The Direct Seller's Podcast
The Direct Seller's Podcast
Why Hustling Isn’t the Answer
Direct sellers can sometimes feel overwhelmed by the hustle culture that permeates the industry, leading to burnout and frustration. By focusing on what ignites passion and creating a business aligned with personal values, success can be achieved more sustainably without succumbing to relentless grinding.
On today's episode, Rachel challenges you to ditch the grind and build a business that aligns with your strengths and passions in 2025.
Episode Highlights:
- Hustle culture leads to burnout and inconsistent results.
- Working smarter—not harder—creates sustainable success.
- Focus on what lights you up and feels aligned with your goals.
- Minimize or delegate tasks that drain your energy.
Action Step:
Identify one business task that feels heavy and take a step toward delegating or simplifying it this week.
Hang out with me more!
Send me the message PODCAST over on Instagram at @rachelaperry and I’ll send you my "Parties-Optional Profit Plan!"
For Additional Resources for Direct Sellers:
www.rachelaperry.com
Welcome to the Direct Sellers Podcast, the podcast for direct sellers who are ready to get uncomfortable, build their business and grow a team while changing the face of the direct sales industry. I'm your host, rachel Perry. Join me as we get real and talk about all the things you need to kick some serious direct sales booty From overcoming limiting beliefs to sharing the exact strategies you need to attract the right people who become customers and beg to join your team. I've got you covered, girl. I'm going to be your new BFF when it comes to balancing life and kids while building your direct sales business with poise, peace of mind and, of course, a good set of fake eyelashes. Let's get started. Hello, my friends, welcome back to another episode of the Direct Sellers Podcast. I'm so excited for you guys to be here today. We are going to talk about just the hustle, right, the hustle and the hamster wheel and why it sucks and why that's not the answer and what to do instead, because you guys like gosh, it's beginning of the year, so you have all these goals right? So many of the girls in my program and expand have been talking about their goals and I'm like, listen, these are amazing goals, let's reach these, but let's do it on your terms and not getting back onto that hamster wheel and that hamster wheel y'all know what I'm talking about the direct sales hamster wheel, you know, where you just feel like you're going, going, going, going and you're not getting anywhere. Like where you just feel like you're going, going, going, going and you're not getting anywhere. Like, sometimes it just feels like you're hustling so hard to get nowhere, just feels defeating sometimes, are you? Do you feel me on that Like gosh, and I don't know why I'm feeling this so strongly, but I'm feeling it from so many of you, and so I really wanted to do an episode on this. Now, have I done episodes on this before, 100%, and I probably still will. Okay, because this is literally like this is so important when, when Amanda and I were to like doing the tag team for those of you, I think you guys know, and if you don't, I used to be in a partnership with my friend Amanda and we were really really, really good about only working Monday, tuesday, wednesday and that and that was on our the tag team business. But I it was the same for my direct sales business too I had, I had a. It took me a little while, but I really figured out what it was, how many hours I wanted to spend and when those hours were. And Amanda and I were really, really great at it when we were doing the tag team.
Speaker 1:When I started this personal, this business, the coaching business, I wanted to have a similar schedule, but I'm one person now, I'm not two, so we're not getting you know as much done in the time that I spend because I'm choosing to only. I work four days a week y'all, and I work from like either 10 or 11 until about 2.30 every day, so I don't work a lot of hours, hours For me. I know that that means my growth isn't going to be as fast, but it's something that's very important to me, because the reason I'm working from home is so that I can be available for my kids. Now some people are like if you want to get to that million dollar level, whatever you got to hustle, you got to work hard. Great, I do work hard, but I don't hustle. Sometimes I hustle and sometimes there are phases for the hustle, but ultimately I don't want to live like that and I see so much in direct sales, this insane hustle, and I just y'all. I feel like if working harder was the answer, you'd already be where you wanted to be. A lot of you are working, grinding and you're not getting the results that you want. So today I really want to help you understand why hustling and working harder isn't the solution necessarily, and how focusing on what lights you up is really what can transform your business. Now, there's a whole lot of mindset stuff, if you will that's going to go into this that we won't dive into today. But you've got to really come from a place of full strategy. But if we're coming from a place of scarcity, everything's going to be a lot harder.
Speaker 1:Last week, I believe, I talked about how we tend to play small. We tend to self-sabotage ourselves when we have these limiting beliefs that we sort of buy into and it sort of makes us play small. But I also think there's another area where we get really caught up in and that's this crazy hustle. Like you have this huge goal for the year, this huge income goal, and you have to work your behind off if you want to reach that. And here's the thing hustle culture is so prevalent in direct sales. It's so prevalent in the direct sales industry. You guys like you, need to be doing parties. You need to be reaching out, you need to be following up, you need to do that, you need to get new customers.
Speaker 1:Yes, these are all things that you need to be doing, but doing this all the time, following this crazy hustle, isn't going to necessarily give you progress. What it's going to end up doing is it's going to end up hurting you. And guess what? Nobody can sustain that type of hustle. Nobody can. It's literally going to, it's going to burn you out and then you're really going to be up a creek.
Speaker 1:Am I right? And staying busy doesn't necessarily always equal progress. Like you could be working hard, but are you working on the right things? What are you spending time on? Are you moving the needle in your business? Because what happens is is when you, when you work and you hustle and you hustle and you hustle, what often ends up happening is you don't necessarily get the results that you want, or you do, but they're so inconsistent that it's hard to rely on it, and then you start burning out, you start getting frustrated and resenting your business. Why? Because you're working your arse off and not getting the results that you want.
Speaker 1:So when you do these things and here's something else that I want to really lean into, and I was sharing this with someone in my expand program the other day. I was asking her what she wanted to do like what lights her up, and she was like home parties. I've been in this business for a long time and home parties are what lights me up. I love doing home parties and I know that that's not necessarily the way anymore, but that's what makes me happy. Online parties I hate, and I and I said to her listen, if you told me that the the way that I needed to build my business right now was to dive all in on spreadsheets and Google dot or Google sheets, excel, anything like that I would cry and I would avoid it at all costs. Why? Because that stuff makes me want to cry, like I that I will avoid that at all costs. I don't understand them. I don't like them. They make me unhappy, so I'm not going to do that. So if my business was dependent on me rocking out spreadsheets y'all, this business would be no longer so.
Speaker 1:If you're forcing yourself to do things that you really don't like to do like y'all, I hate spreadsheets okay, so I'm gonna hire someone to help me do spreadsheets before I do them myself. If you're doing something that you really don't like to do, you're not gonna be successful at it and you're not gonna do it right. And you're not going to do it Right and you're going to end up feeling frustrated and discouraged and like you don't deserve to be where you are, and all the negative, limiting beliefs that come with that. And why? Because you're doing something that you don't like. Why do we feel like we always have to do things that we don't like in order to be successful? Because you don't Like.
Speaker 1:We need to look out of the box and think okay, what is it that I want for my life? For my life, you guys, I'm working four days a week and I'm working four hours a day. That's what works for my life. Now, am I necessarily going to be making the million dollars that I would love to make one day? No, maybe not. I don't know. This year probably not, but I can put systems in place that are going to get me there. Right, I'm going to get there a whole lot faster if I love what I'm doing than if I don't love what I'm doing, because, I guarantee you, if my life and my business is focused on these freaking spreadsheets. Y'all. I'll be quitting next week because that's not what I love, that doesn't light me up. So don't you do the things that don't light you up.
Speaker 1:Now, yes, there are always things in business that we have to do that we don't love, like paperwork or follow up or whatever it is but that doesn't mean nothing that everything we do has to be what we don't like. If the big things that move the needle in your business are the things that you don't love, then guess what your needle isn't moving because you're not going to do it. So that's my first word of advice to you is like you need to figure out what it is that you love about your business. I see so many direct sellers who are just burnt out and frustrated and they've lost their passion for their business, and a lot of that comes from feeling like you have to do the things that you don't want to do, like the only way to move the needle is to do the things that you don't like, and I'm going to be real like, and I'm going to be real building a direct sales business. That's six figures, 80,000, a hundred thousand, whatever.
Speaker 1:That's a hard. It is hard to do that. Can it be done 100%? But I need you. I want you to like, look at the quality of life that it's going to take to get you there. I am not one of those that's going to be like, no, you can't do it, because you absolutely can, and the people that do it probably have a lot of systems in place. You don't know what's happening. All these leaders that are making all this money like you don't know what their business, what it looks like for them, I which is why it's so important for you to not look at other people and go, okay, what is the quality of your life for me? Because here's the thing if you want to make a hundred thousand dollars this year, you can do it. It might not just be with direct sales. You might need to add an additional stream of income, which, by the way, I can help you do, because it doesn't have to be hard. Doesn't have to be hard. In fact, it's not. I can show you how to do it really easily.
Speaker 1:But that's the thing, guys, is we've got to look at what is it that makes you happy, because when you are in alignment, when you are doing the things that light you up. So, in this case my client who loves to do home parties, like when she's in front of people she, I'm sure, just lights up. So her goal is to do more in-person events. Now some of you might be like, oh, I don't want to do in-person events. No way, jose, I like to be behind the computer. Okay, great, let's figure out how that, if that lights you up, what can you do more of?
Speaker 1:But there comes a line where it's like you've got to look at quality of life and you've got to look at what your ultimate goals are. I don't mean just like my goal this month or my goal this year is to make a hundred thousand. I don't know where a hundred thousand comes from, you guys, but it's in my head right now. So we're just going to keep using that as an example. For some of you. You might be like that is so far beyond where I am and that's fine, I'm just using 100,000. I don't know why, but whenever I use that 100,000, you put in what you whatever. Your goal is okay, a stretch goal, of course, but I think it's really important to figure out what do you love and then make your business fit into what you love and listen.
Speaker 1:When you're in direct sales, you also do have an upline, and some of you guys don't have a great upline also do have an upline, and some of you guys don't have a great upline. Like you have an upline who kind of doesn't treat you right or you don't feel supported by them. This is why you have to learn to find groups and coaches that will help you, that will inspire you, also finding a group that you feel connected to. But listen, this is your business. This is your business. You can do this. You can do what you need to do, but I encourage you to build it in the way that you want it to be.
Speaker 1:Now, when you do that, if you're not getting the results that you want right away, I really want to encourage you not to think, not to slip back into what everybody else is doing or what everybody else says works. It's hard to go against the grain. So, for example, if everyone's doing online parties and your upline is telling you to do online parties and you just want to do in-home parties, do in-home parties. If you are really just wanting to stay online and do things online and your upline is telling you to get out in front of people, do what lights you up Now, that being said, if you're not reaching your goals and you're like, nope, I'm only doing this, rachel says I shouldn't do. What doesn't light me up? I need you to hear me when I say this.
Speaker 1:Sometimes we have to do things that we're uncomfortable doing in order for us to reach our goals. So for me, for example, let's take going live on Instagram. I don't know why I don't like to go live on Instagram. I've done it many times, but I just don't like to do it. But if I want to grow my Instagram, I really do think that going live will help me with that. So if I want to do that, then I need to commit to going live on Instagram, even if I don't want to.
Speaker 1:But that's not the only thing that's moving the needle in my business. So it's okay that I'm doing something that makes me uncomfortable. I don't want any of this to sound like I'm giving you an excuse to not do anything that makes you scared, but I just want you to hear me when I say this insane hustle that some of you are doing every single day is really hurting you. It's hurting you because you're doing things that don't make you happy. You're doing things that are exhausting and aren't producing the results that you want. So that's what we need to talk about alignment.
Speaker 1:When are you in alignment? When are you really happy, when are you content? And I don't mean like when the sales are coming in. And I don't mean like when the sales are coming in, and I don't mean like when people book parties. I mean like what lights you up, when do you feel at your best? When do you feel totally aligned, like everything is in the flow state? What is that? Because when you're able to shift to doing the things that you enjoy, things just become easier. Also, think about what comes easily to you. What do others maybe struggle with that comes easier to you. Chances are that's when we're talking about alignment.
Speaker 1:You're in alignment when you're in your zone of genius, when you are doing the thing that you're really good at. So, going back to this example from earlier with my client who wants to do in-home parties, she's a great connector and so it's easy for her to be. She likes to be with people because not only does she connect with them, but she also gets that energy right, the energy from those people. So for her, this year, her goal is to have more in-person events Doesn't mean that she doesn't need to do anything else, but that's her goal, because that will fill her up. So what is it that fills you up? When are you at your happiest when it comes to your business? Do more of that.
Speaker 1:Listen, real talk. If something feels heavy, if it feels heavy, something needs to change. If your business feels like a constant grind, you may be doing the wrong things or doing them the wrong way, or just doing the things that don't light you up. Success will happen and it can feel good when you align your actions with your strengths and your values. It's all about working smarter and not harder.
Speaker 1:But we fall into this trap of like thinking well, if I work harder, then I'll make more money, y'all. It's not true. I'm here to tell you it is not true. The less I I work, the more I actually make. Why? Because the things that I do and the things that I focus on are the things that are ultimately moving the needle. They're the things that are ultimately lighting me up and I'm aligned.
Speaker 1:So when do you feel the most aligned and how can you approach this year in your business off of that hamster wheel? Because that hamster wheel is just gonna make you sick. You're not going anywhere on it. You know what I'm saying, do you feel me? All right, you guys listen. I appreciate you being here today. I just want you to understand that I am rooting for you. You don't have to feel stuck and overwhelmed. There is an easier way that aligns with you.
Speaker 1:And if, at the beginning of this call or this call oh my gosh, this, this broadcast when I talked about adding an additional stream of income, if you are curious about that, if you're like I am very curious about that, email me, rachel, at rachelaperrycom, and I'll give you some ideas. Y'all, there are so many ideas out there. Okay, or message me on Facebook or not Facebook, don't do Facebook because I'll never get it. But Instagram, rachel A Perry. Hey, listen, my friend, I appreciate you listening today. I hope you have a wonderful rest of the day, take care. That's it for this episode of the Direct Sellers Podcast, but our fun doesn't have to end now. You'll catch me hanging out over on Instagram between episodes and I'd love for you to join me. So hop into my DMs. I promise you're not getting any hate girl messages and I promise I'm not going to be asking you to weirdly buy anything. Send me the message podcast so I can send you my free 90-day action planner, because who doesn't love a good template?