The Small Business Safari
Have you ever sat there and wondered "What am I doing here stuck in the concrete zoo of the corporate world?" Are you itching to get out? Chris Lalomia and his co-host Alan Wyatt traverse the jungle of entrepreneurship. Together they share their stories and help you explore the wild world of SCALING your business. With many years of owning their own small businesses, they love to give insight to the aspiring entrepreneur. So, are you ready to make the jump?
The Small Business Safari
Networking Your Way to Success | Luann Rushin
Luann Russian's entrepreneurial journey defies conventional wisdom about network marketing. A former pharmaceutical rep of the year, she left corporate life when her manager asked if she could "stay and be mediocre" while raising children. Twenty years later, her decision to join Arbonne has created both financial freedom and unexpected health transformation.
Unlike most who enter network marketing, Luann approached it analytically – evaluating compensation plans, market size, and business sustainability before even trying the products. "I jumped in for the business model," she explains, highlighting how she examined wellness and skincare as trillion-dollar industries with growth potential. This business-first mentality positioned her for success from day one.
The conversation takes a fascinating turn when Luann reveals how her purely financial decision evolved into a personal health revolution. After reluctantly trying Arbonne's 30-day healthy living program ("no one whined about it more than I did"), she experienced dramatic health improvements that eventually eliminated her fibromyalgia and Crohn's disease symptoms. "I really think the reason I ended up with Arbonne was to resolve my health issues," she reflects.
Throughout the episode, Luann shares practical networking wisdom gained from running business women's groups for over a decade. Her specific strategies for follow-up, referral requests, and maintaining client relationships offer valuable insights for entrepreneurs in any industry. Perhaps most importantly, she attributes her longevity to persistence: "I don't go away. You have a bad year, you have a downside, you don't quit."
Whether you're curious about network marketing, seeking business development strategies, or interested in the intersection of entrepreneurship and wellness, Luann's story demonstrates that sometimes the road less traveled leads to unexpected destinations worth discovering. Connect with her at luannrushinarbon.com to learn more about her approach to business and health.
From the Zoo to Wild is a book for entrepreneurs passionate about home services, looking to move away from corporate jobs. Chris Lalomia, a former executive, shares his path, discoveries, and tools to succeed as a small business owner in home improvement retail. The book provides the mindset, habits, leadership style, and customer-oriented processes necessary to succeed as a small business owner in home services.
So now we're running a networking group and you're helping people understand how to network, and we talked about that. Where do you pull your most energy out of your business? Is it somebody who sells something that you help them sell? Is it somebody who loves your product? Or do you get more energy out of that networking group, like when you're done? Do you like I'm just re-energized to go out there and start doing my business again?
Speaker 1:Welcome to the Small Business Safari, where I help guide you to avoid those traps, pitfalls and dangers that lurk when navigating the wild world of small business ownership. I'll share those gold nuggets of information and invite guests to help accelerate your ascent to that mountaintop of success. It's a jungle out there and I want to help you traverse through the levels of owning your own business that can get you bogged down and distract you from hitting your own personal and professional goals. So strap in Adventure Team and let's take a ride through the safari and get you to the mountaintop. Alan, let's get ready to rock and roll.
Speaker 1:Man, I am feeling like extra special glow today. You have a twinkle. I do, and you know why. I feel like I have good product around me. I feel like I'm healthy. You still a twinkle. I do, and you know why. I feel like I have good product around me. I feel like I'm healthy. Thank you, I take a lot of pride in how I take care of myself. Do you use products? Can we have bourbon please? Yes, cheers. So much for that and this is going to kill our guests, so we can't talk about that one. But no, I feel very healthy. I try to take care of my body. I believe in that stuff. No, I drink beer and bourbon but I do work out.
Speaker 2:Do you really think that's unhealthy? Or is it just the volume that you drink that's the reason why you have to be so obese? Wait a minute. I'm not Solidly overweight.
Speaker 1:I'm striving for solidly overweight. That's right.
Speaker 2:Right now I'm obese, as I've been told in my checkup, not morbidly, not morbidly, thank you. No, not there yet, no, but how often do you?
Speaker 1:work out. I work out five to six times a week.
Speaker 2:I know you wouldn't know it because you can't out-train a bad diet, Chris you can't outrun the fork.
Speaker 1:I've heard that one too, and another one I'll give you. Another phrase is Phrases. Anybody who ever said everything in moderation? It's bullshit. So that's why I go full on. I play hard until the coach pulls me, and usually that's called passing out. I mean falling asleep quickly. All right, let's get back to this, shall we? All right? So today's guest is going to talk to us about, again, a jump from the zoo to the wild, brought to you by From the Zoo to the Wild by Chris Valamio, your guide to entrepreneurship, freedom and wealth. Everybody.
Speaker 2:We have not talked about your book in a long time. How are sales, Chris?
Speaker 1:Sales are up, alan, by the way, it's pretty cool. I've been on a little podcast tour and I've been out there talking about the book and the sales are up, and so we're probably going to end up doing a little relaunch, everybody, a little tease, and you're gonna, I'm gonna I'm gonna probably gonna go ahead and do the audiobook this year, uh, so it's gonna be available on, uh you're gonna do your own reading I am.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's gonna be great and I think, I think how should I read it? Should I read it like you know.
Speaker 2:I think you should be you with all the f words in the you know so I should add a few extra words in there, I think. So I think I going to, I think you should just use it as a loose guide.
Speaker 1:That's what they said you have to learn to read your entire book and read them all, and if you're ready to sit in a room for eight hours for four days in a row, you'll get through three chapters. I'm like, nope, not doing that. I'll do it my way, though, yeah. Yeah, my way is going to be like, hey, you know. So, on that one, I know I wrote this, but here, let me, let me tell you what I really thought about that, and I'm actually starting to think about a second book.
Speaker 1:Oh, oh, t-ser, t-ser that's what we call a radio tease, because I'm doing that too, because you're a big deal I am, yeah, doing the radio all right, can we go back to our guest? We've not gotten to her yet. Oh, we got luran r Russian from Arbonne International International. The Trust and Toolbox is not international yet, we're only intergalactic. We are, yes. So we met Luann Well, I met Luann Well. Let me tell you the real story. Here's the origin story.
Speaker 3:She didn't even chase you down, she did here I am.
Speaker 1:I start my business and I'm three months into it and I get like three calls a day. Maybe, if I'm lucky, today we take 280 calls a week. I only took three calls and one of her calls was from land and I am all on it, man, I man, I'm just like I mean when the world is all black and you get one ray of sunshine, you're like, oh, I got a customer. I got a customer. And she says, well, I could be a customer, but I want to talk to you about this networking thing. And she starts explaining it to me.
Speaker 1:And I had it on my business plan to get into networking. And you know, anybody who's listened to this podcast know I really believe in networking. But Luann invited me and so all it took was somebody to invite me and I said, all right, let's do it. And that was my first foray into it. And so it was not BNI who I ultimately moved to and endorsed completely. I have my guys. I have three of them in it now. It was a local competitor called PowerCore, but that group was so fun to join and be a part of, so Luann actually invited me. I got more calls from that than just her one call. So, luann, thank you for coming and thank you for reaching out.
Speaker 3:You're welcome, Chris said. Well, I plan to do that later. Well, why? Yeah, I don't know. I'll see you Thursday.
Speaker 1:You checkmated him. She did Right off the bat. She went, she went.
Speaker 3:Why, well, I didn't know what I was doing. This is now you do.
Speaker 1:You, you know what. That's all she said. But don't you need business now? I'm like, yeah, I'll be there thursday. So, luann, you've had a successful run in the business world.
Speaker 3:Let's talk a little bit about your background first, before we talked about the, the leap that you made okay, and listening to you guys, it was took everything not to interject with all of your comments about the drinking and how healthy that is, and I can teach you how to drink bourbon that it's healthier.
Speaker 1:but yeah, we'll talk about that later as long as we can drink more I was going to say. As long as it includes more, I'm in.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I had been with a um, was in Arizona, finished getting an MBA. I had planned on going to law school, took the LSATs, did very, very well and just at the last minute something seemed like it wasn't right. So I went and got an MBA instead and then ended up with a division. Am I allowed to say the company?
Speaker 1:You are.
Speaker 3:Okay, got it. I was with a division of Pfizer and it was with a company called Rory. Again, a lot of people know the products I had Zoloft and the Z-Pak and Viagra and quite a few others. So I had been with them gosh, I don't know about five or six years and ended up being the rep of the year running for a few years. So it was, I liked it. It was a good company. I loved what I did. I wouldn't quite call that the wellness industry, which is what we thought it might be back then, but it certainly is an industry that-.
Speaker 2:It's an industry.
Speaker 3:It's an industry that has a role, it's thriving and growing.
Speaker 1:Can we say that? Don't go down that road.
Speaker 2:You really went down that road on our last podcast.
Speaker 3:I mean there's a lot of good companies out there. I was treated very, very well with them and then I started to have kids and, if you know anything about pharmaceuticals, I had major teaching institutions. I had the university of virginia, I had the medical college of virginia. So I had some traveling with that and was getting home and seeing my kids about 30 minutes a day and we got to a point point where I thought it might not be best for me. It's hard to be rep of the year, mom of the year, and I remember my manager literally saying could you stay with us and be mediocre? Wow, and I get it Like, if you, you know, mediocre mom and a mediocre.
Speaker 3:Yeah, If that has been what I had been, maybe that's hard to. Yeah, If that has been what I had been, maybe that's hard to you. Don't want to set your goal there. So the answer was no.
Speaker 1:So you? But you knew you wanted to keep working and obviously your husband at the time is still there, so the same guy working right. But I mean, at the time when you said, hey, baby, I'm done, I'm out, I'm doing it, or do you, did you say I'm going to try to find something else?
Speaker 3:Yeah, and we took over half our income and cut it right out, which is a tough one.
Speaker 3:And then we ended up moving from Richmond Virginia down here to it was then Alpharetta, georgia, now it's Johns Creek, georgia, where we lived, and he ended up with a different job that made up for most of that, but then after a while I just decided that I wanted to jump into something. But here's the thing when you're in corporate America they kept my job for a year, but then they kept my money. The money didn't keep coming in when you left them after a year, it's funny how that works it is kind of funny.
Speaker 3:So I decided if I ever did anything again, there would be a way to have income coming in, should you ever have to step aside for a certain reason, and maybe a business where you could have multiple streams of income in the same business. So I was kind of focused on that and when I came across a company called Arbonne, I had never heard of it. It was already 25 years when I jumped in. Arbonne is a network marketing company and people be like oh, it's a pyramid which shows a total lack of information on that point. A pyramid is what Bernie Madoff and others are in jail for, or was for hundreds of years.
Speaker 2:Those are bad.
Speaker 3:They are bad. They are bad. There's no products involved. It's usually a money people putting in money and it is a pyramid scheme and it crumbles. This is a business model and you just have to. You know, I have an MBA. We studied them. I had no qualms about it. You know, as opposed to what you did, you started from the ground up. I jumped in with them like I'm their sales team, so it seemed like something I could do.
Speaker 1:Did you evaluate anything else at that time?
Speaker 3:You know, I did evaluate. A couple of came and asked me to work for them again on a part-time basis and then when they told me how much they were going to pay, they laughed. Before I did oh wow, said um, wow, and she's like I know we were all worried to even call you and ask um, but it was, they were just getting into. It was a split business, it was a split position. So it was going to be me and one other person and I said how are they covering that? You want me to drive into downtown Atlanta and pay for childcare? I can't do it. I just couldn't do it, nor did I really want to. I wanted to do something different.
Speaker 1:So did you have that itch to be an entrepreneur, to go out on your own? Was that always something that was in the back of your mind?
Speaker 3:It really wasn't. So a friend called me about Arbonne and I did what other people do? I ignored the phone call and then she called back and I kind of ignored it again and I said I'm not interested, I've never even heard about them. And she said well, I know you're looking for something that you can do from home and make money, and are you so close-minded you won't look at this. Well, how do you answer that?
Speaker 2:yeah, that's tough kind of how, uh how she got you to go to that first she was she was well, hey, all right.
Speaker 1:So what I didn't know was I was up against the five-time, uh, as purpose of a rep of the year. I had no, no chance man. She, she had, she, she was sharking, cut me, me at the end. Yes, she was cutting my Achilles, cutting my knees, and I was sitting there going hey, you're so nice, get in the car.
Speaker 3:You don't have your truck chef, oh goodness. So no, it kind of fell in my. I mean, I had heard of network marketing it's like I really don't know what that is and I looked at the business model.
Speaker 2:I mean Amway comes to mind.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and you know Amway causes us some problems because if you have a concern about network marketing, it's a company you think about and it's not the business model. It's the principles and practices of a company that you have trouble with. I mean truly, and they were the ones I They've been around for years.
Speaker 2:Were they naughty.
Speaker 3:They would invite you to things and not kind of tell you you were coming to a business event. It's just like who does that?
Speaker 1:Guilty Got hit by one of those when I was in grad school, my girlfriend at the time who I might still know and maybe became my wife.
Speaker 2:She said.
Speaker 1:I was like, where are we going with this on air? Her friend from IBM said come on over for a party. And we got there and we were a little early, or we were fashionably late, but not as late as the Amitakers and the Amigators blocked us in the driveway and wouldn't let us leave. I'm like, are you serious? Yeah, I mean that. That. That, in fact, that whole thing turned me way off because Amway is from Michigan originally. We had Amway products in my house.
Speaker 2:I know the biggest tower in Grand Rapids is the Amway Grand Plaza.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so this happened and you're like I can't, and so at the time it actually was a huge riff. I'm like, hey man, if that's the kind of people you hang out with, I'm good.
Speaker 2:And we didn't date for a little bit because of that, and I never would have talked to her.
Speaker 1:No, I did not get blocked. No, she just nipped my Achilles and dragged me down to the networking event to only allow me to go make more money. So did you look at some? I mean network marketing, for you was a bad turn.
Speaker 3:It was not. I didn't know it was not.
Speaker 1:Because it was not on your radar at all at that point Because no, and nothing had ever happened to me.
Speaker 3:I mean, I studied it as a business model. It makes sense Like someone develops the products, they do all the research, they do that, and then you plug in and you develop, kind of like it is my own little mini business and you can grow it to as big or as small as you want. I market the products, I can coach and train others to do what I do and I get a small override on that. But those small overrides add up as you grow. But I like that. I have hundreds of customers and I've had some of the same customers 20 years because I've been with them 20 years now. So if I have to take a break, like I have over the 20 years, my customers don't know that. So they're continuing to order and that business is still coming in and my paycheck is still coming in. So I love that.
Speaker 2:What kind of products do they have?
Speaker 1:I know you brought us a couple of chew toys for men or something like that. Exactly Chew toys for men. That's actually a great product. I think you got one right there. I'll give you a healthy snack, okay, thank you.
Speaker 3:That'll go along really well with the bourbon. Is it good with the bourbon? It's a beef jerky. It's not an Arbonne product. I had to know my audience.
Speaker 2:It's like, wow, I'll think of Arbonne differently if they've got chew toys.
Speaker 1:So back to Arbonne. Did you have to believe in the product or did you have to believe more in the business model than you do the product?
Speaker 3:I jumped in for the business model and when people are looking at any business I did with network marketing. What anybody should do to any business is like look at the compensation plan, like how do you get paid? What's it based on? Look at the industries they're in Like this one is wellness and skincare. So are those big industries? And if they're not, maybe you should pick another company, another company? Well, wellness just happens to be a 6.3 trillion with a t trillion dollar industry.
Speaker 3:Wow and we're clearly not participating in that but you guys were talking about your skin care, how I do I do have product.
Speaker 1:I do use product for my, my skin and that is currently.
Speaker 3:What is that $171 billion industry? So, Chris, that's why I picked it. It's like those are a couple of major industries. And then the company's pay plan. I knew how to read a pay plan. It's really good. Others weren't as good and I've had people comment like, oh gosh, you get paid for sponsoring people. That makes no sense, Like if you see a company, and that's why I tell people looking at network marketing, evaluate our bond. If you want me to help you evaluate other companies, I will, but if they pay you for sponsoring, I would be backing away because you sponsor 10 people and they sell nothing. What's that doing for you?
Speaker 3:So you want to be looking at a company that pays you when you literally move the products they're promoting. That's what you're looking for, so you looked at the pay plan.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and what else did you look at? I looked at the industries I looked at.
Speaker 3:It was in wellness and skincare and I am a baby boomer I know you can't tell, but I am, so skincare is huge. And then I love wellness. So they were the original clean company. Now it's kind of the cool thing to ban toxins and chemicals and red dye number three. Well, that wasn't as cool 45 years ago, but they're the original clean company and they kind of grew into that and they're I mean, now they're very popular because that's what people are looking for. And then I don't stock inventory. I don't do any of that, like they ships from the company. There's a lot of good things about this industry. They do a lot of my work for me.
Speaker 1:Did you evaluate the flexibility, the ability to be there with your kids when you wanted to be with the kids, and that was a big part of it as well.
Speaker 2:Yeah, how did you investigate? And I think this is really interesting because you know, our listeners are from all kinds of backgrounds, but they're all entrepreneurial, so how do you evaluate an opportunity? So how did you? How did you find out that these are products I can stand behind?
Speaker 3:Yeah, looking at the ingredients and, having my pharmaceutical background, I knew how to read ingredients. So, looking at that, and then I signed up for the business, knowing I could make this work, and then ordered products. And that's not what most of my people do. Most of my people that decide to eventually join me in the business they've had a great experience with one of our like our 30 days to healthy living, or they love our products and then they're looking for a little extra income. I was the complete opposite. I saw what people were earning, I saw what the business was doing, I saw how it was growing, so I jumped in and then I tried the products, hoping I liked them, based on the ingredients. Dude, I'm totally digging that.
Speaker 1:Come on now. That's. I mean, that's a great way to look at it. I mean she's got a business mind going into it. So how many times again, in networking especially, you get out there and you find the pretenders, the ones who don't really need to do this, and kind of aren't there. They're kind of playing at business. And when you're out there networking you're looking for people who are working at their business.
Speaker 3:I'm looking for both. Like if you want to join me and have a hobby and still do a little bit, that's fine. Like I have lots of. I don't have lots. People think like you need hundreds of people in this business working with you to be successful. I have four or five key people and then I have others that are working to hit their goals. Like they want to be able to shop at Whole Foods, they want to be able to put their kids in travel baseball. You know that's their goal. Their goal isn't to get their husband home from work or to pay for their house in downtown somewhere or to, you know, have a cabin mess. That's not their goal. But I'll take them all and help them, coach them for whatever they want. Truly, Because people's plans change too.
Speaker 1:Like that.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:All right. So you get in there, you start growing the business, you start to see it. Was there ever a point where you said I don't know if this is going to work, I'm probably going to have to call it good.
Speaker 3:Well, you know, there's a book that was literally written called the Dip, and maybe you guys have experienced it. You always get a little dip in your business because that's how industries are. You're really lucky.
Speaker 1:No, I have a monster dip, because that's how industries are.
Speaker 3:You're really lucky no I have monster dips.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, I feel like we just kind of doubt a little bit what we're doing. But you know, anytime that happens, it's time to regroup and try something different, which is kind of what we do, because the way I worked my business when I started 20 years ago, there's a lot of changes since then. I mean think of social media, and that is part of why this industry is exploding. Now you can do so much on social media and be successful at it. I wouldn't say I'm that successful via that method yet. I'm more one-on-one and out and about meeting people and getting referrals. But there's multiple ways to make this business succeed. And I tell people like what will you really do? Like let's work your business in the fastest. Like what way will you? What will you really do? Like let's work your business in the facet. Like what will you really do? Let's not say you're gonna go meet people if you're an introvert and don't wanna ever talk, but if you'll work on social media, let's make it work.
Speaker 1:So it's always been good for you working through it. Never sit because I've said this. People listen to the podcast no less than three different times. I probably should have shut the business down because it was going the wrong way and everything sucked and it was just brutal. But other than that, it was great. Other than that, I mean. 16 years later, look at me I'm an overnight success and almost still married.
Speaker 3:This is so different from you we don't have overhead. You know we're a plant-based company so we don't stock inventory because it has an expiration date on it.
Speaker 2:That's good to hear.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so I don't have a lot of the stuff that you had to be kind of like, put you back a little bit Now. I have had times where I've worked my business less, and that's one of the things I like with network marketing versus corporate America. You remember, because I've already told you, I was the rep of the year a couple of years running. So then you go for salary review and you go for, like, your bonus and I remember literally saying, gosh, that's what the rep of the year gets Like, thought it'd be more and the answer was you haven't been with us as long as the other guys. Now, first of all, I was the first female, with one of the first females with Pfizer to work the business. I was probably one of the first ever rep of the year. I was the first one to have a baby and then I was the second person to have a baby.
Speaker 1:But yeah, so you're first and second. Yeah, I was first and second. Oh, that's good, there you go.
Speaker 3:There you go. But their point was you haven't been with us long enough to get the bigger bonuses. I didn't like that, and if you have an entrepreneurial bone in your body, you don't like that.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 3:If you work harder and that's when my business has its dips it's because I'm not working as hard, for whatever reason. It's kind of like that it's going back. Well, I guess it's me. There's no one to blame, which I like.
Speaker 1:So let's talk about how you work your business compared to other people. So you know, we always think about we have to do business development, got to get the leads, we're to convert the leads and we're going to fulfill. Well, you've already got the fulfillment. That's, that part's figured out. Where do you focus your business development? Where?
Speaker 3:do you think people should be focusing their business development? You know, for me I focus. I don't know if it's business development, but business maintenance. I have a lot of clients so my goal is to keep them and to follow up and take good care of them. Out and about. I've run a business women's networking group. I ran one in Johns Creek for 11 years and then when I moved to Alpharetta I started a business women's networking group down there and part of the reason was and actually I didn't want to do it. I was feeling like I was being led to do it but I didn't want to do it because it's a little bit of work.
Speaker 1:A little bit.
Speaker 3:A little bit of work. And I was sitting next to someone at a lunch I was at and said she said what are you doing in the new year? I said oh, I feel like I'm being led to start a networking group again, but I don't have a place to hold it in downtown Alpharetta, so I think I'm going to have to roll it out. To which she says my husband and I own a business about a block from here. We'll let you use the conference room for free if you want to.
Speaker 2:So yeah, there's your answer. No choice, there's your answer.
Speaker 3:So, because a lot of people don't know how to network. So I felt like it's my goal to teach them. And then we have a group of 25 to 35. And it's a good group and they and it's a good group and they help me build my business like we did with you, chris, right, so I build my business that way. I will do bring people in and teach some little wellness events, because lots of people want to be very like. They wanted to have a drink of bourbon and not impact their blood sugar as much. So I'll do like zoom calls about that.
Speaker 2:That is a thing second tease she's given us, but she's not giving us the answer.
Speaker 3:I'm going for more bourbon what I'm not kidding, all right but so I do some zoom events, I do some live events. Um, I've gotten good at asking for referrals, which I think a lot of us should do, and very few people take advantage of that so that's a great way to talk about how you ask for referrals because it is, it's uh, I think it's an art that most people don't know and usually, usually, people are like well, if you know anybody, keep me in mind. You can't do that, no, yeah.
Speaker 2:How do you teach people how to ask for referrals?
Speaker 3:You know, I either talk to someone who's just ordered or someone that's at one of my events or someone that I have just followed up with, and we're communicating and saying hey, listen, I know you love the product and I know you've had some good results. Can you think of anybody that would like to hear about it or be as happy as you are? And I always send them. You know something for doing that, and most of them aren't expecting anything, but they do think, and they might not think right then, but you planted a seed, so now they're watching for you. Like, here's what I'm looking for. I'm looking for it and I described them.
Speaker 3:You know I'm looking for someone that's into wellness, like you are, that's trying to make small strides, who you know is looking for skincare, who is like what do you know that might like it? Can you, can you connect us to us in a three-way text right now? And some of them I'll say, like can you pull three or four together and I'll come and talk to you, because I feel like I'm better. Live like better live Like. People will be like oh, what's she going to talk about? She's going to twist my arm. There's no arm twisting, like there isn't, but you can just sit down and there shouldn't be.
Speaker 1:She just cuts your Achilles, drags you to the network. No, I'm kidding, no, she actually hit on one thing that I think is really key in networking. You got to be very specific and have that ask yeah, 100, right. And I think that's where it's hard, because it's really easy, especially in the sales process. We call that wimp junction. Is that? You're almost what wimp junction? So I'm almost there, I can almost get to close, and then you go, um, okay, is there anything else? All right, well, I'll send you the estimate and I'll follow up with you.
Speaker 3:Well, I'm expecting you to ask so they're a little surprised, like didn't he want my business well?
Speaker 2:and I think I think just in defense of everybody that does it wrong. They think if they're too specific they might be eliminating some opportunity. So if you say, if you know, if you can think of anybody that needs me, then that that opens it up to everybody. But if you have a very as chris uses the word avatar you have a very specific avatar and you say I'm looking for this, then all of a sudden, they can think of everybody they know and think of people that look like that.
Speaker 3:And the this changes depending on, like the season, what Arbonne's doing, what's going on, the this can change. Someone asked me you know what would be one of your best business points or advice that you would give? And it is follow-up, like follow-up. We hear that you have to have like 7 to 12 follows up before people will change their toothpaste, but you continue to follow up with people until they tell you to stop, and then you know. When they tell you to stop, you know you can say like for now or forever, and that's different with every industry. For my industry that's pretty appropriate. That's's actually interesting.
Speaker 2:So what do you think is the right cadence for follow-up?
Speaker 3:If someone's a client of mine already, I do follow up immediately, thanking them, and then in five days, and then in two weeks and then in a month. If it's someone that I'm looking to like they've shown an interest and I'm following up, it's immediate, a month. If it's someone that I'm looking to like they've shown an interest, I'm following up, it's immediate. And then it's usually the week later and then it's a question like you know, what can I help you with? I know you were interested, can we get that going? And then it's usually monthly, okay so not daily.
Speaker 3:No, we've been talking about this it depends we have been talking with someone, but it depends we've been talking about the automation that you have with technology yeah and uh, and I bought a uh, a battery-powered tool, for my son and daughter-in-law and on their website great deal.
Speaker 2:I get a text every day and I'm like literally every day and I'm like, well, they're pretty good deals. So I don't necessarily want to unsubscribe, because there could be a day where I need a pole saw or something. But I'm like my God, they're driving me crazy.
Speaker 1:It almost makes me, but the flip side is if you're not staying present in front of them. But every day is too much.
Speaker 2:I'm just going out on record saying every day is too much. You're driving me freaking crazy, but I like what you're doing.
Speaker 1:You know what I'm taking away from.
Speaker 2:This is from now on, when you come, uh, and I give you an announcement I'm going to follow you hourly ellen you decided.
Speaker 3:Yet how about?
Speaker 1:yet at two o'clock in the morning, are you? Are you awake? Hey, ellen are you awake?
Speaker 2:I am, I am waiting well I think some of them get that because when you go to subscribe.
Speaker 3:They will say like how about weekly? Or how about? I still want to keep you up, but you have a daily. I don't have enough to say to follow up. Like why?
Speaker 1:But let's go back and just a little bit on the networking part. So you now are running a networking group and you're helping people understand how to network, and we talked about that. Where do you pull your most energy out of your business? Is it somebody who sells something that you help them sell? Is it somebody who loves your product? Or do you get more energy out of that networking group, Like when you're done? Do you like I'm just re-energized to go out there and start doing my business again?
Speaker 3:You know the thing, probably what energizes me most about my business is I teach. I tell people, I teach healthy living. I can help you look good and feel good. You know products, education and truly like. I jumped into Arbonne for money and about 11 years maybe 11 years into it, they came out with a healthy living program. And, chris, you probably remember hearing about the 30 days to healthy living, that's it.
Speaker 3:No one whined about it more than I did, and I mean no one, because you pull things out that I loved. You had to eat more nutritious food. What's that? Pasta, yeah, cookies. Bourbon for 30 days. I know I hear you Yep, 30 days.
Speaker 1:Chris will be right back. He's got to go pass out and be back. How about 30 minutes?
Speaker 3:I do 30 minutes to healthy living, but anyway, I did end up doing the program because I have lots of clients, I have a big business, so it's up. But but anyway, I did end up doing the program because I have lots of clients, have a big business, so it's kind of like I need. I need to know what it's all about and if a leader's not going to do it, no one is. So I did it and, no joke, within five or six days I felt pretty good. I have two autoimmune disorders, or I did, and I really think this is the reason I ended up with Arbonne was to resolve my health issues. I had no clue that I was causing some of them and after 30 days I ended up losing a bit of weight and feeling so good. Well, it's a 30 day program, so you know they did on day 31, went back to Lucky Charms right back.
Speaker 3:Not quite, but Captain Crunch or whatever I was doing.
Speaker 1:Even better. I don't like Lucky Charms anyway.
Speaker 3:They're magically delicious. They are, they're magically delicious, captain.
Speaker 1:Crunch, captain Crunch. What else can rip the roof of your mouth out better than Captain Crunch?
Speaker 2:And you're happy that it happened. Yeah.
Speaker 1:All right.
Speaker 3:I do believe RFK is going to take care of all of this.
Speaker 1:All right, so 30 days, 31, you go off it and what happened?
Speaker 3:30 days, 31,. You go off it and what happened? And then didn't feel good almost immediately. I had something called fibromyalgia, which is chronic pain, chronic fatigue disorder, and I had Crohn's, which is that's a real thing. People die from that.
Speaker 1:That's a real thing. It's a real thing, that's a real thing.
Speaker 3:And I bumped into a holistic nutritionist just over and over again and I said to her like there's a reason we're supposed to know each other, why don't we figure it out? So I explained to her what I was doing and she said you're doing the right thing. You need to do it longer. You know, I was learning wellness with her and over four and a half months I ended up losing almost 50 pounds and those issues that I had problems and fibromyalgia.
Speaker 2:I don't have those anymore. I don't have those, are you?
Speaker 1:kidding me right now.
Speaker 3:I haven't for 10 years.
Speaker 1:That's amazing.
Speaker 3:I'm not making any medical claims, but when you feed your body like, some of the things we're doing are causing our own issues and inflammation.
Speaker 2:Garbage in, garbage out.
Speaker 3:Yeah, inflammation is a precursor for every disease state, and then, thankfully, by getting rid of something, it is.
Speaker 1:I'm on the card for all of them, if there is a bingo card.
Speaker 3:I'm lighting them all up, my friends, bingo, bingo, B-72. Bingo, I can help even you, chris.
Speaker 2:I don't know, but that's a challenge I would love to see.
Speaker 3:You know when you ask what I love about it.
Speaker 1:She dragged me to networking. Don't do that.
Speaker 3:Now I'm going to go up the way. Healthy, I feel good.
Speaker 1:Eat a vegetable she could actually get me to eat a vegetable. I didn't even know that that's not one of the four food groups, is it?
Speaker 2:Not yours.
Speaker 3:So, that's what I get excited about, like helping people Like they don't get it and all of a sudden they feel better and they're like I didn't get it, Like you have control over how you feel. It's just so interesting with nutrition and the whole thing. So you've obviously been very successful doing this.
Speaker 2:You were very successful before. What is the difference between you and becoming successful?
Speaker 3:and a lot of other people that jump into the same company and they aren't. I don't go away Like you don't quit, you don't quit. You have a bad year, you have a downside, you don't quit. And it's just based on what your goals are Like. My goal is to not have a real job and go back to corporate.
Speaker 3:And you have goals that you pay attention to, oh absolutely yeah, and I'm reading a book called the 12 week year. I don't know if you guys have seen that and it. It really is a pretty good one.
Speaker 1:That means you only work 12 weeks a year. Well, the point is Chris is interested, color me interested. You know what I might go healthy to work 12 weeks a year.
Speaker 2:That's not quite what it is.
Speaker 3:But their point is why don't we break our years and set our goals in 12 weeks? Because you know you set your yearly goal and there's sometimes you get to June and like there's no way, like there's no way, so you're done so what are you doing the next six months?
Speaker 3:So if you do it in 12, 12 weeks, pick three things like three things you really want to work on and really do it. And if you get partway in and you're not hitting it, you can refocus or redo something. But if you get to the end of 12 weeks, like oh, I didn't hit it, that's okay, you have another 12 week and another 12 week. It's kind of an interesting idea I do like that idea.
Speaker 1:That's interesting. I don't know if I can do 12 weeks.
Speaker 2:I'll do 30 minutes yeah, I was gonna say your attention span doesn't go that long what I did, what we're talking about.
Speaker 1:Let's go back to, uh, lou Anne, can we please? So, uh, at the end of what? All right, please, alan. Can we let the adults please talk for a minute? All right? So back to Lou Anne. So, as you do this, do you have an exit strategy? So you've started a business, you're an entrepreneur. Do you have an exit strategy? Or are you like I'm going to ride this thing out and see what happens?
Speaker 3:You know I have thought about that and I have a friend that is trying to figure out what her exit strategy is with it. So I feel like when I'm ready to not build as much, I still will take care of and support my clients that I already have, that I'm getting you really are getting residual income for them once and some of the clients I've had for 20 years it's not that hard to support them anymore. Like, what else are you doing? You can take half hour, 30 minutes an hour a day to take care of the people you already have if you don't want to build anymore.
Speaker 1:So you feel like when I, when I'm ready to say I think I'm almost ready to retire, quote, unquote, and I'm putting the air quotes out there for everybody online, um, is that you just kind of let it kind of play itself out?
Speaker 3:stop them mentoring people for the business? Yeah, you know might let it do that is that a business?
Speaker 2:you could say?
Speaker 3:can you bring on somebody else like a protege and no, if you really can't sell it, you can will it. My kids are in my will should something happen to me, they get it um, which is a nice perk are they involved in the business now?
Speaker 1:they are not well all right, let's talk about arbonne for a little bit, because we're at the last five, ten minutes of the show. So what is arbonne? What are the products, and can men actually get some?
Speaker 2:Chew toys. Chris wants to know if we can grow our hair back.
Speaker 3:We do have a product that stimulates hair growth, so it might help a little bit.
Speaker 1:I think we're a little behind that one. I've actually said this no jokes all things aside because we are bald. We've made no jokes about that. But if I was starting to go bald now with all the advances there, I can't tell you that I wouldn't have been vain enough to go. I might do it, but I saw how bad plugs were back in the day. I'm like I'll never do that the worst. So I'm not gonna lie that I'm not that vain. But I, uh, I see that. But now I don't think there's any amount of anything I can put in my body that my hair is going to start growing back in my head. My family has proven that, so all right. So what does Arbonne offer?
Speaker 3:Yeah, Arbonne has been around 45 years, which is one of the reasons I picked them. I won't go with a startup. I didn't want to go with a startup.
Speaker 2:Me neither start, because you know they mean either record on that for me.
Speaker 3:You both did well on it. I didn't. I was not going to choose that, so I picked a well-established company and, like I said, arbonne is the original clean. They banned 2 000 ingredients that we now know, what we've known. They have known are toxic to people. So and I knew my drug rep days like we sell skincare products, if it touches your skin it's in every organ in 26 seconds Not to think there's implications with regard. There are implications with that. So so I like the products, but we have everything.
Speaker 3:We have nutrition, like I brought you guys. We have protein shakes. You know proteins is a huge thing to focus on. Like get a hundred grams of minimum a day, you feel better doing whatever you do. You just feel better and that's what it's kind of all about. You work better, you feel better, you enjoy life better if you feel better. So protein it's hard to eat 100 grams, so I love that. They have a meal replacing protein shake. That's one of our number one sellers. We have an energy drink that's healthy for you, that focuses on B vitamins and garam and green tea. We have amazing skincare the men one of our products just got named number one for men, so we laugh about that. But I would suggest there's a lot of men out there working on a second wife that's a tiny bit younger, so they need to work their best. So there is men's skincare. It seems to be exploding for different reasons.
Speaker 1:I love that. She said there's just way too many to do in there. Number one men's product. I'm like I only can't I can't wait to hear how big this one is. Thank you, we have sports products we have.
Speaker 2:Like hydration drinks.
Speaker 3:We have a hydration. I brought you guys a post-workout. We have immunity products and man, there are are like what? Are they calling it a quad pandemic? This year it's flu a and flu b and it's norovirus and it's rsb and it's covid is still sticking around.
Speaker 3:You need to build your immunity and I take we have a mushroom powder, we have an immunity drink, we have a super risk. I take them all because I choose to stay healthy, so it's products that you would use every day shampoo, conditioner, toothpaste. Like our mom wants to have the product you reach for, but have the safer version, and they want it showing up at your doorstep at a discount.
Speaker 2:Is it bad for business if you get sick?
Speaker 3:If I get sick? No, but I'll probably recover faster.
Speaker 1:Take that, alan. All right, luann, I know you read this, but we've got to ask you our famous four questions. You've already referenced a book.
Speaker 3:This is a different book, good yeah.
Speaker 1:I want to hear your favorite book.
Speaker 3:Yeah, the favorite, like the modern day version, would probably be Atomic Habits from James Clear. You guys I'm sure know that and it's one of the number ones. The one that I read years ago was the compound effect by darren. By darren hardy there's like three different ones and I keep going back to the same books, but it's called the compound effect and his point is the tiny little decisions we make every day. They add up and they're easy to do and they're easy not to do, but you either end up with the life you want or kind of a disaster by default, which is true, like as we were just talking about taking care of your clients, following up. Those are so easy not to do.
Speaker 1:Compound effect. I love that one. I actually was sorry. I was checking out so I could write that one down. That was so good.
Speaker 3:And that's what I coach with my clients, cause you know, my goal with our bond is to get everybody off of the drugs. I put them on with pharmaceutical company.
Speaker 1:That's right.
Speaker 3:Get you off of those.
Speaker 1:I like that. Yeah, that should be your tagline. Let me get you off the drugs I put you on 30 years ago. I can help you. All right, I want to know the favorite feature of your current home.
Speaker 3:You know we live in a brand new home and my favorite feature is so silly. There's something magic in the water tank that makes it. I have hot water immediately.
Speaker 2:Oh, it's a hot and I don't know what it is.
Speaker 3:You know what it is.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I do, but that's but. I love that, so you love that you have hot water right now. That's the feature See.
Speaker 3:And then the other one we put in was I have garage floors that put the epoxy on. I love that.
Speaker 1:It looks so clean every time you walk in there, right, I love it yeah.
Speaker 1:Right, and you're not even a dude out there, you're just hanging in the garage. Everyone loves it. I know I do on the home show. I just had a garage living guy come in and talks about. I said, well, you're selling this to the guy and the guy stops me and says nope, you're selling that to the woman. He said I sell it to more single women than anybody else. Wow, I said do those single women come with hot cars? Because I know somebody I mean, it's a handyman again, I could just help.
Speaker 2:so all right. Sometimes you should whisper in my ear before you say something uh, michael edit that.
Speaker 1:Oh god, he won't do that either. No, oh, michael, for years not that all right so, uh, we, we founded this podcast and we're trying to help everybody grow, but one of the things we all know about growing as entrepreneurs and and luann has told that we need to be customer service freaks, and so we want to know what's a customer service pet peeve of yours.
Speaker 3:You know, mine is when you push 94 buttons and then you get a robot. That's it. I cannot get a real person.
Speaker 1:So I just had somebody tell I was I just get done telling my CEO group about AI and it's coming to the HVAC industry before my industry and here's what we've heard, and we've heard this on the podcast from Uzi and I, you know, I went back and listened to some more later and she said somebody here locally had tried it here in Atlanta and she said it was the most frustrating experience of my life. I kept going, representative, representative, representative. She said after 20 minutes I got hung up on oh. I was like oh, ai did not score that, take that robot, I robot, we're taking him out. All right, I win. And now I want to go back to you and Tony, your husband. We didn't mention him yet, did we? I just did it. So Tony has just been mentioned on the podcast.
Speaker 3:He doesn't know, he's part of this.
Speaker 1:Oh, he will now, tony. I want to know a diy nightmare story, and I want not the contractor story. I want something that you and tony just absolutely tried and it just went so bad it's so funny like wallpaper hanging and go ahead and drive the bus over tony, right over him, kill him, knock him down well, he's only gonna agree with this.
Speaker 3:Like tony works very hard so he can say who can we hire to do that? Like, truly Like. But you could, yeah, but who can we hire to do that? I would guess back when we before he had that line that he uses all the time now, it was probably wallpapering a bathroom, A small bathroom. You did it together we, we are still together. What are we on 42, 43 years, I don't know, coming up um? So we're still together. But that was a rough one, it was that will ruin a marriage.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and he will never do it again, like never do people still wallpaper chris actually it's coming back, coming back in a big way it goes and comes I know, and the coverings that are coming back now, um much better made so I mean we're self-stiff now so, uh, I don't know.
Speaker 1:I've been trying because we won't do it at the trusted toolbox, because I'm so, I'm just so absolutely killed on how bad it was in the beginning. So they were really paper-based, and you put them up and they shrink, they move, they stretch, they break, and you could never put them upright. So now they have a little bit more backing to them. They're actually super simple to put up. Where people really whiff on, though, is the gaps. I mean, yeah, it seems they just can't do it. So ballpapering is still one of those things that, if you want to stay married, don't do it. Don't do it, yeah, and Don't do it, and I highly recommend just throwing up some Sherwin-Williams paint and calling it good?
Speaker 2:I think so. Or maybe you could come up with strips that you put over the seams and just kind of lean into the gap and make it a contrast or something, a decorative contrast.
Speaker 1:Oh, you might be adding to something. We could go out and check a board. You could be coffered walls.
Speaker 2:See Trademark Small business apart.
Speaker 3:I think you're wrong.
Speaker 1:I think you'll be selling it to all men's assisted living firms where they have bouncing balls going all over the market there. Oh my God, luanne, this has been great. Here's how we got Luanne on the show. We actually I think she's been on my list for a long time, but Al and I went to Steve Beecham's party Steve Beecham's party Steve Beecham, the ultimate networker. The guy knows how to network to everybody, the mother of all Christmas parties and we walked in there and we saw Luann and I got a chance to introduce Alan to Luann and Alan is sitting there going. We have to have her on our podcast. Why is she not on our podcast? I'm like she's on my list, bro. I was just. I was just working it in, all right, so okay.
Speaker 2:So now you have asked chris, I know so let's do this all right.
Speaker 1:You've learned something, luann. How can everybody find out about you, though?
Speaker 3:they can. I have a website, we yeah it is please it's lubanrussianarbonnecom. And then I am on Instagram, you know, hidden under my real name of Luban Russian, so you can find me there on Facebook.
Speaker 2:How do you spell?
Speaker 3:Russian R-U-S-H-I-N. Like you're Russian or Russian. There's not a lot of them out there on Insta, though. No, you know, according to my niece, the only Luban Russian in the world Nice.
Speaker 1:That's pretty cool, isn't it cool to be unique?
Speaker 3:I know I have two names. No one can spell ever.
Speaker 1:Ever. That's awesome.
Speaker 3:Usually, when I tell people my last name is Russian, they're like oh, but what is it? No, it's literally Russian. Why would I tell you my last name?
Speaker 1:R-U-S-H-R-N. We're good, all right guys, listen. Us a chance. We're good, all right guys, listen. You've heard from Luann. She has told you a lot about how great her business has been for her and the way she worked it. You can get into this business and not do anything with it, but like any business, you want to get into something. You want to lean your shoulder into it, make it happen. You got to keep going up that mountain, and hard. You got to keep driving, networking, figuring out things are going to happen. Luann has figured out how to do this. So if you want to figure out how to do this, go connect with her. But in the meantime, we'll see you next week when we talk a little bit more about getting up that mountain. Let's get out of here. We've got to go get healthy. Cheers everybody.
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