A Question for the Women of Direct Selling
As I speak with executives at all levels throughout our direct selling community, there remains the question of leadership at the corporate level… most particularly the representation of female executives. It’s a question worthy of some more attention. My thoughts here are intended to stimulate your thoughts and dialog versus pitching “what to do”!
I believe we can agree that direct selling has always been represented by visible leadership. Stages are full. Stories are told. Recognition flows freely.
Yet, much of our industry’s real power operates somewhere else entirely.
Behind the brands. Inside the boardrooms. At the desks of legal, operations, supply chain, technology, finance, compliance, marketing and manufacturing… decisions are being made that determine whether a company scales… or stalls.
And overwhelmingly, these roles are filled by women whose influence far outweighs their visibility.
Corporate executives. Presidents and VPs. General Counsels and CFOs. Heads of operations and global expansion. Founders and owners of supplier companies that quietly power our direct selling ecosystem every day. These women shape outcomes, mitigate risk, create infrastructure and build enterprise value… often without a spotlight, a platform or a peer community designed specifically for them.
As direct selling companies are acquired (either from within the channel or via private equity ownership), regulatory scrutiny intensifies and succession planning becomes more urgent, the industry cannot afford to overlook the women who already carry its operational and strategic weight.
This is the moment to ask a simple question:
What would it look like to intentionally support, elevate and connect the community of women who actually run direct selling?
Not another networking group.
Not distributor recognition by another name.
Not performative “empowerment.”
But a serious, executive-level collaboration focused on visibility, education, mentorship and influence… for women leading direct selling companies and the supplier businesses that serve them.
An ecosystem-wide effort?
A leadership conversation?
A platform that reflects where influence truly resides?
When Brett and I aligned in 2015 to create theJuice, it was our mutual determination that theJuice exists to surface what’s really happening in direct selling… beyond the press releases and stage lights. This conversation starts here.
At 50 years into my direct selling journey, from the sales field, to C-Suite, to founder/ownership, I’m taking early point to simply open the conversation in our direct selling community. AND in my current role on the consultative support side of direct selling, this conversation includes the direct selling supplier community companies… who know us, believe in us and quite literally provide the solutions that give us “the juice”!
This conversation has history and continues to brew across the channel and was most recently reignited with me at theJuice last fall by Crystal Holtzendorff, SVP Global Sales with PayQuicker. Together, we are sharing this message with our colleagues.
So… consider this the opening of the conversation, not an announcement.
A question, not a conclusion.
If such an organization, gathering, communication platform, etc. existed, aligned with the realities of modern direct selling, respectful of its complexity and worthy of its leaders—what might it look like?
We’re listening… and look forward to hearing from you with the hope to determine a next step in the conversation.
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