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S2 Ep12 From Marketing Agency to MLM: Tena Pettis' Journey into Network Marketing
51 Plays10 months ago
Tena Pettis, a former owner of a successful design and digital agency, made a surprising career shift to work with doTERRA, a multi-level marketing company. Host Dave Meyer explores Tena's journey from agency owner to network marketer, discussing her reasons for leaving the agency world behind. Tune in to learn about Tena's transition and her focus on helping other women succeed in the world of multi-level marketing.
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Dial It In Podcast is where we gathered our favorite people together to share their advice on how to drive revenue, through storytelling and without the boring sales jargon. Our primary focus is marketing and sales for manufacturing and B2B service businesses, but we’ll cover topics across the entire spectrum of business. This isn’t a deep, naval-gazing show… we like to have lively chats that are fun, and full of useful insights. Brought to you by BizzyWeb.
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Website: dialitinpodcast.com
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Transcript
Introduction to Dial It In Podcast
00:00:05
Speaker
Welcome to Dial It In, a podcast where we talk with interesting people about the process improvements and tricks they use to grow their businesses. I'm Dave Meyer, president of BusyWeb, and every week, Trigg Violson and I are bringing you interviews on how the best in their fields are dialing it in for their organizations.
Tina Pettis' Career Transition
00:00:22
Speaker
Tina Pettis built a design and digital agency from scratch, but after 10 years in the field, kicked the office to the side and found herself working at home. She did the one thing she thought she would never do. She jumped into a company that she didn't own. The company that she works for is doTERRA, and she probably wears her networking marketing badge of honor. She's risen in the ranks, brought her husband home from corporate, and now focuses on helping other women do the same.
00:00:48
Speaker
I've always known Tina to be thoughtful, wildly intelligent, and a worthy competitor in the marketing space. And I've never gotten the guts till now to ask her why she left it all behind to work on a multi-level marketing.
00:01:00
Speaker
Dave, you and I work in sales. We like to think of ourselves as warriors. Warriors? Okay. Well, not really warriors, but that's sort of, that's sort of the guy cliche that, you know, warriors and there are people in our world that were competition. Then there was good competition. So then when you, you lost a gig to somebody else, you tip your eye and go, yeah, okay. I can kind of understand that. Yeah.
00:01:24
Speaker
Yeah. And you go, yeah, they're great. And I can remember when I had my own shop, our guest today was kind of what my benchmark was because she had this great agency that was, I don't know, 10, 12 people. And she was in an art deco building that in a really cool part of town was like, man, I really want to be that. And then several years ago, she gave it all up, moved to the country with her husband and her three beautiful children and started a multi-level marketing business.
00:01:53
Speaker
And I was like, Tina, what? What were you thinking? How did you get to that conclusion? You know, that's a really good question. I hope we're going to answer that.
00:02:11
Speaker
Our guest today is Tina Paddis. Tina had a good-sized marketing agency, 10-12 people, all really smart people. You didn't really have a bad egg in the bunch. You decided to make a big change. What precipitated the big change?
Overcoming Skepticism in Network Marketing
00:02:25
Speaker
It actually started a little before I closed the doors of Tenacious. I was
00:02:31
Speaker
seven years into my 10 years at Tenacious and my neighbor was in a network marketing company. And she came to me and like many other network marketers, you would be so great at this. And I was like, ha ha ha. Yep, I would. I can sell a lot of things, but I will never do this. So that was the first absolute that I said. And I said, right, this is not going to happen. I have a good thing here.
00:03:01
Speaker
kind of kept plugging along at it in a kind way and I saw her as she was a teacher at the time and I saw her starting to earn this income and we were close enough that she was you know showing me what she was making and I was like selling essential oils you're
00:03:18
Speaker
making more than what you did as a teacher. Now, I was a customer of hers. I absolutely love the product. And so fast forward just a tiny bit. I actually purchased a brick and mortar business, local town in Stillwater. And this brick and mortar was a hair salon. I had no business being in that. That's probably a whole other podcast episode we could do.
00:03:39
Speaker
many years from now because it's still a sore subject. But I bought this hair salon and my first thought was, oh, my neighbor could use this space. She could teach classes here. I don't have to be the oil lady, but I understood how network marketing work. And I thought, oh, she can she can teach classes. These people can be put within my organization. This is how I'll do this.
00:04:03
Speaker
So my intention, even stepping my tiny little foot in, was that I would be able to sort of run this without putting my name on it. Now, I think we all can laugh because that's never how a business, you know, goes.
00:04:18
Speaker
But before you knew it, I was seeing what my role was in this company. Well, in this side business, side hustle, whatever we want to call it. And I started to see that people were coming in because they trusted me as a business owner and thought maybe a little bit different than you guys were like, what the heck are you doing? You're like, oh, Tina's doing this. I can do this. Now I get to work with her.
00:04:40
Speaker
It's a little bit of what people even had said to me. They're like, I've always wanted to work with you in some capacity. I just never knew how it would be. And now here we are. And so I took a different approach than most in the network marketing space as I led with the business idea of it, proposing it to other business owners where it made actual sense in their business. For me, it actually didn't make sense in my marketing company. It made sense in my hair salon.
00:05:03
Speaker
So in the marketing business, I would not approach another marketer or web design company and be like, you should sell some oils. That doesn't make sense. If you're like, hey, yeah, you can use some lavender. People would be like, what the heck is that going on?
00:05:20
Speaker
What I saw happening is, you know, friends of mine that owned yoga studios and gyms and chiropractors and whatnot, I said, Hey, let's, let's do this. Like let's partner up on this. And so then I took more of a lead coach type role. And so that's where that happened. So three years in to doing doTERRA tenacious the salon. And I also was a co-owner of another business. I, I had a gentleman come into my office who was a family friend and
00:05:49
Speaker
He came into the tenacious office and he wanted to hear about doTERRA. He saw how much success I'd had and wanted to just know more about it. Now, I didn't generally totally lead that way of like, hey, I'm making money, so you should learn how I'm making money. But he wanted to hear. I did. He came into my office. Then he saw compensation plan and kind of structure of the business. And as he was leaving, he looked at me and he kind of looked around my office and
00:06:12
Speaker
Yes, it was a beautiful space, Trigby. I almost got teared up thinking about not being there. But anyways, he looked around and he's like, why are you messing around with all this when you're doing this well in your network marketing company? Now, I was annoyed at first. I thought, who are you to tell me what I can do? Just being like the firstborn girl, all the things. I'm like, who are you to tell me? And so I went down, sat at my desk, he laughed. And I looked down at my planner. And on my planner, there was, quote,
00:06:41
Speaker
Um, in the corner of every page and specifically on this week, it had a quote that said, we should not have fear of failure, but a succeeding at the wrong thing. And it's by Francis Chan, pastor.
00:06:54
Speaker
And I sat there and I started crying. I called my husband and I was like, I'm supposed to close the doors of Tenacious. Now my passion had already started to fade. I'm not going to say that was like in my prime time of revenue or employees or anything. I was already starting to move more into coaching than I was social media management or web or anything like that. And the response I got from my husband was not what I was expecting. He said, Oh, I was, I was expecting this. Amazing.
00:07:24
Speaker
Oh, for real? So about a month later, I said goodbye. And so now I look back and I was like, God, why? Like faith filled person. So I'm relying on like, you know, my prayer and just guidance. Sometimes I get it, sometimes I don't. Right. And so I just had no idea why close this. I mean, people thought I was crazy. They're like, did you sell it? No. What? Why? Why? You know, and
00:07:50
Speaker
nothing was wrong. And I fast forward. Now I can look back and say, had I not closed it, not quite sure how we would have weathered this storm of 2020. A lot of our clients were personality driven business owners, meaning speakers, coaches, writers, they were grasping at anything at that moment, right? We would have been cut out of their budget. And I was able to homeschool my kids through that time. And I just I absolutely know
00:08:17
Speaker
I wouldn't have been able to do that and also like parent my 12 employees. I say that joke. No, management is parenting. I think everybody knows that. Fun fact about your hair salon is when you had the liquidation sale, you probably got 20 to 25% more money than you should have because of me.
00:08:44
Speaker
I knew it was your sale and I purposely went on and jacked up the prices on everything and bid stuff up because like, Hey, it's my friend. Just do yes. And I didn't know what any of that stuff was, but Hey, I'm going to help. I'm going to help out a buddy.
00:09:00
Speaker
I love it. Did you wind up with anything? I didn't, which was the weird thing. There was a couple of things that I actually wanted and I didn't even get those. So now I wanted that chair with the way you put the space helmet on to dry your hair. I didn't get that, but thank you for sharing the narrative. One of the things that I think was really interesting is that I looked at what you're doing and I call it something different than what you called it. I called it multi-level marketing and you called it networking marketing. So what's the difference between those two things?
Understanding Network Marketing and MLM
00:09:30
Speaker
Well, actually there's three different terms people throw out there. One is, well, four, if you want to call it pyramid scheme. So we got pyramid scheme.
00:09:39
Speaker
We got MLM, we got network marketing and we have direct sales. So direct sales is where someone is, Mary Kay would be an example of this. A lot of times you are buying like an item at a time. With doTERRA, we have a membership and so that falls into network marketing. Then multi-level marketing is actually just more of a term that's like broadly used across the industry because most
00:10:05
Speaker
companies have some sort of level to them. And so there's multiple levels. A lot would argue that every company has that. Right. I once went to a multilevel marketing presentation and they explained to me how it wasn't a pyramid scheme by any means. And it absolutely wasn't a pyramid scheme. And then they said, okay, so now that we've gotten that under control, it's not a pyramid scheme. Let me introduce you to our triangle of success.
00:10:36
Speaker
That's the same thing. That's the same thing. Okay, so when you're working with somebody new and I would imagine their hackles are immediately up because everybody knows that pyramid schemes are bad and they'll take your money. Yup, yup, absolutely. So I would say that
00:10:55
Speaker
Over the course of time, that narrative has changed a little bit. I'm going to lump the three of us into the same generation. We have the aunt that was the Avon lady and the grandma that sold Mary Kay and had a whole cupboard full and Tupperware and all that kind of stuff. They're twisting the arms of their friends and family to purchase from them.
00:11:18
Speaker
And it's just, it was a different world. Now, this newer generations of people coming down the line, I would say that tail end of millennials and then this whatever all the next generation names are, I don't quite have that same feeling about the industry. And so we've actually, I've had to correct myself from making fun of the industry because they don't have that negative thought process around it. They're like, wow, this is sort of brilliant. I'm like, yes.
00:11:48
Speaker
It is and I've always actually been intrigued by MLM just in general. I like the idea of if there's a good product and we can get into that too. I know that's a whole nother piece of this.
00:12:01
Speaker
But Tina, one of the things that we've been saying in the chat so far is multi-level marketing and I think that is probably one of the biggest things and probably one of the reasons you're so successful. Can you kind of explain how the business model does work, like where the marketing comes in and it's more based on relationships but kind of how is that set up and when you start with someone brand new, how do you
00:12:27
Speaker
engage them and explain how they make money. Yeah. So like I mentioned, I primarily work with other business owners. And so they already get the concept of a compensation plan and how that works for the most part. A lot of entrepreneurs don't quite understand compensation, which kind of boggles my mind. But when it makes sense for a business, like I mentioned, one of my first business partners
00:12:51
Speaker
owns a couple of health food stores and she already sold essential oils and supplements in her food store. And so when I posed this to her, of course she'd had been hit up by like every company under the sun, but she did. She trusted me. I was actually her business coach at one point. And although she thought I was crazy, she tried the products and we're like, okay, well these actually work. These work better than what I have at my store. I want to bring them into
00:13:15
Speaker
the store because the products actually help people. And so that's my first goal, you know, in also in choosing a company, I mean, the company kind of chose me, I'm thankful that it was what it was, that it even wasn't like a competitive brand necessarily. And that the products actually worked and checked the boxes, right? So when talking to people about the compensation plan, yeah, the first step is who do you want to do this with? And who do you want to be at events with? Who do you want
00:13:45
Speaker
be on phone calls with, who do you want to be coaching? Who do you, like, cause you do spend a lot of time with people and they become really your business partners in a lot of way. And so for me, I, I initially reached out to three people. I mean, that's kind of like a kind of token thing within marketing, right? Like as you are, you know, who are the three people? Well, the three people I went to was someone that worked for me at Tenacious, someone that worked for me at the salon and my sister-in-law. And so first mistake I made was family.
00:14:15
Speaker
If you're listening to this Heather, I love you, but Frank Bailey is the best business partnership. So well, unless you're Dave and Jen and that works, I guess. I don't know how you guys do it, but those, I really, I reached out to those three people and I said, Hey, I'm going to do this. I'm going to run with this. Do you want to run alongside me?
00:14:35
Speaker
And so they all said yes, sort of, like, sure. And, you know, they're all still somewhat active, one very active, the other two somewhat active in the business and they all earn any income every single month based on some of their efforts, some of my efforts and efforts of people within their organization. Talk a little bit about the compensation plan of how does that work in a multi-level market?
00:15:01
Speaker
Yep. All, all companies have very different structures. So there's really three different types of structures within network marketing. One is called Unilevel, which means that you earn within the levels of the organization and there's a percentage based forever. So.
00:15:17
Speaker
For example, how doTERRA works is like on the top level of the company, I'm making like 2% and it goes all the way down to 7% where as you look at the structure of the company, right? It is that triangle where it's going to be wider on the bottom. And so I'm making a higher percentage on the bottom. So unilevel structure, I prefer, of course, I'm biased because that's what I'm a part of. Another one is called a breakaway plan. Actually, Mary Kay, since we already brought this up, it's called a breakaway plan.
00:15:41
Speaker
So, as a company, as you have a business partner that grows to a certain point, they actually break off your organization. You stop earning off of them.
00:15:52
Speaker
for a while until you rise up and then they come back to you. So I believe that's kind of defeating a lot of people and how Mary Kay would present it or another breakaway plan would present it is it encourages you to move to that next level so you can grab them back. I've seen a lot of reps in whatever organization that has breakaway when they're in that middle ground, it can be really difficult. So there's that plan. And then there's a binary plan where that is basically you have two organizations underneath you.
00:16:21
Speaker
And so they have to stay kind of level in volume in order for you to earn the most that you can.
00:16:29
Speaker
Those three structures, if you opened up a booklet of any single network marketing company, you'd see that compensation and how there can be all these different bonuses. Some are like, hey, there's five ways to earn, there's
MLM Compensation Structures
00:16:40
Speaker
15 ways to earn, there's all these different things. And a big part of it is we are regulated. The FTC regulates the things that happen within the organization because it can easily turn into what you'd say at like a pyramid scheme. People are purchasing only to earn
00:16:58
Speaker
And that does get really messy and I've seen that happen in other, you know, in certain companies.
00:17:02
Speaker
And just to straighten that out because I think we're tap dancing around it a little bit. I don't for the folks that don't understand like the pyramid scheme thing and where that comes from basically was the compensation structure of like way back where you would and correct me if I'm wrong, I'm trying to go off memory but you know, so basically in a traditional pyramid scheme, you would encourage as many people to sign up as possible. They each put in some money.
00:17:31
Speaker
and then that money that each person puts in essentially funds until the entire thing collapses. I think it's a little more nuanced than that though, right? Yeah. We're selling podcast microphones. I'm the head of the podcast microphones. I'm going to sign Dave up and then Dave has to purchase 10 podcast microphones as part of his sign up and then Dave sells those to other people.
00:18:01
Speaker
And so that's how David allegedly gets compensated for it, because he's buying them at $10 and selling them at $20. So that's how the product part works. That's one of the knocks on it, too. Right, Tina? Yeah, yep. And I think Pyramid Scheme initially started with just cash. So it didn't have valuable product there. And so you could argue that probably
00:18:27
Speaker
I'm just tossing this out there, probably 80% of the businesses that fall into MLM, network marketing, whatever, sell a really crappy product. And so you are ending up really honestly buying to earn versus buying a product that's really great to use. And that's where this industry still gets a bad rap at times. Or you're very high priced, right? Here's another piece that people argue is like, oh, well, they're higher priced because
00:18:56
Speaker
they got to pay out all these people. And there's arguments for all of that, right? But there is some validity in it because maybe it's a cheaper product that's being produced.
00:19:05
Speaker
That was one of the things for me had I not already loved the product of doTERRA. Have I not loved how they source it and like all the things that they do. I wouldn't have been able to like hang my hat there on that company. And if doTERRA went away, I'm not that in love with the industry. I wouldn't jump to another. I can't, I can't say never, but I can't imagine ever going to another company just because of how much I know about many of them and doTERRA.
00:19:28
Speaker
Sure. Well, and there's a lot of alignment and I think that's probably the difference between even today. There's still these scam things like SPF or Sam Bankman Freed with the crypto. Give me money and I will do these things.
00:19:44
Speaker
The difference in doTERRA and in businesses that are doing this correctly in multi-level marketing, they provide a value, they provide a service, and the way that those companies make money is they charge money for their products.
00:20:02
Speaker
and the marketing comes in in personal relationships, brilliant people like Tina that are just reaching out to other business owners and there's not a traditional marketing side where you're not doing like lots of advertising, lots of traditional things, putting up billboards with your arms hanging wide like folks we know. This is relationship-based, right?
00:20:23
Speaker
Yep, absolutely. And it will continue to be, and we're seeing a really big shift in the industry as a whole, not entirely going away from this. Some people still love it, but like the at-home party situation is just, was a little bit killed off during COVID and hasn't totally come back for, for good reason. I mean, I don't necessarily want to sit in someone's living room and learn about a product or feel obligated to buy, you know, a pair of earrings or whatever.
00:20:47
Speaker
And so there's been a swing. One thing within doTERRA that they've done differently, and I know other companies are this way as well, is there's more education needed to use our product for the most part. And so there is more a class style of education versus like a party style. So we still do have some of that, but most of it's moved online.
00:21:13
Speaker
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00:21:31
Speaker
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Speaker
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Speaker
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00:22:42
Speaker
I have a friend who does Mary Kay, and she is, as I'm sitting here talking to you, Tina, I'm thinking, God, she's like Tina, because she's one of those people that I think the way I would describe her, much like I described you, is Tina can ruin a bad mood with the best of them.
00:23:02
Speaker
Thank you. And one of the things that she told me as I did some research and I talked to her about her Mary Kay experience is that she is compensated not for how many people she signs up, but she's compensated for how well they do, which I think is an element of that relationship building and that coaching, which I think probably dovetails really nice into somebody with your level of experience. Yeah. And you're one because you are a great coach.
00:23:31
Speaker
Well, thank you. Yeah, that is a big piece of it. Sometimes I wish people like realized like what they have. Okay, I can help you a lot. You just have to be coachable. And, you know, it's like anything, you know, you talk about maybe the like failure rate in network marketing, or do people lose money and
00:23:48
Speaker
Being the owner now of like right four different organizations, I would say that this is the least scary one to get into. Network marketing as a whole, most, there are still some that are kind of crazy where you got to buy like a whole wardrobe of clothes and stuff like that. I was like, not, not cool. I just like, no, that's probably not where I would go.
00:24:09
Speaker
You're talking about leggings, right? Yep, exactly. That one. Yep. That was definitely a fail, which is still exists, which is crazy. But like, it's 100 bucks to start any company. I mean, your microphone costs that, right? So it's just when you think about the investment in
00:24:28
Speaker
is so low for what the potential of payout could be, but there's no get rich quick. I mean, some people still share that. And whenever I see that, I'm like, oh man, that's not, I know I said I lead with the business opportunity, but I lead with that to business owners because they understand it, right? I'm not going to my stay at home mom friends and like, you should really do this.
00:24:52
Speaker
How do network marketing, multi-level marketing people, how do they recruit new members? Is there a personality type that is more susceptible to saying yes than not? For sure. We actually within DoTERRA have found one of the leaders within the organization did a little bit of research within our team and said, our whole organization, I should say,
00:25:16
Speaker
and said, what are some of these main characteristics? And she really pinpointed seven. And I could say that those are across the board for all network marketers. And I'll try to think of them off the top of my head, but one of them is 35 to 55 pretty broad. She is a girl for sure. She has a supportive spouse, not necessarily financially, but they're like, they get it. They're not like, oh, this is stupid, right? They have some sort of financial need.
00:25:43
Speaker
And I can attest to that. Um, a lot of my circle doesn't necessarily have a financial need. And I see that once it gets hard, they're like, Oh, I'm good. Right. Cause they're not hungry for that. You know, they're not willing to take that next step and move out of their warmer hot market. They have some sort of business or sales experience. And so I think that's one thing that people really miss in this that.
00:26:07
Speaker
They think network marketing is for that, you know, stay-at-home mom, not saying it can't be, there's always some like amazing story, you know, and stay-at-home moms are not dumb. Like they can do things, but at the, at the same time, it's, you know, when there's some experience, it just makes sense. So that wasn't seven, but that's, that's what I got on the job. Yeah. And stay, you're right. Stay-at-home moms aren't stupid by any means. They're tired of the PAW Patrol and focusing on something else. They want something they're on their own.
00:26:37
Speaker
Yup, for sure. And they want to feel like they're making a difference and impacting their business, their lives. They want to do something. They want to make something. Yup. Conversely, what are the ethical concerns that if somebody who is evaluating, hey, if I really, really want to get into this, what really do people need to think about from a standpoint of joining up?
00:26:59
Speaker
Yeah, one of the questions that I would ask if I was just starting out now again, is I would ask this, what is the ratio of customer to distributor? So within doTERRA, we're at like a 20 80 split. So 20% advocates, 80% customer that tells you that the product is worth purchasing. So I can, I can throw out this name, advocate, which is a pretty well-known name. They were hit. Which is where I heard of the triangles of success, by the way.
00:27:28
Speaker
Oh, perfect. Because they are no longer an MLM. They only have one level, which would be more like an affiliate program or retail because the FTC came in and said, you know, I wasn't in the court proceeding, so I don't know every single detail of what was heard on the street. Basically theirs was flipped. So they had like 80% earners and 20% customers.
00:27:54
Speaker
And so what that tells that the FTC is basically this does kind of start to become a pyramid scheme because you're, you're buying to earn versus buying to use. Oh, sure. Yeah. And so that would be something. And if they can't answer that, I would keep asking, right? Until someone, someone in the company has that statistic there. So that would be one because that would be a big, that would be eye-opening to me. The other thing is how big is your buy-in? Like.
00:28:19
Speaker
You have to stock product because if you do, it's pretty archaic. It's not something that, you know, I'll have some things that I know my friends are like, Hey, do you have this on hand? Right. I do not want to be someone that's dropping off things in people's mailboxes and whatnot. Like they need their own account. They need to order on their own. And so if you are told that you've got to have a stockpile of products or a big investment to begin with, I would shy away from that.
00:28:44
Speaker
So one of the things that I know as a former marketing agency owner that you are probably insanely good at is marketing outside of the traditional multi-level just working on relationships and folks. Are there some tips or tricks that you might have for folks that want to leverage their social network or the social media that they might already be engaged with to grow their businesses?
00:29:12
Speaker
Yeah, one of the big pieces is most network marketing companies have a lot of products. I don't even know how many doTERRA has, but it's well over a hundred. And if one day I jumped on and talked about this product and the next day I jumped on this product and then this solution and that solution and that thing, you're going to confuse your people. And so I would encourage people.
00:29:31
Speaker
to share and go all in on one solution. And so for me, it made sense for me to dive into stress and sleep. Those are two things that doTERRA helped me with the most. And it's the one thing that I feel like business owners in general need a little bit of help with. And so that's where I went. And that's what I dove into. Now some will focus on, hey, we help kids
00:29:53
Speaker
and be in school and parents don't have to take sick days, right? Or whatever. But I say, lean in to that ideal client, niche market, all of that. And I feel like my team in general is probably real sick of me saying this over and over and over again. Because the idea, and we all know this, like, there's this like, oh, scarcity, but what if? Well, what if? Like, it's fine. Once they hear about stress and sleep from me, they'll know we also have toothpaste and gum and, you know, just all this random stuff, right?
00:30:22
Speaker
I'd say really dial into that online presence in that way. But also with online, I feel like still, even though it's something I have done for a living for a decade and a half, you can't rely on that alone. You've got to have an online game and an offline game.
00:30:41
Speaker
When someone comes to me and says, I want to build this and I want to do it online. And I'm like, unless you've got like a hundred thousand people following you already, it really, it will take work to do either one. And it's actually going to be easier to do it need any. I was telling somebody the other day about somebody came to me and said they, they wanted to do an online tattoo parlor.
00:31:02
Speaker
And I said, well, great, that sounds neat. Where are you going to do the tattoos? And she said, wherever the person wants. I said, no, I mean, I understand the concept of tattooing as you get to pick where it is, but where are you going to do the work? And she looked at me like I had two heads, like where the person wants. I said, yes, but physically, if I want, okay, so I'm coming to you online and I want to tattoo, how does it get onto my body? And she said, we put it on your body.
00:31:29
Speaker
I'm like, okay. So I never forgot her, but I, what I've always remembered from that is just online never actually works. It's not enough. You have to have both an online and an offline presence. Well, you can't build this strong enough relationship. So I've watched people build organizations within doTERRA that are only online. And it's a pretty empty kind of feeling. You don't have the best parts of network marketing are your team.
00:31:56
Speaker
Being able to travel with a bunch of girlfriends and hang out for a week and call it work, it's amazing and learn about really cool things. I always say network marketing is personal growth on steroids and communities. I have people join me on a regular basis just to see what I'm up to, hanging out, traveling. They're like, wait, what? What are you doing? This is work?
00:32:17
Speaker
And so it's a lifestyle, you know, and that's that's what a lot of us show is like, hey, here's this lifestyle and I'll have people leave and then come back because they miss the community. And so there's that you want them to miss you, you know.
00:32:30
Speaker
How does somebody find out about a multi-level marketing or a network marketing product? Because I know I use one, but that was because it got sent to me by accident. And it's so much better than what you can get that I found anywhere else. And I'll admit, I use a doTERRA product I use called Deep Blue. You knew you were going to say that. Yeah. Because I'm a middle-aged man with back problems, it's obvious.
00:32:53
Speaker
It's like my one drug of choice for men. Like if there's a woman that's like, my husband's on a board. I was like, has he used a deep blue? So yes, absolutely. How does someone find a product? It generally works with someone sampling someone or someone experiencing the product.
00:33:10
Speaker
Whatever that may be so you'll find people all the time asking like for some sort of like hey, have you tried this? Have you sampled that? Have you done that? No, some people are like no MLMs allowed like I don't know how many Facebook groups that I'm a part of that someone will say I need a solution for this but no MLMs and I was like, okay Well, you're not gonna get maybe the best solution then for your issue I get a little frustrated by that but they somewhere in their journey and
00:33:34
Speaker
something happened that made them believe that that wasn't a good option for them to choose. Someone bugged them too much, someone whatever. So I will not ever be the girl that shows up in your inbox that's like, hey girl, I got this, blah, blah, blah. That's just not at all. So I like to have some sort of in-person experience for people or just mention something to them. For example, at hockey, I'm sitting in the stands with hockey moms nonstop.
00:34:01
Speaker
and a kid gets a bloody nose, I actually have a solution. I keep it in my purse all the time. There's an oil that makes blood clot and the kid can get back on the ice.
00:34:12
Speaker
moms are like, wait, what miracle did you just pull out of your purse? So there's that. And then also kids get super anxious, right? And so we've got supplement specifically for anxiety. And I'm not actually supposed to say that word. It's for anxious thoughts, but anxiety is a diagnosis for anxious thoughts. And so they have one of those, they feel calm. Moms are like, wait, what again, how did you do that? So when they can experience the product,
00:34:42
Speaker
It's helpful. And so if, again, that's going to be sort of probably need a need. If somebody is trying to looking at a multi-level marketing opportunity, I think one of the things we want to make sure that, and you talked about the consumer versus a seller ratio. What are some other things that
Evaluating MLM Opportunities
00:35:00
Speaker
if somebody is looking to evaluate joining? Yeah, something that's going to work for them. What are some unethical things that MLMs do that people need to be aware of to avoid?
00:35:11
Speaker
How long do we have? This one's a big question because most people will not actually listen to this advice because they're like glazed over by the idea of the number they see the person told them about that they'll earn or they're glazed over by the product. And so how people generally get into network marketing as a business is they like the product or they saw this
00:35:34
Speaker
kind of compensation plan right or like idea and so usually they like i said they won't listen to what i'm about to say so hopefully someone will listen it would be great a couple things is if you are deciding that you want to do this as a business whatever company you're considering
00:35:52
Speaker
You want to make sure that the person you're signing up with is actually active in the business. It makes all the difference. If someone was to come into my organization, they are going to have literally weekly coaching from me. Our team is so solid. The whole organization, it's just amazing. We do team retreats, we do productivity times, like meet together on a monthly basis in person if you're local.
00:36:18
Speaker
And so if you do not have that, you're kind of flying out there solo. And as people climb the ranks within any of these companies, you have more access to corporate and more access to information. So I'm able to flood my team with information they wouldn't get if they didn't have me within our team. So that's huge. So interviewing that person.
00:36:40
Speaker
Have they to a bunch of different companies? How long have they been in? Like, what does that look like? And so if they're new, so let's say that it was a situation like people coming with me, like I was brand new, a lot of times we'll bring in, you know, someone that's been in for a while that is a part of the organization that can vet.
00:36:57
Speaker
who it is. So I'd ask for a phone call. If they're brand new, I'd ask for a phone call with whoever their offline is, is kind of terminology. That's a big one. There is a very big difference in types of companies. There's legacy companies and there's these companies that are going to be here today, make all these claims and be gone tomorrow. And it's maybe not something totally innately in most people.
00:37:20
Speaker
But man, I can sense it in like a second. It just is like, it's crazy how quickly I'm like, okay, yep, nope, they're going to be gone. And so Jotera is a legacy company. We've been around for 15 years. Mary Kay has been around for like 79 years. I mean, it's not that long, but it's maybe, I don't know. It's been a long for a really, really long time, right? Like they're a legacy company and they're not going anywhere.
00:37:42
Speaker
Other companies that fall in that category, Malauka or Amway, there's quite a few of them. Now, I would say some of those, their ship has sailed a little bit. People are maybe bored or they didn't re-kind of...
00:37:57
Speaker
come to the market a little bit differently. But every single day, people sign up to be a rep for Mary Kay and put on their vision board that they want a pink Cadillac. So that seems crazy to me. But that's a reality. But they are truly a legacy company. I don't need to make fun of them. I actually
00:38:14
Speaker
When I was in college, I was a Mary Kay rep just for that. And Mary Kay, to your point, I think Mary Kay has legit really good products. I know this because one day I talked about my friend who was a Mary Kay rep, and she put little care packages together for people who are in the schools, and my wife works in the schools. So I said, oh, I'll have one for my wife. Okay, great. She delivered it to my house. And my wife had had a terrible, terrible day.
00:38:42
Speaker
So she found the little pack care package and she came downstairs loaded for bear and said, what is this? And I said, Oh, it's a care package. Mary Kay. Why do you not like my makeup? Do you think I look pretty? And I pivoted and I said, No, no, it's for me. And she made me sit there while I put on a green exfoliating mask and right on. Yeah, right, right then and there. So I can attest that Mary Kay products are good.
00:39:11
Speaker
That's awesome. Yeah. So we're going to have those legacy brands and then we're going to have like the shot in the dark and they're going to just be here for a second and out, you know, either bought out, they go out of business or they've already had been named like three different things. And so I would, I would ask that if you don't know that. So this is, we'll go bankrupt and then they'll come back with a new name and kind of a new packaging on their product. And well, that just feels so gross to me.
00:39:39
Speaker
So I love that some of these companies are underneath the same umbrella that I am. Wow. So one of the things that you mentioned a couple of times, Tina, is coaching. And I know, especially for you and your business, it seems like personal development and probably some motivational and content.
00:40:01
Speaker
is a big part of how you grow. Can you kind of explain what role personal development and motivational and seminars and educational materials falls in for growing your business?
00:40:16
Speaker
Yeah. So right now my group is doing a book club. 10X is easier than 2X. If you guys haven't read it, it's such a good book. And he's been on like 10 million podcasts recently. So you can just like basically get the download of the book and all these podcasts. But so good. So I'm always encouraging my wellness advocates that desire this to move their business from hobby
00:40:39
Speaker
to business and hear some of the ways that we do this and actually get more respect, I feel like in the marketplace and like learning about business, not just within our industry. Our corporate and most network marketing, they have a leadership retreat on a yearly basis. And so they bring in outside speakers and there's tons of education within the organizations from some of the leaders that have had the most success.
00:41:04
Speaker
And so that's a big piece of it. And then every single week we have two separate meetings. We have one that's like a full team. And then some of my leaders that are all in, we meet every single Wednesday morning and mastermind on different ideas because we all have different ideal clients we want to work with. We're all running our businesses a little bit differently. Some are in-person, some online, some a mixture. And so it's really good to just be able to get connected. And then quarterly we do.
00:41:32
Speaker
a productivity retreat where I rent an Airbnb, as many people can pile in, we do, and we want to be comfortable. We're not like air mattress. We're in our 40s. We have beds, but we just got some good Wi-Fi, some good food, and we just got our laptops and we go to town and just get things done.
00:41:54
Speaker
From my side of it for the marketing aspect is my customers are getting text messages from me, all value, emails of all value. We have Facebook communities where they get access. And I would say that's not just me. That's very common for the industry as a whole. We're coming up on time. A couple of last questions. If somebody feels like they're in an MLM and they don't know how to get out of it, what would you recommend that they do?
00:42:23
Speaker
Oh man, well first just talk to the person that signed them up and let them know, Hey, I'm not feeling this anymore, but be pretty certain. Like it's like, it will probably feel like quitting a job to both of them, right? The upline has invested time into that person more than likely. And so that it does feel personal and most people are not educated on how to handle that situation, right? Like.
00:42:46
Speaker
prior to me being a network marketing, I hired and fired people a little too much, right? And so I didn't have to have like a funeral for every time someone left, you know, the company because it happens. So but I would talk to the upline, I think that's just like ethically right to just say, Hey, you know what, I'm not feeling this anymore. And generally, you have an order you have to cancel, then you're done.
00:43:07
Speaker
That's it? Yeah. Hold the cord and you're good. Okay. Yeah. Cause I hear horror stories. It's like for people our age, there's the classic friends episode of I want to quit the gym. Yeah. And it's so hard to do that. But I mean, I think that if you really feel like you're in it, the quitting should be relatively easy and as long as you handle it professionally. And if it's not, then you need to really, I would think that really needs to tell you a little bit more and help you grow your backbone and getting out.
00:43:36
Speaker
Yep. I do feel like people quit too soon though in anything, right? Like when things start to get tough, you know, that might be the time to lean in. But if there's something you're like, you feel like it's ethically not a right company or product isn't right and there's some reason for that, that makes sense. Right on. Conversely, where would you start if network marketing sounds like exactly what you need and you want to kind of start researching potential opportunities?
00:44:05
Speaker
Yeah, you've got to love the product. If you're not all in on the product, there's no way you're going to sell it. It's like anything. I'm not, you know, you're not going to sell something you don't love. And so I actually really like when my wellness advocates come from within my user base, they've already loved the product and they just naturally are starting to share it with other people. That's great. And so fall in love with the product, vet the product and how it's sourced and how all that happens.
00:44:34
Speaker
And, and then looking more, a bit more to the business opportunity side of it. So that's, I would say find a product you absolutely love. You could talk about all day and you know, you can stuff into it. And then you, if you want to see success, you have to move past, uh, not only like your warm market, your hot market, like I've got like full temperature gauge I coach people on.
Tina's Return to Marketing
00:45:00
Speaker
you know, what to do within hot market, warm market, cold market, you know. And a lot, a lot of people go through their hot market and then warm isn't as easy as hot market. And they stop in that warm market so quickly. It's not that difficult. We all have worked, you know, the three of us have all worked with people in our cold market. You just have to introduce yourself to more people. And so just encourage people to like not quit too soon and, you know, step into beyond that hot market.
00:45:29
Speaker
Tina, tell us where to find you and how people can learn more about doTERRA and of course about your business and what you do. Yeah, absolutely. So one thing we didn't even touch on, which I totally get was that just this last year at the beginning of 2023, I made the decision to step back into marketing. So I'm back into marketing business machine. Awesome.
00:45:53
Speaker
I missed it a lot, although I get to do it with inside of my world of doTERRA. I really wanted to step back in. So, so here I am. My kids are back in school for the most part. I'm not all in on homeschooling. And so I felt like the right time I grabbed up a business coach and I'm all in. And so how do people find me? My favorite place to hang out is actually on Instagram.
00:46:15
Speaker
I have at Tina Pettis and it's T-E-N-A and literally you can search Tina Pettis on any social channel and you will find me if Instagram isn't your spot. And then in my doTER world, it's Shine Essentials. And so both of those spots are my place for Instagram world. And then tinapetis.com is my website.
00:46:45
Speaker
you