Episode 14 Transcript

Hey everyone, it is me Lisa and welcome back to another episode of The Other 99%. And I have today with me my friend Tricia all the way from BC, Canada. And Tricia and I met even though we’ve been in the same company. She’s been in, I’ll let her tell you how long, but I’ve been in the business for over 13 years. And surprisingly, we just met and started connecting. Probably, what maybe? Less than four years ago. So I’m gonna jump in and I’m gonna introduce Tricia or let Tricia introduce herself and tell us, you know, who you are and what you do for fun and all that jazz. So Trisha, you have the floor.

Well, thank you, Lisa. Yes, I have been with Epicure. This is my 19th year, if you can believe that. And I was thinking about it too, for the direct sales. I think I’ve always had an entrepreneur spirit in me. I did, I made chocolates, I sold rubber stamps, I used even the Avon lady at one point, long time ago. But anyway, so Epicure caught my attention and my heart and well, my stomach. And I just love it. 18 years solid and 19 years in August. So that’s when I, that’s when I started and jumped in. Now I did jump in because I thought I would like a discount on my products. And I never, ever, ever thought that 19 years later, I’d still be doing it and still really enjoying it. Um, as soon as I started taking it a little bit more seriously than just being my own best customer, then I had a lot of fun with it. So before Epicure, was there any other, like you said, you had an entrepreneurial mindset. But did you ever look at any other direct sales or was it only Epicure other than, I guess, Avon, right?

Yeah, actually I did a little short stint with Discovery Toys too for… Okay. It was short. And it just, they weren’t what was lighting my fire. Yeah, I’m a big believer that you find your passion in the product and that’s what drives your business and like you said, you know, Epicure hit you right in the, in the tummy. So, it’s buzz. Maybe they taste buds. Yeah. Maybe, maybe that would be better.

Awesome. So I know that you, you have a very successful and very busy business when it comes to Epicure. And you also do work full time. So you’re not just devoted to Epicure a hundred percent, but can you give the listeners a little sneak peek behind the scenes. Like how does Tricia run her Epicure business? Oh, because I have been in the business for such a long time, I have a really good customer base and quite an extensive customer base. We’re talking about it with some of my team members the other day and they were saying it. Yeah, no, I was somewhere in some sense. Oh no, I only buy Epicure from that lady who lives by Mayfair Wall. That would have been me. And so, so I have that. I do work full time in the school district and I have a large dog that needs exercise every day. And I have a busy house with international students. So I take pictures of everything that I cook. I post it. I share what I’ve done when one of the things that I really enjoy doing and has worked quite well for me is doing vendor events and trade shows. And that’s where I, of course, met so many people, but just sharing, this is where my passion truly shines because when people are in front of me and they’re looking at stuff and I can give them ideas about all sorts of different things. I’m pretty good at juggling. So I can be telling one person how much the cost of that product is and telling this person here that you can put that everything bagel on absolutely everything and life will be never the same. And the bacon is going to rock your world. So I can do those things. And I also find, I do live in Victoria which is where Epicure started. So a lot of people here know about Epicure, but they don’t always know everything. They don’t know that it’s 100% gluten free. And then I get some people who are there and they’re telling strangers at my table as well, you know, how to use the different stuff. So I just offer them to stand behind my booth and I’ll just, but that’s kind of it. And it’s, that’s where my passion and I believe my authenticity shines through people will say, what’s your favourite product? And that’s a difficult, that’s a difficult question. There’s so many, it depends on what I’m doing. And what’s your least favourite? Well, I don’t know, you know, there’s, I don’t like really hot spice. So I guess I would say those, those, the spicy stuff. And, and I’m not a sauce person, which is pretty funny because I say I’m not spicy and I’m not saucy. I find that hard to believe. No, I’m just joking. I don’t get it. I have to agree with you because I know a lot of people will say like, you know, oh, what’s your opinion on this product or like, do you like this? And it’s, it’s really such a hard question for us to answer because what, what I like and what you like are totally different. So I can never tell you whether or not you’re going to love a product. I could give you my opinion, but again, that’s like, just like based on my taste buds. And so forth, unless I really know what you eat on a daily basis, it’s hard for us to say, like, you know, are you gonna love that? Are you gonna hate it?

But I know like, just this is a little sneak peek and this episode will be out way past the time when the new season launches, but I know you can agree with me because you got to sample them too in your leader kit, but the new seasonings are absolutely to die for. Yeah. Yeah. Before I have international students, and so they are my guinea pigs. And I have a student from Thailand now, and one of the products is a Thai recipe, and he loves it. I also have a student from Japan who loves all things Asian, and the sticky orange chicken, he just, you know, yeah, I couldn’t give him enough of it. I had an Italian student when we got some of the Italian seasonings come out, and I said, is this what you, like I grill them, it’s really awful, but is this what you would taste at home? Is this, you know, does this taste Italian to you? And he goes, yes, it does. That’s okay. And hopefully he’s not lying. They’re not lying to me, but yes. Well, I think if they eat it with a smile and then go back for seconds, that’s a sure giveaway whether or not they like it, right? Well, and most of them are so polite. So if it’s something that they don’t like, they won’t tell me that, but they’ll say, it’s so so. Yeah. Or would you like seconds? No, thank you. And then it’s like, yeah, okay, I got it.

Yeah. All right. So you told us that you were you’ve been in business with Epicure for 19 years. So you probably have a lot of things that you’re proud of throughout your career. So can you just give us a couple because I’m sure there’s more than one. Well, I am proud that I’m a leader that happened very quickly and quite a long time ago. And because I truly love my day job my in the school, it’s never been an ambition of mine to get to the top of the Epicure ladder. And I’ve just been able to enjoy it and not feeling that I should be doing more. I did recently, uh, one of my long-term team members, she became a leader too. So I became a senior leader and so that was pretty exciting. And I was so, so happy for her and so proud. It was something really wanted. And so that was a proud moment. Um, I have earned a couple of trips with Epicure and very proud of them. Well, of course, the trip was amazing. But the achievement that that I did, and I can remember very clearly thinking to myself, only the people in the catalog go on those trips. That’s not that’s not be that person. And next thing you know, I was in the catalog in the centerfold, no less. And I was earning a trip and I thought, well, look at that. And so that I think is kind of pivotal moment for me because I felt okay so here’s me from a little old Victoria just you know putz along in my business and sending out emails and posting in Facebook there probably wasn’t a Facebook thing at that point and you know just kind of doing my thing with everything else I did and yet I earned it I earned a trip and I got in the catalog like I just I thought that that was something yeah I think being Like out of all of those things, even, you know, earning the trips are amazing, but being being chosen to be in the catalog is like one of those like, wow, I’m really seen. Right. You felt like you were seen at that point. So yeah, yeah. And, and recognized. Yeah. Um, I’m not, it doesn’t matter to me a whole lot for yay. You did, you know, you qualified this month and you did this like stuff that’s

Like to me, it’s my job. Like that’s my job is to qualify. That’s what I got to do. So I don’t feel for myself that that kind of recognition is necessary. But, um, but being in the catalog, that was more than my job. Yeah, for sure. And the centre fold nonetheless, though. And it was way better than when the catalog lasted the whole year. So like I was a centerfold girl for a whole year. I’m like, I’m trying to think back. I’m like, Do you know when that was? It was like, I can’t remember. But then at that point, I probably didn’t even know who you were, so I wouldn’t even have recognized. It was probably when the catalogs were the bigger like book format, right? Yes, yeah, yeah, for sure. It was, it seems to me it was a Mexican themed, but. I don’t even remember the catalogs lasting a whole year, but then my memory is not that great. So it could have been like yesterday and I don’t remember.

So. Yeah, so that was. Those were some of the highlights. Of course, I’m pretty happy that with the income that I’ve earned, it’s not over the top, but it’s enough to buy me the things that I want to buy, like the toys. I’m a little bit Apple crazy, so I have the watch on the iPad and the Mac computer. Everything’s all in line. Hopefully, there’s no Apple ring coming because I don’t know what I do with that I want. And it’s not, there’s no new houses or pools in my backyard coming up anytime soon. But I don’t really want that. So I feel that my business is giving me what I want. Yeah, that’s great. So tell us, are you a goal person? Do you set goals? No, no, I try. I try. I am a by the seat of my pants kind of girl a lot of times. I’m also like one of my superpowers, I believe, is my sense of humor. And I do truly try to read the room before I let loose. But sometimes I fail on that. And, but yeah, you know, that that I think is kind of the authenticity to and that that, you know, you don’t have to be perfect to do this job, you can have fun with it. And in all of those things, but, but yeah, goals, like I do try to set goals and I get distracted really easily, so I don’t follow through on that. Yeah, I totally get it. I mean, I don’t think we, I think a lot of us get frustrated when we’re talking about goals because it’s so like, I am definitely not a pen and paper kind of goal person. But I bet you deep down inside, you do have a direction that you want your business to go by the end of 2024. Yes. And I, you know, maybe that’s what it is, is I don’t really think of that as a goal. But generally, my goal is to earn the incentive trip. And this year, I’m not really excited about it because it’s a long time. That’s in your backyard, right? And it is a wonderful place and I absolutely love it. But yeah, it’s just not a warm, sunny, sandy beach. So that’s oftentimes as a goal, but it’s pretty loose in my mind. But for my business itself, I want to grow my team. And I guess that was my goal. I want to grow my team, but I also want to grow my team community. So I feel like we’re all scattered dust in the wind kind of thing. And I want to bring us into a more cohesive group. I’ve got people, um, not all over Canada, but all over BC. And so in-person meeting is never going to happen for everybody. But just having a more cohesive community in my team is a goal for me this year. See, I knew we could pull one out of you. I knew it. There you go.

All right, so one question that I always ask everybody is, is there a quote or saying that you’ve heard over your years? And I mean, you have many to reflect on that you think that would be beneficial for everyone to hear. Well, one that I has been ringing in my ears the last little while is if it’s to be, it’s up to me. I work hard on having a positive mindset and I know things change, COVID happened, and things change and things change in the business and even business changes. I mean, I’m a little bit closer to retirement than…fresh started my jobs. But I do feel that that we need to be looking at the younger generation and being flexible with that. And so that’s, that’s the thing if it’s to be is up to me. And that’s for me and for my business. And that’s not necessarily for me qualifying as a leader or qualifying as a senior leader or any of those things. It’s just if something is going to happen in my business. It’s because I have made it so. Yeah, I love that. There’s always these quotes that always stick out. And when you sit there and listen to why they’re sticking with someone, it’s really amazing, you know, why that quote really sticks with you. So thank you for sharing that. Oh, you’re welcome.

So tell us, where can we find you on social or the World Wide Web? Like, how can we find you? Well, I have a I’m on Facebook, of course, and I’m looking, I’m going to see if my friend Lisa can help me with this. Or for another kind of a landing page community area, other than Facebook, because Facebook’s changing too. And I you know, I guess it’s I mean, Facebook is just a free thing that we all get to play with. But just I have a Facebook community of for my customers. I also have my Epicure webpage, which is my name, Tricia Sturgeon I’m on Instagram, a little bit less so. And that’s it. There we go. There’s another goal for me getting on. And that is at TriciaS_epic. And that’s kind of where where I’m at I’ve not got YouTube’s WorldJet. Yeah. Well, we’ll get you there too, but I’ll make sure I link all the links in the show notes so people can, can follow you and find you. But, uh, I appreciate Trisha, you taking the time out to talk to us today and sharing a little bit about you and how you run your business and, uh, we’ll catch everybody on the next episode. So thanks for joining us, Trisha. Oh, thank you, Lisa. Bye now. Bye.