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Feeling overwhelmed by your family's daily grind and looking for a way out? Welcome to "Dig the Well," the podcast that empowers you to build the life you deserve. Your hosts Vikki and John are top earners at Neora. Vikki is a # 1 best-selling author and John is a retired Los Angeles Police Officer. Together they’ve navigated family challenges, raised successful kids, and achieved financial freedom.
In each episode of "Dig the Well," they dive deep into the strategies and mindsets that can help you break free from the constraints of the traditional 9-5 lifestyle. They understand the unique challenges faced by stay-at-home moms and families who are juggling multiple responsibilities and struggling to find balance. Their mission is to provide you with the tools and inspiration you need to create additional income, gain more family time, and ultimately, transform your life.
Throughout their journey, they’ve had the privilege of working with renowned figures like Jack Canfield and Jeff Olson, whose wisdom and insights have greatly influenced their path to success. They’ve also celebrated significant milestones, such as raising two valedictorian children and supporting their son, an Olympic weightlifter on Team USA. These experiences have equipped them with valuable knowledge and practical tips that they’re eager to share with you.
"Dig the Well" is more than just a podcast; it's a community of like-minded individuals who are committed to personal growth and financial independence. Whether you're worried about your family's financial security, longing for more quality time with your spouse, or simply seeking a way to reignite your passions, this podcast offers actionable insights and real-life stories that can help you achieve your goals.
Our mission is to inspire you with the belief that if we can do it, so can you. We want you to feel empowered, educated, and ready to take control of your future. By tuning in to "Dig the Well," you'll gain the confidence and knowledge needed to break free from the daily grind and create a life full of possibilities.
So, if you're ready to transform your family's future and discover the greatness within you, join us on this journey. Subscribe to "Dig the Well" and start building the life you deserve today!
This is the EWN Podcast Network.
John:Ever wondered how you could turn your side hustle into a full time gig and spend more time together?
Vikki:Hi. I'm Vikki, a number one best selling author.
John:And I'm John, a retired Los Angeles police officer. Welcome to dig the well, where we help couples navigate the world of business.
Vikki:We've been married for thirty five years, and because we built a successful side business, John retired nine years earlier than he originally planned from the Los Angeles Police Department after twenty five years on the job. Now we spend more time together, and we want to help couples like you do the same.
John:Join us as we help you overcome common obstacles, and we show you how to make extra income without sacrificing family time.
Vikki:Ready to dig deep and build your well? Let's get started. Hello. Hello. Welcome back to dig the well.
Vikki:You know how people say success is never a straight line? Well, John and I are living proof of that. On today's episode of Dig the Well podcast, we are letting you peek into a conversation we had on the Built to Win podcast with Dave Fleming. The episode is called digging the well of residual success, and it's episode 45. And in it, we tell our story.
Vikki:Many of you know our story by being part of this podcast, but many of you are new listeners. We tell our story from owning brick and mortar businesses that kept us chained to the grind. Right? We all know that. To stumbling into direct sales where we discovered the power of residual income and the even bigger gift of personal development.
Vikki:It wasn't smooth. It wasn't easy, but it was worth every twist and turn. And I believe there are lessons in our story that will speak right to you. Whether you're hustling in your career, chasing your side business, or just craving more time for the people time with the people you love. Oh, and one more thing.
Vikki:Stick with me all the way through because I have a free gift for you. If you've ever wondered what your face is secretly telling you about aging, I've got a tool called the IntelliSkin Scan. Yes. And it's completely free tool from me. It's gonna be a gift from me to you.
Vikki:I'll tell you how to grab it at the end, and the link will be waiting for you in the show notes. So pour your cup of coffee, take that walk with us along with you, or settle in, and let's rewind to our chat on Built to Win.
intro:Welcome to Built to Win, the podcast created to help you level up your business game by developing a success mindset made for the long run. In this episode, Neora's Dave Fleming talks with Vicki and John Downey, seasoned entrepreneurs and national marketing directors at Neora who share their journey from running brick and mortar businesses to thriving in direct sales. They share their story of entrepreneurial pivots and explain how direct sales has given them the life of freedom and flexibility they were looking for, and they'll tell us about the joy they get from helping others discover that same life.
Dave:Hey. Welcome back to Built to Win, everybody. Thanks for joining me one more time, and I am really excited about this episode. I have two incredible business leaders, entrepreneurs, and just awesome people all the way around. I've got Vicky and John Downey, national marketing directors at Neora, but also have a vast experience including their own podcast, which I'm sure we'll get to hear a little bit about.
Dave:But guys, thanks for joining me. And for those that don't know you, why don't you just tell us who you are and a little bit about yourselves and and what are you doing these days?
Vikki:Absolutely. Thanks for having us, Dave. We're excited to be here. So we are we live in Southern California. We've been married thirty six years, and we kind of are, in a sense, serial entrepreneurs.
Vikki:We start the way we met, it was a blind date, but John had a business, and he wanted to me me to be his office manager. So we are still dating, and I was his office manager. And it was a brick and mortar, store in the city of Brea, if anyone is from Southern California knows Brea. And from then on, we've just been we knew the trappings of traditional business, and, it's tough. And we knew we didn't want a store of physical location again.
Vikki:And, at the time, we wound up having to close that, and John became a police officer. Do you wanna kick off that?
John:Yeah. So, you know, the the business Vicki was talking about that I had, I actually started when I was in high school in my mom and dad's garage. So that had been going for some time. Then I went to college. It was kind of a part time deal, but it still grew, and it was still it was a good business.
John:The problem became when we I had to lease a building and hire and whatnot, it just turned into a it's a conventional brick and mortar business, as Vicky said, a lot of pitfalls. And when we got out of that, I knew I didn't wanna do that again. It was just Right. Too much just too much struggle and strife. So I became a policeman in the city of Los Angeles, did a career there.
John:But the entire time I was there, I knew we wanted to be in business again. We had to find something else and a better business model. And so we were always looking, always trying to find something, and then, of course, Neora comes along. And it ended up being the perfect business for us, and it was exactly what we were, you know, hoping for, praying for.
Vikki:Absolutely. Yeah.
Dave:Yeah.
Vikki:So that's our story. And we've we've been with Neora thirteen years now. Just had our anniversary.
John:I guess we should mention that we have two kids. We don't leave them out here because I'm sure they're gonna listen to this. So we had our daughter first, then our son, and now we have grandkids finally. We actually we actually got married pretty young.
Vikki:Yeah.
John:And we had our our kids, our me son, John, our daughter and and son, when we were in our mid twenties, and we thought, okay, this is gonna work out great, because they're gonna we're gonna have grandkids when we're still young enough to be able to physically play with them and do things with them. Well, the kids were great. We had we had them early, but it seems like the this generation now isn't in a big hurry Yeah. For kids starting careers, buying homes, or whatnot. Not saying it's good or bad, just it's different.
Vikki:And we didn't guilt trip them. No. It's it's
John:there. Obviously, it's their choice. Right? Yeah. Yeah.
John:So they just now this year decided, hey. We're we're gonna give you guys grandkids. Yeah. We have our granddaughter, Noelle, that was born in January, and now our daughter is due any day with our first grandson.
Vikki:Yeah. So That's awesome. Exciting times.
Dave:Congratulations. That is cool.
John:That is
Vikki:Thank you. Yeah.
Dave:So yeah. So tell me tell me a little bit about you obviously, you mentioned you were looking for something, wanted to do business for yourself, and then New York comes along. Tell me tell me a little bit about that. Like, were you had you done direct selling previously to Neora, or
John:was this your first
Dave:venture into it?
Vikki:Yeah. That's, such a great question we had. So it kinda goes back to our traditional business days, that brick and mortar. We had somebody share, multilevel marketing direct sales Amway with us. Actually, Okay.
Vikki:They share we had a couple things be shared with us. We didn't know they were direct sales, like Quorum, which was a personal alarm. And I think Jeff Olson was a big part of that company, but we didn't know Jeff Olson back then. And, but friends had shared Amway, so we got involved. And that was right when John was hired on as a police officer.
Vikki:And what we got out of that first one, because then there was a second one before Neora, was all the personal development. We were blown away in this industry how much great personal development there is. And in that business, there were just couples building their business. Really single people, or at least we weren't part of a group that had a bunch of individuals building. It was all couples.
Vikki:And I loved that as a wife, And, I felt like our marriage got stronger because of that business. We had so many great takeaways, but there were some gotchas too. So we knew what we didn't want, after that one. And then quickly moving into, like, ten years later, I joined a party plan company that was candles, all candles.
Dave:Okay. Yeah.
Vikki:And clean, and that's what I loved about it. But, and it was fun. It was a fun business. But, again, there were more gotchas. I had to sell a certain amount to get paid.
Vikki:There was a little bit of a garage qualifying where if I didn't have enough sales, I had to purchase products or gift certificates so that my volume was enough so that I would get paid on my entire team. So it's funny, when Neora came around, it didn't have the gotchas, and that caught our that was one of the many, many things that caught our attention as well as the product.
intro:Did you wanna
Vikki:talk about yeah. I don't know if John might wanna talk about the the fact that neither one of us wanted to do skincare when New York neither me either. I didn't either. But what did you say to me? You said something that really struck a chord.
John:Well, it makes sense, and it applies to everyone. Right? All you have to pretty much everyone has skin. And when you when Vic was doing the the candle the candle business, it was very lucrative. She made great money.
John:It was wonderful. They had great candles. They have I mean, some cool things. But for the most part, women it applied to mostly women. I couldn't see me.
John:I couldn't see my buddies getting into candles.
Vikki:Or having a candle party?
Dave:Yeah. Yeah. I think yeah. I would have LAPD full of candle.
John:Right? Yeah. They would have taken my badging gun away if they told me I had a candle party. But but when we saw Neora's, I it just made total sense. It's something that no one wants to look their age.
John:No one wants to look even older than their age, certainly. Right? Everyone wants to look younger. Everyone has skin. It applies to men and women.
John:Pretty much everyone. It just made so much sense.
Vikki:Yeah. Exact and that's what got my I thought, okay. Well, if he's on board, I I agree. Right? The fountain of youth is never going away.
Vikki:That's what you I remember you saying to me, you know, I you know, my buddies at work, they don't admit it, but they don't wanna look their age either. So that's why we jumped all in.
John:And then when I said we we can do this, I really meant you can do this. But
Vikki:I really thought he meant we.
Dave:Yeah. Because I I was gonna ask because, obviously, you know, as as entrepreneurs, serial entrepreneurs, you're busy people. And I can't imagine that, you know, being working for the LAPD, it gives you a lot of spare time to go grow a business. So do what, how did you find the time to go grow the business?
John:Yeah. Well, going back to the LAPD part of it, yeah, technically, I'm not supposed to do any of that unless I ask permission to do it. That was one thing. When I when I got hired, I told I said this to Vic that the day I was hired by the city of Los Angeles, they now own me. And everything I do, I had to ask permission for, even though it was off duty on my own time.
John:Right? You think for most jobs you sign up, and you're signing up for a forty hour a week job, and your employer controls you for the forty hours that they have you. The rest of the time is up to you. Not so with the police department, at least not in Los Angeles. So I have to ask permission to do these things.
John:So I have to turn in a work like a request through my commanding officer if I have permission to actually do this stuff or not. So obviously, it was Vicky's business, and and they don't have any control over that. But even for, like, days off, which if I want certain days off, I have to ask permission to have those days off. It's really weird.
Vikki:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
John:Yeah. But so finding finding time, I guess, with your question, you know, what the great thing, and I think the key to this business is you can kinda work it into the time you have. Right? You don't need to set certain hours. You can work it into the like you always say, the cracks and crevices of your of your life.
Vikki:Right. And you shared it with buddies at work. John, actually, I share with my friends. He shares with the buddies at work. But what we found, a lot of people don't have an entrepreneur mindset.
Vikki:And so he was having to educate them on, hey. You guys work in overtime, you know, here. You're just trading hours for dollars. You know? Yeah.
Vikki:But it's great over it's great money. You know, they would tell you. They didn't understand, you know, what we were doing. Right? That was a struggle trying to educate a lot of people, yeah, on, putting a lot into it before you reap the financial benefits.
Vikki:But when you do, it's ongoing. You've got that residual piece, and that's where they don't catch on to very easily.
Dave:Yeah. Yeah. Tell it's say more about that because that's something that I feel like a lot of people, if they if they if they understood it, would be a lot more attractive, and yet it seems to be a really difficult concept for people to to get their head around for some reason. Like, have has that been your experience too, or or have you learned how to talk to people about that?
John:Yeah. You're absolutely right about that because I see people even in this industry that know. They know about residual income. They know about passive income, but I don't or at least they've heard it. I don't know if they fully understand it because if they understood the power of it, I think they'd really want to leverage it.
John:And it just it's it's a weird concept. Like, we we talk how many people take rideshare? Right? You take you're in an Uber, you're in a Lyft all the time. And I talked to those guys, and even they don't seem to understand.
John:Like, I I tell them, you're making great money, I guess. I guess it's good money. You know, using the the asset you already have a car, and you're using your your spare time driving people around, if if that's your thing. But could you imagine if you received you know, what did you get on that ride? $10?
John:What if you receive 10¢ ongoing every month for that ride that you that you just completed? You don't have to go back out and repeat that ride, but you're gonna repeat more and more rides. But for every ride that you complete, you're getting a dime a month. It it's not gonna it's not gonna move the needle. 10¢ is not gonna change your life.
John:But compounded over time and adding those dimes up, getting that residual income month after month after month, so five years ago, you're still getting paid on every ride that you gave from five years ago. You would be making so much money. And that's basically kind of
Vikki:what we do. So he usually gives that example. And then then that starts to unlock their brain a little bit. You can see their their eyes kind of twinkling.
John:Otherwise, you're just stuck on that on that wheel where you can't get off of it. You're just continually trading hours for dollars, and there is no end to it. Just like the guys that I work with, they work overtime. You make great money. But for every minute you worked overtime and got paid for it, you're gonna have to repeat that again next week the week after that and the week for the rest of your life.
Vikki:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's hard. It's really hard teaching.
Vikki:We don't wanna convince anyone. There's no there shouldn't be any convincing. They need to have their moment. Sure. But, yeah, the education part takes time because and a lot are just not entrepreneurs.
Vikki:I mean, we have those conversations a lot when we leave a couple that we talk to. We can it's it's a shame. And not that they can't learn, and we hope that they do. We really hope and pray they do because entrepreneurship is where it's at, you know, for for us, for sure.
Dave:Mhmm. For sure. Yeah. And and you guys have built a really, really great successful business, and you are enjoying that that that we call here, we call that a book of business where you have repeat customers who come back and you get paid every time they get every time they they order. Was that something that was of interest to you when you looked at this in comparison with the candle business?
Vikki:Yeah. I don't know.
Dave:Like, is there is there a lot of repeat purchase in the candle business, or was that one of the things that stood out to you here?
Vikki:Great question because they the leaders and the company will tell you that it that there's tons of repeat orders that you're gonna have residual income. That is what is taught. But truthfully, I definitely found out after nine and a half years there that people maybe buy every six months, but it's more like every year. Once a year, it is not monthly. And that it was a huge, you know, caveat to a sticky business as we call it, you know, with a skincare product.
Vikki:It's not that the product is tacky sticky. It's sticky, meaning people use it, love it, see results, and stick with it. And so and need it, and they have it's a thirty day supply. So then they order again the next month and the next month where the candles, I was finding they are they were quality. That's for sure.
Vikki:Quality candles. So they cost a little more than the ones you would find at a, you know, a dollar store. Sure. And, and so people would say, well, I'm not gonna burn my good candles every day. They actually said that to me.
Vikki:And so there was an education piece. Well, I'm like, no. Treat yourself. When you clean the house, burn your candles to celebrate, you know, your accomplishment of cleaning the house, but they wouldn't do it. So to answer that bluntly, no.
Vikki:There really was not that repeat volume the way we have it here at Neora with our skincare, wellness, and our haircare. You know, they're using it every month and ordering again.
Dave:Yeah. Yeah. Which is which is which is great. That's what like if you're going to build a business, that's why and that's that's why you see so many subscription companies and people applying that subscription business model to everything and anything that you can think of these days because it is, like you said, it is sticky. And when I was out in Silicon Valley for a few years working out there like stickiness was like the Holy Grail.
Dave:Like if you had something that kept people coming back, that was like that was what everybody was seeking in business because because it it means long term value. Totally.
Vikki:Totally. I even think back to our first business. It was automotive accessories and window tint, car stereo alarm, and you and I talked about that. People aren't getting new window tint, you know, every month on their car or getting new stereo. And, yes, it was a big pop of a sale, you know, the initial sale, but, you know, hopefully, they referred us, then we would get something else or they crashed their car and got another car sooner than a year.
Vikki:Oh, dude. You know?
Dave:It's Yeah.
Vikki:It was it's rare. Yeah. It's Yeah. You really want a consumable product business. That's what we've learned.
Dave:Sure. Sure. Were there I'm I'm curious, were there were the principles that you learned, whether it was John with the LAPD or or you, Vicky, with your other businesses, were there skills that you brought with you that were able to help you build a successful business here, or was this kind of all brand new?
Vikki:Definitely. What do you think?
John:I don't that's a good question. I you know, from I never thought of that. I've been thinking for me, I it was probably all brand new.
Vikki:Yeah. So What we learned here? Yeah.
John:What I learned from previous work. What I could carry forward in in into this. Wow. I would have to say that I it wasn't really the same because he figures their worlds apart. Right?
John:Police work. Sure.
Vikki:Sales in a sense.
John:Yeah. Goodness. Thank goodness their worlds apart.
Vikki:And I would say yeah. I would say my previous business, especially the candle one, there was great training at that company. And so, yes, I I was terrible at follow-up, for example. That was my nemesis. I was great at sharing, you know, having a catalog out.
Vikki:That's what we did back then, you know, and look through it so my friends would peek over my shoulder. Oh, what's that? And look at the catalog. So I didn't feel like I was being a pushy salesperson. But following up, I was terrible.
Vikki:And I came from, a mom who slammed the door on solicitors and slammed their the phone down. That was when we answered the phone back in
John:the day. And
Vikki:she would be, is this a solicitor? You'll get to the point. You're trying to sell me something? Slam. And so
Dave:Oh my.
Vikki:I was petrified coming into any type of sales. I can't be the only person that feels that way, but I really was traumatized. I think I have PTSD over it. And in that other company, I learned that I could get better at follow-up, that I wasn't being pushy, that I was being the consummate professional by following up with somebody and asking, you know, how they love the product and making sure they were happy and doing great customer service. And then that led to me having more confidence in the products, and then I would it was easier to ask for the sale with a new person that I just shared with.
Vikki:So I brought all of that to Neora when I came, and I'm so grateful for that. I didn't have to relearn. That was definitely something I had that training ground. Yeah.
John:Yeah.
Vikki:What about prestige? Did you feel like we I felt like we'd still learned a lot Yeah.
John:We did. In prestige. For sure. Because we had to do everything. Right?
John:Because it was a sole proprietorship. It was just us. Then for a while, it was just me before Vicki came on board. And then, you know, it was just that that typical conventional business where you had to do everything. Right?
John:I had to wear all the hats and spin all the plates at this and it was it's an absolute nightmare. But we did learn a lot, that's for sure. And while you were just answering that question, that made me think too about training, that Neora has such a great suite of training. Right? It's just it's you don't have to bring skills with you to this.
John:You can learn everything you need just from the training, and it's something that we've always said in the police department, is that the success is based on leadership and training. And that's pretty much it. Right? If you have good leadership and good training, you you're gonna be successful. And that's what we find.
John:That's what was so attractive, at least to me with Neora, was it just had really good lead as we as we moved along and and and was exposed to more of it. The the level of leadership and training was just it's substantial.
Vikki:Yeah. And you don't have to pay to be trained outside. Right? The trainers are here at the company. Yeah.
Vikki:Yeah. And there's a system. Exactly.
Dave:Yeah. Yeah. No. So and you've been doing this for thirteen years now, so that's obviously that's a pretty significant amount of time. What would you say has been your favorite part of this business?
Dave:It
Vikki:might sound very altruistic, but it's truly is seeing others thrive, seeing others grow and hit their goals. It was great, you know, when we hit the car for the first time, earned our Lexus car payment, You know, that was exciting. And then when we turned around and helped somebody else do it, it was more exciting. I didn't realize I would ever feel that way because we never had that opportunity to help somebody earn a car payment. You know?
Vikki:The number two payment in most people's household outside of their mortgage. So, you know, going to the car dealerships with our new brand partners that had earned it, that was huge. And then hitting the 6 figure income, hitting national marketing director, and helping others do that as well and celebrating with them. Yeah. It's it sounds crazy, but, it does get lonely at the top as they say.
Vikki:That is not he teases me for all my little cliches, but that is not a cliche. It is lonely when you don't have others to celebrate with. And this business is so wonderful for that that, yes, you can have your own success, but you can turn around, reach down, and help others be as successful or more successful than you. That's my favorite part.
John:Mhmm. Yeah. Think people too. Like, we we we talk about how we we believe in others, and we see them, and we see them as NMDs. We see them being successful in the business.
John:And I I don't know. I think a lot of the people we say that to, they think it's just something we say. And it's just, you know, it's a kind of a talking point. And and we truly do want to see them succeed. We truly do see that in them.
John:Right? We see that potential. We really would we would do anything to help them succeed. And I don't know if people really I don't know if they believe it
Vikki:or not. I know.
John:I think if they did, they'd be more successful. But like Vic was saying, I think we we had we enjoyed so much seeing the success in others. And then also seeing how many people are willing to to help them. Right? It's if you're not on your own.
Vikki:Right. Right. You have a whole support team when you especially at Neora. Yeah.
Dave:Yeah. What is that was that was that I was gonna say weird, but that's probably not the right word. But was that was that kind of different compared to, you know, what you had what you'd experienced? I mean, I can't imagine there's there's gotta be teamwork and camaraderie at the LAPD, but probably a very different way than Yeah.
John:You know, in the You know, it it is. It's very very different. Right? Because we do want to see each other succeed, we do help each other to succeed, but to a point, I guess. I don't I don't know.
John:Like, when we're talking about it for the ones that are interested in upward mobility, they're interested in promotion and whatnot. I've seen some pretty cutthroat, you know, I've just seen some guys just, you know, they're they're just trying to like the crabs in a bucket. Right? How you keep how come they don't put lids on buckets? Because as one starts to climb out to freedom, another one grabs them and pulls them back down, and I've seen some of that in the police department with these guys that are that are promote that just interested in promoting, and I was never that I was never that guy.
John:I didn't want to promote. I loved what I did, and I wanted to stay in the field, So I only went to a certain level and then just put the lid on it from there. But we do because what I most mostly work were specialized units. So in the specialized unit, it's a small unit, and we have that small unit kind of mentality and tactic. So we are a team.
John:We do work with each other all the time. We train all the time together, and there's certain jobs that each of us does, and we're responsible for that job. So it's yeah. We do help each other out, but it's different than the help with Neora because with Neora, it's like everyone's helping everyone through the whole thing. Right?
John:It's all about trying to help advance, know, everyone pretty much.
Vikki:Yeah. And if I could speak to the candle part of candle business, the Amway business, I'm not sure if I was supposed to say the name. The Amway, it what you did have lots of help. It was similar to Neora, not at all like Neora, because there were tribes and there were some things where you weren't included in, you know, help it, you know, with the entire company. But and we don't have that at New York, which is wonderful.
Vikki:But in the the candle business, it was a great company. I did love it. But as I look back on it, there was a breakaway compensation plan. And so as I was rising through the ranks and getting close to the top level, which would be similar to a national marketing director at Neora, which was regional vice president, which I hit. But as I started getting close, my sponsor, who was a regional vice president, stopped helping me.
Vikki:Mhmm. And I really I was kinda wondering why she pulled away until I realized when I became also a regional vice president, I broke away from her, and she no longer got paid on my team and anything my team did. And so we don't have that at Neora ever. And so, yeah, it's so different that way because we've taken the gotchas out. It really is true.
Vikki:What Jeff and Amber always say, you know, we started this company and removed all the gotchas of what most other direct sales companies do. We really and that's what we see here. We really see, it's probably not there's just no perfect company. I think it's pretty darn close. This is as close as you can get, and that's what we've been praying for.
Vikki:So yeah.
Dave:Yeah. Yeah. What's what would you say? What would you say is the hardest part about direct selling in general or or what you're doing now? Like, what's Yeah.
Dave:There's always a flip side. Right?
Vikki:Right. The hardest part, I think, is when we see the potential. It's always that unused potential. We see the potential in each person that we're helping start their business, And then they kind of fall by the wayside. They they let somebody steal their dream.
Vikki:You know, they just went forward, and you try to uncover, hey. What's what happened? You said you wanted to do this, and you had these this big why and these big goals. What what happened? And sometimes they don't communicate, and they just they just kind of, you know, wither away and die as Jumeirah kind of says about planting seeds.
Vikki:And that breaks my heart, the lost potential. And you're trying to help them, and they don't click you're throwing them the life vet rack preserver, but they don't want it. They're not even grabbing for it. That's that's the hardest part for me. What about you?
John:I think the hardest part is when we share this, is just overcoming those objections that people have for to direct selling. I think that they they have the wrong impression of it. I can't tell you how many times I've heard pyramid schemes and Ponzi schemes, and and if they really knew what those were, it has nothing to do with what we do. Not even close. But it's it's overcoming a lot of those objections.
John:I think it's just so difficult.
Dave:Yeah. Yeah. That's that's something we that's something that we see periodically, like and and and and everybody who's affiliated or or familiar with direct selling network marketing knows that there are companies out there that have, like, a reputation give sometimes deserved, but but as I'm always curious, like, from your perspective, like, why why do you think that those, like, where do you think that comes from? Like, where do you think, like, is it just human nature to find the negative about something without really knowing about it? Yeah.
John:You know, that's a good question too. I haven't really thought of it. Yeah. I think that has a lot to do with it. I think people maybe heard something about something back in the forties or the fifties that's just been passed generationally down to them, and they think, oh my gosh.
John:I want nothing to do with this. Yeah. I know. I remember when we were in involved with Amway, that was back in the nineties. They had such a bad stigma to Amway, that name, that they we actually didn't call we were our tribe, right, was Yeah.
John:Was trained to use to say that we weren't part of Amway. We were part of this other other group organization, and that's what we would share with people. So it was actually, it's misleading. It wasn't it's we are part of Amway. We're that's that's who
Vikki:we are. Changed the name to quick Star for a hot second. I don't know if you knew that, Dave, but Amway.
Dave:Remember that. Yeah.
Vikki:Yeah. And we were like, what are you doing? You know? Even in the people in the field, we couldn't understand, and now they're back to Amway. They're proud of their name.
Vikki:They should be. It's a great company. But yeah.
John:Yeah. And I but I do think that I I think that's kinda come full circle. I don't think it has that that that negative stigma as bad as it did back then, back in the nineties and the probably early two thousands. Because lately, we've had far less objection to it. It's been much easier to share.
John:And and when I said about the whole Ponzi scheme pyramid thing, we really haven't heard that recently. That was more of a thing going back, you know, ten five, ten years ago. It seems I think maybe some of the I I think it's a generational thing, too. I think the the younger generations, they don't want a conventional nine to five sit in a cubicle job. Right?
John:They would much rather work from home. Well, what are you gonna do if you're gonna work from home? Are you gonna sell something on Etsy? Are you or maybe direct sales is is the answer. So I think they're a little more open to direct sales.
Vikki:Yeah. But it yeah. I think you you guys are spot on. It's it's the parents of some of these people telling an old story, and they're just believing it. That's what that's what I've run across.
Vikki:Someone my mom or my uncle Bob told me it's a pyramid. You better check that out, and it's not you know, we're not. Mhmm.
Dave:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That that's what I found too is that a lot of times it's it's really it's it's just it's it's a lack of awareness and it is it's like people think people hear things and I don't really blame people because like where would you where would you go to to find out? Right?
Dave:Like a lot of people don't even know where to go to get educated on direct selling, which is interesting because direct selling in The United States one in six households is is actively participating in a direct selling business. And so there's it's not like there's a lack of people doing this, but it but it's but it is interesting like just how how little awareness, how little knowledge there is generally about the space, which we've talked about doing an episode. We should we should do an episode That like
Vikki:would be great. I would share it like crazy.
John:You know, and and another I think another key to it also is that when we share with people, we're a little more selective now who we share with. Because we know before it was just shared with everyone, and and most of the people that were we were sharing with back in the day were people who weren't entrepreneurial minded. Right? They they've never owned their own business, probably never even thought to own their own business. So they're w two employee, They think that the way to success is just work more hours Mhmm.
John:Or find another job that pays a little more. So those were the people that we're getting the most pushback from. Yeah. So when we look at now, we talk to people, and if it's someone who's who's considering doing their own job or having their own business or have had their own business in the past, we have very little pushback from those those people that are more of an entrepreneur. Yeah.
Vikki:Yeah. And they know the truth. Yeah. Yeah. Because they get
John:they get the tax code wasn't written for a w two employee. Right? It was the the tax code was written for business owners.
Dave:Yeah.
John:That's where you're gonna get all your deductions and whatnot. So why wouldn't you own a business?
Vikki:Yeah. Mhmm.
John:That's the American dream for goodness sakes. Right? That's why that's why so many people migrated to this country, right, for the American dream. The American dream wasn't to go work for a big corporation. It was to have your own family little business.
Vikki:Yeah. Exactly. My grandfather from Denmark did that.
Dave:Yeah. Oh, that's so cool.
Vikki:Yeah. Yeah. I just posted on Facebook a picture of him that I found in in front of his delicatessen in Brooklyn, New York, and he came from Denmark in the thirties, and that was the what he did. And so, yeah, it's it's really true.
Dave:So you've got you've got entrepreneurship kind of in the blood. Definitely. Yeah. What the last question that I wanted to let you get back to your what you were doing, but I'm curious of like what what would you say? What would you say to somebody who's looking at direct selling?
Dave:Maybe they're looking at, you know, replacing income. Maybe they're looking at just doing something on the side. Like, what advice would you give them about getting started? Like, to find the right company? Like, what what would you tell somebody about that?
Vikki:Well, number one, would say look into Neora. I am biased, know, but we investigated so many, and we've had so many. Also, John had a photography business we didn't even talk about. So, but and there's a lot of pitfalls. So for us, it's look into, many and come down to your top three.
Vikki:And that's what I would say and make a pro and con list. That's what we did even when the friend shared Neora. We actually sat down and made a pro list and a con, and we literally had about 15 pros and one con. And the one con was, well, that you have to get started with your your your business pack. Well, that ended up being a pro anyway because it the the business pack was the the best deal.
Vikki:You got to try the products that you really wanted to, and, and you're off and running. So and it was a tax write off. The business pack's a tax write off, so it became a pro too.
Dave:Yeah.
Vikki:So it's really yeah. And then for me, I know we've talked about this a lot, is decide and then just go for it. Don't second guess yourself. Don't stew on it too long because you'll probably talk yourself out of it. That's one thing as entrepreneurs we've learned, make a decision and go.
Vikki:Yeah. And I know you have a lot to say on that topic too.
John:Yeah. So I was thinking. Right? Like, you you have three choices. You can make the right decision, you're making the wrong decision, or you can make no decision.
John:And the worst of the those those three choices is making no decision because that's always wrong. So, yeah, I would just tell someone like just make that decision to to start something because we were big on multiple streams of income coming into the household. Right? Then so why not add another stream of income? If it works, if you get an extra 500 to a thousand dollars, that would be awesome for most families.
John:If it doesn't work, it doesn't work. Yeah. Big deal. Right? So we just tell make a decision, and once you've made the decision, let's just find what works best for you and your family.
John:And like Vic said, don't think about it. Don't second guess yourself. Most successful people can make instant decisions. Just make the decision, and and let's let's let's put some work into it. I love that.
Vikki:I like that too.
Dave:I I know. I think we're gonna put that on our on our built to win hall of fame quote wall, which I just decided we're gonna start doing. Oh, that's cute. No. That was awesome.
Dave:That was awesome. Makes it make a decision then put some work into it. I think that's great advice. And that that applies to that applies way beyond just direct selling. That applies to I think anybody anybody who's tuning in to build to win looking for, you know, mindset or like upskilling and looking to grow your business more effectively and bigger and better and faster than you have before.
Dave:Think that that advice applies to everything. This has been great. Guys, thank you so much for jumping on and joining me. This has been a fabulous episode.
Vikki:Thank you, Dave.
John:We love your we love them.
Vikki:Yeah. We do. And we'd love to have you on ours. It's called Dig the Well.
Dave:And Tell us more about that. Well, before we go.
Vikki:Yeah. Dig the Well. It we, you know, we try to keep the story short, but the truth is, we've raised some great kids. They're both valedictorians. We've always had people, tell us, gosh, you should write a book about raising kids.
Vikki:And we were like, nah. You don't wanna know our tips. But after a while, we just realized, and we have been successful in business too, life and business. And now our kids are entrepreneurs, so we just thought it was time that maybe we're not gonna write a book together, but a podcast sure would be great. Because when we had our original business, the Prestige motor motoring accessories one, I remember saying to John, hey.
Vikki:Well, can't we just call so and so? We were trying to figure out where to buy something from a vendor. And I said, is aren't there mentors that we could just ask? And John was like, no. Because we'd be their competition.
Dave:Yeah. Right. Right.
Vikki:Yeah. And, and so it's all about entrepreneurship. So we just talk about from soup to nuts, you know, just all types of topics on being an entrepreneur. Did you wanna add on?
John:No. And I love the title because that's something Vicki has always said. Right? Dig the well before you need the water. And it's I think it it's so important that things may be going well right now, but who knows what's gonna happen five, ten years down the road.
John:So why not dig that well, and then if, know, God forbid something bad happens, you're set. You're okay. Yeah. And survive it.
Vikki:And that's what happened with him. You know? We didn't plan to retire him, with our business with at Neora, but it started paying off some bills. We're getting comfortable out of debt. We're getting to have more discretionary income.
Vikki:And then when you decided to pull the plug early, we're like, we've got, you know, we've got all this coming in. Yeah. Why not?
John:Yeah. It's and that's the other thing too that we didn't talk about, Dave, was that building this business or any really any business, right, it gives you options. And that's Mhmm. It it that was thank goodness it gave me that option nine years or because I had I had my career planned out when I was gonna retire, when I was gonna go on this this program we had called drop, and it's very lucrative. I had all this all figured out.
John:So when it came to but I was really getting tired of going to work, to be honest with you. So the the job I signed up for in the nineties was not the job I retired from. And it was just becoming just a drag, and I had the option to walk away from it, take an early retirement. And so that's what I did. And I I still put it in twenty five years, but it was still an early retirement because I was nine years early.
John:Right.
Vikki:Yeah. So we dug the well, and when we needed the water, it was there. Yeah. And, yeah, so hence the name.
Dave:Hence the name. Where where can people find it? Where is where is your podcast?
Vikki:It's everywhere. It's on every podcast platform. It's on YouTube, Rumble. I just type in dig the whale podcast, and you'll find it on your favorite channel.
Dave:Super, super well. Thank you for coming on to build to win. And you can tell you guys are pros of podcasting because this is a pretty, pretty great episode. I'm sure people are gonna love it. But but but thank you.
Dave:Thank you for coming on. This has been this has been absolutely wonderful.
Vikki:Thank you
John:for having me.
Vikki:Appreciate it. Thank you.
Dave:Alright. You guys take care, and and we'll see you next time everybody on Build to Win.
Vikki:Yay.
intro:That was Dave Fleming talking with Vicky and John Downey about their entrepreneurial journey and the rewards they get from helping others succeed. We hope you've enjoyed this episode, and if you learned something from please share it with a friend or colleague who you think would also benefit. And if you're new to Built to Win, we invite you to go back and listen to our story from the beginning. You can find us wherever you download your favorite podcasts. And while you're there, please rate us and leave a review to let us know what you think of the show.
Vikki:Wow. Listening back to that conversation with Dave reminded me of just how far we've come. From late nights stressing over bills to learning that you can build a business that pays you while you sleep, it still feels surreal sometimes. But here's the truth. If we can find it, figure it out, we can find a way, so can you.
Vikki:That's why we share our story. Not because it's perfect, but because it's proof that ordinary people can carve out extraordinary lives. Now before you go, remember, I promised you a gift. Your IntelliSkinScan is waiting. Yes, it is.
Vikki:It's a quick, powerful way to see what your skin is telling you, the hidden signs of aging, where to focus, and how I can help you take control. The link is right there in the show notes. Go grab it. It's on me. It would normally cost you a $150 or more at a dermatologist's office.
Vikki:So grab that free link from me. And if this episode sparked something in you, share it with a friend who's walking their own winding path. Leave us a review. Subscribe. Let us know your takeaways in the comments because your story matters too.
Vikki:I promise it does. Until next time, keep digging, keep growing, and keep finding a way. This is Vicky signing off from dig the well podcast. Thanks for joining us on dig the well.
John:We hope you feel empowered and ready to take on new challenges.
Vikki:Remember, if we can do it, so can you. Keep learning, keep believing, and going after your dreams.
John:And if you enjoyed this episode, share it with someone who needs a little inspiration or maybe a nudge in the right direction.
Vikki:Help us grow this community of go getters. Together, we can achieve greatness and get back to family.
John:Thanks for listening, and let's keep digging the way.