By: David Bland
Dallin Larsen, a former Ernst & Young National Entrepreneur of the Year and Utah CEO of the Year, founded Vasayo in 2016. Prior to Vasayo, Larsen founded MonaVie in 2005 and grew that company from zero to nearly a billion dollars in annual sales in less than five years. Under Larsen’s direction, Vasayo’s philanthropic partnership with Hearts & Hands for Humanity has generated enough contributions to build more than 130 wells in Tanzania, Africa, delivering clean water to hundreds of thousands of people.
Founded: 2016
Location: Pleasant Grove, Utah
Website: vasayo.com
SSN: Tell us about your history in direct selling.
My first experience with network marketing was with Nu Skin in 1988. I was in my late 20s and living in San Diego, California. I fell in love with the industry and what it could do for me and my family as well as others. About a year later, a gentleman called to tell me about a new company and asked that I meet with the founder. So, I interviewed with Myron Wentz, the founder of USANA. One thing led to another, and the next thing I knew I was heading up sales for that company. We launched USANA in 1991, and I was with them for roughly 10 years. That’s where I cut my teeth and gained a lot of valuable experience.
By: David Bland
For the cases that get to the level of a DSSRC referral, usually there’s an issue of systemic patterns of behavior that are going on—particularly with the claims; it is rarely a one-off post, and, with respect to earnings claims, in particular, it’s often the tip of the iceberg that leads the FTC to a much deeper rabbit hole.
— Peter Marinello, Vice President at BBB National Programs and Director of DSSRC
In 2019, the direct selling channel officially became a self-regulated business sector. Two years on, and the channel is reaping the benefits. Founded by the Direct Selling Association (DSA) and administered by BBB National Programs, the Direct Selling Self-Regulatory Council (DSSRC) is an independent, non-profit organization that is continuing its mission of oversight through monitoring, investigation, and enforcement of the regulations and ethics standards that have been set in place for direct sellers by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the DSA.
As the third quarter of 2021 drew to a close, several public direct selling companies made announcements to their shareholders. Both Herbalife and USANA disclosed downward revisions to their 2021 outlooks, while Medifast, Mannatech and Nu Skin announced dividends.
Herbalife Lowers Expectations in Advance of Investor Day
In advance of its 2021 virtual investor day presentation, Herbalife announced on Sept. 13 that it is revising its third-quarter and full-year 2021 projections. The global nutrition company detailed lower than expected sales growth from its distributors despite the number of actively selling independent distributors increasing by 10 percent for the months of July and August compared to 2020.
By: Dave Rauf
Tupperware’s turnaround story continues to evolve.
The maker of food storage containers, kitchen goods and beauty products reported its second consecutive quarter of year-over-year sales growth in the fourth quarter of 2020, according to recently released earnings.
Fourth-quarter revenue and profit were both up in the three-month reporting period. And company executives say they’re more confident that improving financials are a sign the direct selling giant is on the path to recovery after years of revenue declines and falling stock prices.
Hello readers! Since taking over as Publisher of SSN, I have remained committed to keeping you informed on the topics and trends that have the greatest impacts on the direct selling channel and its future.
Over the past year, we have brought you stories of resilience and innovation as companies were forced to pivot after COVID-19 shutdowns. We covered the rise of the anti-MLM movement as well as the role of social media in shaping both positive and negative views of network marketing.
By: Colt Passey
Historically, businesses have focused on loss prevention as part of their fraud strategy and want to reduce the impact of fraud on their profit and loss statements. Ideally, they would be able to avoid fraud, but most organizations accept a certain level of fraud-related loss, albeit reluctantly.
Implementing strict fraud prevention practices and multi-factor authentication has become standard practice. However, fraud prevention can also focus on trust and safety by not insulting customers—for instance, by incorrectly identifying legitimate interactions as fraudulent and making interactions intolerable through repeated high-friction challenges. While this statement refers to customers, the same applies to distributors.
By: Alexander White
Executive leaders and organizational decision-makers can easily and should immediately assess if their organizations are taking these steps in the prevention, preparation, and protection of their most critical business assets.
As it trends now—because of the publicized breaches, focused legislative initiatives, and increased cyber knowledge of the average user—it is both the most and least talked about issue in business data compromise today.
Accurate, accessible, and accelerated data and systems are the lifeblood of any successful organization. Businesses build the perfect harmony between their people, processes, and technology to ensure all departments communicate at the speed of customer need.
At the same time, cybercriminals make it their business to disrupt that harmony and capitalize on the risk that discord creates. The problem is that the way businesses manage their systems and data creates vulnerabilities, which are quite the playbook for cybercriminals to execute their infiltration. The trending topic of ransomware has gained emerging momentum in business security conversations due to several widely publicized breaches.
House Bill 2668, which Congressman Cárdenas introduced last week, addresses the two significant judicial limitations to Section 13(b) of the FTC Act.
—Rebecca Kelly Slaughter, Acting Chairwoman, FTC
To the relief of many direct sellers, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a unanimous ruling in the closely-followed AMG Capital Management, LLC v. Federal Trade Commission case.
In a April 22 decision authored by Justice Stephen Breyer, the court held that Section 13(b) of the FTC Act does not authorize the Commission to seek “equitable monetary relief such as restitution or disgorgement,” ruling that the “permanent injunction” reference in Section 13(b) only grants the FTC the ability to stop future actions of a targeted individual or company.
By: David Bland
There were a number of factors that led us to think that the timing was right for this type of conference, including indications from the Federal Trade Commission that they are tightening focus on the MLM industry.
—Douglas M. Brooks, Attorney
Anti-MLM influencers appear to be more interested in fostering a cottage industry of their own than they are to an inclusionary dialogue on how best to promote entrepreneurship.
—Direct Selling Association
For decades, direct selling’s opponents have worked to challenge the channel from the relatively confined spaces within their respective legal, academic and media circles.
The occasional high-profile court case would generate publicity for a few news cycles, and newspaper and magazine articles would follow with passing coverage.