Episode 42 Transcript

Hey everyone, it is me, Lisa. And welcome back to another episode of the other 99%. I am excited to be here today with a fellow, I guess, Academy member, you could call it Academy VIP member, Toni. And we have just met through, you know, doing Academy calls and stuff like that. But I just love some of the ideas that Toni has. So I invited her to be a guest on the podcast. So Tony, could you just introduce yourself to our listeners and tell you who you are, what you do and all that stuff.

Absolutely, thank you so much for having me. My name is Tony Dolinka. I grew up in New York, but live in Maryland with my family. I have two kids and a dog that looks like the puppy emoji. And I have been with Color Street for seven years as a teacher, found my way into program management at Hewlett Packard, I was there for a decade. And when my son was five and my daughter was three, I discovered direct sales and the ability to be my own boss and work from home and make my own schedule and loved every minute of the life we’ve created since discovering that. So I am currently a Silver Executive Director. And yeah, I’ve been with them for seven years. How were you introduced to Color Street? I was actually handed a sample at the mall, which is funny because normally if I, you know, I hate saying this because I give out a lot of samples, but usually if I get a sample at the mall, it winds up in the trash, but I was so intrigued by the idea of dry nail polish and a manicure that you could do at home that I actually tried the sample. And I immediately fell in love with the product. You know, $10, 10 minutes as a mom of two very young children I wasn’t taking time for myself to go to the salon but loved having my nails done. So I…decided to start selling when I knew that I was going to be buying a lot of it. And I just wanted 25% back. Um, I found my sponsor actually online. I went to the stuff. I was, I was going to ask, I’m like, did you actually get sponsored by the person who gave out the sample? I didn’t, which is, um, you know, I immediately ordered eight sets, which for me, now that I sell it, you send a thank you for every order yet. And I actually didn’t get a thank you email, which was fine. But I reached out and asked her some questions and she wasn’t super responsive. And I knew that if I was going to do this, I wanted someone who I could work with, who would be a good mentor and a good leader. I knew that I don’t really like being micromanaged. And so I didn’t want her to be telling me what to that I would want someone who would be responsible with an answer. So I wound up going on the stylist locator and found my sponsor who I love. She’s one of the most amazing people, but I told her I wasn’t gonna sell this. I said, I wasn’t gonna grow a team. I wasn’t gonna host parties that all I wanted was 25% back on my own purchases and to have a business card. So if someone complimented me on my nails, I could give them my card instead of somebody else’s. And it was actually about a year later, well, six months later, when I really saw the potential, it was at conference, and I saw the potential in the business and what it could mean for me and my family and decided to go all in. And it was a year after that that I replaced my full-time income.

So I just want to circle back because I think that is what, what just happened and what happened to you. What happens to many others out there is so important for the every, everyday direct seller to understand follow-up and customer care is key in this business because that person just missed out on so much potential if you would have, if you would have gone under them you possibly could have helped them go up the career path as well with your sponsoring and your team building and so forth. So, you know, it’s not enough just to hand out a sample. It’s not enough just to take an order. Like you have to have some sort of follow-up and customer care system in place that your customers will want to come back for more. So I mean, I hope you guys are just listening to Toni’s little, you know, what happened because I was curious when you said that you got a sample if you actually, you know, ended up spot or going under that person because it’s often what happens. Yeah. And I had ordered under her. So she had my contact information. It wasn’t like I, you know, I went on the Silas locator to place my first order. Yeah. But yeah, I tell my team that all the time. Send those thank you emails. Follow up. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. And a simple just, you know, thank you so much for your order. Let me know when it arrives. That is like, I mean, that’s worth so much to somebody just to realize that you, you know, you see an, I mean, eight, eight packs or eight, eight sets. That would have been a pretty decent size order too. It was like a $75 order. Yeah. That’s crazy.

All right. So I just want to know. How are you currently running your business? So most of my business is still online. Most of it is still on Facebook. My VIP group is still pretty active. But through Becky’s trainings and the Academy trainings that Lisa and I do together, I’m really leaning into email a lot. I have noticed a lot more random orders from customers. They’re not random orders, but customer orders that are placed more randomly because of the consistent connection. And, you know, Becky said, the only way to get to guarantee in front of your customers today is text and email. Whether they choose to open it is up to them, but with social media, they might not even see it. And so reminding myself to have a pretty consistent email, I email once a week on Wednesdays or on Fridays. And I’ve found a lot of success moving towards that recently. I do vendor events, especially during vendor season to get new customers and to make new connections. And with my product specifically, you know, those samples and putting them on somebody and being that reaction and getting that it, it reminds me of the joy of the first time I put it on and like, Oh, my goodness, that’s so so being able to connect with new people and introduce the product to new people. I do try to do to vendor events a month in October, November and December, and usually the same in April. Yeah, I definitely think it is a key to growing a successful business is either doing events, if you can, or in person events, or even if you can’t maybe having some sort of referral program because you need to get new customers in order to get your business going into the new year because those new customers are going to be what’s going to be your new growth for the following year, especially at this time of the season. I let’s face it, the companies are always going to put out deals and stuff like this. And our regular customers might be tapped out. They might have stocked up on everything because they got an amazing offer. So you know, January hits and a lot of people see their businesses in a slump. And I think it’s because they didn’t get enough new customers, new leads during the holiday season.

So that being said I know that you and I were working independently but working on something similar for the holiday season. Can you share with the listeners what you sort of have planned in the back of your head for holiday promotions and stuff like that? Yeah, so one of the things that I’m working on and thinking about, going back to the email, I’m focusing on taking things a little bit off Facebook and moving it to email. So working with five other direct sales consultants and calling it a holiday express, kind of like a play off the polar express and making different stops, which I did last year on Facebook. And we each went to each other’s VIP groups and had a day to post in our own VIP groups with the new customers. This year I’m thinking about taking it off Facebook and doing it all via email. So there would still be prizes, it would still be fun, there would still be games associated with it, but it would be an opt-in by providing your email and then the five or six consultants would share that email list to create their holiday express email sequence and so each person would get introduced with the, to the five stylists, they would get introduced to the company and what they have to share, any kind of holiday promotions coming up and things like that. and then for participating in the express, they would be entered to win a gift card with each of the five active consultants that participate. So that’s what I’m excited about. As I said, I think that I think that email growth is where I’m directing my attention. My goal for the season is to add at least 100 new emails to my email list. And so even if we just have five or 10 customers of ours participate, then we’re getting 25 to 50 emails to send the Holiday Express sequence out to. So I’m excited about that. I’m excited to meet some new people and to work with some consultants that I really do admire. I see how they run their business and the ideas that they have and the way they serve their customers. So excited to partner with them to do that. That’s what I’m working on right now is trying to put together the sequence and make that happen.

Yeah, and I love this because I’m doing something similar. So I have a group of ladies, we call ourselves the core four that we work together with. And we have brought in, I think it is five other direct sellers from all different companies. We make sure that we don’t have competing products, but we all work together. And this year, what we’re doing something similar is like you’re doing. We’re trying to take, we’re still going to have a social media component where we’re gonna be sharing links and stories and stuff like that, but not necessarily in our VIP groups, although we’ll share the links to what we’re doing in the VIP groups as well. But what I love about this is that this is putting us in front of so many other customers that are already in the direct sales mindset, let’s say. They’re used to…you know, purchasing through other direct sellers. And one thing that I love is that I make, or one thing that I do, I should say, is that I make sure, or we make sure that we pick other consultants that we know, like, and trust. And, you know, the reason for that is because we wanna know that we’re introducing our customer base to that same sort of…consultant that’s going to give them the same type of care that we do. So if you’re listening to this and you’re thinking that this is something that you could do, it is absolutely something that you could do. And I’m sure that Toni, you’ll agree it’s something that you think like most direct sellers out there should be linking arms with consultants from other companies. Don’t stay within your company.

Yeah, because you couldn’t do this with like, I couldn’t do this with five other Epicure ambassadors just does not make sense. Right. But I mean, with five other consultants from other companies, we’re now getting introduced to their warm market. And just think of the potential growth, not even just the sales that could come from this event, but the potential growth that you could see in the new year by being introduced to all those new people. And like you said adding to your email list and I’m sure that you’ll you’re going to have some sort of nurture sequence there ready for them when they say, yes, I want to learn about what you have to offer Tony and you’re like, absolutely, let me tell you. Right. I mean, I was approached the other day about email marketing. And this person mentioned that they heard that email no, no, I can never see email marketing dying. But it depends on what you expect from it. Typically, when we send out emails, and I’m sure you’ll agree, you don’t get many responses. Right. You know, but you do see the sales trickling in. Whereas if you’re looking at text marketing, people are more opt to converse with you in the text, right? The back and forth, back and forth and I think too many people are measuring that reply to message as success in email marketing. So, I mean, should people be focusing on email marketing? I think so. What are your thoughts about like email marketing? I know that we just started the Oh My High system and I know that you’re going crazy with it. Absolutely. I made my first sequence ever, which I hadn’t even thought about doing. I did mine around vendor events. And so when I meet someone at a vendor event, they not only go into my email, you know, my normal email marketing, they get entered into a specific sequence. It’s seven emails in a month. It’s just a, you know, thank you for for taking the time to talk with me. The second one is a reminder about how to apply with an application video, some tips and tricks. There’s one that literally just says, checking in, do you need anything? Is there anything I can do? And introducing myself and what I am so that if they’re at their warmest right after they meet you and right after their first purchase that they’re feeling loved and appreciated and reached out to and connected with. They’re more likely to stay and shop again and because they know a little bit more about who you are. You aren’t just some random person that they met at a vendor event. You’re somebody that’s trying to work on a connection with them. Which again, I had never thought to do before. And I did email, you know, when launches would happen and things like that, but taking it much more into a way to connect with people that maybe aren’t online, that maybe you’re missing by just being present on Facebook. Especially during certain times of the year, you know, I know you’re in Canada, election season, people not being on Facebook as much. It’s just being something that is causing stress instead of joy. And so being able to connect with people in a different way offline, I think is extremely important right now and different people have their niches. Some people are really big on TikTok, some people are really big on Instagram, some people are really big on Facebook, but all of those things will have viewers that aren’t getting you in their feed or you’re missing somebody who’s not on that platform and by continuing to grow your email base, you’re getting all those people platforms or not.

Yeah. And I just think of email, like as I glance over at my email and see over 20,000 unopened emails, that doesn’t mean that I’m not actually looking at my inbox on a daily basis. And I’m just very selective of the emails that I want to open. Now, what I’ll say is that if I am looking for a specific product at a certain time, I will actually search my email and look, say, for color street and look for the last email that my color street rep has sent me. Same with Old Navy. Same with, you know, jockey, the clothing. Like, if I want to buy something, I go and search my email. So my email almost becomes like a, you know, a treasure trove because I’m looking for any sales or deals that are recent and stuff like that. It doesn’t mean because I haven’t opened it right when it was sent that I’m not interested. So think about it that way because you know, email marketing, you can get into a lot of people’s inboxes and it’s not intrusive. Whereas I think more text marketing is more like, you know, that personal touch, where you don’t want to just be texting out a bunch of people without their permission. Because I don’t know, up in Canada, text marketing is a little bit still a little bit taboo because most people will be inclined to give you their email address over their phone number. So if you get their phone number, I’m 100% that person. Yep. I’m like, don’t ask me. Uh-uh, no. That’s for my mom. And if you get their phone number, you have to treasure that, right? So you have to be very selective of what you send them. But with email marketing, you could just send them whatever you have. And if they want to open it, they open it. If they don’t, they don’t, it doesn’t mean that they don’t want you. The only- It becomes their choice. Exactly. And of a platform’s choice. It becomes their choice. Exactly. And if they’ve, and a reminder, right? If you see something in your inbox from Color Street and you’ve been like, oh, I’ve been meaning to order from them, you’ll click on it. Or if you see a really good sale come across, you’ll be like, oh, you know what? I was gonna purchase at some point in the next month, now’s a great time for me to do that. So it’s that little like top on the shoulder, that little reminder that you’re here and make sure that you’re not forgotten in the hustle and bustle of life that it’s, you know, oh, I forgot, I did wanna place that order. Let me do that now while I’m thinking about it.

Yeah. And definitely, I think with email marketing, your subject line and your pre-header are very important on catching people’s attention. Nobody wants to be sold to So don’t sell in the subject line. Don’t say like, here are your Epicure specials. Yeah, no one’s clicking that. So yeah. All right, so I want a question for you. If there was one thing that you know you’re like everyday direct seller could do during the holiday season, what would your recommendation be to grow their business? That’s a good question. I’m personally, I’m working on a holiday gift guide. I don’t know that everybody would be able to do that. I think everybody could. I’m planning on sharing it with all of, with the entire color street field so that they can share it too. But, going beyond just asking for the sale and actually providing a service, giving them help with their Christmas shopping, that you’re more than just asking for somebody to buy something from you, you’re providing a service, I guess is really the best way to say that. So I put together a gift guide and it’s best gift for the busy mom, best gift for the trendy gal, best gift for the DIYer, best gifts for under $25, different things like that. Um, which is really funny because I was talking to my sister-in-law the other day and she pulled up a gift guide that she had gotten from somebody else. And she was like, this was so good and it was so helpful. And, you know, and so to be able to help during the holiday season, um, I think we’ll set you up for success moving forward because they don’t just look at you as somebody who’s, who’s trying to make a buck, but somebody who is making a connection and trying to serve their customers.

Yeah. And I think if somebody is not like, um, savvy on Canva where they feel like, I can’t make a gift guide. It’s as simple as doing a post on social media where you, you make an image that says gifts for mom and then put a bunch of pictures in it. It doesn’t have to be like, like very pretty, like it should be attractive, but I mean, it doesn’t have to be all fancy in Canva, but if you provide people with a service and you’re showing them other products than just what you sell, I think is the key, right? Because something that I was thinking of that people can do during the holiday season is just doing it, and this probably only works if you’re good at rapping. I’ll be honest, I’ll say that, but have an event where you’re doing a live event where you’re just showing people how to rap like oddly shaped items. Oh, I can use that service. You know? I like that one. Yeah. Like, can you imagine how many people would be watching you? And you know what? Here’s a little tip. Watch TikToks. Watch YouTube videos on how to wrap a ball or how to wrap a teddy bear. It’s so simple when you actually put that into place. But when you’re gathering all that information and putting it in one spot for people, it’s like…it’s so valuable to them because now that now they don’t have to take the time to go and search all that. But you know what? You be sure that you’re going to have at least three, four, maybe five different ways to wrap one of your products. You know, but you have to infuse your products in there, but just not like overwhelm it with your products. So, yeah, and you know, free packaged things is really great, especially if you have different price points. You know, if you could say, here’s the perfect gift for $25. Here’s the perfect gift for $35. Here’s the perfect gift for $50. You know, it takes the thought out. I mean, obviously it’s a thoughtful gift, but you know, it takes a little bit of the pressure off of them having to come up with the perfect gift you’re showing them for one reason, they can do it.

Yeah, for sure. All right, this is something that I ask every single one of my guests on the podcast. So do you have any quotes that you’ve heard or any words of advice that you’ve been given over your time in direct sales that you think everybody, every direct seller would benefit from hearing? I think personally, and it’s not a quote, but that really consistency in business is key. You know, a lot of people have said over the last seven years, oh, well, you know, you got really lucky that that person signed under you, or you got really lucky that you met that person at that vendor event and she hosted that party because that really grew your business in a crazy way and you got lucky. And, yeah, but I was doing all the work consistently to meet that person. I was signing up for the vendor events. I was following up with all of the people I met at vendor events. I was consistently showing love to my VIP group after I got them into there. And so, you can’t strike gold if you’re not digging for it and you really have to do all the work and consistently connect with your customers to to be successful in this business. I love it. Love it. So true. That’s what I say. I mean, even that, you know, consistency, it doesn’t have to be daily. You know, if your consistency looks like, okay, you touch your business twice a week. If you consistently do that, it will pay off, it just might take longer. But it’s gonna pay off. So I can sure you’re sending those weekly emails. Well, what would sending out one email a week for an entire year do for your business? But you also have to be growing that email list and doing the work to share the product consistently. So yeah, consistency in all aspects of your business is really very important.

Yeah, I love that. Well, thank you so much, Toni, for joining me on this episode. Can you just tell the listeners where they can find you? Oh, you can find me at withthedalinkas.com or search with the delinkas on Facebook or on Instagram. Awesome. Well, thank you again. Thank you. And I hope everybody enjoyed this episode of The Other 99% and we’ll see you again next week. Take care.