MY VOICE Before heading off on a three-year mission overseas, Scentsy Co-CEOs Orville and Heidi Thompson share their thoughts on what it takes to create a sustainable company culture, how to plan for earnings dips and hypergrowth, and how to be effective in battling the blind spots.
Orville and Heidi Thompson on… STATE OF DIRECT SELLING Q: The pandemic, social injustice, and political polarization have left many people feeling scared and unsafe. In times of crisis, voices of community—voices of unity—have demonstrated the ability to pull groups of people together under a single purpose. How can direct selling companies be bridge-builders and instruments of unity for different groups in today’s world? A: We are in an increasingly polarized world, but this is nothing new. History tends to repeat itself. The Revolutionary War, Civil War, Great Depression, and WWII were seventy to eighty years apart; 1849, 1929, and 2009 were all years of incredible financial disruption. It isn’t exact, but trends come in cycles, and we are in a cycle where political alliances and social institutions are collapsing, and new alliances are being formed. The institutions that will dominate the next eighty-year cycle will be created by those who can bring people together once the crisis has deepened to the point that the pain of keeping our opinions is greater than the pain of finding common ground. So far, for most people, it is more painful to change one’s mind than it is to live with the consequences of the deepening crisis. That will change in time. As direct sellers, we have the opportunity to create companies that can be more than a means of connecting consumers to products. We build social networks that become communities full of diverse people who share common goals and learn how to put aside personal agendas in the service of that common goal. We
would caution against becoming part of the choir that seeks ideological victory. We need to be the place where people who disagree on substantive issues can still share common ground and work for common goals. Q: How can direct selling leaders be effective in battling the blind spots that led to poor decision-making in the past? How can they use their convening power, influence, money, and communities to make important headway in fixing significant social problems? A: As direct sellers, we bring value to the world by building communities that allow egalitarian participation in connecting consumers with products. We have developed systems that allow people to change the arc of their family fortune through personal and economic improvement. We give people a seat at the economic development table. Like the Hippocratic Oath doctors live by, direct sellers should adopt a similar position of “first, do no harm.” A corollary we use at Scentsy is “contribute more than you take.” In essence, we don’t have the moral right to extract something from another human being. If we are correct in our relationships with others, we will provide answers, not create problems. BUILDING A COMPANY CULTURE Q: One of the things you do at Scentsy is ask the question, “Is it in spite of the fact or because of the fact?” How has that openness to dsa-dsj.org
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