Episode 44 Transcript

Hey everyone, it is me Lisa and welcome back to another episode of the other 99%. I’m so excited to have my friend here, Amber. Amber and I have again met in the Academy. It sounds like it’s like the same story over and over every time I start these podcasts, but I just, you know, a big shout out to the Academy because it truly has opened my eyes to networking. So, and Amber and I are working pretty closely right now on some very cool holiday projects. So, Um, I just want to introduce Amber or let Amber introduce herself, I should say. So Amber, jump in and tell the listeners who you are, what you do and all that stuff.

First of all, you sound super duper professional. It’s kind of funny. You’re like super professional. Um, I’m Amber Gurleo, but nobody can say Gurleo. So it’s just Amber G. It’s much, much easier. Um, nor can they spell it. So it’s okay. Um, I’m. Lord, I don’t know. I’m in Ohio, which is in the middle of nowhere down by Cincinnati where nobody knows. I’ve been in direct sales since 2016. I’m married. I have teenagers. I have a 19 year old who almost 20 in February and a 16 year old who’ll be 17 in April. I’m married to my high school sweetheart. It’s cliche and dumb and geeky as that sounds. We’ve been together since our junior year of high school. So yeah. And I know you have a doggy. I do. He’s back there chewing. He’s new. He’s a new dog. I don’t know why in the world, but yeah, we have another dog and a cat. So, but I mean, we we’re busy. My husband is also in law enforcement. So, and he has been for 22 years now. We only a different lifestyle. It’s not, it’s not a normal lifestyle. He also has his own tree trimming removal landscaping business on the side.

Yes, I see you. I see you all covered in like tree stuff all the time on social and I’m like, Oh my god, I could not do that. Yeah. Well, that’s what he when he when we got together when he was 17, that’s what he started doing. He was in outdoor education and doing trees and stuff like that. But then He like, there’s just really crappy people who work in that type of business. So when he hit a certain point, he just left it and he went into the patrol. And then he needs something to do in retires because he doesn’t really want to work for a boss, you know, when he retired. So that’s we’re back in it again. And yep, I run a chainsaw. I run a chipper, um, a tractor. Yeah. I see you covered in like wood chips and I’m like, no, that would make me so itchy. I remember one post where you were saying that you had like the pine sap everywhere and I’m like, oh my God, that would, I, I can’t even get like maple syrup on my fingers because then I start gagging, but there’s a little design behind the scenes about Lisa.

All right. So tell us a little bit about your direct sales journey. So how long did you say you were in direct sales? I joined end of September of 2016. Cool. And I mean, since he has been your only direct sales company, So what brought you into the world of Scentsy? A friend of a friend posted a law enforcement warmer. I had never even heard of the company before ever. And they posted a law enforcement warmer and I purchased the warmer strictly as decoration because I was a candle chick and I was like, I didn’t know what Scentsy was. I just bought it to put it in our house because it was a law enforcement item. And the chick I bought it from, was like, you know, message me and chatting with me. And she was really kind. She sent me a mini warmer and bars because I was like, I don’t know anything about this company. Like I just bought this thing because it was what it was. And I went ahead and I placed an order because you know, I felt obligated, you know, cause she had sent me a warmer and bars. So I was like, crap, I gotta buy something. And I bought a mini warmer and bars. And I’ll be honest, I don’t know why I joined. I know that sounds really terrible, but I truly-But it’s honest. It’s honest. It is. It’s 100% honest. I have no idea. Like I blacked out kind of deal and I joined. And I remember thinking everybody and their grandma sells something like, I don’t know why I’m doing this. And I thought I was going to throw up like no joke, a true story. I was like, I’m going to throw it. And I spent like $50. Like it wasn’t even anything. And I thought I was going to throw up. And then I told my husband, I don’t know why, but the story is I took him into our pantry and I have absolutely no idea why the pantry, but I was like, babe, I gotta talk to you. And he was like, okay. And he was like, I was like, you gotta come in here. And he was like, why do I have to be? And I was like, I don’t know, you just have to come in here. And I told him and he was like, well, how much did you spend? And I said, I spent like $50. He’s like, you’ve blown $50 on a lot of other stupid things. And he was like, my only request is, don’t be like all of those other sellers because at the time a makeup company had just started and everybody in their grandma was doing those get ready with me posts. Everybody. They were everywhere all over Facebook and it was like it was a lot. It was a lot. And that was he said that’s my only request. He’s like just don’t be like everybody else. He’s like don’t be annoying. I was like okay. Yeah, I mean, it’s not an excite. I didn’t, I didn’t need money. I’m not saying that to brag. Right. It was, I literally blacked out and signed up. Yeah. But I mean, 2024, almost 2025 and you’re still here. I am. Yeah. So you obviously found your passion in the business once you jumped in. Right. I mean, yes. I wouldn’t, I never said that I was going to fail. I, um, planned on failing. I played on it, not working. Um, I never had any intention of it working, not even in the slightest, tiniest little bit. It was going to end. And at that time we had certain sales requirements for so many months, do you know what I mean? And I was for sure like that was it. That was going to be done. And here I am. Yep. I’m still here. I’ve earned every trip since I’ve started. I have earned every award since we’ve started.

Um, I have a team, which is weird. Um, yeah. Do you know what clicked? Like, can you think about back to something that, you know, was it that you started sharing the product and you realized that people actually liked it and you weren’t being salesy? Right. Stubborn is what it is. And I didn’t fail. I didn’t want to quit. I didn’t want to just quit. Yeah. So that’s what it was is I’m just, I’m stubborn and I haven’t. given up yet. I know this sounds really dumb, but that’s truly what it is. I don’t pay attention to numbers. Probably should but I don’t like I can’t because it’ll get too wrapped up in my head. And then I’ll think I’m failing. So you just don’t look at numbers and you don’t look at you don’t get wrapped up in those things and you just keep trucking no matter what. No matter your thing. Yeah, I’m just saying. Yeah. And People have asked me that before, like what clicked? I have no idea. I’m just stubborn and I haven’t quit yet.

Yeah. Well, I love the fact because I work closely with you through the Modern Direct Seller Academy with Oh My Hi, your website. And I always say, it’s like, you know, put something out there and Amber will have it done two minutes later because you just like, boom, boom, boom, go and take action and it’s done. So tell the listeners a little bit about what you’ve accomplished on your own website and sort of why you even feel like you need your own website because Scentsy provides you with a website, right? Yep. So dig a little bit into that. Past life, I was actually a licensed massage therapist and I had my own website. I knew the value of it. It paid for itself countless times, countless, countless, countless times. I created my own website. Um, I actually used Wix. That’s what I used when I did it before and created it from scratch way back in 2009. And I knew the value of matter of fact, I still literally today, I, I had to close my business in 2013 due to medical reasons today, I literally still get a phone call today asking to book a massage, I still to this day. So I knew the value of having my own site as a direct seller, it seems scary and stupid, honestly. It just seems kind of dumb because why would you? And it took me a little while on, I’ll be honest, the first thing was is Facebook is wonky and Facebook, that’s where the majority of us market our business and Facebook will start blocking your link. You can’t use them because it’s always the same thing over and over and over and over. And then it’s not just you sharing it, you and 3000 other other people are sharing it. So, to get around and it’s always something long. Do you know what I mean? It’s never something little, it’s always long, hard to remember. And that was the first reason I did it was because I was like, okay, I need something that’s smaller. Sure, I could use to shorten link or something like that. But even those are weird looking sometimes. So that was the original reason was I knew I needed something, but I also know, I know a little too much that to get searchable, Like in Google and to broaden that range of audience, your site has to communicate with other sites. You have no control over that when it’s your company’s site. There’s no way for you to make your site communicate with other sites, work with other people, things like that. And I know the value of that. And the only way to do that is to create your own site and link it to your site because then you’re communicating between two sites, linking it to Pinterest and Instagram and linking it to all of these different other reputable locations make you look better when it comes to a Google search. And we all know that we need to get our business off of Facebook and have some longevity. Um, and that’s what I needed. That’s what I wanted. So that was why I started my OhMyHi site.

Yeah. And I love it because you’re now you’re doing your, um, blog posts and you’re sharing like customer newsletters or like monthly specials, let’s say through your blog posts, which is awesome because you know, you have a group of people and like you said, an easy, um, an easy to remember and an easy to direct them to URL that you just send out. And it’s like, Hey, that’s, that’s Amber’s URL. Like I know that’s Amber’s website. Here I go. And it’s a trust, a trustworthy website, right? So it’s not like you said, it’s not like one of these bitly shortened URLs that it’s like, oh, okay, well this is weird. What do should I push it or? Right. It is handy to use. I mean, but they do look funny. They do look weird. Yeah, yeah, for sure. All right. So, I mean, by the time this episode airs, our little project that we’ve been working on will be out of the bag.

So let’s talk a little bit about that. What to share with the listeners, what we have coming, because I’ll put a link in the show notes to our handy dandy gift guide. Well, you guys invited me to participate with y’all to make a really cool gift guide, kind of like to stop one stop shopping and it’s food and it’s sensei and it’s…jewelry and bags and nails and small products and cooking. It’s everything that you could almost possibly need for a lot of people, not everybody, but a lot of people on your shopping list. And it’s all in one place, which is super handy. And then the fun part, and it’s kind of tricky, is the gnomes. Oh my god. Gosh, like I sat for a good minute looking, you hit them really good. There’s like fun little gnomes hidden in there. When you click the gnomes, there’s giveaways and- Yeah, and just remember though, the giveaways are only available from November the 18th to the 21st of 2024. So if you’re listening to this episode after that fact that you’re still welcome to click the links in the guide and-you know, see what everybody has to offer, but the giveaways are only during that time. And I’ll put that- And still try to find the gnomes. Yeah, but I’ll put that little caveat that, you know, like our intention is not to solicit customers of already existing ambassadors or consultants from the other sites. We’re using this to basically branch out. So basically my customer base is being introduced to your product, your customer base is being introduced to my product and we have a total of nine of us working together. So, I mean, I don’t know how many people are on, I have like probably over a thousand people on my list and you have quite a few and I’m sure Susan and Hillary and Sammy. And it’s like, so I can’t even, we should get a total. We should honestly get a total of people that- How many people went out to?

Yeah, that it went out to because-it would be kind of interesting to know, you know, with one click of a button. So this is where we can go onto a tangent about email marketing, because what we decided to do with this gift guide is sort of take our, we always do some sort of holiday event, but it’s typically on Facebook. So we decided to take this event off of Facebook. And that’s where the email and the gift guide came into things. So yeah, on another episode in the future, I should really break those numbers down and let people know like, you know, okay, with one click of the button, it went out to X number of people. And this is the results we’ve seen because I keep hearing people say that email marketing is dead. And I just go, I just hear all the time. Like I try to tell my team that and they’re like, why would I email somebody? I’m like, cause it’s like, just do it. Just do it. It’s like, yeah, okay. Email might not be cool, but it’s effective. So just. you know, and we also put a different spin on it because there is a social media campaign with it. There is, we’re doing blogs with it, like we’re hitting all of the things and it should be interesting the results that we’re going to see from this and not to mention, and I mean, I’m not saying this because I created it, but the gift guide is absolutely beautiful. It’s stunning. It’s very, very professional. You guys did a great job on your pages and it just all came together and yeah, it just worked out so well. And when I finally get it done into the flip guide, I’m like, wow, this looks like it went through and was done by professionals. It does. It’s very, very pretty. I mean, because sometimes when you make things in Canva, they look like a kindergarten or art project and you don’t mean for it. It just does because it’s hard sometimes. It looked great, even though there was two different designs for the two pages, it still flowed very well together. Despite some of us using one set and some of us using another set, it still looked like it went very, very well together. Yeah. It was beautiful. Yeah. I think the key was keeping the colour theme all the same, right? That was the biggest thing. I’m excited for that and make sure you check in the description of this podcast or the show notes, whatever you want to call it. The link will be there. We’re super excited to share it.

So now- I mean, it’s when it text, it’ll be text, it’ll be email, it’ll be social media, it’ll be stories, it’ll be reels, Instagram, blog posts. It’ll go in my newsletter that I do every week. So yeah, I mean, it’s-just from me alone, like it’s going to go to all of those places. And that’s just, that’s just, that’s just for me, let alone everybody, all the other eight people who were doing it, you know? Yeah. Yeah. This, this is crazy. And I mean, it did considering the fact that, you know, there was a lot of components. I mean, there was a ton of components, but next year, I can, I can see us continuing something like this next year because it just flowed so seamlessly. Yeah, it like all came together. I mean, we could use the same change some colours. You know what I mean? Change some colours, but I mean, overall it could be very, the bones of it is set up. Yeah, yeah, for sure. So anyway, if anybody wants to take a look at it, go check it out because it is just awesome. And there’s so many gift ideas to take a look at, but yeah.

So I wanna ask you one thing about your business. What do you think you’re like your superpower? What is your…What are you really good at in your business? Besides being stubborn is organizing. I’m a very scheduled, organized person. I think it just comes, one, it comes from past childhood trauma, but two, it also comes from, oh, my life is crazy. My husband, sure, he has a schedule, but here’s the deal, people die and he doesn’t get off at work at the right time. And he is court. And with two kids, you know, My, our schedules are quite wild. And one thing that I’m very big on is my business has to run even if I am not running or I am busy, my business needs to run smoothly. So I’m extremely scheduled and extremely organized planner planning ahead. Um, scheduling posts, scheduling reels, scheduling everything, thinking ahead. Most generally by about the 10th of the month, I’m already focused on the next month. This month is done, I’m done with it. I’m not touching it anymore, except for just the normal stuff. I’m already focused on the next month, which is odd, but it just, it’s how I have to work. I have to have my business settled so that when the rest of my life is crazy, it’s okay. Like that’s the one thing that’s gonna run all on its own. What do you use to schedule? Like do you have…use like an app or something like that? No, I use Facebook scheduling for all of my posts. Me too. And then Instagram reels, you can schedule those. YouTube, you can schedule your shorts reels and shorts are the same thing. I schedule all of my YouTube shorts and schedule those ahead of time. Um, then I do use the Oh My High to schedule out emails and schedule out blog posts. Um, scheduled text, I use project broadcast, scheduled text. So if it can be scheduled, don’t ask me to do anything in today, because it’s not gonna get done. Ask me today to do something in a week, it will get done. Like if you need it a week from now, I got you. But if you need it today, I don’t have you. Like, I can’t do anything today. Well, I’m like you. I like, I wish I could plan out as far as you do, because then I might not feel so frazzled all the time, I’m totally with you in using the native Scheduler for everything. I mean, I don’t really pay for something that I could do for free. Yes, 100%. I mean, I only pay for apps that are going to move my needle forward. I don’t need to pay for apps that are going to be dangling some fancy thing in front of me. And I’m here to make money. Yeah. As shallow as that sounds, I am here to make money and I don’t want to spend all of my money. I understand like, yeah, sometimes it’s worth it. But sure, if I have to take an extra step and schedule on my business page and then reschedule something else in my VIP group, I’m going to take the two extra steps to do it because it’s just, it’s not easier, but it just to me, it makes more sense than paying for an app that’s gonna do it for me.

Yeah. No, and I’m not bashing don’t get me wrong, I’m not bashing any apps and, and there are some great ones out there like Send Share and stuff like that. But I just find that I taking the time to put the stuff in there to get it out just takes me takes more energy out of me than it is. And then I mean, I could just put it input it directly. Copy paste, copy paste, copy paste sort of momentum all the way down the road. And I love boards. So I mean, if I have all my content and boards, then I don’t need another app because I could just house everything there. And it’s, it’s like evergreen. It’s there if I need it again. And yeah, so but everybody has their own, their own way of doing things. But I love the fact that you say you use native schedulers to because I thought I was the only one out there doing that. Nope. Nope. Matter of fact, I just sat down today and I scheduled a couple of posts today and yeah, I do everything in it. And yeah, I schedule Instagram. I don’t schedule Instagram posts because those are funky, but I do schedule all of my reels. And scheduling on Facebook, on your personal page, that’s weird too, because if it’s linked to Instagram, it doesn’t schedule it. It just posts it right away So there’s some hiccups there, but I mean, other than that, no, I just try to keep things really, really simple and easy because we, I mean, everybody, everybody’s talks about the newest thing and best thing, greatest thing, you know, and, and then everybody runs to it and everybody’s using it. And I’m like, why? Like if it’s working, why are you, why is everybody running to everything else? Just use it and just use what you have. Yeah.

Now I want to know, because I’m curious, and I’m sure listeners are curious too, just by hearing what you’re talking about. How do you currently run your business? Like what do you do events? Do you do parties? Do you or you just do online stuff? Tell us. I’m majority majority, majoritable, whatever that word is. I’m that word, digital. I’m not good at events. I wish I was I have never had good luck at it. And I don’t know if that’s me. I don’t know if that’s the event. I don’t know what it is, but I’ve done enough of them that it’s going to sound, here’s my thing, okay? I, nine times out of 10, I’m sitting at home in my pajamas with no bra on. That’s my life, okay? I can sit at home in my pajamas with no bra on and make as much money as I did in a bit with a lot less effort. Some people do great at them. I do not. I wish I did. I do not home parties when I started, they were like, eh, just a tiny, tiny bit. I haven’t had a home party since like 2017. I’m not opposed to it, but we gotta talk first. Like, do you know what I mean? Like I ain’t just gonna randomly come to some stranger’s house and we’re gonna have a party. Like it’s gonna be somebody I know we’re gonna talk. I most generally do like what used to be called an old school like catalog party, like, way back in the day where you would take a catalog to work, people would order and you would send the order forms back to your consultant kind of deal. Like that, that has been what really, really works for me is I will send you with some samples and some testers, I’ll send you with a little bag of goodies. I will send you with a catalog. I will send you with some order forms. And I tell you, share it with your coworkers, your neighbours, your friends, your family, the bum on the corner if he’s got money. Share it with everybody. Fill out the order forms so that you all can do one big bulk order to save on shipping. And that’s what has really, really worked for me. I do Facebook, but I’m a firm believer that since COVID happened, it kind of killed Facebook parties. I’m a big believer in that. I know that people are trying to resurrect them, but I’d rather stand myself in the eye than do a Facebook party, if I’m gonna be honest. And have you had any luck with like scroll parties on your website? I have found a lot of customers find them confusing because they’re like, what, what is this and why do I click here? And then it goes to another site. Like that has been what some of mine have said. But what I have liked is I do an RSVP page, click the RSVP page so that I’m going to get your address and everything so I can send you samples. Then the RSVP then sends them to the my regular shopping link for that host. That seems to be better. And then it’s also because as we all know, some hosts just suck. I’m sorry if you’ve ever been a host anywhere, but some of them suck. And this also kind of gives you an idea of is your host doing any work? Because if you get zero RSVPs, then you’re like, did you do anything with it? So it kind of gives you that little like way to see if they’re doing anything with it. So that has worked, but scroll parties, I wish, I wish they had worked. But my, the feedback I have gotten is, they just seem kind of confused. And I honestly, I feel like you just need to find your, your way of doing a scroll party. Cause a scroll party could be so many things. And maybe, maybe your version of the scroll party isn’t linking here, there and everywhere. Maybe it is just a landing page on your website that has a sort of like a mini video party that you do sharing like maybe your top three products or something like that. And then click here for the information down below on how to shop them. Right? Maybe it’s a simplified version. Like maybe that’s something you gotta try because I’m a firm believer that scroll parties will work if you find your words, your way to present them. And you don’t necessarily have to have a website to do it, even though a website is kind of cool, but you can do them on Canva, you can do them on boards, you can do them all over the place. And again, you’re just not relying on Facebook and the Facebook algorithms to get the stuff out there. And I love what you said about the RSVP page because that’s so key.

Okay, so say you have a host and they have 50 friends. If only 25 of them were on Facebook, you alienated those other 25 people if you don’t give them any other option. So why, grandma probably don’t have Facebook or if she does, she doesn’t know how to use it, right? And I’m not trying to be mean, but it’s just the facts. So, and you’re not Facebook friends with everybody. My husband is a big believer in like, he’s like, if I would not invite you in my house, I’m not Facebook friends with you. So, why would you shorten your audience? Why would you only be like, I only want to let these people shop. To have it available for everybody. And we all have customers who are on Facebook. So if you only have Facebook parties, then what, those people can never ever host. That’s not fair. Yeah. Yeah. And I know you use other ways to like project broadcast. I’m sure you’ve done text parties and all that stuff. So. Oh yeah. I’ve done. I feel like I’ve done every party style. that you could come up with, yes.

Awesome. Well, I appreciate you taking the time to chat with us, but you’re not off the hook yet because I always ask all the guests to give either your favorite quote or some words of advice that you’ve heard over your years in the direct sales field that you think every direct seller should hear. Keep trucking. Act like a million people are watching you, a million people are liking your post a million people are commenting and you’re making a million dollars. Always act like that because if you get too wrapped up in those numbers, which we’ve all done it, I only have five likes, nobody commented. It doesn’t matter. It really truly doesn’t matter. And if you get stuck in that mindset, take a minute and think, do you comment and like every single post that you like? And the answer to that is probably no. So if you don’t do it, don’t expect everybody to like and comment on yours. Just keep going. Awesome. I know people are gonna definitely resonate with that. So thank you again for joining us Amber. And I hope everybody enjoyed this episode of the other 99% and we will see you again next week. Take care. Bye.