Honey Sigari, founder of personalized skincare company Kyrol, argues that the best network marketing cultures prioritize cooperation and developing leaders, not competition. She's willing to remove long-tenured people who damage culture, citing The Hard Thing About Hard Things, and credits her YMCA counselor days with shaping her belief that education and empowerment matter more than selling products.
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This is Professor Pete Alexander with the Winning at Business and Life podcast, where business leaders share their insights. It is 6 questions in 7 minutes because successful business leaders are busy and rarely have more time to spare. So let's get to it. Question number 1: In a few sentences, please tell me who you are and what you do.
Hi, I'm Honey Sigari. I'm a mom who's trying to have an impact and leave this world a little bit better than I found it. I'm doing this through my company Kyrol. It's a personalized skincare and supplement company that's marketed through a network of marketing and trust. We're a network marketing company ultimately, so that's what we do.
Well, honey, it's an absolute pleasure to have you on the show. Question number 2: What is something that makes you smile and/or laugh about working in your industry?
Sure, I would have to say the self-development aspect of it. It's one of the few industries I've been part of and I've had a chance to work in where cooperation is more important than anything else. So it's about leaders developing leaders, and I've also found it to be extremely stagnant. So there's a lot of room for disruption, and we're doing this through personalization of personal care products. You don't see too many companies doing personal, personal personalization in general. You know, you'll have thousands of SKUs in Procter Gamble and so forth, but what you really need ultimately is just a few simple SKUs and you just personalize it for the individual. But with that, I also do have to say, yeah, the personal development of it, because We're ultimately grooming entrepreneurs, um, and we're helping them, teaching them marketing skills and so many other skill sets. Um, so yeah, it makes me smile every day.
And I love it. I can hear the passion in your voice. It's great. Question number 3: I have a fictitious book with all the answers for business. What chapter would you think most companies should read?
Leaders Developing Leaders. And I say this because in our company, our success is directly proportional to the number of leaders we develop. And I don't think this is just true in my profession, in my industry. I think this can be true across all different types of industries. So leaders, developing leaders, and how do we do that? You know, mentoring, taking someone under us and, and really seeing the value of cooperating with them rather than competing with them. And I see that quite a bit especially in larger organizations. So, yeah.
I think, I think that's an excellent suggestion because so often we forget in organizations that developing the leaders and the future leaders is so important for the long-term growth of the organization. So that's a great, great insight. Question number 4, other than the generic work harder, have a great attitude, and care for customers, What advice would you give to other business leaders?
Sure. So in many companies, I hear it all the time, we talk quite a bit about culture and developing our culture. But then we end up keeping individuals in our companies a lot of times, especially as leaders and management positions. We keep people who are detrimental to our company's culture. And it's mostly because we have a fear ourselves of letting go. Of the unknown, and, and we become reliant on an individual, but we know deep down inside that they're detrimental to the culture. So I think the advice I have is if you see someone is having a negative impact on your culture, stick with your gut and be fearless in that and let it go, right? Start over. It's okay.
I like that a lot, especially because when someone who's not a fit with the culture, they're going to not only be stress themselves, they're going to create stress with the people that they work with. So it's an all-around negative that can have a long-term effect on the organization, whereas the short-term pain, as you say, about having that person move out of the organization, that is so, so important. Have you found that that has been what you've seen, where the organization is stressed because of this bad fit.
Yeah, no, absolutely. I went through it myself with a number of employees. I just became so reliant, and I think— I don't want to say it was a little bit of laziness. It wasn't. I was willing to put in the work and effort of recruiting and hiring and training someone new, but it was a little bit of a fear factor, right? Like the unknown. So that's a piece of advice I want to give myself, that if you see someone having a negative impact on your culture and they're just not the right fit— and sometimes culture evolves. Right? It's not what it started with. Day 1 is not the same as 4, 5, 6, 7 years in. So be fearless in that. And I think there's a book, Hard Thing About Hard Things, right, where he talks about like, how do you let go of someone who's your family? You brought them on, they've been there since day 1, but they're no longer a suitable fit in your organization as you're growing. So I think it's very, very difficult, and it takes a sense of sticking with your gut and sticking with your intuition and knowing, no, it's time to let it go and bring someone in who can now take us to the next level.
Very, very insightful. Thank you for that. Question number 5: What other business leader like yourself would you like to acknowledge and invite to be on my podcast?
Sure. So I mentioned we are a network marketing company, and I'll be quite honest, I have never done network marketing myself. Um, but there was, um, an individual named Lori Bush. She took Rodan Fields from zero to a billion dollars in a very short period of time. And I've studied her, I admire her, and I see her as a mentor whether she knows it or not. But I would love her to come on to the podcast, and I'll send her a message and tell her for sure she should check this out.
Wonderful. Yeah, okay, great. I look forward to talking to her. And our final question, question number 6: please tell me about your first job.
Sure. So my first job was in high school. I was a YMCA counselor. Um, it was the aftercare program and I initially did it because I was playing sports and I was so busy, but I initially did it because my brother would get dropped off. It was aftercare program and I, this would be an opportunity. He's 10 years younger than I am. It would be an opportunity for me to bond with him. But over time, what I found is I loved the teaching aspect of it. I actually had to have a curriculum, have to have activities and I think, um, if I wasn't doing this, I would be a second, third grade teacher because I just love working with this group of individuals. But not only that, in my company, one thing that's very, very important is we're here to educate and empower through education. And I always say, if someone comes to our website, interacts with our company, learns something, buys something, great, we've done our job. So, um, it was an opportunity for me to develop my teaching skills and leadership abilities at a very young age. That was my first job.
Great story.
$5.25. Can you imagine telling someone that nowadays? Well, $5.25.
$5.25 is a lot of money compared to my first job, which was actually $2.50 an hour.
Oh my gosh.
I know. Isn't that crazy? So yeah. I mean, it's nuts, but you know, you learn. But I love, love that story. It's, it's a great, great one to, uh, to share with the audience. Thank you. And Ani, thank you so much for being on the show. How can people find you?
Thank you, thank you. You can find me on Instagram, uh, @hsegari is my personal tag, and, um, @kyralskincare is our company. Um, and you could send me an email. I'm here to help anyone who wants to either start a business or is looking into the personalized, um personal care business. So you can send me an email, honey@pyrol.com. I'd be more than happy to speak with you.
Perfect. This is Professor Pete Alexander with the Winning at Business and Life podcast. Get hundreds of amazing business insights from previous guest episodes on your favorite podcast app. Thanks for listening.
