128 – Raise a Glass to Direct Sales with Melissa Ferber of Drink Generously with OneHope Wine

Gift biz unwrapped episode 128.

This has been the journey of a lifetime for me.

Hi, this is John Lee Dumas of entrepreneur on fire,

and you're listening to give to biz unwrapped,

and now it's time to light it up.

Hi there it's Sue and thank you for joining me on

the gift biz unwrapped podcast.

If you're a gifter Baker laughter or maker,

and you own a brick and mortar shop sell online or

are just getting started here is where you'll find insights and

advice to develop and grow your business.

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not stressful and scary.

When you join the breeze.

It's like sitting in the park with friends who bring you

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You'll have access to a group of amazing creators along with

tools and resources that can catapult your business growth to join

the group just the over to give biz breeze.com.

I look forward to seeing you over there,

but for now,

let's get onto the show today.

I have the pleasure of introducing you to Alyssa Ferber of

drink generously with one hope.

Melissa likes to think of herself as a wine drinking coffee,

sipping charity thinking kind of a gal.

She has enjoyed raising her two children,

Nikki and Joey,

while living a full and exciting life with her college,

sweetheart, Steven,

Melissa has been working with one hope line just shy of

two years now and loves the freedom.

It offers her to manage her own business.

How, and when she desires one hope line is a brand

curated along with Robert Mondavi,

Jr. That gives back with every bottle sold to date.

The one hope foundation has donated over $2.7

million to charities such as why hunger and cancer research.

They have also been able to make contributions to smaller,

lesser known charities through events held by their hosts.

Melissa feels very fortunate to have found the one hope opportunity

and sees this being a long-term business for herself.

Melissa. I'm so excited to hear the story welcome to the

show. Well thank you.

So I'm very excited to be here.

Love that you're joining us today.

And as you know,

I start off in a little bit of a creative way,

and that is by having you share who you are with

our listeners through a motivational candle.

So if you were to describe yourself in that way,

what color would your candle be and what would be the

quote on the candle?

Okay. I knew that you were going to be asking me

this question and it's kind of ironic because just recently I

took a personality quiz that had something to do with what

is your color?

And funny enough,

my color came out as green.

When I read the full description,

I thought,

geez, answering those 10 to 15 questions really hit the nail

right on the head.

And when it said green,

did you really feel like,

yeah, that's right.

I really felt like that was spot on.

Absolutely. Basically the color green relates to balance and harmony that

sums me up in a nutshell,

not that I have achieved it every single day of my

life, but it's something that I strive for.

I like everything to be balanced and harmonized,

I like things in order and it pretty much sums me

up, as I said.

So it was kind of funny that you had planned on

asking me that question because it happens to be my favorite

color as well.

It suits me perfectly.

And as far as what would my candles say?

What is the motivational quote?

I'm a huge fan of Maya Angelou and she is quoted

as saying,

success is liking yourself,

liking what you do and liking how you do it.

According to Maya Angelou,

I am already very successful and I am thrilled to be

able to pronounce that aloud to everyone.

I'm happy with who I am,

what I do and how I do it.

I haven't heard this quote from her and it brings up

a really good point that I think we all have to

remember. And it's so easy to forget about this is that

sometimes we equate success to our career,

only what we're doing in life,

how much money we're making,

if we have that corner window office,

if we want to be in the corporate world,

or if we have our own business and are making tons

of money.

And honestly,

what we're doing as a career in a business is only

one part of who we are as a person.

So this quote,

I think really dials into that concept.

Exactly. So yes,

that is what I subscribe to 100%.

Perfect. I love it.

Love it.

All right.

So let's talk now about your journey and I want to

talk about how you got to one hope.

What were you doing before that?

And what made you start thinking of something different?

And then how did you land on one hope?

So take us a little bit before the one hope story.

Okay. So I am a dental hygienist by trade and it's

like riding a bike.

Basically I could clean anyone's teeth anywhere whenever I want.

That was wonderful.

That took me through my early years of life with my

husband post-college and I enjoyed it very much.

Then I started having children and I decided I was going

to be a stay at home mom.

And that was also fantastic,

wonderful being with my children was the greatest gift that they

were able to give me.

But once they got to a certain age,

I realized they were starting to not need me as much.

And there was just too much of a void in my

life of not being creative and not having something for myself.

So about five years ago,

I decided maybe I would go back to dental hygiene and

I put my feelers out there and nothing fell into place.

So while I was looking for that perfect hygiene job,

I got on my trusty little computer and let my fingers

do the tapping and started searching out,

maybe stay at home,

mom, work,

job opportunities,

that type of thing.

And I fell into an area of direct selling.

The direct sales world is a fabulous world to be in

because it offers that opportunity for people,

men, and women who want to start their own businesses,

but maybe may not have the capital to do so and

want to do it maybe part time.

So they don't have all the time in the world to

be an entrepreneur and spend morning,

noon, and night grinding away.

So I found a company that I felt was something that

I liked,

enjoyed and felt comfortable selling because of course I clean teeth

for a living.

I was not ever in the business world.

Let me stop you here,

Melissa, will you define direct selling for our listeners?

Just so we make sure we're all on the same page.

Sure. So direct selling is selling direct to the customer.

So for example,

I now sell wine for one hope wine,

and I sell direct to the consumer.

I'm not selling wine to liquor stores.

I'm not selling wine to restaurants,

that type of thing.

So direct sales can encompass anything,

any product anywhere.

So there are many various direct selling products.

So you've seen beauty products that are direct sales.

You've seen health and wellness products that are direct sales.

And now we have one hope wine,

which is direct selling and I'll get into the story of

why one hope decided to go the direct sales route a

little further into our conversation.

Perfect. All right.

So keep going with,

you were looking online,

you were considering different options and you fell on to this

idea of direct selling.

Correct. So I joined one company and tinkered around.

I'm one of those,

like put my toe in the water.

Then I put my whole foot in the water and then

I slowly get into the pool.

I, I'm not one of those that jumps directly into the

deep end.

I chose this one company as like a starting point to

learn about what direct selling is and how to go about

it. It was a great platform for me to then search

out other companies that potentially would give me more opportunity.

And down the road,

I stumbled upon one hope.

And this has been the journey of a lifetime for me.

It has been amazing and I am blessed to have found

it. What was it that attracted you to one hope after

the first one?

Right. So when I started looking for other companies,

because my original platform wasn't quite working out for me,

I found one hope and it basically is a wine company

that gives back to charities,

various charities all over the world,

actually with every single purchase made for me,

I absolutely love wine.

And I love to give back.

I love to get involved.

There are various nonprofits in my area that I'm already involved

with. So it was the perfect combination.

And I pretty much was like all in.

I jumped in and I jumped into the deep end.

So when you landed on one hope,

because you'd looked at a number of them,

did something resonate with you?

Or why was there something about the structure the way they

were set up or what was it that made you feel

that this was absolutely the one for you?

I'm sure you're familiar with the brand Tom's shoes.

Oh yeah.

Right. And I'm not sure if he was the first person

to do this,

where with every single purchase of portion of the proceeds goes

back to charity,

but it was the first one I had ever heard of.

And I just thought he was brilliant.

And when I realized that one hope was this type of

structured, but direct selling company,

I thought,

wow, what a great opportunity for stay at home mothers and

fathers, to be able to not only build a business for

themselves, but to feel good about it because they're giving back.

And that really was the thing that resonated for me because

I just think we all should be doing our part,

especially in light of what's going on now in Texas tragedies

are happening all the time,

unfortunately in our lives.

And if we can all just make a little bit of

a difference every day,

how wonderful is that?

I totally agree with you,

but now under the structure of one,

hope you still develop your own individual company.

Correct. So drink,

generously, super,

super fun name.

Talk about how that came about.

Thank you.

So when I joined,

you need to come up with your own way of branding

yourself and setting yourself apart from not only the company,

but the other,

what we are called,

cause entrepreneurs that are across the country,

selling one hope wine as well,

because I can sell to anyone in the 35 States.

I believe it is as of right across the country.

So when I was thinking,

geez, well,

do I just want to be Melissa Ferber with one hope

wine? No,

not so much.

I really wanted to come up with something clever.

And I just,

you know,

we talk about always drinking responsibly and you hear that all

the time.

And I thought,

okay, well we know that we need to drink responsibly,

but we also should be drinking generously.

And it just sort of popped in my head and clicked.

And I said,

that's what it's going to be drink generously.

So it just came to you.

It just came to me.

So then what did you do?

So you have your name,

you know,

you're connecting up with one hope,

give us a little bit more in terms of what you

needed to do for development.

And I'm also curious about direct sales.

If they give you any guidance there too.

Yes. When you join a direct selling company,

there's usually what's called a starter kit.

And within that starter kit,

you are able to gain access to what they call a

back office,

all CEOs.

That's what they refer to us as cause entrepreneurs one hope

we all have access to a back office.

And that's how we run our business.

It tracks all of our sales.

It tracks all of our events.

It tracks all of our customers.

So it keeps us organized and prepared.

And it also offers us tons of information,

materials, marketing,

materials, business materials,

and such.

When you join a direct selling company,

that is something that is afforded to you in different capacities,

depending on which company you sign with.

But it gives you that starting point to jump off from

and start your company.

I see a couple of huge benefits with this on both

sides. From one hope side,

they keep everything uniform in terms of communication,

going out,

systems, tracking,

sales, all of that type of thing.

And then on your end,

you're still able to be individual,

but you've got a huge jumpstart.

You don't have to create everything from scratch.

That's exactly right.

And it's a beautiful thing because not only is the company,

meaning home office company,

helping you,

but there's this amazing support system.

When you join a direct sales company,

you have,

what's called an upline and that's people who are above you

that also work for the company that are there to mentor

you and help you along the way.

And so it's not even just your upline through social media,

all of these women and men reach out to one another

across lines and help one another in so many different ways.

It's like having a built in huge corporation that all holds

your hand as you walk through starting own business.

So it's an amazing way to jumpstart your own business.

Perfect question for you here.

This is not an MLM type situation.

Multi-level marketing.

It is not okay.

So it's not any pyramid structures or anything like that.

It's everybody is individual.

You come together as a community to support each other.

You have different support from corporate,

probably communities of other people,

just like you,

but no pyramid type thing,

Correct? You do sign on and build teams.

But when we say pyramid,

that really relates to the MLMs,

it does not relate to direct selling.

So it's a little bit different.

Okay, wonderful.

Now I'm going to put you on the spot a little

bit here.

Are there any things that are less than optimal with direct

selling? Oh,

good question.

A lot of people who listened to the show are thinking,

you know,

I want to do something for myself.

Getting started from scratch is super scary and intimidating.

So direct sales could be a good way for them.

So I just wanted to look at both sides here.

Right? Well,

the thing to keep in mind,

if you're going to go a direct selling route is even

though they give you the tools to jumpstart your business,

you are not reaping a hundred percent of the benefit.

You're only earning a percentage of your sales so that you

do need to keep in mind when choosing a direct sales

company. If in fact,

that's the route you're going to go,

because some of the companies are structured in such a way

that they give you 50% of the sales.

Others are structured in such a way that they give you

maybe 10 or 15 or 20% of the sales.

And that has to be a consideration when you're looking at

all of these companies and deciding if it's the right way

for you to go good Point.

So I imagine number one,

you'd really have to like the product because you're going to

be around it all the time.

Exactly. And then you really need to look at the different

terms for different direct sale companies.

Just to see what they're all about.

Now, I'm thinking with one hope you don't have to do

any fulfillment.

It all ships out from locations other than where you are.

That is correct.

It all ships from one location.

So our company is based out of Napa Valley.

Oh, what a bummer.

That is guy.

Now tell me about it.

I was just there this summer and it is just heaven

on earth.

It's wonderful.

And we have distributing locations in two.

One is in Southern California and I believe they just started

another one in the Midwest somewhere.

Don't quote me on that.

I'm not exactly sure where that distributing location is.

So yes,

only orders are taken.

So I was just going to say that actually,

even though you only get a percentage of the sale,

you also don't have the additional costs or labor with filling

orders. That's exactly right.

So in a way,

It kind of balances out too.

That gets back to your point,

Melissa, about some people who want to maybe just do this

part time or scale up as they wish they can do

it on their own terms also without investing in inventory,

which can be a huge chunk of money.

That's exactly right.

I think entering into any type of business,

especially entrepreneurial,

I think it's really important to make a list of what

it is that you're looking to do and achieve.

And at the timeline that you're looking to potentially achieve it.

I think that's something that for me,

was very important.

I have the ability to take some time.

I'm afforded that.

I'm like I said,

a slow and steady wins the race kind of gal.

I just really wanted to slowly work into it when you're

doing something for yourself and starting a business for yourself and

taking on the expense like you were saying of having inventory

and a location and things like that.

It becomes a larger scale.

It's time,

it's energy.

It's a lot.

So I think it's something you have to look at yourself

and decide what it is that you really want first before

you dive into that entrepreneurial pool.

So what your intent is for starting,

because if you're looking at building a business that eventually you

could sell,

which is kind of what I'm doing with the ribbon printing

company, then it needs to be your own entity,

correct? I've been focusing a lot lately on reminding people that

when they're starting a business,

they also have to think of what their plan is for

exiting. What's the intent,

because that also helps control how you build and how you

work through your business.

Okay. Another question for you,

different angle here,

when you decided to go on to one hope,

because you had been a dental hygienist,

you didn't have a lot of skills or practice Sally.

You are right.

Maybe you're a natural already,

but talk through a little bit of that.

Yes, that is,

I feel for me has been a learning curve.

When you decide that you want to go into this type

of direct selling business,

you have to figure out how you're going to go about

selling. And my whole way of being in life is I'm

not one of those pushy type of people.

When I go into a store,

I do not want someone in my face.

So I always subscribed to,

I treat others the way I would like to be treated.

And therefore that's how I handle my selling.

I give people the information and they can do whatever they

want with it.

I'm very big on social media.

And I utilize social media for most of my marketing.

And then I'm out there out and about because with my

business, pretty much anyone who drinks wine is my customer.

And that's a pretty large pool of people in order to

narrow it down.

I have to segregate my business into corporate customers,

personal customers,

and then event nonprofit customers.

So that's how I've organized my business.

And I have gotten very comfortable with my speaking skills.

I've joined a B and I chapter.

I'm not sure if you're familiar with that.

That's business networking international that has helped me a lot through

the process.

I'm just enjoying the ride.

I'm learning.

I'm challenging myself.

I'm doing lots of things I've never done before.

And I'm diving in,

which is something new for me.

Because as I said,

I was a put the toe in the water kind of

gal. And now I'm just saying yes to everything and it

feels good.

I really want to point out for our listeners,

something that you're talking about here,

you're very clear on who you are and where your limits

are in terms of what you feel comfortable doing for yourself.

Just like you're talking about.

I'm not pushy salesperson,

which is why I knew I liked you when we first

started talking Melissa,

because I'm not either you share what you have and either

people are interested or not.

You're not trying to force it on anybody.

And I think the culture nowadays is more like that too.

Our personalities I'm saying,

cause since we're both in line with that are much more

compatible with how consumers want to be treated these days.

But I also like how clear you are in terms of

putting some type of methodology to it in terms of breaking

it down into three different categories for selling and then moving

forward, but also allowing yourself to be challenged.

And I want to talk through this more.

Will you share with us a little bit about your strategies

in terms of each of the three corporate,

your personal acquaintances and then events in terms of what you're

doing to expose all these different categories to one hope let's

start with corporate.

Okay. So with corporate,

I have been utilizing all different aspects of reaching out to

the companies within my area.

As I mentioned,

I joined a BNI and that has been a wonderful way

for me to open doors to different companies that I would

not otherwise be familiar with and actually have what we call

a warm lead.

Someone who I've literally met,

spoken to,

or had some sort of communication with so that when I

reach out,

it's not just like,

who is this?

Melissa Ferber and what is one hope,

right? So that has been really great For me.

Gift biz listeners.

BNI is a lead generating group.

You usually have a meeting.

What is it for you guys once a week,

once a month,

once a week,

once a week.

And you get exposure to other people category exclusive.

So no one else is going to be in your BNI

group. That does the same thing you do.

And I talk about networking.

Those of you who've been listening to me regularly,

know that I talk about networking is one of the best

ways to get exposure for your product and sales because people

know you.

So they're ready now is a great time.

No matter what you're selling,

we're walking into the holiday season.

Everybody needs gifts.

It's a definitely a great time to either join a group

like this,

maybe at a BNI group,

maybe there's another national group called blue tip.

Also your chamber of commerce chamber of commerce isn't exclusive,

but it gives you exposure to your communities.

If you are afraid of networking,

I have a little baby mini course called networking Ninja teaches

you everything you need to know.

So you don't have to be freaked out about networking.

It's only $5.

You guys,

anyone interested go to B I T dot L Y forward

slash network Ninja.

Okay. I just had,

since you were talking about that and I feel so strongly

about that,

I needed to put in that little piece of information,

Melissa, I love that you did that Sue,

because for me,

I had never networked before in my life.

And I'm telling you what suiciding is absolutely true.

Getting out there and stepping out of your comfort zone.

Because if you're not in natural networker,

it's going to be a bit uncomfortable in the beginning,

but it's like anything else,

the more you do it,

the better you get at it.

And if you stay true to who you are,

people will see that people are not stupid.

We're not stupid.

You're not stupid.

And we all can actually show our true selves in our

networking. And that's how you build solid relationships.

And that's what I'm doing.

I'm building solid relationships either with personal people,

people who just,

I need everywhere.

I go.

I'm known in my neighborhood as one of like the friendliest

people I go around.

I will smile at everyone.

I feel like a smile goes a very long way in

life and with how stressful life is today,

just the simplest thing.

Like a smile can brighten someone's day,

I every day.

Try to meet someone new,

try to talk to someone new and try to share my

passion for one hope with someone new.

Perfect. Okay.

Let's move on to talking about personal selling to people who

are in your personal network.

I'm guessing that's probably the best place to start.

It's funny.

It is the best place to start and I'm not gonna

lie. My sisters and my mother are probably my best customers,

but not because I'm selling something.

It's because they subscribe like I to the product,

to the concept that when we drink this delicious wine,

that's curated with Robert Mondavi Jr.

We're not only enjoying this wine,

but we can feel good about drinking it because we know

that it's giving back.

And that in and of itself is so powerful that when

that message is shared to friends,

family, neighbors,

whomever people say,

wow, I love drinking wine.

What do I got to go to the liquor store and

buy wine off the shelf that does no one good,

except for me.

I might as well buy from you and within buying through

someone like myself,

a cause entrepreneur,

you not only get the wine and feel good about giving

back, but when you start buying in bulk,

you get to actually choose a charity of your choice to

give 10% back to that was like the cherry on top

of the cake for me,

because now it brings it home for the consumer that not

only are they getting great wine,

not only are they giving back to one hope foundations charities,

but I too can actually give back to my little nonprofit

in my neighborhood that no one really knows about.

That's like,

win-win win.

Oh my gosh.

That's huge.

Yes. And what about events?

This was the first thing I thought of when you and

I first started talking is I was thinking about the parties

or where there's a group of people,

Mary Kay,

or something like that.

I mean,

that's what exactly,

that's what most people think of,

but not that those days are long gone because they're not,

but within direct selling,

you really can get creative.

And especially in my industry,

there's so many ways to get creative and like you're mentioning

events when I approach nonprofits and talk with them about all

the different various events they have during the year to raise

money for their nonprofit.

There are so many different ways that I am able to

work with nonprofits so that they can earn the benefit of

the give back and provide wine to their guests and feel

good about having supported one hopes foundation as well.

So that's how it works.

Generally speaking with nonprofits and events,

But so you're really integrating into some of their events then

that they're doing too.

That's correct.

Are there any issues with it being alcohol,

especially if it's more of a corporate event,

Really orange,

any issues,

and I'll tell you why as CEOs,

we are covered legally by under an umbrella of one hope

wine, I to poor two ounce tastings.

So we don't have to have liquor license or anything like

that because we're covered under the umbrella of one.

Whoa, that being said,

when people purchase wine for large events,

they're having their own and such pouring for themselves.

So I can be just the sole provider to say the

American cancer society for their huge gala.

And they choose to purchase wine and have it underwritten from

one home.

And then with that purchase,

10% of the proceeds goes back to the American cancer society.

Like I said,

it's a win-win situation.

Sure is,

okay, let's talk now because everything sounds so great.

There have to have been some challenges or some struggles that

you face as you move forward.

You don't like going there,

but it's helpful to everybody to understand situations that were somewhat

of a struggle.

Can you share one of those?

And we know we always have multiple ones,

so pick a good one.

Okay. Well,

if I had to guess and say what my largest struggle

with starting this little entrepreneurial business of my own,

I would have to say it's organization and staying organized for

myself when you're in business for yourself,

you're a one woman show.

As I mentioned,

yes, I have people holding my hand and guiding me.

And they're always available to answer any questions,

but ultimately I'm the one who has to do the work.

You only reap the benefit of what you put in,

But what happened when you weren't organized?

What was the result?

Not just a messy desk,

but like what happens?

Correct. So I am way into good customer follow-up.

And if that falls short,

then the follow-up with your very important customers,

which all of my customers are important.

If you cannot follow up with each and every one of

them, something falls to the ground and that can happen.

And that's a bummer.

That's not something I want to ever happen.

All of my customers,

like I said are important.

No one is more important than the other.

So if I'm not following up with every single customer,

did they get their package where they pleased?

Was there any issue when they sent a gift,

did it arrive on time?

Things like that.

I want to know for my customers how the service is

because I want to give the best service possible.

You want repeat business and referral business.

That's correct.

That's the best way to grow?

That is correct.

So what kind of systems did you set up then?

Well, I'm still in the process.

I have decided that I'm taking my Monday through Friday and

separating days where they are dedicated a portion of the day

to something systematically for up.

So for example,

on Monday,

I will make sure I check all the orders that went

out the week before that they all were delivered and everything

arrived the way it was supposed to.

I do a lot of personal notes.

So those personal handwritten notes will be on Friday.

Thank you for your business.

Is there anything that I could do better?

That type of thing?

I think it's just important.

People need to be reminded and showed that their business is

important to you.

So when I show that through my personal handwritten notes and

my follow-up through emails or even phone calls,

I think it resonates with my customers.

I think it's important to be made,

to feel important.

I think you're so right on,

and I don't have this specific number at hand,

but I can give you the,

just of some research that was done,

where it talked about reasons,

why people stopped doing business with other companies.

And it's not always because the product wasn't good or there

was a fail in terms of service.

It was because,

and it was like 80% of the people who defected from

a company,

if you will,

was because they didn't feel like they were valued as a

customer. I love that.

You mentioned that because to me,

that's exactly what I'm talking about.

Yeah. So your time put in there is really,

really well spent.

Well, that's good to know.

That's first and foremost on my list every day,

I think about,

well, what can I do for my customers?

That's like the first thing I'm thinking of,

what could I do better?

What could I incorporate anything?

And I bet you have a high retention rate too.

I do.

I'm proud to say that I do.

And so that's been great for me.

And the proof is in the pudding.

Absolutely. Let's jump over to social media.

You talk about that's where you do most of your marketing.

Can you share a little bit about your strategies there?

Yes. So you mentioned challenges and social media is quite a

challenge. I am working at it.

I am on Facebook.

Obviously I have a personal page and then of course,

a business page and I'm also on Instagram and I'm on

a LinkedIn as well.

And I work at it every single day.

I'm trying to curate information that people will find important instead

of just saying,

here's the sale,

buy it or here's a wine buy it.

I think it's really,

really important to offer your customers more than just the product

that you're actually selling them.

And I happened to be a self-proclaimed foodie.

I love food.

I love to try new restaurants.

I love to travel and try foods in different countries.

I'm just all about food.

I'm usually sharing really good recipes that might pair well with

our wines.

I'm sharing interesting restaurants that you can go to that serve

interesting foods that potentially you might want to mimic at home

with your wines.

Everything is relatable to the wine,

but I'm trying to curate other information,

important information,

just one-on-ones of how to build a great chief platter,

things like that.

So that's the information I like to give out on my

social media.

And how are you finding these?

I mean,

you're taking photos and such when you're out and about,

are you just searching online for things or how are you

finding your content?

Yes, I search online and through Instagram,

Instagram, because it's a platform where you're looking at pictures,

I have found various places,

various bloggers,

various people who I can now kind of collaborate with,

if you will,

on their recipes and sharing information,

their recipes.

And they're now sharing my wine to pair with their recipes.

The collaboration on social networks and social media has been really

valuable as well for my reach of getting my information out.

So let's say you see something on Instagram or Facebook,

doesn't matter where walk us through how that happens.

Okay. So if I find something say on like Facebook,

I'll always share their actual post and then write my own

little blurb at the top and always link it back to

them or tag them.

That's how I'm giving them credit.

And they're seeing that I'm sharing information of theirs.

So that's been great on Facebook with Instagram.

I usually DM someone and we'll say to them,

I love what you're doing.

I love your blog.

Would you mind if I shared?

And then that opens the door to,

wow, what is one hope and what are you doing?

And that's where we can then start collaborate.

Beautiful. Okay.

And how much time do you designate a week to doing

that kind of thing?

Not the posting and all of that,

but just interacting and trying to find additional information.

I would say I spend a good solid three hours a

week solely dedicated to doing that.

Is that part of your day blocking too?

Absolutely. I block it right off on my calendar.

It's I sit down and that's what I'm doing.

Okay. Let's move on now and talk about some things that

help keep you productive and moving forward,

we've talked about day blocking already,

but is there some other app that you're using or resource

that helps you stay in control of your life and all

that organizational stuff that you were talking about?

Yeah. When people ask me what type of apps you use

or how do you organize yourself?

First of all,

are you familiar with red stamp?

No. Red stamp is an app.

It's a free app and it gives you the ability to

curate really cute,

personalized notes to whomever you want to.

And they have so many different options and one hope actually

belonged and had an account with them.

And so I have really cute little note cards that are

virtual, that I'm able to send to my customers or potential

customers. I am huge,

like I said on follow-up,

but when I meet someone,

I immediately,

first of all,

we always exchange business cards.

And what I'll always do is say,

do you mind if I text you my business card,

I have it in my phone.

And that way they give me their phone number.

Now I have a way to contact this person and I

can follow up with them.

So they now have my information.

I have their information.

I immediately that day,

if not the next day,

send them a red stamp saying how nice it was to

have met them.

If there's anything I can ever help them with in the

future, please do not hesitate to reach out.

And it's just a way of having that little added touch

of, I saw you.

I noticed you.

And if you need me,

I'm here for you.

That is spectacular.

Yeah. Red stamp is a great little app to have if

you're one of those types of people,

but definitely one of my fellow CEOs gave me that little

tidbit of information of having a picture of your business card

in your phone so that you can actually capture someone else's

information by just sending it to them.

I thought that was genius.

Yes, it is genius.

It is.

Yeah. And you have now shared that little golden piece of

wisdom with all of us.

Fantastic. Moving on.

What do you do now?

I know you have the whole group within one hope and

all of the resource ability with the back office there,

but are you doing anything else to help advance yourself in

terms of areas that you want to capture more knowledge and

help you grow your business?

Well, that's a tough question besides all of the network.

And that's something that we talked about,

but I probably attend at least two,

if not three networking events per week.

So that has to be written into my schedule.

So that's something that it does further my business,

but you don't see the immediate results.

It's developing relationships.

It's getting out there and spreading the word and awareness.

So that's something that I'm doing.

It's a weekly grind.

I shouldn't use the word grind because that has a negative

connotation. There's nothing negative to me about it.

I love to go out.

I love to meet new people.

I pride myself on being a good listener.

I certainly know how I have the gift of gab and

I can talk,

but I also do like to listen and I like to

learn, and I definitely run home and make little notes about

everybody I've ever met and what their likes,

their dislikes,

things like that,

like to be heard.

And if I remember a little tidbit of information of a

potential customer that resonates with them,

I totally agree.

Events build over time.

You can't go to just one event one week and then

go to a different event.

Another week,

you have to have some consistency where you are showing up

and people are really getting to know you,

or it's not even worth doing really so many people think,

well, go into events.

If I don't walk out with a sale,

it wasn't worthwhile.

And that is totally the wrong thought.

That's right.

That's correct.

No, no,

no, no,

no. North,

Are you successful going out and throwing 35 business cards at

every single person you see Coming home with a stack of

business cards,

depending on what you're going to do with them.

That's not really the goal.

The goal is to meet and learn about other people and

what they're doing and share what you're doing and build relationships.

That's what it's about.

So, Sue,

have you ever heard of the rising tide society,

The rising tide society?

No. Okay.

So about a year ago,

I was able to find in my travels online,

this group of creatives called the rising tide society based out

of San Francisco under the tutelage of this young entrepreneur.

Who's fabulous.

Her name is Natalie Frank.

She's a photographer by craft and trade,

but she's so,

so, so much more started this group and it just began

to grow.

And as it grew with the creatives in the San Francisco

area, people started branching off and I think groups to represent

the rising tide society in their own cities.

And they then started to name those smaller little chapters Tuesdays

together. They designated a single Tuesday in every month at the

group of creatives in that area would get together and share

all kinds of advice,

information, everything,

and it's been great.

I found it and we have a Fort Lauderdale chapter near

me and I joined about a year ago.

And it has been so valuable for me to make the

connections with creatives in my area.

Selling wine is not so thought of as being creative,

but any business,

when you're an entrepreneur,

you have to think creatively,

you have to think out of box.

And that's how my brain works anyway.

So being surrounded by all of these creatives,

photographers, dressmakers bakers,

all of that type of thing,

they all belong to this group and collaborated with one another

and shared valuable information.

It's been amazing for me.

That's another quote unquote networking group that I am part of

that I adore.

I look forward to our meetings once a month and it's

just a great way to make connections with that community.

And for me,

we didn't touch on that.

The wedding community is a great community for me to be

a part of.

Because as you know,

weddings, you usually toast the bride and groom and you toast

them with sparkling mine and I sell sparkling wine.

So there's the connection.

There's the thing that binds me to all of these event

planners and creatives.

So I urge all of your listeners to check out the

rising tide society.

Wow. That is fabulous.

And I agree with you every single one of us should

go check that out and see what's available in our community.

Yes. Any final advice for someone who's listening?

Who's just now starting to think about a business for themself.

Any comments on direct sales,

what you'd say to someone there?

Okay. So in general,

what I would say,

because when we first spoke,

Sue, I thought this is such a great way for me

to express my journey through direct selling and for someone who's

thinking about it.

I wish I had had me five years ago so that

I would know these things ahead of time.

I think it's very important when you were researching direct sales

companies that you obviously see like the forecast of the company,

where they came from,

where they're going,

do your research due diligence,

because it's very important.

You can't just jump into anything just because you might like

the product.

You certainly have to like the product you cannot.

I mean,

any sales person will tell you,

you cannot try to sell something.

You do not love yourself.

Someone had approached me and asked me if I would want

to sell.

I don't want to say the name of it,

but a beauty skincare line.

And I thought,

I can't go out there talking about this because if I

put on mascara,

that's a lot of makeup for me.

So I can't go out there telling people to put full

faces of makeup on when I'm sitting here with maybe a

little bit of lip gloss on my face,

it just doesn't jive.

It's not in line with who I am.

I'm a real person.

I speak the truth.

I am who I am.

And I have to represent who I am.

I think it's very important to find something that really is

in line with who you are at the core of your

being, and then learn about the company.

Everything you can gather as much information.

And then the last thing I would say,

that's so important about these direct selling companies is you really

want to make sure you join with an upline that you

trust and feel very comfortable with.

My upline is a woman who actually lives in North Carolina.

I have never met her in person.

We've spoken on the phone and when you meet and you

click when you click and you feel that really great synergy

coming from the same place,

that's when you know it's good.

You can't just join with anybody.

These are not get rich quick schemes.

This is real business where you want to be surrounded by

people, you know,

and trust.

And an upline then is somebody who is on the company

side, who you would be interacting with as you progress your

business. Well,

your upline is also a CEO.

They also are a cause entrepreneur.

They are working their own business as well.

But they're your direct report,

which is the liaison to the company.

If you will,

it's the person you want.

That's above you,

that you want to have a really good relationship with.

Do you Get the choice of who your upline is?

Absolutely. And that's something that people don't actually know and that's

something they should look into.

That's the most important thing.

They really need to feel comfortable who their upline is most

important point,

Really good information.

I would have never thought about that before.

All right.

So now let's take a peek into your future.

Melissa. I would like to present you with a virtual gift.

It's a magical box containing unlimited possibilities for your future.

So this is your dream or your goal,

and I want you to stretch yourself.

So it's almost unreachable,

but something there out in the distance that you would wish

to obtain,

please accept this gift and open it in our presence.

What is inside your box?

Oh boy,

I knew that you were going to ask me this question

and you Are going to think of it on the fly.

I chose to think of it on the fly only because

I just didn't feel comfortable with any of my first inclinations.

It's going to sound silly,

but mine is actually having the energy to go the distance

with this company.

I don't know that that's a good enough answer for you

because you want me to stretch myself.

And I feel like the sky is the limit with this

business. And I want to be able to go the distance

with it,

but I'm still going to go slow and steady to win

the race.

I don't have the best answer for you with this virtual

gift, except that I just wanted to be the good health

that I need to take this the distance.

Well, I think that's a really good answer.

And I'll tell you why.

That's what you said when I asked you for your intro

is that you saw this as a long-term business for yourself.

And if you merge that,

then with your candle,

talking about success is liking yourself and what you're doing and

feeling good about all of that.

Virtually your dream is what you're saying is I want to

keep doing that for as long as I possibly can.

And it doesn't mean you're growing into something bigger.

Huge. You just want to keep selling the product,

providing value to your customer and charities for as long as

you can.

That's exactly right.

You said it way better than I did so,

No, I think it all pulls together.

It makes total sense.

Okay. All right.

So how can our listeners get in touch with you or

see what this is all about now that we've peaked their

interest? Well,

aside from calling me,

I always post my phone number.

It's open to everyone.

So I answer phone calls.

I answer texts.

But aside from calling my phone number,

my email is drink generously@gmail.com.

And my Facebook page is drink generously.

And my Instagram is drink generously.

So you can see where I'm going with this.

Everything is drink generously,

and even my website is www dot veal.

One hope.com

forward slash drink,

generously. Perfect.

All right.

And of course,

gift biz listeners,

all of this will be captured over on the show notes.

So if you didn't get it here,

just jump over to the show notes page and you'll have

all of the links so that you can get in touch

with Melissa.

See what this is all about.

And I'm thinking we should maybe put the connection just to

one hope overall there too.

If people want to start seeing and understanding what this could

do for themselves,

or is it good for them to get in touch with

you? They should Just get in touch with me so we

can have a preliminary discussion.

Good. Yeah.

You can see where they're at and give them even further

advice. How about that?

There you go.

Perfect. Super.

Okay, Melissa.

So, so glad that we had this interview today,

because this is a topic,

just the whole idea of direct sales that we haven't approached

yet on the podcast.

So I think this could open some doors for some of

our listeners and you've really given us a good insight into

what's going on.

What it's all about,

how you work your days.

It's super exciting.

If I didn't have a business,

I would be looking into this myself really,

really interesting.

It is.

It's super fun.

Every day,

I wake up with a smile on my face,

ready to face the day And I can hear it.

And just the way you talk,

so continued success.

I know in terms of your dream,

that you're going to continue with the energy and passion that

you have well into the future.

It's going to help out.

So, so many people.

And so my wish for you is that that motivational candle

of success and liking yourself and continuing on exactly this journey

that your candle always burns bright.

Aw, thanks.

Where are you in your business building journey,

whether you're just starting out or already running a business and

you want to know your setup for success,

find out why taking the gift biz quiz,

access the quiz from your computer at fit dot L Y

slash gift biz quiz or from your phone by texting gift

biz quiz to four four two,

two, two.

Thanks for listening and be sure to join us for the

next episode.

Today's show is sponsored by the ribbon print company,

looking for a new income source for your gift business.

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