TODAY Show: Does It Pay To Become a Direct Seller?

I love this video from the July 11, 2011 TODAY show about Direct Selling:

The video does a great job of highlighting the benefits of direct selling, including:

• Direct selling is a growing and robust industry.
• Direct selling is fun for the sellers and a fun way to shop for the customers.
• The average direct seller can contribute $200 per week to help with the grocery bills, the mortgage or even the family vacation.  (The PamperedChef rep in the video is earning $50,000!)

I also really like Jean Chatzky's perspective on the industry, because she strongly advocates using the Direct Selling Association to help find reputable companies.  (Doesn't hurt that Paperly was recently recognized by the DSA for its ethical business practices.)

Lastly, my favorite part of the video is at the very end when the two speakers suggest that direct selling is all about families and communities supporting at-home businesses. I couldn't agree more! In today's technology-laden world, where neighbors often don't know neighbors, I truly believe direct selling can help bring communities closer. Perhaps that, above all else, makes the direct selling industry worthwhile!

- Jay Rudman, CEO, Paperly

Paperly's First-Ever President's Council

Hard to believe Paperly's first-ever President's Council is already over! Congratulations to the inductees: Bridget Golden, Crystal Langstaff, Gaby Lehmann, DeeDee McCoy and Courtney Rambo. The 3 day event, held in Chicago, was packed with fun and educational events, as you'll see from a glimpse at the agenda below.

Friday night began with a fun, "get to know you" evening at Food Life, a high-energy restaurant located in Chicago's famed Water Tower.



Saturday began with a quick tour of Paperly's corporate headquarters, followed by an inspirational discussion with the day's keynote speaker, Susie Lite. Susie helped the Consultants focus on their "Why Power"! She used the following story to highlight the "Power of Why".

Imagine I'd pay you $20 to walk across a 10' wooden plank on the floor. Would you do it? Of course you would! Now imagine that the 10' wooden plank straddles 2 buildings, suspended 100' in the air. Would you do it for $20? Probably not. Now again imagine that same scenario but you're on the roof of one building and your children are on the other and that building is on fire. Now would you walk that plank, regardless of the $20 or not? Of course you would!

Susie's point? The only thing that changed in that last scenario is your "Why". Once you know your "Why", nothing can stop you.

The remainder of Saturday included a sneak peek at Paperly's future as well as a glimpse at some of Paperly's new products and designs. We finished the session with all 5 participants receiving an award as inductees into Paperly's President's Council.


Courtney Rambo


DeeDee McCoy


Gaby Lehmann


Crystal Langstaff


Bridget Golden

We finished a long Saturday with a scrumptious meal at Rosebud, a famous Chicago eatery.

Again, I wish to congratulate all participants in Paperly's first-ever President's Council, and I cannot wait until next year's.  I hope the inductee list continues to grow and grow and grow.

Regards,

Jay Rudman, CEO, Paperly 

Pam's Paperly Party

Thank you so much to Pam, a Maryland-based Consultant, for letting us peek inside one of your Paperly parties. The part I like most about this series of videos (besides the amazing job Pam is doing as a Consultant!) is that Pam is relatively new at Paperly, and yet, she already "gets it".  (And we all know what I mean by "get it" - right?)  If nothing else, I hope you appreciate, after watching these videos, how you too can get up-and-running with Paperly very quickly.

Getting Ready

I truly can't say it better than Pam does in this video, it is "so easy to plan and get ready for a party".

Displays on Display

I love how Pam has utilized every flat surface for Paperly's displays. There are so many beautiful products for her customers to view as they roam around the room.  Her set-up is so lively and dynamic.  (My only concern with this type of set-up is you'd hate for a customer to miss something because it was located too peripherally. Food for thought.)

Three Favorites

No surprise, Pam's three favorite products are also some of Paperly's top-sellers: personalized clipboards, wine tags and platters.

Ordering Table

Pam's ordering table has everything she needs to be successful: order forms, an Open Date calendar, wish lists, an attendee list, etc. Plus, I love the "tabbed catalog" that Pam has created for herself. Perhaps that's something Paperly should provide?

Karen, The Hostess

Why can't I say things as elegantly as Paperly's Hostesses?  For example, Pam's Hostess, Karen, succinctly explains why she decided to host a Paperly party - because she loves the products and wanted to introduce them to her friends. Thanks, Karen!

Lynn, The Guest

Why does Lynn love Paperly?  Because she can always "find something new that (she) likes." Her favorite product? The self-inking stamps. Hint, hint, Lynn... you should host a Paperly party in June.  You can earn a free self-inking stamp.

Flat Notes to Write to Grandparents

Karen is going to apply her Hostess Rewards towards a free set of personalized hard-sided coasters (page 8 of Paperly's Special Occasions catalog). A truly wonderful choice, Karen. I especially love your 2nd choice - thank you notes for your son to handwrite a note to his grandparents. Yea! Nothing is more memorable than a handwritten note. (I recommend the Rugby Stripe on page 14 of our Everyday Collection catalog. You can choose both a primary and secondary rugby stripe.)

Word from Pam

No wonder Pam has gotten off to a fast start at Paperly - you can sense her passion through this video. I have no doubt Pam will continue to perform fabulously at Paperly!

Thank you again, Pam, for the amazing video sequence. If you live in Maryland, and you'd like to learn more about Paperly, you can certainly connect with Pam via her website: http://www.mypaperly.com/pamday.

And finally, it's my turn with the Flip video recorder - yea! This weekend is Paperly's Inaugural President's Council and I cannot wait to film the event. More on that in the coming days.

Until then, take care.

- Jay Rudman, CEO, Paperly

Exciting Summer Ahead

Summertime can be tough on direct sellers. The heat, the vacations, the kids’ baseball games... all contribute to a general ambivalence towards at-home parties in the summertime. Recognizing this, we have developed a series of compelling reasons why 2011 will be a summer to remember at Paperly.

• In June, all of Paperly’s party Hostesses will receive a FREE self-inking stamp (a $42.95 value) in addition to Paperly’s standard Hostess Rewards. Better yet, if given just a bit of notice, it’s likely that the Hostess will receive her stamp even before her party occurs! You can learn more about Paperly’s June promotion at www.Paperly.com/pdf/Paperly_Free_Self-Inking_Stamp_June2011.pdf
• In July, Paperly plans to offer its first-ever "Christmas in July" promotion. More specifically, if you order 50 or more of Paperly’s photo cards in July, you’ll receive 25 additional photo cards for FREE (up to a $47.95 value)! The flyer for this promotion has yet to be released, but it will be soon... and the buzz amongst the Consultants has been incredibly positive.
• Although we have not yet announced our August promotion, I promise it’ll be a doozy. Stay tuned!

Last, but not least, we cannot forget Paperly’s Consultants! They too deserve a compelling summertime offer. So, we are offering a free Kindle to both of Paperly’s top 2 summertime performers! You can learn more about Paperly’s Summertime Promotion at www.Paperly.com/pdf/Paperly_Summer_Incentive_2011.pdf

We are confident the summer of 2011 is going to be a great one at Paperly. I hope you decide to join us either as a Consultant, a Hostess or a Customer. We’d love to work with you!

Regards,

Jay Rudman, CEO, Paperly

Key Learnings from Washington DC / Baltimore Trip

Last week, I had the great fortune of traveling to Washington DC and Baltimore to meet with Paperly's amazing team of Consultants in that area. In less than 2 days, I had 2 lunch meetings, attended 2 parties, and probably drove 2 much (pun intended). I must admit, I learned so much (as I always do when I conduct field visits). In fact, there were simply too many ideas and suggestions to outline here. However, I wanted to give you a couple of truly key learnings.

#1 Key Learning: Simplify

Paperly needs to vastly simplify its parties. Honestly, a Paperly party should be a 4 hour event: 1 hour pre, 2 hours at, 1 hour post. To ensure that occurs, we need to consider potentially radical changes, such as:

• Moving to 1 catalog as opposed to 2
• Simplifying the catalog (i.e. less color options, less fonts, etc.)
• Enabling direct ship of products at a reasonable price, and perhaps, shipping as ordered rather than waiting for the party to close
• Continuing to reduce the error rates
• Improving the labeling of samples

I cannot promise Paperly will deliver on all of the above suggestions (for a variety of a operational reasons), but they are all worthy of in-depth exploration.

#2 Key Learning: Enhance Support Processes
Paperly could also dramatically help its Consultants by improving its support processes. Such processes begin from the moment the Consultant joins Paperly and continue all the way through the delivery of the product. Areas of improvement might include, but are not limited to:

• Provide a "90-Days to Success" roadmap for all new Consultants, so they know exactly what they need to do to be successful.
• Provide a "recruiting packet" so Consultants can successfully deliver key messages to potential team members.
• Provide better email invitation options/templates, be it for Paperly's system or third-party systems.
• Provide a better reward and recognition program. For example, how can Paperly make Paperly Dollars more effective?
• Provide more timely tracking of packages, so Consultants can communicate more effectively with existing and anxious customers.

Lots of food for thought, right? I greatly look forward to tackling these issues - collaboratively - because I know together, we can make Paperly a truly great company.

And finally, before finishing this entry, I wanted to thank the amazing team I met with: Crystal, Pam, Tammy, Kate, Nancy, Kristen, Tracie and Hilary (see photos below). I am super excited to know you are going to help continue to drive Paperly forward... the sky is the limit.

Regards,

Jay Rudman, CEO, Paperly

Gaby: A Peak at Being a Paperly Consultant

One of Paperly's most successful Consultants on the West Coast is GabyL. Recently, I asked her to document her Paperly business, such as preparing for an event, presenting Paperly's products, and highlighting some of Paperly's best sellers. Below are a few of the videos Gaby shared with me.

A Totable Business
Two common complaints about running an at-home business are:

1. Purchasing and storing bulky and expensive inventory.
2. Lugging around that same bulky - and likely heavy - inventory from one party to the next.

Fortunately, Paperly requires neither. Instead, as Gaby's video below highlights, Paperly's products are personalized (and hence no pre-purchase of inventory) and nothing can be simpler and lighter to carry than loose samples of paper.

(By the way, I love the grand entrance of Gaby's son. It's a perfect example of how family-friendly an at-home Paperly business can be.)

Two Display Tables
One of the most common questions I receive from new Paperly Consultants is, "How should I set-up my display table?" Fortunately, Gaby does an amazing job of showcasing her samples in the two videos below.

You can see additional examples of display tables at the following Paperly blog entries:

• DeeDee's Paperly party (04/06/11)
• Bridget's Paperly party (03/15/11)
• Crystal's Paperly party (02/10/11)

Best Sellers
Lastly, I love that Gaby has taken the time to highlight her best selling products: beverage napkins, hard-sided coasters, wine tags and self-inking stamps. Listening to Gaby, I know why she's great at Paperly. She doesn't "sell" wine tags, as an example. Instead, she enables customers to make a logical choice: non-personalized and expensive wine bags versus personalized, adorable and cost-effective wine tags. Easy choice, right?!

Thank you, Gaby, for letting us peek into your Paperly business. If you live in Southern California, and you'd like to learn more about Paperly, you can connect with Gaby via her website: http://www.mypaperly.com/gaby.

As for the Flip video recorder? It's my turn! I plan to take it on my trip to Washington DC to meet with the thriving community of Paperly Consultants there.

Regards,

Jay Rudman, CEO, Paperly

2 Videos, 2 Learnings

The following two videos were highlighted at the recent VideoPlus University I attended. Why am I sharing them on Paperly's blog? You'll have to watch and read to learn more.

This first commercial depicts a son using his iPhone to show his father a live video of his new grandchild.

Note that Apple - a master of commercials - never mentions the phone's features.  Apple never gets into the technical jargon that enables live streaming to occur.  Apple never talks bits, bytes or capabilities. Instead, Apple shines by answering the question, "Why?"  Seeing your grandchild for the first-time, even if you can't be there, is the "Why" you need an iPhone.

The same can be said of a successful direct seller. They too answer the question "Why?"  They don't focus on product features and functionality.  Instead, they ask "Why?"  Are you interested in Paperly because you love stationery?  Or is it because you want to earn additional income?  Or maybe it's because you crave creative fun?

Knowing your "Why" (and that of possible team members) provides the clarity you need to grow your Paperly business.

This second commercial depicts a blind man begging for money and a kind woman helping him in an unsual way.

I love this video because it shares the "Power of the Message". As the final panel says, "Change your words. Change your world." No matter what your cause, without the proper message, you will be overlooked.

Think about the message you use to promote your business. Are you too "me" focused?  Are you saying, "I'm blind... help me"? Instead, should you be saying, "I have a something special I want to share with you"?

We often talk at Paperly about your "30-second commercial". Basically, the 30-second commercial is how you explain you and your business in 30 seconds or less to a complete stranger.  If you don't have a 30-second commercial, you need one.  And if you have one, I highly recommend you review you message. Please make sure it's about the "beautiful day" you wish to share, and not about "your being blind".

I'd love to hear your thoughts. What commercials or videos do you love because they convey an important message to you?

Thanks,
Jay Rudman, CEO, Paperly