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LegalShield Names Don Thompson Co-President of Network Division

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LegalShield recently announced that it has promoted Don Thompson to co-president of the firm’s Network Division, effective immediately.

Thompson will report directly to LegalShield CEO Jeff Bell. In his new role, he will be responsible for creating and driving sales and network marketing strategies that elevate LegalShield in the marketplace. He will play an instrumental role in driving the future expansion of LegalShield.

“During his more than two decades working to further LegalShield’s mission, Don has received several awards recognizing his outstanding work, these include being named a Millionaire Club Member, a $300k Ring Earner and a Top Group Producer,” said Bell. “Don has been an instrumental member of LegalShield’s success for many years. His network marketing and sales experience has been remarkable, and it’s an honor to have him join us.”

In March 1996, Thompson began his career at LegalShield. He served as LegalShield’s regional manager for Northwest Ohio from 1997 to 2001; network regional vice president for South Florida from 2002 to 2007; network regional vice president for Florida from 2009 to 2015; and business vice president covering Florida, Ohio and Michigan from 2015 to 2016. Thompson served as the senior network vice president, responsible for 26 states and 2 Canadian provinces from 2016 to 2018.

“I have been committed to LegalShield’s mission of providing equal access to justice for all for more than 20 years,” said Thompson. “It’s a crucial time for people in North America to have access to our services. I am thrilled and honored to continue fighting to protect and empower people, so that they may live free under the law.”

Jack Spitzer Named Plexus Treasurer, SVP of Finance

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Plexus Worldwide recently announced the addition of industry leader Jack Spitzer to its executive team as treasurer and senior vice president of Finance. 

“Jack is a well-known leader in the direct-selling industry who brings new ideas and vast experience in global finance to Plexus,” said Steve Howard, chief financial officer. “In addition to his professional expertise, we’re confident Jack will be a great cultural fit who will complement our leadership team as we continue to grow and expand internationally.”

As part of his leadership role at Plexus, Spitzer will oversee the Finance department, including financial planning and analysis, treasury, tax and accounting.

“I am thrilled to join the executive team at Plexus as we enter our second decade,” said Spitzer. “This organization has an outstanding reputation and I am excited for our continued expansion.”   Spitzer most recently served at another direct selling company where he led global treasury and finance teams and international and domestic merchant services teams, among others. He also spent 15 years at Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide as assistant treasurer, head of Global Treasury Operations, Merchant Services and Corporate Receivables. Prior to that, he was an accounts receivable manager in Corporate Accounting for Hilton Worldwide.

What You Focus On Grows

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If you’re too spread out and trying to accomplish too many things, you’re setting yourself—and your team—up for a lot of frustration.

If you were to ask 10 middle managers at your company what your organization’s top three priorities were, would all 10 give you the same answers? Or would those answers vary wildly?
This test is worth is trying. If your managers aren’t all saying the same thing, you’ve got a pretty good indication that you’ve got a case of Shiny Object Syndrome. Your organization is either overcommitted or communication within your company isn’t where it needs to be–or both. And it’s probably both. If your organization’s priority list is always expanding and you’re spinning too many plates, it’s likely that communication is scattered and confusing, too.

“What you focus on is what you get. In fact, what you focus on grows.”
— John Addison, CEO of Addison Leadership Group, Inc.

We’re doing more with less. That’s not a new concept, nor is it unique to direct selling by any means. Regardless of how many resources you have in place, however, it remains incredibly challenging for any company to remain focused on doing a handful of things really well. First, we have access to information 24 hours a day–information about technology, about innovation, economic forecasts and so much more. Change is constant, as is the fear of missing out, or otherwise failing to keep up. If revenue begins to decline, it’s tempting to want to try something radically different instead of considering that maybe staying the course could be the smarter strategy.

In a 2017 article for the Harvard Business Review (“The Overcommitted Organization”), Mark Mortensen and Heidi Gardner discussed the ramifications of assigning employees to multiple projects at the same time. According to the authors, a survey of more than 500 managers in global corporations found that 81 percent of those who were working on teams were, in fact, serving on more than one team simultaneously. “Although most managers recognize the increasing prevalence of multiteaming, few have a complete understanding of how it affects their organizations, their teams, and individual employees.” Further, Mortensen and Gardner found that the more senior employees became, the more likely they were to be leading multiple projects at the same time. That’s stressful in and of itself, but if there’s little or no coordination among all of those initiatives–if employees can’t leverage learnings from one project to aid in another–then confusion reigns.

What makes maintaining focus especially challenging for direct sellers?

While leaders across every industry are tasked with prioritization, there are some very distinct dynamics within direct selling companies that make us particularly vulnerable to overcommitting ourselves.

First, direct selling is a highly customer service-oriented industry. We say yes–a lot. People are at the center of everything, and that includes the corporate environment, where expressing resistance to any proposed new initiative may be perceived as a resistance to support the company’s mission or its field. The relationship between corporate and the field is symbiotic; one wouldn’t exist without the other. Therefore, direct selling companies take great care to ensure that they’re offering products and programs that keep the sales force energized and motivated. That requires keeping an ear to the ground, staying on top of trends–or, better yet, starting trends.

Speaking of the field, field members–and in particular, field leaders–carry influence. “If you’ve got a group of leaders who think there’s an issue and you take it as gospel truth without doing the due diligence yourself and really quantifying it, it might be a big issue to them in the moment, but not over the long term. It’s easy to get distracted by opinions rather than rely upon facts,” says Senior Vice President of Business Development for SUCCESS Partners Noah Westerlund.

Part of the challenge with determining your priorities in the field, Westerlund adds, is the lack of transparency that has traditionally surrounded distributor activity. While we’ve been able to examine daily sales figures, we haven’t been able to take a deep dive into what’s happening behind those numbers–for example, how many people an average distributor is talking to each day. When a distributor calls you and reports a problem, then, there’s not an easy way to quantify the potential impact of the issue she’s reporting. “Our industry’s increased access to meaningful data gives us greater insight into what’s really happening out in the field. However, in order for that data to help you make informed decisions, direct selling companies need to make data analysis “part of the culture so you know everyone’s using it,” Westerlund says. “Otherwise, it’s only a small sample–you get these pockets of information. You need to make sure it’s representative of the entire system.”

Choosing Your Focus

We’re at the start of a new year, and undoubtedly, you’re giving some thought to your overarching goals for the next 12 months. When making changes, waiting on results is another challenging aspect for direct sellers. “Patience is one of the biggest challenges that I’ve watched corporate leaders struggle with. Entrepreneurs are drivers,” says founder of Adams Resource Group, Paul Adams. “They make things happen. It’s difficult to admit that making a change takes time. Getting results from those changes takes longer. Corporate leaders have to know they have taken the time to examine their strategy from all angles and once they commit to it, make it happen.” Your leaders undoubtedly have their own opinions, which likely are shaped by their respective departmental roles.

No matter the direct selling company, we’re all in the business of people. Finding your focal point is easy—all of us should be looking at the same place on the horizon. The field comes first. “In direct sales, your focus always has to be on the salesperson,” says Jessica Honegger, founder and Co-CEO of Noonday Collection.

Most direct sales companies are naturally focused on building a brand, which requires a bit of give and take when allocating resources. “Our focus is first and foremost on the community and how we’re creating value for them, and then the brand,” Honegger adds. “A lot of direct selling companies–they make a choice. They focus on their compensation plan and on their sales force and on growing, growing, growing; whereas we just really want to be a well-recognized brand many years from now. We’re always balancing limited resources. Are we going to use our marketing dollars to enable our sales force, or to grow our brand?”

“My view is, if the incomes of the sales force aren’t growing, you’re not growing,” says John Addison, CEO of Addison Leadership Group, Inc. He recommends examining the pulse of your sales force not only by reviewing the numbers daily, but also monthly in an in-depth session. “That doesn’t mean that when you have a downturn, you need to change a bunch of stuff. I see companies who always think they’re one incentive away from growing and then you get a bunch of confusion and no one knows what to do. Way too many businesses and companies I see are a mile wide and an inch deep. If you’re too spread out and trying to accomplish too many things, it’s going to be a self-defeating thing.”

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Zeroing in on your key priorities is only part of the picture. Employees must also have the flexibility to adapt as needs arise. This is where a critical distinction comes into play. Strategy is the why; tactics are the how. Westerlund offers a great example: Imagine a mid-level manager rowing a boat furiously on a lake. She’s expending a lot of energy and rowing like crazy, but if you were to ask her where she’s going, she’d have no idea. Her tactic is rowing that boat, but her strategy–her destination–is missing. And, before you pinpoint your destination, “It’s really important to spend that up-front time diagnosing your strategy so you’re not throwing solutions at the wrong problems,” Honegger says. “I always encourage corporate leaders to begin with the end in mind. What are you trying to accomplish and what activities, behaviors, systems, etc. are needed to accomplish that goal? It is easy to let little daily distractions cause us to move away from our goals. Often, I encourage people to stop doing activities that are not leading toward the ultimate goal,” says Adams.

Confusing Tactics With Strategy

All too often, Westerlund says, companies abandon an initiative and don’t give themselves the opportunity to mature a strategy. “The biggest problem that companies have in this industry is we confuse tactics for strategy. Tactics are the day to day–running a promotion, setting up a new warehouse, testing a different pricing model–steps that we take to fulfill our strategy. Strategy is about ‘How are we going to accomplish x given y?’ How you answer that question is your strategy. When you let tactics eclipse strategy, you lack focus and that results in confusion.” That doesn’t mean good ideas won’t pop up every single day, but you’ve got to take that good idea and package it in a form that gets you closer to that strategic goal rather than take you off course. And if it takes you off course, it may be a good idea; it just might not be the right time. Or you might have to re-evaluate your strategy at some point–but you can’t do that every day.

“The biggest problem that companies have in this industry is we confuse tactics for strategy.”
— Noah Westerlund, Senior Vice President of Business Development, SUCCESS Partners

Tactics and strategy aren’t rigid entities; a certain degree of flexibility is required in order to invite creativity and innovation. The term “tactical performance” describes how well a company sticks to its plan, while “adaptive performance” refers to how well a company diverges from its plan, say Lindsay McGregor and Neel Doshi, co-authors of the New York Times bestseller Primed to Perform: How to Build the Highest Performing Cultures Through the Science of Total Motivation. Tactical performance, say the authors, answers questions like “What are my measurable goals? What is my timeline? How, precisely, am I doing?” Businesses usually focus most of their efforts on tactical performance, which, in most cases, is easily measured–for example, the month’s total sales for your new product, or number of new distributors welcomed during a special promotion. Adaptive performance, according to McGregor and Doshi, enables an organization to deal with variability. “It is what leads to distinctive innovation, customer experience, quality, and customer-centric sales.”

So what’s your plan?

How do you wrap all of this knowledge together into one cohesive, streamlined and yet flexible plan–one that communicates an overarching strategy in which everyone understands his or her role, but which also gives your employees the latitude to suggest improvements or alternative approaches?

Keeping the field top of mind, Addison recommends not only tracking production on a daily basis, but also gathering your leadership at least once a month to review all of the numbers in depth, so potential issues can be discussed–and, if necessary, addressed–before they become larger problems. “You don’t constantly need to change your strategy,” he says, “but you should be constantly analyzing and tweaking your tactics.”

There’s something even more important than strategy and tactics in all of this, though, Addison says–and that’s culture. Everyone on your leadership team and every senior field leader should understand the why of what makes your business great. From there, your strategy and will help define the things you’re going to do to grow the business and build it for the long term.

When communicating your strategy to your employees and especially your sales force, simplicity is one of your most effective tools for keeping everyone focused. “People always talk about who they’re competing with in their business. The truth is, what you’re competing with are the distractions in people’s lives,” Addison continues. “You’re trying to compete with the shelf space of their attention. So if you’re focused on too many different things, they’ll tune you out. Your message better be very focused on their personal development and the growth of their business, and it has to be repetitive.”

Staying the course can be challenging when “you’re in the business of creating excitement and attracting people,” Addison adds. If your employees and your sales force know what you stand for, where you’re headed and how they fit into the picture, you’re far more likely to reach your destination.

Tactical Performance – is how effectively your organization sticks to its strategy. It is the driver of focus and consistency. It allows organizations to increase strength by directing limited resources to the fewest targets.

Adaptive Performance – is how effectively your organization diverges from its strategy. Adaptive performance manifests as creativity, problem solving, grit, innovation, and citizenship.

In a nutshell, tactical performance is how well you stick to your plan, and adaptive performance is how well you diverge from your plan. High-performing companies need both. You can overdo tactical performance, and you can also be too adaptive. For example, if an employee doesn’t have the autonomy to employ creativity to reach a goal, or if your culture is so adaptive that you fail to deliver a consistent experience to your customers.

Source: Harvard Business Review, October 10, 2017. “There Are Two Types of Performance – but Most Organizations Only Focus on One.” Lindsay McGregor and Neel Doshi

A Promising Path for PURE

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People United Reaching Everyone takes the Hi-Act to new growth.

PURE
Founded: 2008
Headquarters: Frisco, Texas
Top Executive: Daren Hogge, CEO | Dae Geun Jung, Founder & Chairman of the Board
Products: Health and Wellness

Daren Hogge

Daren Hogge

Dae Geun Jung

Dae Geun Jung

According to the dictionary, evolve means “to come forth gradually into being.” This seems to sum up the path PURE: People United Reaching Everyone has taken as it makes steady gains in both sales force and revenue. Based in Frisco, Texas, with offices in Taiwan, Korea and Thailand and an NFR (not for resale) presence in Japan, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, PURE’s renewed vigor has evolved not only from new ideas but also from returning to its roots. Celebrating its tenth anniversary in August 2018, PURE has made significant strides in a short time. “This last year we’ve seen significant growth in all key metrics—recruiting, retention, rank advancements and consumer engagement over the prior year,” states Founder & Chairman of the Board Dae Geun Jung. In addition, the company has reached record-setting rank advancements. A company press release states that 2018 was one of the company’s best years in history, with over 1,600 rank advancements year-to-date.

“This last year we’ve seen significant growth in all key metrics: recruiting, retention, rank advancements and consumer engagement over the prior year.”
— Dae Geun Jung, Founder & Chairman of the Board

Daren Hogge, PURE CEO—a 31-year veteran of the industry, feels the key to PURE’s emergence as a worthy contender in the health and wellness market is how company leaders have reshaped it to embrace its founding principles.

From GoYin to Pure Step-by-Step

The company began with the creation of GoYin, a company Hogge helped start several years ago. Built around its namesake GoYin product—a beverage based on traditional Asian medicine and formulated in collaboration with Cal Berkeley and the University of Shanghai—GoYin merged with another company in 2008 founded by Dea Geun Jung, now Founder and Chairman of the Board for PURE, before undergoing a rebrand in 2017 to become PURE: People United Reaching Everyone.

Hogge headed the first and second iterations of the company before leaving in 2012 to pursue another venture. He returned two years ago when he saw an opportunity to take the company back to specific values he helped create in 2008.

“We put in some founding principles that were pillars,” he explains. “One of them was the philosophy of our products that have come to life through the CORE4—to cleanse the body, to balance the body, to build the body and to provide focus for the body. All of the products we developed, we created to make sure they fit into those categories and help to deliver whole health. The other principles we came up with are what I term the Hi-Act.”

For Hogge, the Hi-Act forms the crux for how he wants to build the company and how he wants its Independent Business Owners (IBOs) to build their businesses. An acronym for the principles of honesty, integrity, accountability, commitment and trustworthiness, Hogge says it is the foundation for everything the company does. “We wanted to make sure we used the Hi-Act in all of our dealings,” Hogge says. “We make that commitment to all of our IBOs and customers.”

IBOs quickly responded to this commitment. According to Hogge, when the leaders saw that the founding principles and trust had been re-established, they renewed their efforts to build successful businesses. “Not only did we return to our core values and beliefs but we evolved the brand with a fresh look, new products, new incentives and innovations,” says Director of US Sales Sam Crossley.

Modernizing the Products

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The evolution of PURE is also evident in its products. “We’ve been modernizing and evolving our packaging in order to make it a little more mainstream or aligned with what consumers see in the marketplace,” says Shay Kiper, director of marketing. These updates started with the design of the GoYin bottle for the company’s tenth anniversary this past summer. “GoYin is our flagship product so we rolled out a limited-edition design,” explains Kiper. “It’s a little bit bolder packaging than what we’ve seen in the past, so we used that as a nod to the evolution of the brand and what you can expect to see in the future.”

“Not only did we return to our core values and beliefs but we evolved the brand with a fresh look, new products, new incentives and innovations.”
— Sam Crossley, Director of U.S. Sales

PURE also supports its products with recognition from highly credible organizations. The majority of the products in the GPS sports performance line have received Informed Sports Certification, a distinction that clears all the products in the line for use by professional, collegiate and Olympic athletes.

PURE’s top-selling product set is Core4, products designed to promote the company’s mission to cleanse, balance and build the body as well as provide focus. All Core4 products are featured in the 2018 Physicians’ Desk Reference. This past summer PURE launched its seven and 28-day Detox Program to further support the cleanse philosophy. “It’s been a very popular way for people to come in as either a customer or from a business perspective,” says Kiper. To date, PURE offers 35 products, with many available in various flavors and product forms.

Company Leaders Work for Field Leaders

Detox program participants proudly display their weight loss on stage at Xcelerate in October 2018.

PURE’s sales force is intrinsic to the company’s success, and Hogge is adamant that he and his team remember that they work for the IBOs. “If we work for the IBOs, we should take their input, we should see where they want the company to go and allow them to have a say in where we go. The detox program is an example of a system driven by leader input,” says Hogge. PURE’s focus continues to be the U.S. market, which has experienced the largest growth the past two years. “I’m very proud of that because as we have gone forward with the rebranding and some of the enhancements to the compensation plan, we’re hitting on key points that people around the world are craving,” says Hogge.

To keep its sales force informed and charged, PURE recently hosted 1,400 IBOs at its Xcelerate event in Texas and took 103 leaders to Bora Bora in November as part of its incentive program. Hogge knows that leaders appreciate strong corporate support, and he feels the company’s rank advancement bonus is one of the most lucrative in the industry.

“I think we’ll see quadruple growth over the next few years from the projections we set two years ago.”
— Daren Hogge, Pure CEO

Going forward, Hogge says their strategy is to continue to look for strong leaders who share the company’s Hi-Act principles and want to share them with like-minded individuals. “I believe that we have only scratched the surface here in the U.S.,” adds Hogge. “I think we’ll see quadruple growth over the next few years from the projections we set two years ago—and we’ve exceeded—and where we’re headed over the next four years.” Hogge says the company also plans to expand globally to increase their international presence.

As PURE: People United Reaching Everyone continues to evolve, Hogge is optimistic that he and his team will find ways to keep the momentum going. PURE is dedicated to delivering Whole Health with high-quality products for physical health, opportunity for financial health, relationships for personal health and social impact for philanthropic health. Hogge firmly believes it is the company’s five principles—honesty, integrity, accountability, commitment and trustworthiness—that has fueled the fire of PURE’s recent surge in growth and will continue to do so long into the future.

Giving Back & Creating PURE Relationships

PURE’s Dae Geun Jung and Daren Hogge present the first check to DAV at 2018 Xcelerate. Graciously accepting the check are Trisa Paschal of Personal Philanthropy Programs and Jennifer Kellogg, Air Force veteran.

An important aspect of a company’s culture is defining its philanthropic spirit. To this end, PURE recently announced a partnership with Disabled American Veterans (DAV). PURE CEO Daren Hogge says they are proud to support the country’s heroes since many of PURE’s IBOs are veterans. In addition to giving back to the men and women who serve the United States, the company’s $25 enrollment fee is waived for veterans and active military personnel.

Powerful PURE Partnerships

Driver Gary Gaulding in his PURE brand wrapped NASCAR 08 Camaro.

National exposure is another key component of moving a company forward. PURE recently announced a partnership with one of its IBOs, NASCAR driver Gary Gaulding. Gaulding is one of many millennials finding value in both the product and opportunity with PURE. He believes so strongly in the company that he wrapped his 08, Chevrolet Camaro in the PURE brand, which he will compete with in the 2019 NASCAR Xfinity Series. “We were so excited that Gray pursued this as the number eight has great value to us at PURE as we were founded on 8/8/08,” states Daren Hogge, CEO.

The Affordable Technology Trap

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Low cost and fancy filters and features fool us into thinking everyone’s a professional designer.

You’ve spent serious money for quality research and production teams. You’re sparing no expense to hire the best minds for your executive team. You pay big dollars for technology expertise. But your intern is shooting video at your national conference and photographing your top team members with her iPhone?

We get it. Creative talent isn’t cheap, and as technology becomes more sophisticated and more affordable, it’s tempting to cut marketing corners. But while your intern may know how to use “portrait” mode on her cell phone, does she know when or if she should use it?

Skimping Leads to Inconsistency in Your Brand

“You can’t replace artistry with technical competency,” says Noah Westerlund, Senior Vice President of Business Development for Success Partners. And therein lies the difference between pros and amateurs: Professionals shape and tell a brand story with their tools. Amateurs let the tools shape and tell the stories for them. “This business is driven by storytelling and enabling your distributors to tell stories effectively. Why would you skimp on the story?” says Westerlund.

Studies show that 90% of all consumers expect their brand experience to be consistent across all platforms and devices. Building on that, 71% of users who have a positive social experience with a brand will share that experience and recommend the brand to others.

The lesson learned? Your visual brand is the face of your company to customers, distributors and prospects. It’s too important to leave in untrained hands.

Creativity on a Budget

Money, especially for startups, is tight. So how do you get the high-quality images, video and graphics you need for a clear, polished visual brand without breaking the bank?

Don’t try to create it all at once, Westerlund advises. “Decide on a few key components and do those things really well rather than do five or six things in a mediocre way.” It will cost more than pennies. A startup should expect to spend between $25,000 and $50,000 for basic deliverables, like a website and one or two product videos, he says. But the photographs on your brochures and video on your website and social pages are the first impression you won’t have a second chance to make, experts say. Don’t waste the opportunity.

“The quality of photography will directly influence the perceived value of your product,” says Annette Ferraro, a professional commercial photographer in Columbus, Ohio, and owner of Annette Ferraro Photography. “If a consumer or client isn’t immediately sold on an image he or she will not engage with your content and will simply move on.”

Westerlund agrees. “When poor design is at its most egregious, the prospect is going to look at it and say, ‘This is not something I have faith in.’” There are even long-term consequences to not investing in quality brand creative, Westerlund says. “I’ve seen so many startups make that mistake. And when you start out cheap you’re fighting that uphill battle for years to come.” Because eventually you’ll want to rebrand but people will be loyal to the original one “even if it was amateurish boring” and the change will be painful.

Creative Licenses

If you can’t afford a high-end designer or a whole design team, at least invest in a solid brand style guide, Westerlund says. “Then you can hire kids out of design school to execute on that style guide.”

Outsourcing also is a great way to get strong creative content without the payroll expense of top talent. That’s the path Roger Morgan chose from day one in 2014 when he founded pawTree, a Southlake, Texas-based pet product direct selling company.

As a past CEO of a multinational pet products company, Morgan understood the value of high-quality visual content—“especially at the beginning when you’re not a known brand.” Prospective salespeople and customers are not going to take a chance on a company or product if the brand doesn’t look reputable or high-quality, he says.

But as a start-up—and even now—PawTree couldn’t afford to hire the expertise it needed full time. So it has one in-house marketing director who manages teams of freelance creatives who handle everything from product photography to video production to logo design. And the company doesn’t always need a stable of designers, either. “Outsourcing gives us the ability to flex up and down with the resources,” Morgan says.

It’s an Investment in Your Brand

There are situations in which taking the amateur path makes sense, especially on the social networking front, says Ferraro, who has many small-brand clients whose visual brand strategies thrive on a mixture of professional photos and cell phone captures. Because their customers want to know as much about the owners as people as they do about the company’s products—and they want that information in real time—a bit of leeway in brand consistency and polished images for every post is okay. These small brands are still deliberate about their branding choices, and they still use professional images to showcase their final products in ads and on their websites.

“Investing in a professional may seem expensive,” Ferraro says, “but it will boost your brand, save you money and time, eliminate frustrations, and positively impact sales.”

3 Reasons to Outsource to the Pros

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Because cameras and design software have become more feature-heavy in addition to user friendly, they have made it easier for the average person to produce decent pictures as well as graphics. While the differences between professional and nonprofessional work are sometimes subtle, they’re important.

Annette Ferraro, a professional commercial photographer, points to three technical advantages that professional photographers and videographers bring:
  1. Proper lighting. “How are you supposed to effectively communicate the message of your brand if your customer can’t even see what you’re selling?” she asks. Lighting mistakes are easy for non-pros to make, she adds, because they haven’t spent years mastering the concept of light.
  2. Post-production expertise. The default image setting on phone cameras and most DSLR cameras is JPEG—basically a photo file for dummies, automatically correcting exposure and color, for example, and finalizing the photo. But if the subject is not well-lit to begin with, for example, there’s only so much the auto-correct process can do. And even if an amateur knew how to set the camera to take correctable RAW images (the digital equivalent of a film negative), chances are he wouldn’t have the photo editing tools or skills to make those images suitable for publication—and for your brand.
  3. A new perspective. Professionals can see your products and people in a way you may never have looked at them before. They can position and frame them to emphasize their best qualities.

Comment or No Comment? – The Art And Science Of Interacting With The Press

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Whether or not there’s such a thing as bad publicity has been a matter of various opinions for decades.

There’s less disagreement, however, about whether a company facing negative press should respond to the media’s challenges.

Media relations professionals to whom Direct Selling News posed the question “When do you meet criticism head on, and when do you let sleeping dogs lie?” said it’s almost always better to meet it.

“You just can’t ignore it,” says Crayton Webb, owner and chief executive officer of Dallas-based Sunwest Communications, which represents several direct selling clients. “Too many companies think that if they don’t answer the phone or the media inquiry or the tweet that it will just go away. But they’re going to cover the story with or without you.”

Direct Selling Association President Joe Mariano agrees. “The right thing to do is engage and tell your story,” he says. “Recognize and acknowledge that it’s your perspective and that it may be biased, but back it up with data and factual information.”

More than once over the last two years Plano, Texas-based AdvoCare has been questioned by the press about claims from dissatisfied past Distributors. And each time, the company responded—sometimes extensively and sometimes creatively.

Aside from granting an in-person interview with its Chief Legal Officer Allison Levy, AdvoCare responded to a 2016 story in ESPN the Magazine & Outside the Lines with a lengthy written statement, providing further context and perspective to a narrative this industry often has to correct: that all direct sales opportunities are pyramid schemes. And when ESPN brought its cameras to AdvoCare headquarters to ask questions about a class action lawsuit, AdvoCare cameras recorded as ESPN cameras rolled.

“When ESPN showed up at the office we had three choices,” AdvoCare CEO Brian Connolly told a SUCCESS Partners University audience in 2016. “Not respond to the fact that they were going to do a story; respond in writing; or meet them face to face.” Filming the filmers allowed the company to present “a balanced perspective” to Distributors, which diffused the issue internally, Connolly says.

How to respond

As with most business strategies, effective media relations is part science and part art.

The science: Have clear, on-brand messages and specific procedures for who talks to the press and under what circumstances. It’s also wise to determine in advance how your company will respond in a crisis, says Jen Phillips, founder of 4L Strategies, a freelance writing and public relations consultancy in New Hampshire. This will help you when it’s time for the art: an empathetic response. Showing empathy is critical when someone is unhappy with your organization, Phillips says. “I think a lot of brand crises could be shortened considerably if those tasked with responding formed responses from a position of empathy. It is easier to put yourself on the other side of the crisis when one isn’t happening. Take the time to crisis plan. Drill on it.” Don’t follow the now-infamous lead of the BP CEO who said, impulsively, about the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, “I want my life back.”

Even if the empathy comes a bit late, it’s better than never. After Uber CEO Travis Kalanick was caught on tape insulting his Uber driver he apologized, saying “It’s clear this video is a reflection of me—and the criticism we’ve received is a stark reminder that I must fundamentally change as a leader and grow up.”

Phillips believes there are some “few and far between” cases where staying quiet may be an advantage. If you pre-empt a negative press report, for example, “it could end up drawing more attention to a story than it otherwise would have had,” she says. And responding to a negative story “could wrap you or your company into a piece that has no benefit for you.”

Evaluate each opportunity to respond to press inquiries in terms of the long-term effect it will have on your organization. “Think about your core audience,” Phillips advises. “Will they read the story? Will they wonder why you aren’t in it at all?”

If you choose to stay quiet, though, just remember that the story will likely run anyway, Webb says. “It’s not like they’re going to go down the street and cover the muffin festival.”

Win At PR

There are so many ways to influence your company’s profile online, on the air and in print. Our experts gave us six strategies that will help you get positive results from interactions with the media.

Educate Your Field

Make sure your salespeople know what they can and cannot say about their experience with your company and about the products they’re selling. Consultants need to understand and comply with government regulations as well as the industry’s ethical codes of conduct.

Guide Your Field

Give the field talking points and rich, on-brand content to share in person and on social media. And go deeper than just promotions for products and services. Provide great stories about your company’s economic development impact, the scientific breakthroughs your researchers are making or the awards your entrepreneurs and products are winning. “If the only thing that direct sellers do is respond to the negative, we’re missing the opportunity to define our own brand story,” says Crayton Webb, owner and chief executive officer of Sunwest Communications.

“Too many companies think that if they don’t answer the phone or the media inquiry or the tweet that it will just go away.”
— Crayton Webb, owner and CEO, Sunwest Communications
Build Meaningful Community Connections

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Be a good corporate citizen in your headquarters’ neighborhood, and encourage your salespeople to contribute to the well-being of people in their communities. One of Webb’s proudest such moments, he says, was when he worked for Mary Kay and a group of consultants drove their pink Cadillacs to their state capitol to lobby for a bill to stop domestic violence. “If you can establish a reputation and a rapport in your community, that will hold you in good stead,” says Joe Mariano, president of the Direct Selling Association (DSA).

Establish Positive Relationships With Reporters

“During a crisis you cannot expect them to deliver positive coverage,” says Founder of 4L Strategies Jen Phillips. “The nature of a crisis means that something has gone wrong. But if you have been honest and helpful in the past and have spent the time to build trust you are more likely to have your perspective covered.”

Lean On The Direct Selling Association

The DSA exists not only to provide industry and ethical guidance but to help member companies talk about the direct selling model, which remains a mystery to much of the mainstream media. The association monitors press coverage and provides toolkits to companies to help them respond “with consistent, positive messages and data that can answer misunderstandings,” Mariano says.

Take As Much Time As You Can Get

“Too often, the person returning the reporter’s call is concerned with making sure the reporter has exactly what he or she wants as opposed to discerning what’s best for the company,” Webb says, noting that asking questions to determine the reporter’s angle and his or her other sources can buy you valuable time to formulate an effective response.

Master Google

“With the internet, information and perspectives live forever,” says Direct Selling Association President Joe Mariano. “Something that dates back years and should have disappeared might still be cited as relevant and used to attack the company, even if the issue has been long addressed.”

4L Strategies founder and PR consultant Jen Phillips agrees that your company’s reputation can be made or broken by what lives online. “Google search is important—period,” she says. “If the first page in a search of your company name is full of negative content, it will affect your business.”

So, what to do about the ever-accessible e-archive of nearly everything that’s been published about your company in the last 20 years?

“Get out there and do positive, proactive things to generate positive coverage,” Phillips says. “And do not take shortcuts, like hiring dodgy reputation repair firms that tell you they can scrub results.”

Webb advises his clients to upload their own positive, meaningful content so that less-favorable results fall below the radar. Google loves unique content, so make sure your content marketing team is regularly writing blog entries, uploading videos and, yes, even posting press releases to the web.

“Few people know exactly how search algorithms work,” Webb says. “But I do know that new content is king.”

New Trade Agreement Supports Direct Selling and Encourages Its Business Model

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After months of negotiations, a new trade pact has been reached for the North American regional market.

The U.S. Mexico Canada Agreement (USMCA) renews and modernizes the existing trade relationship between the three countries. It is one of the largest multi-lateral trade agreements, worth $25 trillion today, three times the market value when NAFTA was introduced in 1994.

Although some of the primary issues included hotly debated topics related to the automotive and dairy industries, there are other matters of notable interest. Specifically, each of the three governments participating in the negotiations agreed to support the direct selling distribution channel.

The reference appears under the Cross-Border Trade in Services chapter, Article 15.10. Addressing small and medium-sized enterprises, the article acknowledges direct selling services as an “SME-enabling” business model.

With a view to enhancing commercial opportunities in services for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and further to Chapter X (Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises), each Party shall endeavor to support the development of SME trade in services and SME-enabling business models, such as direct selling services, including through measures that facilitate SME access to resources or protect individuals from fraudulent practices.

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Positive mentions of this business model in other trade agreements will contribute to promote direct selling as a mainstream distribution channel and encourage government support globally to this type of business model.

Recently, the U.S. government announced intentions to open negotiations on trade pacts with Japan, the U.K. and the EU. In addition, China is currently negotiating no fewer than ten global trade agreements and the U.K. is negotiating three additional agreements. Opportunities to proliferate this language will help to expand the presence of the direct selling distribution channel around the world.

The World Federation of Direct Selling Associations reported that the global direct sales market value in 2017 was $189.6 billion with growth in the number of distributors for each of the last four years. It is a business opportunity that more people are considering every day, and governments are rising to the challenge to recognize its importance.

Several milestones must be met before Congress discusses the USMCA in January 2019 or later. And a potential shift in political agendas based on a new Democrat majority in the House could pose significant hurdles for the agreement’s ratification. So, until the agreement is approved by each of the three governments, it is imperative to demonstrate our continued support.

Randall PopelkaRANDAL L. POPELKA—serves as vice president of Global Government Affairs at Herbalife Nutrition. Based in Washington D.C. he works on a variety of policy issues for the company with the U.S. and foreign governments. He is also responsible for managing industry relations, helping ensure Herbalife Nutrition continues its industry leadership role in advancing healthy, active lifestyles, balanced nutrition, and financial empowerment.

Q&A with Jessica Honegger

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Feeling Scared? Go Anyway. While comfort may beckon us, choosing courage will always be in route to impact.

In 2015, Inc. magazine recognized Noonday Collection as one of the fastest growing companies in America. But years earlier, Jessica Honegger stood in the pawnshop in Austin, Texas and handed over her grandmother’s jewelry to bootstrap her fledgling Noonday Collective direct selling business, which would eventually grow into the world’s most successful fair-trade accessories brand.

In Imperfect Courage, Jessica challenges us to get off the couch and simply go scared, leaving behind our comfort zones for lives of impact, meeting, and beautifully imperfect courage.

Tell us why you wrote it and define a little bit about what Imperfect Courage means to you.

Honegger authored Imperfect Courage. She is Founder and Co-CEO of Noonday Collection.

I feel like fear holds so many people back, and I wanted people to understand that courage isn’t about not being afraid. That there really isn’t some moment in life where you get to a state of fearlessness and if it is, it’s probably you’re not living up to your potential. I wanted to break down the myths around fear—that if I’m afraid it means I probably shouldn’t go in that direction. I really embrace this idea that you can be afraid and you can still go anyway. That is what courage is to me. Quit making up your own excuses, or quit letting fear be the obstacle but instead, just move towards the direction of purpose.

Explain what you mean by the “bubble wrap” concept you talk about in your book.

I think that as human beings, we are wired to go towards comfort. We’re not wired to charge up the mountain. I think most of us naturally want to wrap our lives in bubble wrap and make our lives more and more comfortable, protecting ourselves from suffering or venturing outside of our comfort zones.

My encouragement is really to rip that bubble wrap off of your life. Find those places that you’re trying to protect yourself from and instead step into the uncomfortable. It can be as easy as befriending the person in the grocery checkout line, or it can mean, pulling your kids out of private school and putting them into public school.

All of these things where we are trying to construct these lives of safety and comfort are preventing us from really living into the fullness of our lives into embracing diversity and inclusivity and in purpose and impact. I think that a life of purpose is going to involve ripping the bubble wrap off your life. It just is.

Being a global company, what have you learned about the global want for opportunity?

I think that we have a bit of an entrepreneur inside us waiting to be tapped into, and that entrepreneurship is being able to create possibility from limited resources. I feel like everywhere I go I see innovation. I see this desire for people to want to create more from what they currently have. It’s something that’s innate to all human beings that we are all created with. It’s in our DNA to want to live in this realm of possibility and create the opportunity for ourselves and for our families.

“I think that a life of purpose is going to involve ripping the bubble wrap off your life.”

Our cover story a few months ago was how even executives have those doubting moments where they ask themselves “Do I have what it takes?” What advice would you have for new companies or employees new to executive leadership?

I think for me, the fears at the beginning were definitely there, especially when all of our personal finances were on the line. There was a lot of fear around—Is this going to work, and are we going to be able to build this into something that is lasting and sustainable?

When you’ve never done something on the scale of starting a business or leading an entire company, a lot of doubt can creep in where you automatically think—Well, I’ve never done this before, so I’m not qualified to do it. Instead, you have to build your own new experience and pioneer that trail.

Again, for me as an entrepreneur, it’s so much about that. The internal energy you get from moving forward is exhilarating. I have always had a bias toward action. And like most entrepreneurs, I’m not going to let fear hold me back from moving forward. The same goes for leadership. Many new executives may feel the same way I did, but it’s important to be always moving forward, and the energy that is created by taking action will help in making better decisions.

What do you hope your peers in the industry will take away from your book?

I’m thinking transparency. Well, you know one of the key stories I tell is when we made changes to our core plan. We underestimated how change would impact the community, while still staying in that place of transparency, trust and culture building. The whole book is developed around our ambassador manifesto, which is the manifesto of our sales force, which the sales force fuels direct sales companies.

“I’m not going to let fear hold me back from moving forward.”

You just cannot underestimate the power of building culture, because culture is your best retention tool. People don’t want to leave a culture that lifts them up and rewards them. When you create a culture of empowerment that isn’t just built around the carrot of compensation, but a transcendent purpose that’s addictive. People want to stay with that.

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That culture is what is worth building. As an executive, we are the ones that are the culture builders. We need to think long and hard about the kind of culture that we want to build.

In your opinion, how does the direct selling industry stay relevant and competitive in the era of Amazon, e-commerce and the gig economy?

It’s being able to embrace the fact that people have several jobs these days, and they might see Noonday Collective as one piece in their income earning portfolio. That just makes me want to be more competitive as a brand. What value am I really adding? To me, it’s an opportunity just to keep creating more value for my customer.

I think the trend is to pay attention to our consumers who want experiences. They want transparency, and they want to use their purchasing power for good. Those are clear trends. You are going to need to pay attention to those trends as you move forward as a brand.

To me, it’s just an opportunity to keep upping our game, and how we’re truly offering value that Amazon doesn’t provide. People are gravitating towards personal shopping experiences and more of a curated experience. Amazon is good at making a quick and easy shopping experience, but it’s not beautiful, it’s not personalized. So, the question we need to be asking ourselves is what are those things that direct sales can elevate and offer and exploit for the benefit of the industry? That’s where we can compete.

You Can Be Strategic About Everything

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Are you as strategic as you could be?

Helping people get more of the results they want by being more strategic in every area of their lives, both personally and professionally, is an everyday occurrence for me. Being more strategic (or, in other words, thinking smarter) is a powerful concept. You can be more strategic about everything you do, and that often leads to incredible results. So over the last few years, white papers, books, recordings, and even courses have come from my shop about the simple concept of being strategic. For example, you can be strategic about who you hire, about how you look at financial numbers, about how you build a culture, and even about how you invest your time.

Let’s explore being strategic with your time now, since it can impact your results as much if not more than anything else. The single biggest idea people miss in being strategic about their time is saying “no” more effectively. In 2016 I authored a book called RESULTS Faster! and ended up devoting an entire chapter in that book to the concept of saying “no,” because that’s one of the most valuable concepts of top leaders. If you’re strategic about your time, you understand that saying “no” to some things is a must. And it doesn’t necessarily have to mean “totally no.” It can often mean you’re saying “no” to something someone is asking so you can say “yes” to and be more focused on your High Leverage Activities (HLAs). Handling “no” the wrong way can cause negative consequences, and yet handling “no” the right way can often lead to extraordinary results.

For example, if a friend calls and asks you to lunch and that’s not an HLA for you, then you might simply ask, “What’s up?” If the friend just wants to talk about your introducing him to a mutual acquaintance, you might suggest that instead of going to lunch to discuss it, you can just connect the two of them by email. You have strategically said “no” to the request (burning two hours for lunch), and yet you’ve said “yes” to what your friend really wanted, and it just took a few seconds to execute. Sometimes when people ask us to do something, we say “yes” without going deeper first; being strategic by thinking it through is a must. As a leader, we can’t say “yes” to everything, of course, nor should we say “no” too often. What we should do is be clear on what matters most, and then we can more easily decide our “yes’s” and “no’s.”

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Clarity matters!

Let’s apply that truth for a minute. Strategic clarity about roles and responsibilities is important, of course. Do you agree? Rather than relying heavily on job descriptions as we’ve done in the past, what might be more strategic or important today is sharing with your people where you want them to invest their time. I believe your team members can be more productive and can focus more effectively by having clarity of what their five or seven High Leverage Activities are, versus just having a description of their role.

A super-effective tool we introduced in the RESULTS Faster! book is what we call an Accelerator Matrix, which helps people focus more on their HLAs. Study the template below for a minute or so.

Accelerator Matrix

Accelerator Matrix

Basically, you list out in the first column five to seven of the most important activities (HLAs) someone should be doing in any given week, whether they’re an executive, an executive assistant, or a mid-level manager (and it even works for the field). In the middle column, list the actions they could take to accelerate each HLA. For example, if one of your own HLAs is nourishing your team, one of the actions in that middle column might be to hold inspiring staff meetings. Another HLA may be to monitor three or four critical success factors that matter the most, and an action for that HLA may be to ensure reports are coming to you in a way you can understand them. Then in the last column list any roadblocks that could keep you from taking those actions. A roadblock for nourishing your team may be your busy schedule that keeps you from taking the time to invest in your people; to bust that roadblock, you need to calendar time with those people.

When you become more strategic about everything you do, including your time, you’re on the road to better and faster results.

Very Important Points:
  1. Be more strategic about everything you do, and that often leads to incredible results.
  2. Be strategic about your time.
    • Be really clear on your High Leverage Activities and invest more time in these areas.
    • Be clear on your Low Leverage Activities and do less of them.
    • Make sure you discover roadblocks that are causing you to not focus on your High Leverage Activities, and bust through those roadblocks.

Tony Jeary—The RESULTS Guy™—is a prolific author and a strategist. His organization, TJI, facilitates powerful meetings, keynote events and coaches high performers to accelerate their results.

Stand With Us— We’re Stronger Together

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When I worked at my first job on the Hill, I had the privilege of working with Neil Offen, the DSA’s president at the time.

He was kind enough to help young staffers envision where our professional lives would lead. He encouraged us to become involved in the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE). Years later, I was fortunate to work for Neil at DSA. He invited me to become an ASAE member, and today I follow in his footsteps and take advantage of participating in ASAE activities.

At DSA, I was able to learn from Neil and my colleagues about the direct selling channel. However, it was ASAE that provided me with the tools to learn how to become an effective association executive. So I too encourage DSA members to be involved in their industry association.

DSA is the vehicle that encourages the sharing of ideas between executives no matter their current job function or product line they represent. I have seen DSA knock down the silos that so often separate those in the channel.

There are many disruptive forces facing direct selling. Working strategically and collectively with other direct selling executives we can come up with solutions that ensure our success now and in the future in this ever-changing marketplace.

There’s never been a more exciting time to be a part of DSA. DSA and the Council of Better Business Bureaus (CBBB) have created a third party, self-regulatory program that will launch in January 2019, the Direct Selling Self-Regulatory Council (DSSRC). For more than five decades, the DSA had a self-regulatory program for its members. This new program, at the urging of the Federal Trade Commission, will apply to DSA members and non-members alike. It articulates clear principles, but primarily was initiated and took action based on consumer complaints. The creation of a new, proactive program represents a step forward to raise the bar for the direct selling industry.

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The new DSSRC will monitor the entire U.S. direct selling industry and will embody the following principles:

  • Clear industry standards on issues such as product and earnings representations;
  • Identification of relevant best practices from other self-regulatory models;
  • Creation of a process that both monitors and enforces strict business principles; and
  • Enacts measures to raise the bar of excellence for DSA members and the entire channel.

The program foundation is built on—

  • Comprehensive active monitoring of the direct selling marketplace, including websites and social media of companies and their salesforce in the areas of income representations and product claims;
  • Independent investigation and reporting of unresolved violations of non-compliant companies to the Federal Trade Commission;
  • Rigorous, competitive challenge process, enabling other companies to identify issues for the DSSRC; and
  • Increased consumer protection that will complement law enforcement with the hallmarks of successful self-regulation.

As a DSA member, your company will have a hand in shaping and supporting the new self-regulatory effort to be a fair and effective resource for the entire industry. DSA members will receive discounted access to a searchable database of the program’s decisions. Membership has its privileges.

I invite members to make a New Year’s resolution to increase involvement in their industry association. And, I invite you to join DSA if you are not already a member. Please have a seat at the table at this crucial time. As they say in Washington, if you’re not at the table, you’re on the menu.

Nancy M. Burke is the Vice President of Membership for the Direct Selling Association (DSA).

Prüvit Up in NYC

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Creating brand experiences gives the field a sense of pride, experience, and validation for the brand they are helping create.

Developing a brand is much more than just a logo or tagline. According to Marty Neumeier, author of The Dictionary of Brand, a brand is “all the interactions people have with a product, service, or organization.”

One of the best ways to increase brand awareness, especially for a direct sales company, is to create brand experiences. That’s exactly what Prüvit did by taking over Times Square with more than 400 independent promoters in early November.

The company’s “BETTER Weekend” celebrated the 100 millionth experience of its KETO//OS product in the marketplace. The Kentucky-based company produces exogenous ketone supplements along with other nutrition products aimed at helping people return their bodies to their native optimized state.

Culture & Community Building Experience

The purpose of the BETTER Weekend wasn’t just to broadcast Prüvit logos, commercials and products on the huge digital screens in Times Square. The entire event, which promoters paid their own way to attend, also built credibility and validation in the company’s focus of “the constant pursuit of better.” It was a culture and community building time for promoters to celebrate the brand they helped create. Of course, being in the heart of the media and branding capital of the world, plenty of buzz was generated about Prüvit and its mission.

“It was a culture and community building time for promoters to celebrate the brand they helped create.”

Promoters were asked to dress up as fairies but were not told why. The reason? Prüvit officially launched its new KETO//OS NAT “Fairy Dust” flavor. Promoters also got to sample an up-coming product—KETO//GO, which is a ready-to-drink ketone supplement in a can. Flavors on hand included “Unicorn Slam” and “The Big Apple.”

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NYC Landmark Scavenger Hunt

Promoters participated in a scavenger hunt involving some of New York City’s most iconic landmarks such as Radio City Music Hall, Central Park, The Statue of Liberty, and many others. The goal was to take pictures of KETO//OS products at these different landmarks. They even used a scavenger hunt app called Scavify. The purpose was to create a fun and unique experience of New York City, that Promoters could push out to their social media feeds as well.

“We believe that what the company is proud of, the promoters are proud of,” says an independent promoter for Prüvit who attended. “It creates a sense of pride, experience, and validation for my wife and I to be in the branding capital of the world and see a brand you helped create.”

“It was brilliant branding,” he says. “The whole purpose was creating an experience that was bigger than any one person who ordinarily would never have that experience. It had less to do with corporate branding than it did community branding.”

The Events Horizon

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Technology is helping more people feel connected to a larger purpose.

Events will always be a driving force for growth and belief building. While the benefits of training motivation and culture are at the core of events, they generate some impressive, tangible growth numbers. Some companies are augmenting live events with some of the latest technology and social media platforms to create a unique and inclusive experience.

Events are Crucial to Enrolling

According to LifeVantage CEO Darren Jensen in his recent article titled, The Social Proof Principle: Does Attending Events Matter?, “Event attendees are 2,241 percent more likely to enroll somebody than their non-event-attending counterparts.” He also states that those who attended at least one major event per year earn an average of 119 percent more.

“Seasoned industry veterans understand the power behind events,” Jensen says. “We keep on coming back because we derive value from them. We continue to invest personal money to attend them because, either we enjoy the experience, or it helps our businesses in some tangible way. Events remind distributors that they are necessary while helping them feel connected to a larger purpose.”

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Technology Changing Event Landscape

ACN will enter its 26th year in business in 2019, and still hosts four major corporate events throughout the year. The largest event is in February, and each one builds to the next. Different locations are selected for each and announced during or right after the current event. The company recently held a live event with some of its top leaders that was also broadcast via YouTube Live for any of its Independent Business Owners to view, creating an atmosphere where everyone felt as if they were in the same room. “All of our leaders truly believe that our events are non-negotiable,” says Katie Mapel, ACN Director of Marketing Communications.

Ambit Energy holds two major corporate events per year for its Independent Consultants. Ambition, historically held Labor Day weekend in Dallas, is the company’s major annual convention. The first event each year, called Simulcast, acts as a one-day yearly kickoff held in January. For 2019, there are two live locations (Texas and Connecticut). It’s a mix of training, motivation, plus a time for announcements and goals for the year. For the first time, an after-party will be held near the live locations to help bolster excitement, culture and networking.

The event is also simulcast (hence the name) online for consultants who cannot attend a live location. Groups of consultants around the country hold watch parties, which Ambit corporate staff members have been known to “crash” with prizes. Attendees, whether live or online, are eligible for special bonus promotions following Simulcast.