half that you guys have seen? Is there anything that you feel you can learn and grow moving forward?

What was an unexpected challenge that now you’re turning into an opportunity?

SARAH SHADONIX: Our business is driven by and enriched by the ability to gather in person. It’s challenging to share a bottle of wine if we’re not together.

We are focusing on retention, because we weren’t able to drive as meaningful of relationships with the consultants that we brought in during the COVID period, and really doing a lot of reflection, and what does that mean for our business going forward in terms of driving customer and consultant retention. So that’s been one big learning and opportunity for us as a business.

I think that the industry, industry as a whole, retail as a whole, has shifted a little bit of a mindset on the direct selling industry and has begun to embrace it a little more than it did before COVID. So I think it’s an opportunity for all of us to continue to position ourselves as a really great business model, not only in the industry as a whole.

So, I think continuing to embrace that by embracing the opportunities with compliance first and focusing on customer acquisition and retention within our field.

I think that continuing to drive best-in-class business practices and elevate the perception of our industry within the global way to do business, I think is an opportunity for all of us.

JONI ROGERS-KANTE: One of the unexpected opportunities that we experienced during COVID was what you’re talking about, PR. In the last two years, we have had great articles appear across many forms of media about not only our company, of course, our product line, but the direct sales industry, tying that in.

I’ve been very surprised at how receptive the other forms of media have been because they’re curious about it. So, the fact that people are so receptive and so hungry

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for information to understand what it is we deliver has been quite a surprise. It’s changed the way that I do PR for the company.

AMELIA WARREN: Everyone’s talking about directto-consumer, vertically integrated, all new channel, micro-influencers, and that’s exactly what direct selling is.

I think there’s an opportunity to reframe what we do, how we do it, and how we talk about ourselves.

Some of the other opportunities for us that we’ve been able to amplify some of the things we did historically is being able to do our season launches virtually. Historically, we did them through our leaders at in-person events. Being able to do those virtually, reaching out directly to customers via our consultants, has really amplified the role of new product introductions.

Another thing that we’ve learned is that in a more digital environment, the attention spans of both our customers and our consultants are shorter. Campaigns need to be shorter. We found that product launches need to be more frequent so that there’s always a reason to reengage, so it’s sped up our cycles.

We had a lot of supply chain challenges and continue to. The only way we got through that was by talking to our people, being incredibly transparent about this ingredient is here, that is why we cannot launch this product. What COVID brought is a radical transparency in terms of communicating what’s happening in our business and why they’re experiencing, or not experiencing, what they are.

MICHELE GAY: The key is not to sit here and have the same direct sellers moving from company to company.

I’m constantly telling women, “You’ve got to stay where you are. Unless you have a fundamental problem with the company you’re at, you’ve got to stay where you are.” I am the person who discourages as many people as possible from coming to LimeLife or moving because I feel passionate that if we care about the sellers then we care about their careers. They need to stop looking at this as a quick fix and see it as a career. They have to compound their business substantially. So, we’re doing a lot more with just an entrepreneurial perspective and how you need to look at that.

SARAH SHADONIX: We think about characteristics you aspire to be. I think I’ve learned a lot of those through mentorship. Have you guys had any female mentors along your journey, and what were some amazing life lessons, business lessons, character lessons that they shared with you along the way that have really been impactful in your careers or in your personal life?

JONI ROGERS-KANTE: The first female mentor I had was my mother, who was an executive. I didn’t know to what extent, because when she came home, she was mom.

That has served me well through my entire life because I am a mother of two boys, and I have made a very clear distinction between my career life and personal life.

As far as a business mentor, you can’t do much better than Mary Kay Ash. I had the privilege of working under her when she was around, and watching her, understanding her motivation, watching her business ethics, and her mission.

MICHELE GAY: I feel like everyone who came before me, including Joni, have been mentors. There’s a trail that they have blazed that we are participating in. I have the utmost respect for anyone who has been out there with their weed whacker making this happen for women because it’s absolutely essential.

We had a small family business in retail, and the fact that we transferred that into direct sales was really because of everyone who came before us in direct sales, especially those who did it with such integrity and grace, which is many of the women founders. I also find people like Evelyn Lauder super inspiring with the way that she took her business, and she really focused on something she cared about. She made a commitment to something outside of profits. I think most of us have charitable arms to what we do, because it is not only essential to just feed the heart of our distributors, but because it’s the right thing to do.

AMELIA WARREN: I would say my mom founded our business 25 years ago, and so certainly, similar to what you shared, Joni, she had a very clear distinction between work and home. In terms of mentorship from her, it’s really been go figure it out. It’s like a whole bunch of people who just figured it out. That’s what’s built all of our companies, what’s built our channel, and the direct selling industry as a whole.

SARAH SHADONIX: Mentorship, for me, I kind of approach it differently, and I’ll look at it through the lens of this business because we’ve all have different mentors in our life, in different aspects.

When I started this company and became the CEO, I’d never been a CEO before. I worked with a female lawyer who was my mentor as a lawyer for my entire legal career, and I was starting this company. I went to her and I’m like, “Hey. You’re my mentor in life.” She helped me know how to raise kids, and she was my boss as a lawyer, and I’m like, “You should come to work with me at this company.” So I hired my first mentor. She came and she’s still at the company. She’s been with us since the

beginning, and then have since hired two other mentors, our CFO, and our CGO. So, I’ve just gone out and found the smartest women that I can possibly find in a variety of circumstances that are mentors and have brought them in the fold to add value to and be a part of this journey.

AMELIA WARREN: With the talk of mentors and inspiration, I would love to know… What is the best piece of advice that you have received, or do you have a personal motto that you have as your mantra?

MICHELE GAY: Mine is this too shall pass. If you don’t focus on this too shall pass, you will drown in this business, because everything feels very dramatic, and very horrible. I have learned this too shall pass. Whether it’s a top leader leaving for another company and everyone’s really like up in arms, or if it’s a supply chain problem, this too shall pass.

I tried to this too shall pass myself through the last 18 months, and I’m like, “Okay. When is it passing?” Still waiting for the pass. But I think probably Joni knows that more than anything being in this business for as long as you have. Your perspective is probably so amazing.

JONI ROGERS-KANTE: It is true, this too shall pass. And we live through business cycles. At least our company has. It’s up and down, and up and down, and up and down. I just know that when you’re building on truth, and you have goodness in your heart... One of the taglines of our company is choose to live life and love in abundance, and then work for it. And we work constantly toward that love in abundance end goal. And when you’re making choices like that, that bad news, it too shall pass does pass, and you continue to find green pastures until the next challenge. But get smarter about those challenges as time goes on, so you get to live through the green pasture period a little longer this next time. But there’s always a solution to the issue as long as you’re making the right decisions.

SARAH SHADONIX: My Grandpa Bernhard used to always say, “It’s only temporary.” Good, bad, whatever it is, it’s only temporary. And then the hard thing about hard things is that they’re hard. But it’s only temporary.

AMELIA WARREN: And then if it’s hard, it doesn’t mean you’re doing it wrong. It just can be tough.

For me, it’s just keep going. It’s like no matter what, just keep going. Because usually if you just keep going and just moving forward, action is often better than inaction.

So just keep going. DSN

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Princess House: A New Roadmap for a Legacy Organization 2020 brought a new company structure, better communication and a clear roadmap.

BY JENNY VETTER

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HE EVENTS OF 2020 forced every company, both within the direct sales industry and outside of it, to adapt to

meet the new-overnight-needs of their pandemic-

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impacted customers. For Princess House, the 2020

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chaos was the perfect atmosphere to rethink,

Taunton, MA

restructure and reorient the company, shifting course from several years of declining sales and scattered focus. This clean slate breathed new life into Princess

HEADQUARTERS:

TOP EXECUTIVE:

Lynne Coté PRODUCTS:

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An Aligned Vision

When Lynne Coté was asked by Princess House owner Ray Chambers to join a consulting team formed to advise on new strategies for the company, she saw the frustrating financials and alignment challenges that everyone else could clearly see. But she saw something more.

“I didn’t know anything about kitchenware. My whole background has always been fashion,” she shares. “But when I stepped in for those couple of weeks, it was pretty apparent to me that there was a strategy to be had here. [I felt] if we get all of our arrows aligned and get the field aligned with us, I felt like there was a huge opportunity.”

Lynne officially joined Princess House as Chief Executive Officer in January 2020 and hit the ground running, knocking down long-standing silos and dreaming up a complete reorganization that would better serve the company. In a two-day offsite, Lynne walked leaders through a “journey vision” that both honored the company’s legacy and history while charting a course for the future. Together they decided the principles they wanted to stay true to, which new paths to consider and took a critical look at the mission of the company.

“We looked at what our mission is, and then we had to decide if that mission is still appropriate for today,” she explains. “We changed our mission to, ‘The mission of Princess House is to make life healthier and more beautiful,’ because one thing that has always been true about Princess House products is that they’re beautiful, yet just as important is our continued evolution of supporting healthier lifestyles.”

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The consultants in the field could have become our opponents. Instead, they became our partners.

— LY N N E C O T É

With a new company structure, better communication and a clear roadmap for Princess House’s next act, Lynne and her team were aligned and ready steer the company in a fresh direction.

They had no idea they would end up clinging to this new plan as 2020 shifted course as well.

“Lynne had a laser focus on business strategy when she joined the company,” says Stefani Shea, Associate Vice President, Marketing and Communications. “We’d been going down a road of trying too many new things without the alignment needed to make any of them a likely success.

With her leadership, we took a long hard look at these various projects and decided which paths to continue pursuing. She elevated the importance of communication and partnership with our field, and that turned out to be a critical factor in our ability to navigate so successfully through the pandemic.”

Out of Chaos, Opportunity

The challenges of 2020 only sped up the plans Lynne and her team had created together.

“Fortunately, under Lynne’s guidance, our Executive Team had already created a strategic blueprint for the company, and we stayed true to those priorities throughout the pandemic,” shares

Kelly Harte, Vice President, Strategic Sales. “On a tactical level, Lynne empowered us to make decisions quickly to ease the concerns of our field and allow them to focus on learning new virtual ways of doing business. We introduced the field to the concept of ‘crisis creates chaos, but out of chaos comes opportunity.’ When the field saw our optimism combined with the tangible actions we were taking to partner with them, they became more confident and willing to go well beyond their previous comfort zones, particularly in the use of technology.”

Princess House has long been known for beautiful housewares, ranging from cookware to dinnerware, small appliances, home décor and more, typically sold at in-home presentations and cooking shows. The pandemic changed all of that, shifting to virtual parties, and the field was ready— not simply ready to learn how to function in a new virtual business model, but ready to embrace all the changes Lynne and her team were rolling out just before the pandemic hit.

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Today, consultants

“This was an opportunity where they were going to be more open-minded to learn technology,” says Lynne. “We started getting thousands and thousands of people on these Zoom calls teaching them how to do social media, how to sell this way, how to get their families who were home, their kids, to help them learn technology, make it a family thing. And we started getting double-digit gains in week four.

The regional sales managers who used to be on airplanes all the time were now reaching thousands more people. And they had a willingness to learn and to do it.”

The field doubled in 2020 from 14,000 to 28,000 consultants, expanding geographically to areas the company hadn’t reached before.

“We’re seeing the map of the U.S. fill in more than it had in many years,” says Stefani. “Our field’s adoption of social selling, something they’d previously had little interest in, removed the boundaries of geography from their recruiting efforts. Where they’d struggled to find new people in their own backyards, they were now comfortable recruiting and training across the country and using digital tools to make those efforts succeed.”

Transparency and Trust

The field felt empowered by their newfound virtual selling skills but also felt supported throughout the challenges of 2020, as a key component of Lynne’s strategic plan was improved transparency and communication across every aspect of the business.

This new level of transparency was quickly put to the test as Princess House endured shipping delays and inventory challenges.

“I think the pandemic helped us to get them to say, ‘I’m going to follow you. I trust you,’ explains Lynne. “We’ve been really transparent because one of the challenges of growing this fast is your lead times are nine months. And you don’t all of a sudden have double the amount of inventory in your warehouse. We had to explain that to them and say, ‘We are going to go on back order and here’s why.’

They felt like information is power because they can manage that as long as they know. That’s how we really built up trust.”

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in the field are not only supported but also heard.

Today, consultants in the field are not only supported but also heard. Lynne and her team launched working committees to involve consultants in various areas, such as product development, field incentives and leadership.

“Every decision is looked at from the perspective of our Field,” explains Kelly. “We have a CEO Advisory Council plus multiple Field Working Committees advising us and supporting company decisions. We have many employees and field members who have been affiliated with Princess House for decades -- and we share both personal and business successes and challenges.”

Tomorrow at Princess House

As Princess House and the rest of the world emerge in an incredibly unpredictable time, Lynne and her team are optimistic about all the future holds.

The company is eager to introduce a number of technology enhancements this year, including a new online learning platform, improved back office for consultants and an updated e-commerce platform.

Leadership has plans to expand in new markets, both here in the U.S. and possibly abroad. And this June, leadership hosted over 1,500 consultants and their guests on the company’s first incentive trip since 2019.

But with all the exciting developments Princess House has on the horizon, Lynne is most excited about the growth, commitment and resiliency of the field.

“The consultants in the field could have become our opponents. Instead, they became our partners,” she says. “I now feel we’re at this point where we can conquer anything together. They have become a culture of figuring things out; they’ve become very innovative. I think unleashing that power can bring us to do and try anything we want to try.” DSN

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A S P E N

RED ASPEN /

Red Aspen: Standing Up, Standing Out and Standing Together Inspiring women to passionately pursue something beautiful—purpose.

W

BY JENNY VETTER

OMEN HAVE ALWAYS driven dynamic changes within the direct sales industry, with each new

generation finding fresh ways of connecting with the “every woman.” The three millennial

FOUNDED:

2017 HEADQUARTERS:

Meridian, ID TOP EXECUTIVE:

offer their customers more than must-have

Jesse McKinney, CEO Amanda Moore, COO Genie Reese, CSO

products and a stellar business opportunity.

Cosmetics

“boss babes” behind Red Aspen wanted to

PRODUCTS:

They chose to inspire women to pursue something even more beautiful—purpose. 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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A S P E N

Before they dreamed up their signature lashes, the founders of Red Aspen—Jesse McKinney, Genie Reese and Amanda Moore—established a mission for their new company, one that would guide every decision and every product: to inspire women to stand up, stand out and stand together by uniting passionate with purpose.

“We had a mission before we even knew what our product line was going to be, Jesse McKinney, Chief Executive Officer, explains. “Direct selling is a channel where we can help women really ignite their passion. And we don’t want to be your passion and your purpose—whatever that might be—we want to help fuel it. We want to be the ‘how’ as to how you can really fulfill that passion and purpose.”

Armed with a powerful mission, a little startup cash and just six products in their lash line, the three women launched Red Aspen in the fall of 2017. Alongside Jesse, Genie Reese serves as Chief Strategy Officer and Amanda Moore serves as Chief Operating Officer.

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The trio brought strong direct sales experience to their new venture, but they weren’t interested in the traditional home party business model. They wanted Red Aspen to offer everything they loved about direct sales and leave the negative perceptions in the dust.

“We knew we wanted to elevate and grow the direct sales market in a new way,” Amanda says.

“Really meeting people where they are, meeting shoppers where they are, meeting customers where they are, meeting our field where they are. We are a direct sales company in how we pay folks, but we like to do everything online, sharing links through a virtual party.”

Jesse adds, “We don’t have a catalog. We want you to spend your money on your passion and purpose as it aligns with our mission statement. And there were just easier, faster, and more effective opportunities that we saw. Just arm people with a link to their website and their social media accounts and some training, and let’s see what people can do.”

Approaching the industry differently paid off for the small-but-mighty start-up. In their first five months in business, they hit $1 million in sales; in 2020, they ended the year with $20 million in sales revenue.

“

We don’t want to be your passion and your purpose– whatever that might be–we want to help fuel it.

— J E S S E M C K I N N EY / C h i e f E xe c u t ive O f f i c e r

Product Strategy and a Field on Fire

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Red Aspen’s line has grown from six lash options to a vibrant collection of beauty products, including pop-on Nail Dashes in non-stop new colors and styles, as well as makeup for eyes, face, lips and brows. Jesse, Genie and Amanda will tell you they don’t bring beauty industry experience to Red Aspen, but something more valuable: insight into what the everyday woman likes. Because that’s who they are.

“We try to focus on not only what’s trendy, but also what’s going to help,” Genie says. “What do people actually want to buy? What’s going to get them excited? What is going to be really fun? We’ve designed products with our sales field in mind, things that they’re passionate about, things that they didn’t even know that they wanted to make their lives easier.

And while our product count has grown, we’ve really stayed central too. We’ve stayed ingrained with our core product philosophy, which aligns well with lashes. (Every product) is consumable. It’s fun, and it has an immediate impact. It’s replacing the salon experience. That’s something we focus on with all of our product lines.”

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And the field can’t get enough. Red Aspen’s field consists of over 10,000 Brand Ambassadors and Affiliates. Brand Ambassadors join with one of the three kit options and immediately start sharing products, earning commission and building teams.

Affiliates who join Red Aspen earn commission on their personal sales only, through affiliate links they share online. Both of these categories of social sellers can access onboarding and ongoing training through The Treehouse, Red Aspen’s open- source website.

New products are released weekly, from fresh Nail Dash designs to new makeup colors, keeping Brand Ambassadors and Affiliates equipped with new releases to share with their customers.

“We launch at minimum one new product, basically every single week,” Jesse shares. “We can do that because we’re not bound to any paper printed catalog. We can launch, we can retire products at our convenience or as it’s seasonally appropriate, which has been huge in terms of generating momentum. And I think that our field loves it.”

“It’s also really fun because we’re able to turn trends around really quickly,” Genie adds. “Brand Ambassadors tag me in nail designs all the time. We also have a space on our Treehouse where they can submit new product ideas, and a lot of them are nail designs. And so, we can come up with a collection and then bring it to fruition.”

For All Women, Everywhere

Three women with a mission naturally attracted more mission-minded women. Not only has the field grown steadily since Red Aspen’s launch four years ago, but the corporate team has as well, with 43 team members and counting.

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“When we started, every person we hired happened to be a female, just happened to be that way,” Amanda shares. “Being this person who runs the operations and moves boxes all day long, I literally had to teach myself how to ride a forklift. We now have two women who are also forklift certified.

When we get big shipments in, all the drivers every time are like, ‘Wait, just a bunch of ladies are doing this?’”

Real women are the driving force and inspiration for everything at Red Aspen, from the easily accessible social selling tools the team develops to the styles and colors released each week and the next product line on the horizon for the company.

“We have a campaign that’s going right now, and it’s called Real Women, Real Bodies,” Jesse shares.

“This campaign is coming out in conjunction with the self-tanning line that we’re launching. But it’s one thing to just launch a self-tanning line, so we asked ourselves how does this product uplift our mission?

And we decided to do Real Women, Real Bodies.

All of the models showcased in our photos are real women with real bodies, stretch marks, tiger stripes, love handles. We did a photo shoot where we all got out there in sportswear, showed some skin and said, ‘this is who we are.’ We’re real women—we have real bodies.”

Jesse, Genie and Amanda want to reach as many “real women” as they can with their mission of fueling individual passions and purposes. Currently, of their existing Brand Ambassadors, over 65 percent of them are actively earning commission; the team wants to see Red Aspen paychecks in the hands of 25,000 Brand Ambassadors as soon as possible.

“The thing that gives me so much joy is thinking about the women that haven’t even joined us yet,” Jesse shares. “I think about the women who joined last year, who joined the year before that and I can’t imagine not linking arms with them and working with them every single day. So, for me, it’s thinking about, in the next year, three years, five years, 10 years—the number of women who we get to impact, but [those same women] who are also going to be blessings back to us in a tremendous number of ways. That’s what really fires me up and makes me think, ‘Wow. Our future is so bright.’ It’s not just gold, it’s rose gold.” DSN

We’re Getting Back Together!

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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.

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“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.

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•

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D S A

M E S S AG E

/

Our Cautious Re-Emergence

A

S DIRECT SELLERS and other businesses begin the careful process of emerging from the limits of the last eighteen months, the Direct Selling Association (DSA) is also starting to cautiously shift toward a more in-person world after 18-months of virtual advocacy and education interaction. During the worst of the pandemic, DSA was able to continue our forceful advocacy on behalf of direct selling, even as our work turned from in-person meetings to online engagements. Now we have begun to resume some of our in-person work.

Here’s a recap of this summer’s work and a preview of our fall agenda.

DSA built upon the channel’s remarkable accomplishments from 2020 and 2021’s first six months as we began our summer 2021 work virtually and in person.

The Association held 55 virtual meetings with Congressional Offices. We brought three new congressional leaders into the Congressional Direct Selling Caucus’ leadership. We held virtual town halls with members of Congress and Women’s Entrepreneurship Roundtables to engage influential congressional leaders on issues of relevance to direct selling.

DSA member companies also engaged their sales forces to send more than 1,022 letters to United States Senators regarding the PRO Act, a piece of legislation that, if passed, could compromise direct sellers’ independent contractor status.

To begin our August 2021 activity, DSA held

JOSEPH N. MARIANO is the President of the U.S. Direct Selling Association and the Direct Selling Education Foundation.

an important meeting with senior staff of the Federal Trade Commission Bureau of Consumer Protection. DSA and the FTC representatives discussed Commission perspectives on direct selling, FTC’s possible new rulemaking, and its possible relevance to the channel.

We have also started attending in-person meetings of policymakers and business partners to continue building connections with allies and decision-makers all over the country. These include state Attorneys General, state legislators, and state retail associations who are essential allies in state capitols.

As we approach the Fall, a new cycle begins for DSA’s in-person events. Company leaders will explore the new strategic considerations for direct selling as we plan for 2022.

With health and safety protocols in place, we are eager to welcome legal and regulatory staff to Washington, D.C., on October 13 through 15 for our annual DSA Legal & Regulatory Seminar.

DSA will convene regulators, decision-makers, and legal experts to discuss the policy issues impacting direct selling businesses and provide the insights needed to navigate the shifting legal and regulatory environment. Those topics will also be explored during our Annual Meeting In New Orleans Nov. 1-3.

As we focus our goals and activities for the remainder of 2020 and into 2021, we hope you are as excited as we are to re-engage in person with your direct selling friends, colleagues, and peers this fall to continue our important work on behalf of direct selling. 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

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HARLAND CLARKE

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

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

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

E.A. DION, INC.

MOBILE APPS & COMMERCE

INCENTIVES/RECOGNITION

SUPPLIER DIRECTORY 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.

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

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

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.

INTERNATIONAL DIRECT SELLING TECHNOLOGY CORP. 1208 E. Kennedy Blvd., Ste. 222 Tampa, FL 33602 813-277-0625 www.idstc.com

Global Operations Management Software.

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

EXIGO

JENKON

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

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

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.

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.

INFOTRAX SYSTEMS

MW2 DIRECT

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

2033 Gateway Place, 5th Floor San Jose, CA 95110 408-573-6310 www.mw2consulting.com/direct

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

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.

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

929 Colorado Ave Santa Monica, CA 90401 310-730-1246 CustomerCare@directechlabs.com www.directechlabs.com

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

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

TA X S E R V I C E S

DIRECTECH LABS

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

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

TO BE INCLUDED IN THE SUPPLIER DIRECTORY, EMAIL ADVERTISING@DIREC TSELLINGNEWS.COM

SOVOS 200 Ballardvale St. Wilmington, MA 01887 1-866-890-3970 www.sovos.com Sovos was built to solve the complexities of the digital transformation of tax with complete, connected offerings for global compliance. Our SaaS products integrate with a variety of business applications and government compliance processes.

w w w. d i r e c t s e l l i n g n e w s . c o m 9 1

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.

SERVICES OFFERED INCLUDE: • Buy side and sell side M&A advisory • Equity and debt financing • Proprietary transactions • Joint venture and partnership opportunities • Institutional advisory

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.

info@directsellingcapital.com

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

CONNECT TO YOUR FIELD AND TO CUSTOMERS ALL FROM ONE PLACE. MARKETING AND CUSTOMER ACQUISITION Social Selling Video Commerce Sampling

COMMUNITY AND TRAINING Onboarding Smart Prompts In-App Chat

BUSINESS MANAGEMENT CRM and Lead Management Prospecting

310-428-9936 Info@now-tech.com Now-tech.com

DATA IS FUEL.

With our FlexCloud software and expert insight, your comp plan data can go from a necessary headache to an empowering

resource for efficiently scaling up. Then, it’s full steam ahead.

Contact us today to get your commissions engine moving.

Let better data power your company forward with FlexCloud.

801.431.4900 | infotraxsys.com