The Stress-Free Holiday Prep Your Business Needs

Lisa Duck (00:00)

My income goal when I was with Epicure I would never put Christmas on a credit card. I always paid

Susan Larimer (00:06)

Mm.

Lisa Duck (00:06)

for Christmas in cash, right?

Lisa Duck (00:09)

Welcome back to another episode of the Other 99% Podcast, where each week we bring you practical tips, honest conversations, and real stories to help you build a business that you truly love. So come on in, grab a coffee, get comfy, and let’s chat.

Lisa Duck (00:26)

Hey everyone, it is me, Lisa, and welcome back to another episode of The Other 99%. I’m here with our co-host, Susan Larimer, and today we’re going to be talking about something. I know this is like mid-October when this is launching, but I mean, probably even a little bit late to start talking about this because I’m I’m hoping that you guys have already started to get your haul your business holiday ready. And what I mean by that,

Isn’t necessarily that you have everything laid out, everything planned out, but you need to start thinking about things. And I mean, the the five most important areas to focus on is your offer. What are you, the business owner, going to be offering? You want to think about your customers. Where are you going to get them? Are they old? Are they new? Do you have events? All that stuff. Your marketing. How are you planning on?

Sharing what you’re offering. Is it going to be through events? Is it going to be through email marketing, social media, all of that stuff? How are you going to be operating this? Like, do you have your systems in place basically, right? And then you also need to think about you because you started this business most likely because you wanted to have some more time with the family. Um, you didn’t want to be running on someone else’s schedule and

The idea, so we need to plan now so that it gives us some free time later on, right?

Yeah.

Susan Larimer (01:57)

Yeah, I was

just thinking we almost should pay attention to what’s happening in the stores.

And we always

Lisa Duck (02:02)

Mm-hmm.

Susan Larimer (02:03)

complain like they already have Christmas items out. That’s how we should be preparing. When we see the stores prepare way ahead for the next holiday, that’s our cue. Like, okay, you’re in business. You should be preparing too. Um, and I love, you know, it’s so important to map it out. We always joke because my daughter is a she’s not a procrastinator,

she’s a

Precrastinator, meaning she gets things done way ahead. She’s so good at mapping out. She’s in college, so she has an exam this day. She’ll say, Okay, I need to study this chapter this day, this chapter this day. I mean, she is very um organized in how she does that. And we should do that with our business too, because when you procrastinate, it’s chaotic, it’s stressful, it’s frustrating.

It is not where you want to be come November and December. But if you procrastinate, procrastinate. If you procrastinate, that way everything is mapped out and you’ll feel so much more in control of your business. You’ll be able to enjoy the holidays. So think about that as you go into um November and December. October, November and December. We’re in it.

Lisa Duck (03:18)

Yeah, we are unfortunate. I fortunately or unfortunately,

the way you want to look at it, right? I mean, the time

Susan Larimer (03:22)

Yeah, get ready. Buckle up.

Lisa Duck (03:24)

the time is now. So what are you doing now that your December self is gonna thank you for?

And

Susan Larimer (03:30)

Yeah.

Lisa Duck (03:31)

I remember when we were thick into or when I was thick into Epicure, the one thing that we always, as a group of leaders, always used to get together and like just beef about was the fact that everything seemed to be so reactive in the business. And

It was like you were trying to put out fires instead of proactively working your business for success, right? And and that’s what we have to think about. It’s like we don’t have to worry too much about what’s going on with our company. Yes. And and we’re gonna get back get to that next week. So make sure you come back to that. But that’s like the gravy. What we need to do is what we have control of, how we’re running our business, right? So we need to sit there and and think

about.

Things that maybe we did last year

that

Susan Larimer (04:21)

Yeah.

Lisa Duck (04:22)

worked for us, right? I know like Susan, you have that Black Friday deal that is every year, it’s tried and true, it works for you, right?

So

Susan Larimer (04:30)

Yeah. Yeah,

it’s always important. And I love looking back at like social media posts. Look back and you because you forget.

You forget what you did

Lisa Duck (04:38)

Mm-hmm.

Susan Larimer (04:39)

and what worked. So look back and be like, oh, that got a lot of interest. That got a lot of activity. You can even look back at your sales for that month. Okay, what worked? What did people buy the most of? What were your customers asking for? ah

Lisa Duck (04:55)

Mm-hmm.

Susan Larimer (04:56)

what kind of sales and specials did they want? Bundles, or was there a

specific product. And then you kind of look back at what your company offered too because typically they tend to offer the same kinds of products. At least Lemongrass does. We have the same holiday scents coming out. So you can kind of anticipate and and look forward to that. But um but look back in order to get a good idea of how you need to prepare to go forward.

Lisa Duck (05:25)

Exactly. Because if you’re in a uh if your business is big on putting together holiday collections or bundles, well you don’t need to spend your time curating special holiday bundles for your customers

Susan Larimer (05:39)

Yeah.

Lisa Duck (05:40)

because your company is going to do it way better because they can offer the discounts and you could still get the commission. So don’t put your time and effort into that if that’s something your company typically does.

We need to try and limit the amount of stress that we put on ourselves during the holiday season. So when we’re thinking about um like offers or where we’re gonna be even, we need to think about things that aren’t gonna cause us so much chaos in our life. So a simple offer so that you don’t have to go through everything is a gift with purchase, right? Buy X number of dollars and I’ll give you this little gift. Well,

I I would always offer that, but I was always mindful because a lot of my customers would purchase online. So

Susan Larimer (06:31)

Mm.

Lisa Duck (06:31)

I didn’t want to get stuck. It’s not something that I could put in their order. So

Susan Larimer (06:36)

Right.

Lisa Duck (06:37)

I always was mindful of that and made sure that I bought something that could ship inexpensively through the mail.

Because I

Susan Larimer (06:44)

Mm.

Lisa Duck (06:44)

wasn’t gonna go hand delivered, even if they lived in my town. You don’t know how many stamps I put on something that people lived like two streets over because it was easier for me to take one trip to the post office than five trips to different people’s homes, hoping that you didn’t see them at the front door and they wanted to talk for 20 minutes. Like I just didn’t have

Susan Larimer (07:05)

Yeah.

Lisa Duck (07:06)

the time in my schedule, right? I used to send my my kids and my husband sometimes, but typically they went in the mail.

Susan Larimer (07:12)

Don’t do that anymore.

Kids get older, they don’t like to be your little runaround anymore.

Lisa Duck (07:13)

No. And they Yeah,

so it’s like think about that, like what what you can do, what you can offer that is gonna cause less stress for you. Something like

Susan Larimer (07:26)

Yeah. And would you do like

gift certificates? Like maybe five dollars off your next order?

Lisa Duck (07:29)

It could, it could be, or,

or it could be something, even um, something super simple. Here is a five dollar Starbucks card. Enjoy a drink on me, right?

Susan Larimer (07:39)

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Lisa Duck (07:41)

It didn’t have to always link back to your company. And I was okay with that. Sometimes I would buy little um things from other companies that were flat and could fit in through our mail slot. Um, and then it would just go for a stamp.

Right. It could have been like a I know one time I had like little grocery lists, magnetic grocery lists made where they could just stick them on their fridge with my name on the bottom. But they j they were easily, you could just put them in an envelope and send it. But that was their gift of purchase. It didn’t have to be fancy. I tied a little bow around it. So when they opened it, it was like, yeah, that’s cute. But it

Susan Larimer (08:21)

Yeah. Yeah.

Lisa Duck (08:23)

wasn’t always something that was like, she gave me.

Fifty dollars off of a hundred and fifty dollar order. It’s like, no, you you’re not you’re not making any money at that point. Like

Susan Larimer (08:35)

Right.

Lisa Duck (08:36)

we need to be mindful because not only are we in this business to conserve our time with our family and all of that stuff, we’re in this business to make money. At least

Susan Larimer (08:44)

Yes.

Lisa Duck (08:46)

I would say a large portion of us are anyway, right?

Susan Larimer (08:49)

Yeah, and that’s such a good reminder, and we’re gonna talk about it later too, but you are here to make money. So rely on your company’s discounts, your company’s sales. Do not feel like you need to offer an additional discount. Your customers

Lisa Duck (09:05)

Mm-hmm.

Susan Larimer (09:05)

are not expecting it. That’s in your own head that you think that they won’t buy unless you offer an additional discount. So

Lisa Duck (09:13)

Mm-hmm.

Susan Larimer (09:13)

be very mindful of that. You want to make money. This is the money-making season.

all companies

Lisa Duck (09:18)

Yeah.

Susan Larimer (09:19)

and businesses, this is where they get out of the the red, right? You want to be in the black. You get out of the red.

Lisa Duck (09:24)

Mm-hmm.

Susan Larimer (09:26)

So you have, you know, the company’s going to have sales and specials. So rely on those instead of creating your own.

Lisa Duck (09:32)

Yeah. And let’s just talk about that now because I think it’s very important to be able to pivot during the holiday season. So um let’s give an example of what I’m talking about. So if you have a promotion that you have set up and you you’ve done everything so beautifully and it’s like if you spend seventy five dollars, I give you a gift of purchase. Well, the and and I’m gonna offer this the first week of November.

Then all of a sudden you get your company that says, Oh, we’re gonna give you a gift with purchase at $75. Well, you’re not gonna double up on your purchase, you just go in

Susan Larimer (10:10)

Right.

Lisa Duck (10:11)

and you edit up all of your images that you made, and now your gift with purchase happens at $100 because you want to increase the the potential sale, right? Who’s

Susan Larimer (10:23)

Yeah.

Lisa Duck (10:23)

not gonna spend that extra $25 to get now two gifts with purchase, right? So

Susan Larimer (10:28)

Right, right.

Lisa Duck (10:29)

just be

Be prepared, but be willing to pivot too because there’s your company is always gonna throw something at you. Always.

Susan Larimer (10:38)

I know. And you think you have everything

under control. And this is, you know, I don’t know if this can go here or not, but I feel like every year our company, they have so many sales. And I as a consultant, like this is my full-time job, I get confused. And if I’m confused, I know my customers are confused. So what I do mostly every year when I see all of those sales and specials coming up.

This sale goes to this date, but this one starts before and overlaps, and then the next one starts. But

Lisa Duck (11:10)

Mm-hmm.

Susan Larimer (11:11)

you can’t add the shipping to that and all these things. I map it out and I put it on a nice

Lisa Duck (11:15)

Mm-hmm.

Susan Larimer (11:17)

neat graphic so that everybody knows exactly which sale starts when and ends when. This sale overlaps like a map it out, make it very clear.

And it helps me too because I’m trying to keep everything straight in my mind when I need to submit orders and close events. So if you get as much information as you can for the holiday shipping deadlines, sales, specials, everything, and put it in one nice neat graphic. Um, and it’s okay to say no. I remember one

Lisa Duck (11:52)

Mm-hmm.

Susan Larimer (11:53)

holiday season, lemongrass.

um gave us a special and it started like Thanksgiving Day. And I’m like, no, I am not gonna share this with my customers. If they find out about it and want to purchase, fine. But I am off my phone today. I am off my computer. This is family time. And I don’t think they ever

Lisa Duck (12:12)

Mm-hmm.

Susan Larimer (12:12)

did it again. I think it was one and done and they were like, okay, we shouldn’t have done that. So it’s okay to say no though, to protect your own time.

Lisa Duck (12:17)

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah. And I think one of the most important things that we could do now is to start to map out um our goals for the holiday season, right? It’s like what’s your potentially is like to to make more money over the next what is it? What’s the stat? We should have looked this up, but I think it you make more if not the same amount of money in the last.

three months of the year as you do in the first three quarters. Right? So

Susan Larimer (12:52)

Yeah, I believe it. Yep.

Lisa Duck (12:55)

be prepared for that. Like what is your what is your income goal? My income goal when I was with Epicure is I would never put Christmas on a credit card. I always paid

Susan Larimer (13:05)

Mm.

Lisa Duck (13:06)

for Christmas in cash, right?

So whether that was uh events that I knew I needed to do, whether that was like personal sales that I needed to do.

But I would map it out. I would have a set budget and that is what my goal was, right? To to get this much money because I knew I needed approximately that. So I would not have to pay for cr Christmas on my credit cards. Of course it went on the credit credit cards, but I just paid it off. You know, you know what I mean. uh I just I just didn’t go into debt. Yes.

Susan Larimer (13:33)

You don’t need to go into debt up to your eyeballs.

Lisa Duck (13:36)

I didn’t go into debt for Christmas. So like

Susan Larimer (13:39)

Yeah.

Lisa Duck (13:40)

think about that. And I mean think about new customers. Like, where are you gonna get these new customers?

Right? But then like we said before in just a recent episode, what about your past customers? We can’t just leave them alone.

Susan Larimer (13:52)

Yeah, take care of your current customers.

Lisa Duck (13:55)

Yeah.

Susan Larimer (13:56)

Right. Yeah, look back at those ten customers you may be ignoring and think about them for the holiday season too. How can you help them shop for their family, their friends, for themselves? So think about everybody.

Lisa Duck (14:09)

Yeah. And one thing that I always bring up, and I used to bring this up to my team all the time, it’s like, you know, everybody’s hyped up for the holidays. We’re we’re thinking now, okay, holiday season, holiday season. And then for some reason, that holiday shipping cutoff comes. Everybody turns off their laptop and then just like runs away. And

Susan Larimer (14:31)

Yeah.

Lisa Duck (14:32)

then all of a sudden, it’s usually like clockwork on January the sixth or seventh.

Everybody’s waking up and saying, I don’t have any business. Well,

Susan Larimer (14:42)

Yeah.

Lisa Duck (14:44)

what did you do to prep for that that January business? Right?

Susan Larimer (14:48)

Yeah.

Lisa Duck (14:49)

So one thing that I used to do was instead of giving them a like a tangible gift, like something that they they could use now or have in their hands or what whatever, it was a future gift. So purchase now.

And you get XYZ when you make a purchase in January. Right? So purchase now? Yeah.

Susan Larimer (15:12)

Yeah, that’s what I did with my Black Friday. Yeah,

if you spend $100, you’re gonna get $10 to spend in January. And

Lisa Duck (15:19)

Yeah.

Susan Larimer (15:20)

I think another reason people get so they want to just unplug come, you know, December 23rd or whatever the shipping date is, is because they didn’t plan ahead. So they’re

Lisa Duck (15:31)

Mm-hmm.

Susan Larimer (15:32)

they’re they’re anxious, they’re

Lisa Duck (15:34)

Exhaust it.

Susan Larimer (15:35)

freaking out, they’re exhausted, they’re frustrated, and they want nothing to do with their business.

Susan Larimer (15:42)

but it feels so good to map it out, um, to have a plan, and then you won’t have that burnout. So come Christmas, you’ll be like, okay, things will still be working on autopilot. My posts are still scheduling, my emails are still going out because I set them up ahead of time. Come January, your business will have been going the whole time. So

Lisa Duck (16:04)

Mm-hmm.

Susan Larimer (16:05)

just keep that in mind. If you get behind.

It’s not gonna be good. Just don’t get

Lisa Duck (16:10)

Yeah.

Susan Larimer (16:10)

behind. Plan it out now in October.

Lisa Duck (16:13)

Yeah. And I find when you do get behind, it’s like everybody’s frazzled. And that’s when you’re grabbing at straws. It’s like, what is my upline doing? What is my sideline doing? my God, I’m gonna take that.

Susan Larimer (16:22)

Yeah.

Lisa Duck (16:23)

And then you end up doing things that you can’t financially afford to do. Your upline

Susan Larimer (16:28)

Yeah.

Lisa Duck (16:29)

is giving a twenty-five percent discount, which is basically your entire commission. You can’t afford that, but what you don’t factor in is the fact that they’re they’re

Sales are high enough that they’re able to manipulate the host program so that they’re not actually giving 25% discount. They’re actually still

Susan Larimer (16:49)

Yeah.

Lisa Duck (16:49)

making money, but you don’t see that, right?

Susan Larimer (16:51)

Yeah.

Lisa Duck (16:52)

You just see, I need to get the customers that my upline does, so I don’t have anything planned. Let me grab that and go. So

Susan Larimer (16:58)

Yeah.

Lisa Duck (16:59)

though those are definitely things like, yeah, be prepared because, and you know what? Just because

Susan was was in um the same business as me. Just because Susan was offering a 20% discount doesn’t mean that I need to. I could still offer a 15% discount. My customers don’t know Susan. And Susan’s supposed

Susan Larimer (17:19)

Mm-hmm.

Lisa Duck (17:20)

to be keeping that that sale or that personal promo in behind closed doors. She’s not supposed to be sharing that with the public. So

Susan Larimer (17:29)

Yeah.

Lisa Duck (17:30)

Don’t stress about that. You know that’s happening. Your customers don’t know that’s happening. So

Susan Larimer (17:34)

Yeah.

Lisa Duck (17:35)

you do what you can financially afford to do in your business. And then that leads me into talking about this because I’ve seen this happen way too many times. Your company puts these special promos up. You know, grab that carrot. You gotta do that carrot. Do $2,000 in

Susan Larimer (17:52)

Mm-hmm.

Lisa Duck (17:53)

sales by this. And um, you know, you’ll get this.

dollar store bag that we bought, you know, and it’s like it’s not really that great, but you just want it because it’s that carrot, but you have

Susan Larimer (18:06)

Yeah.

Lisa Duck (18:07)

three thousand dollars worth of inventory sitting in a cupboard behind you.

Susan Larimer (18:11)

Yeah.

Lisa Duck (18:12)

What are you gonna sell first? Are you gonna try and hit markets and do vendor events so that you could sell off that inventory? Or are you gonna jump into, I want that carrot and then you’re just gonna fill up your cop

closet because you’ve gone now and personally bought $2,000 worth of stuff. So be

Susan Larimer (18:30)

Yeah.

Lisa Duck (18:30)

mindful of that. Um make sure you’re working towards a financial goal, not going into more debt just to grab those carrots. And I find I hear story horror stories all the time about people saying direct sales didn’t doesn’t work. It doesn’t work. It’s like, well, no, it does work.

It all just it it depends on how you work it. Are you actually selling to customers? Because that’s the whole point. The whole point of

Susan Larimer (18:58)

Mm-hmm.

Lisa Duck (18:59)

direct sales isn’t about hitting every tier. And that’s a lot of where the other 99% came from. It’s like, you know, people are too worried about hitting that that next goal to be recognized. That’s not necessary. You need to to work, you know, the business how you want to work it. And yeah, watch.

Watch those little carrots that they put around this time of the year. And if you have tons of inventory, that’s the time where you make up pretty gifts and like I used to do that all I loved doing that. Like, you know, making up gifts

Susan Larimer (19:32)

Mm-hmm.

Lisa Duck (19:32)

with inventory on hand and then just posting them and people are like, I want that, but can you put this in it instead? I’m like, Absolutely. And it was always like, Wow, it’s so cute. Yeah.

Susan Larimer (19:40)

Yeah. Grab and go. Cash and carry. Yep. Exactly.

Lisa Duck (19:46)

Yeah. And then another thing, it’s like, you know.

We don’t have to, I always found that around the holiday season we always got busy, right? But we choose, we really choose how we want to be seen. So we could still say stay visible without working all the time. So

Susan Larimer (20:05)

Mm-hmm.

Lisa Duck (20:05)

that might be limit yourself to two to three events per month. You don’t have to be in a at an event every Saturday and Sunday of the month because that’s when you get you’re gonna burn out.

Right. It’s okay to share the wealth with other consultants in the area. You don’t have to like monopolize every single event to be successful. So um yeah, limit that and then do stuff, stuff that you don’t think about. Like this is a a good example. I was telling you, Susan, before we hit record about the client who was completely booked up for the the remainder of the year, right? And

Susan Larimer (20:42)

Yeah.

Lisa Duck (20:42)

she still had people coming to her saying, you know.

What can I do? Like, I like I want to host a party with you. And she’s like, sorry, I don’t have time. And I’m like, well, how about we make time? That doesn’t involve you, right? I I said, show me exactly what you do. Because she runs um parties on Facebook Messenger anyway. So it’s not like it was in

Susan Larimer (21:06)

Mm.

Lisa Duck (21:06)

person where she needed to be there. So I said, Well, let’s take what you’re doing in these messenger parties and

Put that into a page on your your Omai High website and have it where the host is running that party, similar to how you are. And everything

Susan Larimer (21:27)

Mm.

Lisa Duck (21:27)

is all in one place. It’s all nicely designed there for you. And all they have to do is go step by step. There’s a nice video at the beginning of it personal from you. So it’s like that sort of like, welcome, come into my house. Like here I am. I and then.

little buttons to email me or text me. I’m I’m here to answer your questions whenever you need. So you are available. You’re just not that available. Does it make sense? So

Susan Larimer (21:54)

Yeah.

Lisa Duck (21:55)

there’s different ways to do it. You don’t have to limit your number of parties. You just need to think of different ways to host them, I guess. Right.

Susan Larimer (22:03)

Yeah. And maybe that’s

a good question too, is to think about what all can you automate, put on autopilot, what systems can you rely on so that people can go places, do their shopping, take advantage of the company discounts without you physically having to be there either like on the phone or in person or, you know, working their order for them. So really look

and rely on the systems that you already have in place. And if you don’t have them in place, then listen to one of our previous episodes about systems and get as much as your of your business automated as possible without losing that personal touch. You

Lisa Duck (22:46)

Mm-hmm.

Susan Larimer (22:46)

still need to make sure that you are personally reaching out to your customers, but especially during this holiday season, like make it easy because you need to enjoy the holidays too.

Lisa Duck (22:56)

Mm-hmm.

Susan Larimer (22:56)

And your family needs

you to be present enjoying the holidays with them. So maybe it’s a good idea to think about, you know, you talked about those those carrots and the things we chase instead of being realistic and getting rid of the inventory we already have. Every time like an offer or a special or an incentive comes out, say companies probably won’t like me saying this, but is this

Lisa Duck (23:19)

Ha ha

Susan Larimer (23:19)

going to benefit me and my business and my family?

Or is this more of a company benefit that they’re going

Lisa Duck (23:28)

Mm-hmm.

Susan Larimer (23:29)

to benefit from? Um, and a lot of those big incentives, you know, you might make money too, but if you have thousands of dollars of stash, you need to think about how to offload that and get income. That’s cash and carry. That’s money right in your pocket versus just getting a commission on those new products that you’re selling. So really take a look at.

Is this benefiting me or is this gonna benefit more the company as a whole? Uh I don’t know if I should say

Lisa Duck (23:59)

Mm-hmm.

Susan Larimer (24:00)

that or not, but that’s just how I feel. Yeah. Yeah.

Lisa Duck (24:02)

Business, it’s truly business, right? Okay,

I’m just gonna put like a stop here for now. So stop and listen to this. Because Susan’s like, what are you doing, Lisa? No, we’re not really stopping.

Susan Larimer (24:12)

I’m like, wait, are we really stopping? Okay. eh

Lisa Duck (24:20)

But you need, as the listener, you need to stop and listen to this. You need to make sure that it’s easy, ridiculously

Susan Larimer (24:29)

Mm.

Lisa Duck (24:30)

easy for people.

To shop with you. You might think it’s easy. You might be

Susan Larimer (24:36)

Yeah.

Lisa Duck (24:36)

like, you just go to my website and then you just place an order. Do they know where to find your website? I don’t know how

Susan Larimer (24:43)

Right.

Lisa Duck (24:44)

many direct sellers I have been on their social and I’m looking for their websites because I’m inside My High Building their pages and they

Susan Larimer (24:53)

Mm-hmm.

Lisa Duck (24:54)

don’t have their websites. If I can’t find your website,

I can guarantee a customer is not finding your website. Another

Susan Larimer (25:03)

Right.

Lisa Duck (25:04)

thing that I’ve had frequently or recently, not frequently, but recently, is you don’t know your links. Make sure you know

Susan Larimer (25:12)

Mm.

Lisa Duck (25:12)

what your links are. I don’t know how many times people send me links that aren’t even going anywhere. They’re giving me a 404 page. Are you sharing those links with your customers? Do you want

Susan Larimer (25:21)

Mm.

Lisa Duck (25:21)

sales, right? So what I want you to do is I want you to try and put on the lens of a customer.

And if you can’t do this, I want you to get somebody who is close to you, whether it’s a friend or I would send my husband because he is not techie at all. And

Susan Larimer (25:40)

Yeah.

Lisa Duck (25:40)

I I would send him to a page and I would say, okay, can you go and find the shopping link here? And can you go and start to place an order? Right? If he can’t do it, then there’s something wrong. I need to look at that and

and make it even easier than I think. Um I recently had uh a situation where I was trying to place a an order through someone’s website. There is no way I could get that order to go in. Their website

Susan Larimer (26:12)

Mm.

Lisa Duck (26:14)

just was not friendly to me at all. And it wasn’t

Susan Larimer (26:18)

Yeah.

Lisa Duck (26:18)

just me, it was someone else trying to place the exact same order, right?

Just think about that. Like, have you tried to place an order as a customer? Think about a new email address and pretend that you’re a customer placing an order online. Don’t worry that you’re gonna get your commission at the end of the month or whatever it is. Like, just go and do that. Purchase from the customer’s perspective and make sure that it’s easy. And if it’s not easy, figure out how you can make it easier, right? If you

Susan Larimer (26:50)

Yeah.

Lisa Duck (26:51)

have a business that’s very very hard.

Um, to navigate their website, you might want to, even though I hate to say this, but you might want to offer your customers shop directly with you.

Susan Larimer (27:01)

Hmm.

Lisa Duck (27:02)

Right?

Susan Larimer (27:03)

Yeah. I was looking at my phone because I got a a text message. This is a good reminder too. I got a text message and it was like this amazing deal that I can take advantage advantage of. I had no idea the company, the person. I have no idea who it’s from.

Lisa Duck (27:22)

Yeah.

Susan Larimer (27:22)

It looks like an amazing deal, but I don’t know who it’s from. So when you’re sending out like project broadcast text messages, don’t assume

Everyone knows the number it’s coming from. Every

Lisa Duck (27:34)

Mm-hmm.

Susan Larimer (27:35)

single one of your text messages, emails, everything should always have like either your your company or your name so that people know who it’s coming from. And I I’ve like I looked and looked. I don’t know if it’s someone I know that I don’t have their contact in there. I don’t know if it’s a local company. I could not figure it out. It looked like an amazing deal, but there was no link to click on.

There was no name, no company, nothing. So over like just like Lisa said, pretend the customer has never shopped with Meet You, never met you, make it super easy and obvious who they’re shopping with, what they’re getting, how they’re gonna get it, return policy, all of

Lisa Duck (28:19)

Mm-hmm.

Susan Larimer (28:19)

that is so important.

Lisa Duck (28:21)

To me, every email that or every text message, not necessarily every email, but every text message you send out should be like, Hey Susan, it’s me, Lisa from Epicure. Like,

Susan Larimer (28:30)

Yeah. Yeah.

Lisa Duck (28:32)

I don’t care if it’s repetitive. We can’t

Susan Larimer (28:34)

Yeah.

Lisa Duck (28:35)

assume that people keep that email thread. There are many people who delete their messages because it just holds space on their phone and they don’t need it, right?

Susan Larimer (28:43)

Mm-hmm.

Lisa Duck (28:44)

So we definitely need to to do that. But I

Susan Larimer (28:47)

Yeah.

Lisa Duck (28:48)

I really think, and the reason why I said stop is because I’ve seen too many direct sellers, they don’t have their social profile set up properly.

Susan Larimer (28:56)

Yeah.

Lisa Duck (28:56)

Like you need to have a link. And please, please, please, whatever you do, do not have the link to your company’s web page on

Susan Larimer (29:04)

Mm.

Lisa Duck (29:05)

your website linked somewhere for somebody to click on it and go, I don’t care if you’re a proud consultant of whatever company.

Don’t link back to that company’s website there because people are going to say, she’s an Epicure consultant. There’s her link. I’m going to go there. What happens is it might be somebody who doesn’t know you well or personal enough to say, I know I need to contact Lisa or Susan to order. They might get on that page, see something, and then make a comment and say, this is awesome. How do I order that?

And then you have some other, I call them vulture consultants who are just waiting in the comments to swoop

Susan Larimer (29:42)

Spoopin

Lisa Duck (29:44)

in and take the sale from you. And they’re not gonna ask, Do you already have a c uh consultant servicing

Susan Larimer (29:49)

Right.

Lisa Duck (29:50)

you? They’re just gonna say, I can order that for you. Because

Susan Larimer (29:52)

Yeah.

Lisa Duck (29:53)

to them, the dollar is bigger than the, you know, the com the commitment or that relationship that you’re building with

Susan Larimer (29:59)

Mm-hmm.

Lisa Duck (30:00)

your customer. And your customer did nothing wrong. They didn’t know. But

Susan Larimer (30:04)

Right.

Lisa Duck (30:04)

if you limit that.

Like have it go to your own business page or have it linked to your website or just say consultant at Epicure. Don’t hyperlink it. Don’t link it to the company

Susan Larimer (30:16)

Yeah.

Lisa Duck (30:17)

page, right? It’s it’s as simple as that. But I see that too many times too, is that the only link is back to the company page where they’re gonna see a link that goes somewhere that’s not yours.

Susan Larimer (30:30)

Yeah.

And while we’re talking about links, always check your links. And I say this because

Lisa Duck (30:34)

Mm-hmm.

Susan Larimer (30:36)

I just had Becky just reached out to me and she’s like, Your one link on your website doesn’t work. Oh my gosh

Lisa Duck (30:41)

yes, we we

were actually doing that on a call yesterday and then she’s like, we gotta tell Susan this.

Susan Larimer (30:46)

It was one of those like beta

things and I never published the page, so I quickly published it. So, you know, shame on me. I thought I checked all of my links. But like

Lisa Duck (30:55)

Yeah.

Susan Larimer (30:55)

if you’re sending out an email or a text message, I always send it to myself first. Send it as a test email. I check

Lisa Duck (31:02)

Mm.

Susan Larimer (31:03)

every link. Even if I checked it like last week when I sent it out, I check every single link to make sure it goes where I want it to go. Or else you could send it out this amazing special like this.

person did this company. Why isn’t anyone purchasing? That’s such a great deal. Well guess what? Your link doesn’t work. Or you didn’t put a name on your your text message. So nobody knows who it is.

Lisa Duck (31:29)

Yeah. Well,

it’s your it’s funny you said that because I got one of those messages earlier today and it was just like um let’s find out which one is right for you with a link. I’m like, I’m not clicking that link. I’m sorry, I don’t care who you are, I’m not clicking that link. So yeah, be be

Susan Larimer (31:41)

Yeah. There’s a lot of spammers out there too. Right. Yeah.

Lisa Duck (31:48)

mindful of what you send. Not everybody

Susan Larimer (31:51)

Yeah.

Lisa Duck (31:52)

um trusts what lands in their inbox or in their text app.

Just be mindful. Be be super mindful, right?

Susan Larimer (31:58)

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Lisa Duck (32:01)

And I mean, you might be sitting there thinking, it’s like, guys, why are you talking about Christmas already? Like, why? Why are you talking? And the real reason is you need to start planning out your Christmas and know what you’re doing

Susan Larimer (32:15)

Mm.

Lisa Duck (32:15)

before you get sick of Christmas. Because I

Susan Larimer (32:18)

Right.

Lisa Duck (32:19)

I’m sit I’m usually sick of Christmas around like the 26th or the 27th of December. But there are people, yeah.

Susan Larimer (32:25)

Well, that’s pretty good. You lasted a long time.

Lisa Duck (32:27)

There there

are people who who tend to get sick a lot faster as soon as

Susan Larimer (32:31)

Yeah.

Lisa Duck (32:32)

the Christmas music. I love Christmas. I can listen to Christmas music all the year long. It’s funny. I I don’t know if you see, but I have my like holiday Christmas mug. I just noticed that. I’m like, oh I I’m

Susan Larimer (32:42)

Too soon, too soon.

Lisa Duck (32:43)

I’m festive already. But yeah, so plan now. Like think like a retailer. Like Susan said earlier.

Susan Larimer (32:49)

Mm-hmm.

Lisa Duck (32:50)

Like as soon as you see that coming out, you need to think like a retailer and and work your business in that way so that you

You don’t get stuck, right? Yeah.

Susan Larimer (32:59)

Yeah, yeah.

Lisa Duck (33:01)

And then did you want to um chat a little bit about like just a quick little holiday audit

like think about what did your company do last year? Like when I think about Epicure.

We had Santa Packs. They were amazing. I don’t know why they didn’t offer them every year. Because I get I think

Susan Larimer (33:18)

Mm.

Lisa Duck (33:19)

because what they were putting in them started getting crappier and crappier and people stopped buying. But the first year they came out, they were amazing. They sold out like three times. They brought more back and it’s like they just kept selling out. So think about what they did last year. Chances are there might be something similar to that this year. So be um be willing to work around something like that, right?

Susan Larimer (33:42)

Yeah.

Lisa Duck (33:42)

What’s something else they can do?

Susan Larimer (33:42)

Yeah. And then also

think about who you want to collaborate with. This is a great time of year to come together with multiple consultants from non competitive companies. And we’ve created like gift guides before where it’s like a one

Lisa Duck (33:57)

Mm-hmm.

Susan Larimer (33:58)

stop shop. Or we did the Holiday Express where everyone visits everyone’s sites and does a little shopping and um has to find like a scavenger hunt, find the gnome

Lisa Duck (34:07)

Mm-hmm.

Susan Larimer (34:08)

and the creepy

conductor that we had on our train.

Lisa Duck (34:11)

The cre the cre the creepy

conductor is still for sale on Lisa Duck.com. Like I love that creepy conductor. So it’s like the Holiday Express still lives on in my my world. Everybody’s gonna go run and see. You can

Susan Larimer (34:22)

Ugh, so creepy.

Lisa Duck (34:27)

go find it on the digital downloads page and laugh because Susan told me that guy was creepy, but I thought he

Susan Larimer (34:30)

Uh Yeah.

Lisa Duck (34:32)

was kind of cute. So and then like

Susan Larimer (34:37)

my goodness.

Lisa Duck (34:38)

Again, we we have to think back of what did not only did the company do, but what did we do last year? Can you reuse some post? You don’t need to recreate people don’t remember what you posted last week, let alone last year. So this

Susan Larimer (34:49)

No. Right.

Lisa Duck (34:51)

is where um using a service like Sin Share or an app like Sin Share comes into play because you can easily go and just reschedule old posts from the holiday last year. Like maybe you had a post about what’s your favorite um

holiday song or something and it was a great graphic

Susan Larimer (35:08)

Mm-hmm.

Lisa Duck (35:10)

and a great caption. Reuse it. It’s gonna get a ton

Susan Larimer (35:13)

Yeah.

Lisa Duck (35:13)

of engagement. Why do you have to recreate the wheel? Don’t recreate the wheel. Exactly, exactly. Pecan, pecan.

Susan Larimer (35:16)

White lights or colored lights? Yeah. Pumpkin pie or pecan pie. And then also

look at your own personal situation. Where are you financially? Are you feeling super generous that you want to give away big discounts? Or are you like, okay, I am only relying on the company discounts and specials? So just make it clear. Set boundaries for yourself.

now so that you don’t get caught up in the I have to offer discount, discount, discount, special. I’m gonna give this away. I’m gonna add this. Don’t do that. Don’t get caught up in it.

Lisa Duck (35:55)

Yeah. So we hope that this episode sort of helped you prepare for that holiday rush. You know, it wasn’t

Susan Larimer (36:01)

Get a plan.

Lisa Duck (36:02)

really, yeah, it wasn’t really something that was okay, do this, do this, do this. It’s just some some things to think about because you don’t want to get stuck November first, November 15th, whenever it is, and say,

It’s only like how many, like six more Mondays until Christmas. You know when that countdown starts? And I’m like, ooh, it’s like

Susan Larimer (36:20)

Yeah, it’s coming.

Lisa Duck (36:22)

yeah. I used to cringe every time I seen that because then it was like the okay, I need to make this, this, this, and this in order to pay for my Christmas in cash, right? So it’s like those used to stress me out. So that’s why I liked to prepare beforehand. But

yeah, I hope you you found um the information that we’ve given you useful.

Guys, we we did try to do a a short episode for you because I know we’ve been bringing long ones, but here we are, yapping again. Yappin, we love yapping, and we’re we’re so thankful that you decide to stick around and join us every week. And um we’ll see you next week on another episode of the other ninety-nine percent. Take care, everyone. Bye.

Lisa Duck (37:02)

That’s a wrap for today’s episode of the other ninety-nine percent. If you enjoyed today’s conversation, be sure to like, share with a friend, leave a review, and subscribe so you never miss a new episode. We drop fresh content every Tuesday.