Direct selling has become an increasingly popular avenue for individuals to start their own businesses and earn income. To gain a comprehensive understanding of the perceptions surrounding direct selling, the Direct Sales Generational Engagement Study was conducted by Bridgehead Collective and carried out by The Center for Generational Kinetics, led by President Jason Dorsey.

In this first-of-its-kind study, Bridgehead Collective chose to partner with the Center for Generational Kinetics, which has led more than 100 research studies in all major industries. Their seminal annual study, The State of Gen Z, formed the basis for the best-selling book, ZConomy and has been consistently featured in national and global media including The Wall Street Journal, New York Times, CNN and many more.

I set out to discover America’s perceptions of entrepreneurship, the gig economy and—more pointedly—direct selling. Statistical significance was of ultimate importance in this analysis, so the study represents a wide-sweeping sample that is reflective of America, with an equitable mix of genders, demographics, employment status, education levels and location that allows for a 97 percent confidence level. This study aimed to explore the attitudes, motivations, limitations and beliefs about starting a business in America, as well as uncover perceptions of direct selling, recruiting strategies, onboarding methods, distributor retention and preferred payment structures.

We designed the study to provide actionable insights across 10 key categories:

• Perception of Industry and Channel
• Recruiting and Prospecting
• Motivations and Decision Criteria
• Onboarding and Getting Started
• Training
• Compensation and Value Proposition
• Recognition
• Incentive Trips and Events
• Retention
• Duplication and Role of Team Building

In this series, we will be digging deeper into each of these categories, focusing this month on Recruiting and Prospecting as well as Motivations and Decision Criteria. As we shared in last month’s issue, the news surrounding all generations is that their perception of our industry is actually far more positive than we sometimes think it is.

One Approach Does Not Fit All

An element that was a recurring theme in this study was how differently each generation responded to each key insight area. On one hand, that shouldn’t be surprising. However, I am struck by how often we, as an industry, tend to approach all prospects and distributors with one voice, one message, one point of view.

The data shows that a radically different approach is required. Each generation has distinct (and often competing) preferences, decision criterion and motivators. These differences were on full display when considering recruiting and prospecting.

The study took a comprehensive look at all facets of sponsoring including probing each generation for where, how, from whom and in what forum they wanted to hear about the earning opportunities that we provide.

We started first with finding out how comfortable each generation was learning about direct selling opportunities across a whole range of different scenarios. Options for them to rank included: a discussion with a friend or family member already involved; video or series of videos on YouTube; automated on-demand portal; group discussions; in-person meetings as well as several others.

Not surprisingly, the highest ranked selection with 74 percent of all generations choosing it as their top answer was learning about the business from someone they know already working it. BUT, coming in just one percentage point behind, was—wait for it—learning about the opportunity from a video or series of YouTube videos. When you isolate just Gen Z and Younger Millennials that increased to the top spot by a wide margin with over 85 percent of those generations indicating that was their preferred choice.

Action Item: Take a hard look at your YouTube channel. Don’t have one? Start one now!

The least preferred place to meet? A full 35 points behind the number one choices: meeting one-on-one or in a small group in a coffee shop or restaurant. This beloved and much-trained-upon method was deemed “old-school” and “cringey” across the board.

Action Item: Scrub your training materials for suggestions to schedule a 1:1 in person as a great prospecting tool. Maybe five years ago, but not today!

Then, we looked to understand what tools or resources they would find most helpful when first making the decision to join. This was intended to get us all some answers for how to best create/re-create those opportunity “leave-behinds.” Turns out, the highest scoring item for conversion was a one-to-three-month written roadmap for success. That was more pivotal in any decision making than success stories, income claims and projections, videos, brochures or even product samples. The only generation that didn’t rank this first was Gen Z. They wanted to see examples of people in their age range that had found success. So—sort of the same principle—but they wanted that roadmap to come from someone they could consider a peer.

Action item: Ditch the opportunity brochure. Create a one-page roadmap to success instead.

What Really Moves the Needle

Okay, so every generation has now been approached and provided with a roadmap for success…but what are they really looking for from us? We asked them what the biggest benefit was that they saw in direct selling. Again, the number one reason was sort of obvious—make extra money, of course! But second and third were a virtual tie between having control over when and where they worked and getting paid weekly. Weekly pay is a key benefit and decision driver.

Bringing up the bottom of that list were some old-school favorites that we may want to rethink how much we focus on, such as getting to attend celebrity events, keynote speakers and the opportunity to get recognized for their success.

Wow Stat: 75% of all generations and 92% of Younger Millennials were more likely to join a company that supported a social cause that they believed in and pointed to that as a key decision factor.

So, what will help them make that final decision? There are two major drivers that showed up as factors that would OVERCOME any skepticism they might still feel over joining.

1. A cost to get started UNDER $100
2. Generating sales and income in first month of business

This “less than $100” showed up clearly in all generations but particularly for Millennials.

Action Item: Take a look at those starter packs and your overall cost of entry. In all cases—regardless of generation—having an option less than $100 is critical for success.

Stay Focused (and Stay in Touch)

The Direct Sales Generational Engagement Study, conducted by Bridgehead Collective, sheds light on the perceptions of direct selling across different generations. It reveals varying levels of interest and motivations among different age groups; highlights effective recruiting strategies; emphasizes the importance of onboarding and retention strategies; and explores the significance of community in fostering success as a direct selling distributor.

By understanding these generational perspectives and using the information to precisely position all facets of your business, you can tailor your approaches to attract, engage and retain distributors effectively.

Next month we will walk you through Onboarding and Getting Started and share the shocking (yes, I said shocking) insights on how each generation—especially those Young Millennials and Gen Zers—want to engage with your company. I promise you it’s not how you think!

With 20+ years of cross-functional experience in direct selling, Heather Chastain brings a solid understanding of sales, marketing, technology, manufacturing, operations and C-Suite challenges as well as a strong collaborative and relational style of leadership to the table. Heather has held executive roles at Shaklee, Arbonne International, Celebrating Home and BeautiControl. Heather also serves as the Strategic Advisor at DSN and is the Founder & Chief Executive Officer of Bridgehead Collective.

From the September 2023 issue of Direct Selling News magazine.

The post GENERATIONAL INSIGHTS / Recruiting & Prospecting in Direct Selling first appeared on Direct Selling News.

Direct selling has become an increasingly popular avenue for individuals to start their own businesses and earn income. To gain a comprehensive understanding of the perceptions surrounding direct selling, the Direct Sales Generational Engagement Study was conducted by Bridgehead Collective and carried out by The Center for Generational Kinetics, led by President Jason Dorsey.

In this first-of-its-kind study, Bridgehead Collective chose to partner with the Center for Generational Kinetics, which has led more than 100 research studies in all major industries. Their seminal annual study, The State of Gen Z, formed the basis for the best-selling book, ZConomy and has been consistently featured in national and global media including The Wall Street Journal, New York Times, CNN and many more.

I set out to discover America’s perceptions of entrepreneurship, the gig-economy and—more pointedly—direct selling. Statistical significance was of ultimate importance in this analysis, so the study represents a wide-sweeping sample that is reflective of America, with an equitable mix of genders, demographics, employment status, education levels and location that allows for a 97 percent confidence level. This study aimed to explore the attitudes, motivations, limitations and beliefs about starting a business in America, as well as uncover perceptions of direct selling, recruiting strategies, onboarding methods, distributor retention and preferred payment structures.

We designed the study to provide actionable insights across 10 key categories:

• Perception of Industry and Channel
• Recruiting and Prospecting
• Motivations and Decision Criteria
• Onboarding and Getting Started
• Training
• Compensation and Value Proposition
• Recognition
• Incentive Trips and Events
• Retention
• Duplication and Role of Team Building

In this series, we will be digging deeper into each of these categories, starting right now with Perception of Industry and Channel.

The good news (and alternative title for this article) is “They Don’t Hate Us.”

I say that somewhat tongue-in-cheek given what have felt like pretty significant headwinds on our category, industry, who we are and even what we call ourselves. The data tells a different story. But before we get into that, let’s just review what the study showed about starting a business in general.

Perceptions Around Starting a Business

The study revealed that half of Americans expressed interest in starting their own businesses within the next five years. Younger Millennials, in particular, showed a significantly higher likelihood (63%) of pursuing entrepreneurship. Men were also more inclined (59%) compared to women (41%), and individuals with a graduate degree showed the highest likelihood (71%) of venturing into entrepreneurship. Furthermore, 76% of Americans expressed a desire to own their own business within the next three years, with younger Millennials exhibiting the highest aspiration rate (83%).

That’s a lot of potential new people interested in doing what we do. But what kind of business? Interestingly, approximately 42 percent of Americans reported having considered working in the direct selling industry. Notably, Gen Z (18-26) and younger Millennials (27-35) displayed a greater inclination towards direct selling, both in terms of considering it as a career option and actively working within the industry.

WOW STAT: 60% of Americans think owning their own business is harder than being an employee at a business.

But what about direct selling? We have long heard about the negative perception this channel has, particularly among the next generation of direct sellers.

Again (sensing a theme here?) the data tells a different story. But in an industry that has been playing the “name game” for quite some time (direct selling, social selling, digital selling, affiliate marketing, referral marketing, social marketing and on and on), so we decided to test them all! Which of these, if any, had a negative perception and which did not.

Americans have the most positive perception of:

• Digital Marketing (60%)
• Referral Marketing (58%)
• Direct Selling or Direct Selling Industry (55%)

Did you see that….55+ percent of all Americans have a Positive or Very Positive perception of Direct Selling. The only category of business that scored less than 50 percent positive was Multi-Level Marketing, but we can’t really pretend to be surprised by that, can we?

This is great news, everyone. That means that we don’t have as much resistance to the very language that describes what we do as we may have thought.

Where it really gets interesting is when you break it down by generation. Younger generations, especially younger Millennials, have a significantly more positive perception of all direct selling businesses or categories tested compared to older generations.

And look at those Younger Millennials—across the board—significantly more positive than any other generation about our industry. No matter what we call it.

So, ultimately what does this mean? Words matter. Precise positioning of our opportunity, using language that resonates based on the specific and targeted generation you are trying to attract can radically improve the effectiveness of your messaging and your results.

Next month we will explore the ever-critical world of Recruiting and Prospecting and learn how each generation wants to hear about your business opportunity: in what setting, with what technology and using what words!

Spoiler alert: Digital is not the all-powerful solution we tend to think it is with the younger generations!

Words That Resonate

The Direct Sales Generational Engagement Study—conducted by Bridgehead Collective—shed light on the perceptions of direct selling across different generations. It revealed varying levels of interest and motivations among different age groups; highlighted effective recruiting strategies; emphasized the importance of onboarding and retention strategies; and explored the significance of community in fostering success as a direct selling distributor.

By understanding these generational perspectives—and using the information to precisely position all facets of your business—you can tailor your approaches to attract, engage and retain distributors effectively.

With 20+ years of cross-functional experience in direct selling, Heather Chastain brings a solid understanding of sales, marketing, technology, manufacturing, operations and C-Suite challenges as well as a strong collaborative and relational style of leadership to the table. Heather has held executive roles at Shaklee, Arbonne International, Celebrating Home and BeautiControl. Heather also serves as the Strategic Advisor at DSN and is the Founder & Chief Executive Officer of Bridgehead Collective.

From the July/August 2023 issue of Direct Selling News magazine.

The post GENERATIONAL INSIGHTS / Perceptions of Direct Selling first appeared on Direct Selling News.

A first-of-its-kind study details how every generation of Americans across all genders, geographies and socio-economic levels perceive, engage with and measure success and opportunity in direct selling.

Times have changed, but in the direct selling channel executives can easily assume (read: hope) that some things never will.

That belief was challenged last year when Jason Dorsey, President of the Center for Generational Kinetics (CGK), presented his generational research at Direct Selling University. Generational research identifies differences between generations in underlying motivation, actions, behavior and predictable tendencies. And while his findings illustrated how deeply the generational divide impacts how people perceive and engage with the world around them and detailed how companies cannot simply rely on one messaging style to effectively reach all ages, all the insights were borrowed from research done in other industries. As I dug deeper into this game-changing topic, I quickly discovered that no generational study of any significance had ever been done just for the direct selling industry.

As a (ahem) seasoned executive and the founder of Bridgehead Collective, a firm founded to help companies in the channel innovate, form and execute strategic plans in a dynamic digital environment, I know the importance of well-researched data. Operators at our core, we use data to help companies maximize every dollar spent. Data is the foundation for determining how to allocate investments; where to leverage human power to lead through change; how to identify and overcome internal and external obstacles to growth; and how to decide which strategies will have the most robust impact on measurable results. That’s why, as I listened to Jason, I knew that we needed to harness the power of original generational research in a way that would specifically analyze the direct selling industry. If we want answers that we’re willing to dedicate all our resources towards, then we must do the research. As much as we’d like to think we’ve been around long enough to have all the answers, we often need to reach out to those who actually do.

New Generation-Specific Strategies

In a first-of-its-kind study, Bridgehead Collective chose to partner with the Center for Generational Kinetics, which has led more than 100 research studies in all major industries. Their seminal annual study, The State of Gen Z, formed the basis for the best-selling book, ZConomy and has been consistently featured in national and global media including The Wall Street Journal, New York Times, CNN and many more. I set out to discover America’s perceptions of entrepreneurship, the gig-economy and, more pointedly, direct selling. Statistical significance was of ultimate importance in this analysis, so the study represents a wide-sweeping sample that is reflective of America, with an equitable mix of genders, demographics, employment status, education levels and location that allows for a 97 percent confidence level.

When we launched the study, my biggest fear was that I would spend a year immersed in this process, only to resurface with findings that were predictable. I anticipated a year full of “Well, as we suspected…” but instead, I was thrilled by the differentiated and potentially game-changing nature of our results, and I think you will be too.

We designed the study to provide Actionable Insights across 10 Key Categories:

• Perception of Industry and Channel
• Recruiting and Prospecting
• Motivations and Decision Criteria
• Onboarding and Getting Started
• Training
• Compensation and Value Proposition
• Recognition
• Incentive Trips and Events
• Retention
• Duplication and Role of Team Building

What did we learn? So, so much! Every generation has strong feelings about how we recruit, onboard and train. That maybe we knew. But no two generations are remotely the same in what motivates them to want to stay in or leave a business. In fact, as we looked at the data, it was common to see results that were significantly polarized. Each of these 10 key categories provided new, actionable insights that every marketing, sales, field communication and compensation team will want to design around. Following are just a few of these standout insights from one of those categories.

Leading with a one-size-fits-all approach is from a bygone era; I don’t think anyone is still stuck in that model. But many companies are still relying on a historical positioning of the direct selling opportunity that doesn’t really fit anymore. We must consider just how much perceptions have shifted and strategize with generational chasms in mind.

What we need is a new roadmap.

Precision Messaging

It’s common to hear direct selling executives and field leaders say they are eager to pursue Gen Z. They are the next generation of customers, after all, and represent the threshold to what’s next. In an effort to court the youngest shoppers, however, brands can jump on trend bandwagons that have the opposite effect for older generations, effectively alienating their already loyal customers and distributors in the Gen X and Millennial age brackets.

The key, then, is to deliver our messages with precision. No two generations have the same preferences, experiences and motivations, so our messaging shouldn’t either. We need to become students of generational divides, knowing how to fine-tune our communications so that they speak the language of each specific customer and what our sellers want to be called for maximum credibility (Spoiler alert: it’s not Ambassador).

This will create the trust we need with each generation to ensure our messages are heard, understood and embraced. With the right data, it’s possible to truly reach everyone by refining our audience and tailoring our messages for maximum impact.

The Sweet Spot of Opportunity

The good news is, across the board, Americans are generally interested in starting their own business. Even better, a whopping 42 percent have considered working in the direct selling industry. If we stopped there, we might be misled to think that a large segment of every generation is ready to receive the direct selling opportunity without reservation.

When we dig deeper, we find that Gen Z (ages 18-26) and younger Millennials (ages 27-35) are significantly more likely than older generations to be working or to have considered working in the direct selling industry. However, older Millennials (36-43) and Gen X (44-55) are much more likely than their younger counterparts to have never considered working in the direct selling industry.

In fact, the study told us that younger generations, especially younger Millennials, not only have a significantly more positive perception of direct selling compared to their older counterparts, they’re also considerably more comfortable learning about the opportunities it can offer.

From this survey question, another statistic was buried within the data that took us by surprise: men are 11 percent more likely than women to have a positive perception of direct selling and seven percent more comfortable learning about a direct selling opportunity.

For years, many direct selling brands have spent their energy courting Gen Z women shoppers and mom-preneurs, but the data is telling us that Young Millennial men, ages 27 to 35, are potentially our biggest missed opportunity.

If we use precision messaging, we can advance recruiting in this demographic while also tailoring our communications with the older, more skeptical demographic in a way that speaks to their doubts and concerns.

Barriers by Generation

Being an entrepreneur is no easy task, so it’s no surprise that high startup costs (54%) and failure itself (46%) are the biggest barriers Americans face when considering a new business venture. But those challenges increase as we step into the direct selling genre.

Taking all ages into account, 46 percent of Americans who have a negative perception of direct selling just have a general belief that the industry is a scam or predatory, and 43 percent are convinced they would have to get their friends to buy something in order for them to be successful.

These are big numbers that represent big barriers for any prospective distributor or customer. How can we reposition our messages to assuage these beliefs?

By digging into the data. Our study exposed exactly what words to use to overcome these barriers; how to position the opportunity; where and how to reach them; and the most effective language to use for each generation.

Once we’ve addressed these gateway obstacles, we need to consider how Americans want to be approached with the opportunity. Most generations prefer an in-person conversation with a family member or friend—surprisingly, 70 percent or more of Gen Z and all Millennials favor this method.

What no generation preferred was a group discussion led by a distributor. Group meetings, whether on Zoom, at an event or in a coffee shop, scored low across the board. There was one caveat: Younger Millennials were the most receptive of all generations across a number of categories and approaches.

This was one of the most surprising insights from the entire study. Younger Millennials don’t really care where or how they learn about direct selling. They simply want to hear about it, even more than we might have thought.

What’s Their Win?

Making extra money is by far the biggest benefit Americans seek when getting involved as a direct selling distributor. From there, having control over when and where work happens (43%) was a strong driver.

For older generations, getting paid weekly significantly influences their likelihood of engaging in the direct selling industry, while younger generations prioritize learning new skills that can be used in their daily lives and building their influence and impact.

Money is the best and most welcomed benefit by a long shot, and getting paid and receiving money is what makes people want to stay working in the industry. In fact, it’s the highest predictor of whether or not an American would choose to keep working their business after the first three months.

While this is obvious, there is more to the story. In a generation-specific analysis, we see that Gen Z is also deeply impacted by a belief that they are part of a cause or movement, and that helping at least three other people get started would absolutely convince them to stay at a direct selling business after the first three months, significantly more so than older generations. For Gen X, it’s all about getting paid and seeing the product or service they’re selling work in their own life.

How Much Is Enough?

We have all been reframing our business opportunity in increasingly compliant ways, referring to “extra or additional or supplemental income” instead of a specific dollar or some other atypical earnings amount. The problem though is that this general approach to pitching opportunity will mean different things to different people. However, now, with this research, we know for the first time how much money “additional or extra or supplemental” income really is. An extra $500 a month is enough for 83 percent of Americans to say they would get involved in direct selling, but the exact amounts vary significantly by generation. For older generations, $1,000 or more in the first month convinces them that direct selling is worth it. For younger generations, that number is only $250-$499 and the mention of more than $1,000 can raise red “ick-factor” flags that will deter them from ever joining! We have the data to show you why.

Much to my surprise, cash bonuses for hitting certain sales thresholds beat out a simple consistent selling percentage as the number one preferred performance incentive across the board. In contrast to Gen X and older Millennials, younger generations valued recognition in front of their peers or at a national or international meeting as a highly effective performance incentive.

It’s important to take note that respondents rated some of the most common industry recognition tools as the least likely to make them feel valued as a distributor, which when armed with this data, should have some of you rethinking how you recognize on social or those increasingly ubiquitous give-back trips.

Unlock Untapped Opportunity

The study clearly shows us that generations perceive this industry in vastly different ways than we may have thought.

The often-touted homogeneous, funnel marketing technique may appear more efficient, but this study proves that it is likely also less effective. We must balance efficiency with effectiveness. When we think about investment, we need to also think about changing the lens with which we’re viewing that investment. What’s a bigger spend: one cheaper, ineffective communication approach or a multi-pronged message that may cost more but delivers results?

For instance, if you want to go after younger Millennials, talk about the opportunity to earn an extra $250 a month and offer them a trusted guide to help them develop the skills they need. If you want to go after Gen X, focus on the potential to earn an extra $1,000 a month and the efficacy of your products.

There are wide bands of Americans that genuinely want and are looking for what we have to offer. All of the insights above were from just one of the 10 categories of questions, and they all offer equally insightful and actionable data we can apply to every facet of our businesses. When we fine-tune our target market and let the data guide our message there is vast opportunity waiting to be unlocked.

Want to learn more? Join us at the DSN Deep Dive event happening Friday, May 19 in Flower Mound, Texas. Jason and Heather will share their biggest surprises from this game-changing research and provide key action items to keep your messaging and methods on point for each generation. They will also be joined at the event by direct selling and social selling executives.

With 20+ years of cross-functional experience in direct selling, Heather Chastain brings a solid understanding of sales, marketing, technology, manufacturing, operations and C-Suite challenges as well as a strong collaborative and relational style of leadership to the table. Heather has held executive roles at Shaklee, Arbonne International, Celebrating Home and BeautiControl. Heather also serves as the Strategic Advisor at DSN and is the Founder & Chief Executive Officer of Bridgehead Collective.

From the May 2023 issue of Direct Selling News magazine.

The post Direct Selling’s Roadmap of the Future­—Precision Positioning first appeared on Direct Selling News.

Nu Skin President Ryan Napierski was named the DSA Chairman at the DSA Annual Meeting in June. I recently connected with Ryan to talk about his focus and vision for his upcoming new role as well as insights on what is happening at Nu Skin.

We are a couple months from the DSA annual meeting in Austin, where you were welcomed as the new Chairman taking over from Amway’s John Parker. Could you share with us a little about what your focus and vision are going to be as the Chairman?

I’m really excited to take on this role. I’ve been participating in the executive committee along with John for the last couple of years, and we’re excited about the progress we’ve been making around selfregulation. I think reputation is a critical part of our responsibility—as an association—how we work and how we represent our industry.

As we look to the future, I want to make certain that there’s continuity between where we’ve been and where we’re going. So I developed a three ‘R’ framework of Reputation, Repositioning, and then Rejuvenation. I briefly spoke about reputation—how do we continue to improve the overall reputation? The self-regulatory movement, the Direct Selling Self-Regulatory Council, is a critical step in helping us to ensure that companies that are part of our industry—broader than just the association—understand the appropriate way of doing business. That will continue to be a key focus as we move forward in optimizing this new program to improve the reputation overall.

“Our focus is to get culture right and to continuously transform as an enterprise to win in the future.”

Share with us the second and third part of your three ‘R’ framework, Repositioning & Rejuvenation.

In addition to reputation, we need to look hard at the repositioning of our association and our industry. With all the macro trend movements we’re all familiar with—the gig economy, millennials, social, mobile—it really is a different business operating environment. It also poses a very significant opportunity for us—if we position ourselves effectively to play in it. As an association, how we provide value to our members to help us in repositioning ourselves in this new world is a key focus in adding value for our members.

The final element or the third ‘R’ is rejuvenation. This is all around ensuring that the association provides an environment for our member companies to help them be successful. Many of these companies are new. We have all different types of members from very small startup companies to very large, 50-year-old companies. Each one of those companies adds value, respectively to the association, according to what they contribute to it. I think it’s critical that our association represents their needs and provides value to every type of company. It’s also crucial that we create an environment where new companies are teaching old companies how to operate more effectively.

A lot has been talked about both in our magazine as well as the DSA’s Annual Meeting about how we compete going forward. What are we as an industry doing well as an industry, and where do we need to improve?

What we’re doing well is we are acting very responsibly as an association. I think the moves we’ve made over the last few years—the last year in particular— are really important for the long-term viability of our industry.

As an industry, we’ve also done really well in building a community of like-minded businesses to learn and share and develop together. It’s something that I would argue is very special to the Direct Selling Association of the willingness to share with peer companies.

I think the things that we need to improve on, especially in light of what I talked about with the repositioning activities, is how do we see ourselves in the future? If we continue to see ourselves as analog lens direct sellers, then we will miss a significant opportunity that’s ahead of us with the gig economy. The broad movement to independent workforces, and the desires of millennials, and even Gen Z, who aspire to own their own business are so much greater than Gen X or the baby boomers. If we position ourselves correctly to win in those environments, I think we will do better.

At times, we continue to look at ourselves through what I would define as an analog lens rather than a digital lens—where many of our companies are not digital native companies. So it’s a much more transformational repositioning that we need to go through as an industry and as an association to capitalize on those trends.

It’s great to see that the U.S. direct selling market had 1.3 percent growth in retail sales for 2018, stopping the two-year slide. From your vantage point at Nu Skin, what did your company learn from your slight downturn in 2013-15 that allowed you to have three years of sustained growth?

We have learned a few key lessons over the course of the last two decades or so about our business. However, I think the last decade has probably been the most significant period of change for Nu Skin, at least in our 35-year history. What we have learned is that the business environment in which we operate today is dramatically different from the business environment that existed for the prior 30 years. That’s largely a result of how our distributors do the business.

The impact of social and the medium itself has significantly changed the behaviors that our sales force utilizes to build their business. You can go all the way back to the hotel meeting model, the three-way calling model, or even the party plan models of the past. Those models today are all facilitated in a totally different manner because of technology. I would argue that perhaps the greatest, most significant lesson we’ve learned over the course of the last decade is that technology, if utilized and positioned within the company correctly, can be a significant, transformational agent for the business.

The second thing we’ve learned is that focusing our sales force really matters. This probably doesn’t come as any surprise—but as companies, we tend to feel that the more we do for them then the better off we will be. We still struggle with determining how much is too much versus how little is too little. I think what we’re trying to find is that sweet spot where pushing innovations to market by our sales force are at the appropriate cadence to get them aligned and moving forward directionally in a consistent manner that the company can support.

What are you laser-focused on right now as a company leading into the end of 2019, and into 2020?

We are laser-focused on our transformation as a company. Sometimes people think transformation is a one and done or something you do every 10 years. I’m laser-focused on helping our organization to recognize that transformation is a perpetual process that we must constantly be in both individually, as well as collectively as a company.

While we had an amazing year last year, with nearly 18 percent growth year over year, we recognize that to sustain growth requires perpetual transformation. That’s what I’m focusing on right now with my team.

We have the right culture and principles in place. We just rolled out a new culture construct that we call the Nu Skin Way that goes through our leadership principles around being customer obsessed and accountable, empowered, and being decisive. These are all principles that we’re now trying to ensure that we live on a day-to-day basis across the company. As we all know, the Peter Drucker quote that Culture eats strategy for breakfast is very true. So our focus is to get culture right and to continuously transform as an enterprise to win in the future.

The post Q&A with Ryan Napierski first appeared on Direct Selling News.

The study compared ages of business founders on their companies’ dates of origination in the 50 largest U.S. cities using anonymized data from business owners seeking funding through the LendingTree small business marketplace. The Top 10 cities are Salt Lake City; Buffalo; New Orleans; Oklahoma City; Charlotte, N.C.; Minneapolis; St. Louis; Portland, Oregon; Milwaukee; and Austin, Texas.

According to the study, the cities with the youngest entrepreneurs are likely to have some of the lowest barriers to enter entrepreneurship. A closer look reveals that booming local economies, along with low local costs and taxes, may be fueling startup growth. These cities also have strong support systems in place to help founders and their startups succeed, from business incubators and accelerators to networking events and opportunities to apply for small business grants or attract venture capital. In short, these are the cities where young entrepreneurs are more quickly reaching their goal to form a business of their own.

The youngest business founders in the country can be found in Salt Lake City, Utah. Entrepreneurs here achieve their dreams of starting a business at just 37.8 years old. The area, known as “Silicon Slopes,” encompasses the Salt Lake City metropolitan area and nearby cities; it is home to billion-dollar tech companies such as Overstock.com, PluralSight and Qualtrics. These big players have helped established a steady, growing economy in Salt Lake City and throughout Utah. The area also has an established (and growing) pool of qualified talent. Combined with the relatively low cost of living, entrepreneurs in Utah have few obstacles—and plenty of opportunities.

Other key findings from the report include:

• Entrepreneurs in Salt Lake City; Buffalo, N.Y; and New Orleans have the youngest business founders, on average. Entrepreneurs in these cities, along with Oklahoma City, were younger than 38 years old on average at the time they started their businesses.
• Providence, R.I.; San Jose, Calif.; and Hartford, Conn. fell on the other end of the spectrum—business founders were 42 years old on average when starting their companies.
• Gen Xers helmed nearly 42 percent of new businesses founded in the last five years, followed by millennials who founded almost 38 percent.
• Louisville, Ky. had the highest proportion of millennial founders, at 44.8 percent.
• Providence, R.I. and Philadelphia had the highest proportion of Gen X founders, at 48.7 percent.
• Baby boomers founded more businesses in Silicon Valley (San Jose, Calif.) than anywhere else, at 24.1 percent.

To read the full report, click here.

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