How the Youngest Direct Selling Executives are Transforming the Industry
The next generation of Direct Selling Executives has something that no leader before them now possesses: a fresh perspective.
Many of these young game changers grew up within the industry, either as distributors or as children of industry legends, and so carry the advantage of history as well. As a result, they are well‑versed on the value of compensation plans and distributor engagement, but also know how to leverage and embrace social media and digital footprints.
Within this group are leaders who have built massive operations from scratch, like Red Aspen’s trio of young executives who capitalized on an underserved niche in the marketplace, and leaders who boldly carry on their family legacies in a contemporary way like Sinan and Emre Tuna of Farmasi.
Whether they are taking ownership of their supply chain or ditching print to go all-digital, these Gen Z and millennial executives are remodeling the industry and proving that the channel’s history of lingering too long in antiquated systems is now a thing of the past.
Farmasi
LAUNCHED / 1952
LED BY / SINAN TUNA, CEO (NORTH AMERICA)
EMRE TUNA, CEO
HEADQUARTERS / ISTANBUL, TURKEY
TOTAL DISTRIBUTORS & CUSTOMERS / 2.8 MILLION+
(Not all countries and territories distinguish between distributors and customers)
2020 REVENUE / 447 MILLION
Q: WHAT LESSONS FROM PREVIOUS GENERATIONS ARE YOU CARRYING WITH YOU INTO THE FUTURE?
SINAN: I’m the youngest executive in the industry in the old world. I’m 25; my brother Emre is 27. We are a company that has been around 71 years, and that means a lot of legacy.
Q: WHAT BUSINESS PRACTICES OR MINDSETS OF PREVIOUS GENERATIONS ARE YOU LEAVING IN THE PAST?
SINAN: Being young brings a lot of benefits to the culture of our company. We try to be super openminded and friendly, and we want to have very clear and direct communication with the field. We don’t like the old corporate barriers; we have friendships with all of our distributors. Strong communication with our distributors, I would say, is one of the things that makes us different from other companies in the industry. We’ve been involved indirectly since we were kids. It’s easier to hire a few professionals and let them do the work, but the return you’re going to get is not going to be the same effect as if you roll your sleeves up and get into the field.
Q: HOW HAVE YOU INNOVATED YOUR COMMUNICATION, MARKETING OR BRAND STRATEGY?
SINAN: We have literally saved 50 percent of our manufacturing time—saving 60 days—by having all of our packaging and manufacturing take place in-house. The shipments coming from Europe or Turkey used to take 22 days before the pandemic. Now it’s between 50-70 days. And vice versa, as shipping the products to another place takes the same amount of time. It’s also three times more expensive than pre-pandemic times. I think from now on, having a strong integration in the supply chain will be more important than ever.
Q: WHAT INNOVATION HAS BEEN KEY TO FARMASI’S SUCCESS?
SINAN: The compensation plan. People are in this industry for the opportunity, and the comp plan is the backbone of this business. To attract distributors, you have to offer them a great opportunity. At Farmasi, we believe this is the best opportunity and comp plan in the industry, especially in the U.S. and North America. From there, the most important thing is not just to offer it but to make sure it happens in real life. Once we started growing our business in the U.S. and distributors started hitting ranks and building teams, they proved that all of the comp plan is true, do-able, reachable and maintainable.
NeoLife
LAUNCHED / 1958
LED BY / KENDRA BRASSFIELD, CEO
HEADQUARTERS / SANTA CLARA, CALIFORNIA
TOTAL CUSTOMERS / SEVERAL MILLION ACROSS 50 COUNTRIES
2020 DISTRIBUTORS / 1.5 MILLION+
Q: WHAT LESSONS FROM PREVIOUS GENERATIONS ARE YOU CARRYING WITH YOU INTO THE FUTURE?
KENDRA: Something my dad always instilled in me since joining the company was the importance of making investments in the right places and keeping in mind that we want to be here for generations to come. Managing with a long-term vision, keeping a lot of cash in the bank, and making sure we’re ready for anything so we never let down our business partners who have put their trust in us. Our first company value is “People are number 1,” and we make every decision through that lens.
Q: WHAT BUSINESS PRACTICES OR MINDSETS OF PREVIOUS GENERATIONS ARE YOU LEAVING IN THE PAST?
KENDRA: Some of the things I’d like to leave in the past are having to do business manually and being restricted to only in-person. There are so many ways we can leverage technology so we no longer have to rely on face-to-face interactions, although those are still really important for our business. We need to build relationships, but now we’re able to do all of those basic things, the fundamental things for our business growth, online and digitally.
Q: HOW HAVE YOU INNOVATED YOUR COMMUNICATION, MARKETING OR BRAND STRATEGY?
KENDRA: We have really put a focus on the technology we’re offering to our business partners and customers. We’ve been focused on digital tools that make everything shareable from your mobile device, so from the palm of your hand you can give people educational resources, product information, links to anything, and get real-time analytics of what’s happening on the other side of that. We’ve also placed a big emphasis on education and launched resources like NeoLifeU, an education platform where people can get a better fundamental understanding of how our bodies work and how nutrition plays such a huge role in our health.
Q: WHAT INNOVATION HAS BEEN KEY TO NEOLIFE’S SUCCESS?
KENDRA: Our secret sauce is our products and our unwavering commitment to product quality. You can have all the bells and whistles for sharing, but if you don’t have a strong product that truly makes a difference in people’s lives that makes them feel better, live better and look better, it’s hard to have traction. Having an incredibly strong Scientific Advisory Board lead our product development has been a key innovation for our success.
Red Aspen
LAUNCHED / 2017
LED BY / JESSE MCKINNEY, CEO; GENIE REESE, CSO & AMANDA MOORE, COO
HEADQUARTERS / BOISE, IDAHO
TOTAL CUSTOMERS / HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS+
TOTAL DISTRIBUTORS / 10,000+
2020 REVENUE / 20 MILLION
Q: WHAT LESSONS FROM PREVIOUS GENERATIONS ARE YOU CARRYING WITH YOU INTO THE FUTURE?
JESSE: There is an honor and integrity to direct selling that I definitely learned about as I worked in the industry prior to Red Aspen. You have to be all in it for your reps—it’s not about you; it’s about serving them. That culture of integrity and that desire to serve others is something that I take from my experience and so many others who have come before us in direct selling.
Q: WHAT BUSINESS PRACTICES OR MINDSETS OF PREVIOUS GENERATIONS ARE YOU LEAVING IN THE PAST?
JESSE: There are things we want to do differently. We are millennials, and we looked at things like catalogs and said, ‘Why do we have to have a catalog when we have a social media profile and link?’ Being tied to a selling season—specifically a catalog season—doesn’t allow you to be nimble. We are going to launch products on our own schedule, give ourselves ultimate flexibility by not printing anything on paper and instead dive in with the internet and use social media to its full capacity.
Q: HOW HAVE YOU INNOVATED YOUR COMMUNICATION, MARKETING OR BRAND STRATEGY?
JESSE: My generation is skeptical. We are pros at discovering what is out there and how it works. I, myself, don’t ever go meet a new person, whether it’s a vendor or supplier or friend, without Googling them first to learn about them. To think someone would dive into a business opportunity blindly is a notion of the past. So, we took all of the things typically hidden behind a firewall where only reps could see it—our training, product information, news, all of it—and made it so that anyone could access it. That’s been a good business decision for us.
Q: WHAT INNOVATION HAS BEEN KEY TO RED ASPEN’S SUCCESS?
JESSE: Our mission. As a millennial—and I’m sure younger generations would echo this—it’s not about how you operate, it’s why you operate. If you’re just talking the talk but not walking the walk, our generation will see that. You have to be genuine and authentic.
ZYIA Active
LAUNCHED / 2017
LED BY / ERIN BRADLEY, Founder & CEO & JEREMIAH BRADLEY, Founder & Chairman of the Board
HEADQUARTERS / DRAPER, UTAH
TOTAL DISTRIBUTORS / 40,000+
Q: DOES YOUR GENERATION APPROACH THE DIRECT SELLING INDUSTRY DIFFERENTLY THAN PREVIOUS GENERATIONS?
ERIN: We like to put our attention toward the customer experience and we do that through product innovation, technology and a great culture. We love that at ZYIA we have a product that sells itself so we are different from many other companies in our channel since there is no need to be pushy. The product sells itself and most of our product is sold to actual customers.
Q: WHAT BUSINESS PRACTICES OR MINDSETS OF PREVIOUS GENERATIONS ARE YOU LEAVING IN THE PAST?
JEREMIAH: Many businesses have built [upon] recruiting or compensation and we feel like that is not a sustainable or ethical business. We believe in focusing on the product, the customer and the customer experience. The key is to figure out how to use technology [and] social media and still keep the personal aspect at the forefront.
Q: WHAT INNOVATION HAS BEEN KEY TO ZYIA ACTIVE’S SUCCESS?
ERIN: One of the keys to success for us is that we launch product every single week to keep reps and customers excited and active. The product is the key to our success.
From the November 2021 issue of Direct Selling News magazine.
