Connections! in SW Florida - Featuring Beth Schomp with 'Life On Your Own Terms'

Good morning, Southwest Florida, and good morning, Beth.

Good morning.

Thank you for joining us. This is— I'm Renee Hahn. This is not— this is— I'm Renee Hahn, and this is a segment that I do called Connections in Southwest Florida, and it's really about connecting local people with local businesses. We are all as entrepreneurs facing into some challenging and unprecedented times where our access to our, our current potential customers and their access to us is a little bit different. So I thought it would be a great opportunity with so many people surfing the web and being on social media to showcase some of the businesses. So Beth, I am thrilled to have you here today.

Thank you. I'm honored.

Oh, we're just— I'm excited to hear everything you've got to share here. And we were starting to talk a little bit about your story. Beth is with Life on Your Own Terms, and she'll talk about that in a moment. But I wanted to share Beth's story first because she— this is not her first rodeo in Southwest Florida. So, Beth, tell us a little bit about yourself, please.

Well, for the last 30-some-odd years or for over 30-some-odd years, we were in the D.C. area, my husband and our two daughters. And we've been— my family, my mom and my dad started coming down to Naples back in 1982. So Naples back then was a sleepy little, like, sleeping village. Nobody had discovered it. And so my parents knew they would end up being down here. So we would come down and vacation. And what's so funny is my dad would complain about all the snowbirds, and I would have to tell him, then quit telling him about Naples, telling people about Naples. And so, but it's been so wonderful to see Naples evolve and grow into this beautiful area. And a couple of years ago, my oldest daughter ended up settling in the Miami area, now in Hollywood, Florida. And so she had our first grandchildren. So we wanted to be down here and be a part of their lives. So we moved down here to the Naples area 2 years ago, and we haven't looked back. We love it. We feel like we live in paradise. So it's awesome. We love it.

Well, and speaking of this COVID challenge, not to underscore any of the, the tragedy that it's caused in people's lives financially and health-wise. But let's be honest, Beth, if you're going to be on house arrest, where is a good place to be on house arrest?

You know, we have had to be very careful about how we come across online because we have, we've said the very same thing. It's like, if we're gonna have to be in quarantine, what a better place to be. And so we have friends all over the country that has not been their experience, especially in the wintertime. So we had to be a little sensitive that we weren't rubbing it in their face a little bit. So, but yes, we're very grateful to be in such a beautiful environment.

Well, and as we know, working from home means we have guests into our shots as they come out and give the pets their morning kisses. Mm-hmm. That was a surprise guest appearance by my youngest daughter, Paige.

Oh, that's awesome.

Hey, there, I saw a video recently that had little parodies, and it said, which Zoom call are you? I realized when I got to the end, because one was, you know, the person that's constantly drinking, one was the people that have pets on their laps, one was people coming in and out with the, you know, I realized I'm probably all of those things at some point or another.

Well, mine would be my husband chasing me around the house. He's like, go! I know.

My husband said that this morning because I decided to, he usually works here and I took over his, and he said, where do I go this morning? I said, well, I wanted to change it up a little bit. They're tired of looking at my dining room. Anyways, Beth, tell us a little bit about your business, Life on Your Own Terms, some of the offerings that you, you know, whether it's service, products, tell us a little bit about the business, please.

So Life on Your Own Terms, it's a group, a team, kind of an organization of mostly women, some men. And what we do is we educate households on safer, more affordable shopping options. And we do that by partnering with a major manufacturer of household consumer goods. Now, this manufacturer is a US-based manufacturer, and that's really big because now people are realizing so many of the things that they buy come from China. So this is a really nice option for people. So it's a US-based manufacturer that competes head-to-head with Procter Gamble, Colgate-Palmolive, Johnson Johnson, Lever Brothers. And, um, but what makes our company different is that we specialize in healthier, safer options, more higher quality formulations. Another point that I think is so valuable more today than ever is that we have been able to cut out all the middlemen. So, our products are not actually found in a store. Our, our manufacturer has their own online shopping club. So, what we do my team and I, what we do as a business is we educate households that there's another shopping option which might work really well for them. It's, it's a way for people to shop online and minimize their exposure in the store. And now more than ever, it's really important to switch their loyalty from a company where their products are made in China and Asia to a U.S.-based manufacturer. Products are made here in the United States and a way to save money, say 30% to 40% and sometimes 50% on their household budget. So it's an education process. We don't actually, in the field, we don't sell anything. We actually educate people how they can really take control of that. And just by kind of altering their shopping style and location to online, they can really benefit by having safer, more affordable products in their home.

Well, thank you. And Beth, I hope you don't mind me asking because we didn't prepare for this, but one of the things I wanted to share with the group, because I have been somewhat protective about the local nature of this, you made some great points when I initially pushed back and said, Beth, I love what you're doing, but tell me how that's local. And you had some great stories to share about how this really has been a local income. Driver for, for a lot of people before COVID but certainly even with COVID now being, um, a challenge. So do you mind sharing some of that?

I don't mind sharing that at all.

It helps bridge the local nature of it.

I think that's a really great question because in fact, when I moved down here— now I have been, um, with this company for almost 18 years— when I moved down here to Naples, one of the things I heard was, oh my goodness, you know, you're not going to have any luck down there. People down there could care— it's so affluent, people don't care about saving money. That has not been my experience at all. So for instance, recently, a couple of the examples that you and I were talking about, I have a young mom who is a customer. She shops at our store. She actually started shopping at our online shopping club in late February. And the appeal to her is she's very interested in saving money on the budget as well as keeping her family healthy. And that is one of the best ways to save money is keeping our family healthy. If we have learned nothing else from COVID that is one of the things. Then, sure enough, on March 10th, she was laid off from her job. So, with our shopping club, there is this, basically what I have done is taken customers that want to bring in an extra stream of income. Our company offers a referral program. It is free for a customer like Jeri to participate in. So, what I did with her is what I have done with thousands of others is I've partnered with her and helped her broaden her, she did a paradigm shift, if you will, from being just a customer to being a mouthpiece and helping other families here in the Naples area be aware there's a store and you might wanna check it out. And so by being that mouthpiece and helping getting the word out, she brought in, in March alone, an additional $1,000 into her household, which offset the income that she lost. Another mom that I met in the Naples area, and I met her online, her name is Barbara. Now she had not lost her job. Again, the shopping part appealed to her because with COVID she's realizing, "I need to save money on my budget. And so I'll try this store because it's a more affordable store." And it was gonna help some health issues in her home too. But along the way, her husband has been furloughed. So she also has since then, which happens pretty organically, you know, she loved the store. She'd already mentioned it to her mom and mentioned it to her sister, but now Barbara has referred other people. And sure enough, the mom, who Renee is a realtor, she has referred a few people. Her sister, who is a teacher, she has referred a few people. And so what that does for the Naples economy is it brings in this extra stream of income. Into these households simply by referring word of mouth, people they know to this store. So that's the thing that it really helps Naples. It helps households by saving $50 a month on their budget, $40 a month on their budget. That for some families puts food on the table. But for those who really need to bring in that extra income without having to sell or anything like that, because we're not that business model, It's just helping be that spokesperson, that mouthpiece to redirect traffic to our online shopping club. And it's a great way to really bring in that stream of income that today so many households need. So that kind of is what we were talking about.

No, thank you for that. And it's funny, I'll just admit, I am one of those people that usually hides under a rock when I hear direct marketing stuff. I just, You know, people are so passionate about it. And if I, especially if I don't need it, it just, you know, makes me, but I will tell you with your stories and the value proposition that you're talking about, you made a perfect analogy when you said it's, you know, it's organic. If you like something, if you benefit from something, sharing it with others can be a gift, not a burden.

Well, and to that point, to that point, That was one of the things that I picked up on very, very early. And I happened to be one of those persons that had that background in my past. And I wasn't looking for something to add to my plate, but as a customer, my girlfriend had told me about this store. This is kind of what inspired me years ago. She told me about this store and my youngest daughter has asthma. So, I was looking for some greener products to put in the house. Back in 2002, Amazon wasn't really around. People didn't shop online and green products were rare and they really didn't work and they were super expensive. So, that was kind of my introduction to it. But when I looked at it, I thought, saw the same things that you do, Renée. This was a different concept. These were products that people have to have and they are higher quality than what people typically buy in a store and they are less expensive than what people would buy in this store. And there were so many other benefits for shopping here. I just remember naturally thinking, my mom needs to shop here. My sister homeschools. She should— she would probably— she's looking for something like this. And, um, just lots of different things. It's so— it is different from the other type of home-based businesses that we're, we're familiar with. This was just much more, I felt, noble. Um, it's a very humble company, um, because it's really out there to genuinely help just everyday people be aware that they have better shopping options without the hype and without the sales pitch. So it's just, it really resonated with me and what I wanted to do to help other people.

Fantastic. Thank you. I do want to talk for a minute. So you talked about the store having a lot of the comparable products that you might find in a grocery store. Tell us, toilet paper, hand sanitizer.

Yes, that's a really great example.

But what, all kidding aside, Beth, what are some of the product offerings? Sure.

So we have basically 7 aisles in our online shopping club. We have nutrition, we have medicine cabinet, we have cleaning. We don't have toilet paper and here's why. Our company will, if we can't be price competitive, we won't go there. We only want to bring out products that we can make a little better and that we can make them more affordable. And paper is very hard to be competitive in. But we have a, you know, a huge, huge offering of bath and body, we have beauty, we have all kinds of different things. They manufacture about 500 products. So let me give you some examples. I'll start with the hand sanitizers and we'll talk about disinfectants too. And I think this is brilliant about what our company did. We're a very large company, we do $2 billion in sales and we're in 19 countries, but Our US customers shop from products that are made here in the US, which we're very proud of. And, but back in January, our CEO saw what was happening because we have facilities in China that take care of our Chinese customers. And so what he did is he ordered a 2-year supply of ingredients so that our customers would never be without disinfectant and never be without sanitizer, sanitizers. And what's even more special about this is that our products are green. So we have a disinfectant as a comparison, we have a disinfectant that's 99.9% effective against germs. That's the exact same claim as Lysol, but we were the first company ever to actually be approved by the EPA. Our cleaning products are so safe, we don't even use child safety caps to prove the point, but they are effective. And so many of them actually are significantly less. Our laundry detergent is 18 cents a load. You won't find one on the market that's that price. And be efficient. And we don't load water in it. In fact, our cleaning products don't have any water in them. Fantastic is 98% water. So it's a really, really great way to shop. I'll give you another example. We're a registered pharmaceutical company. And what that means is we don't make prescription drugs, but we do make some over-the-counter products. We make Claritin, Advil, and Tylenol. So as an example, and in this case, these are the only products that we don't actually make better. It's the exact same thing that you would find, say, Target. So as a consumer, and this is what we educate people on, as a consumer, you can go to Target and you can buy Claritin, 30 tablets of loratadine for $30, or you can go to Target and you can buy 30 tablets of loratadine generic and it's $20. It's the same thing. It just doesn't have the, the name Claritin on the box and the ad behind it. But our customers, what they do is have access to the shopping club. They can get the same 30 tablets, the same loratadine for $10.99. See, that's how much markup is in the stores. And we still go to the store for our perishables and our paper and our produce. But I try to teach people to do a little bit of a shift to where they can shop consumer direct and they can get their household products at wholesale. So it's— that gives you a couple of different examples right there.

Now, that's fantastic. And I assume with COVID one of the questions I've been asking businesses, how has COVID affected you? You guys being an online store, I imagine have been able to continue to provide products. I don't know back through the supply chain whether that's having an impact, but could you talk a little bit about how COVID's impacted your business and what, if anything, has temporarily changed?

So that's a really great question too. So Since March, we've added hundreds of thousands of customers to our online shopping club because people have become more aware and the need has become internally greater to really protect their family. So our customer rise has been at all-time highs for us. So for us, it's been a positive thing, but a positive impact. For me, it's been rewarding because I've been able to give so many moms peace of mind that they can still have a resource for their home. But there have been some challenges. We don't, as a company, we don't make the actual container. And so we do, you know, we manufacture our own products, taking the ingredients to the end results. But we, as of today, don't actually make the container. And so some of those containers have they come from China or the pumps, they come from China. So that was a little bit of an eye-opener for us. So we are now in the process as an international manufacturer, looking for ways that we can take that on ourselves. This company is really good about improving and being really efficient in their manufacturing facilities. And so when we, as an example, Procter Gamble will raise their prices 4% per year, every year, and you're gonna probably see even bigger spikes, our company, we rarely raise the price tag, but when we can become more efficient in our manufacturing process, we actually lower the price and pass the savings on to the customer. So that's something that has happened positively. The challenge has been in terms of the packaging. What we had to do with our disinfectants and our sanitizers so that we could make sure we could supply everyone, we actually It's the only thing I think we do in our store, but we actually have had to limit customers to getting 2 per— if they want to shop like every month, they can only get 2 within a 1-month period of time. So we have to pace them out a little bit. That's been a little bit of a challenge. Something else has kind of changed. We do— I've done so much online because it's so easy today in today's market, but it's not unusual for a customer to invite me to come into their home and they'll invite some of their friends because they like to see and feel and touch and smell some of these products in our stores. So I just take things from my house because I don't sell anything. Well, that hasn't been taking, taken place, but we really do as good of a job as we can doing these online tours of our store. So we give people that education.

Fantastic. Thank you. And I'm glad to know there are some businesses we recognize that are, because of the nature of their service and their product offering, are doing well, and that's not a bad thing. We may—

we don't want to come across as boastful. In fact, like I said, the company's— it's very humble in its nature. And what we're trying to do is make sure that the image that we're sending out there is, who else can we help? Who do you know that we could help take some of the burden off? So that's what we've really tried to do. Sure.

Well, and to that point, I want to hit two things so that people know how they might connect with you to to learn more. Let's start on— well, let's start with the product. If somebody is interested in looking at your products online and seeing if they may become a consumer of those products, where should they go? And then we'll come back if somebody wants to help be a— I'll call them a promoter. That's not what you call them, you'll, you'll correct me, but we'll hit that second. So let's start with the products.

So one of the things that makes us, again, different from other things that you see out there in that network marketing industry We're really in consumer direct industry. That's where we're in the manufacturing industry. But people assume, well, just can you send me a link so I can go check it out? Well, we don't do it. We don't jump to that right away. And here's why. Our store is so big that people would get lost in it if they didn't have a little bit of preliminary education. So a person's first step would be to watch one of our online tours. And we'll have in these two, we do them every day. And sometimes we do them 2 or 3 times a day and people can't— I can't see people, but they can and they don't even see me, but they see, you know, a little bit of an overview of our store and the offerings and what makes who we are, what makes us different and how they can benefit. And then from that, if they like what they see from that education and most of the time they do, then we can send them a link and get them into the store. And I always compare that to like a Costco day pass. Getting in the store doesn't even obligate them to shop with us, but it gives them a chance to really get in there and, and pull down ingredient labels and see all that, see all the nitty-gritty. We don't try to be evasive in any way. It's just that we have found that an educated consumer is the best consumer. And so we— so to answer your question, they would contact me. We would connect them with one of our online tours that they can watch easily in the privacy of their own home. And then if they like that, then we can give them a link to get in the store and then go move on accordingly. So that would be the process.

And then would they— is the web address down below that's on the ticker, thelifeonyoureownterms.net, a good way to get in touch with you?

That would be, that would be a good way. When they go into that, that's kind of what I would call my organizational team site. That's certainly not the store. Um, but in that they'll, they'll get a little bit of just affirmation of what we've covered today. But there is a prompt where if they want more information, they can fill that out and they can send me their email and their phone number. And that way then I can then connect with them and give them the information for the online tours. We also have some particular product referral sites because sometimes people are even more cautious. You know, can you just send me some information? So we can do it that way too. So we want people to feel comfortable and safe just to get that. That's one of the things that I've always initially felt is like, and I'm as skeptical as anybody else, but you know what, it doesn't hurt to be educated. It just never hurts to get all the truth and get all the facts without the hype. So that would be it.

Great. And then I assume if somebody wanted to use this as an income-generating opportunity, their first customers, correct?

Correct. That's correct.

So what they're going to go through as a first step anyways.

So, um, so we're— we are a membership style of shopping. We're a membership style of shopping, kind of like Costco. So if somebody wanted to shop with us, our membership is $19 a year. So it's very affordable to shop here. And the income generating side of this is actually a free benefit of the shopping membership. So we don't have— we're not called promoters and we're certainly not distributors. That's not our business model. We're all customers. It's just some of us shop and some of us shop and talk, shop and refer. And if we choose to do that, then that puts us in line to be able to be rewarded sometimes pretty generously bringing in that stream of income. And I, I have people of all walks of life, 80% of our customer base, and we have millions, 80% of them are just customers. We're not a multilevel marketing company. We are a shopping club. We're a manufacturer who sells direct. It's this group that I work with in helping generate that stream of income. And for some people, that might be an extra $500 a month. That can change a lifestyle for some people in today's market. But some people need more like a couple of thousand dollars a month and some people want something significantly more. So we would, I would work with them individually and partner with them. And that would be kind of the word I would use more so than anything else, we're partners. Sure. They partner with me and they partner with the company.

Let me ask this, Beth, what's for the folks that have just really excelled at sharing with others what's been the biggest check you've seen delivered in a given month for that.

I can tell you my biggest check was $89,900. I remember writing a note to the CEO going, really, you couldn't have rounded it up to 90? Um, so I will tell you, let's see here, gosh, the biggest check, the biggest check that I've ever seen in the entire company was this past summer, and I think it was about $450,000 for the month. That's not— that's very unique circumstances. I like to talk averages. So I'll give you a couple of examples. So just our— we get paid once a month. So this past week, I have a woman who left corporate America. I was able to help her replace that income. And so her check was over $10,000. My daughter, My youngest daughter is 28. She's a millennial. She would have been furloughed. She would have been laid off had she not had this. And her check was over $10,000. I have Misty, who is in Louisiana, and Louisiana's been shut down. And so in less than a month, her first check was $930. I have Mary, who is a retired nurse. Her check was over $1,500. And then I have Terry, who is a mom married to an architect, and her check was $6,200. So that kind of gives you— you'll see it all over the, all over the range. So, but I like to— what I like to do on that level, when I have someone who's needing to bring an extra stream of income, I like to find out first of all, what are their needs? And then let's look at their availability. And because I want it to be tied with The expectations, help people manage their expectations. So if they, if they really just need that little bit, it's like, okay, let's see how to do this in a way that's manageable within your family. If they need more, then we work accordingly.

Okay, fantastic. Well, let me do this. We've got 3 minutes left, and I want to do a quick run-through of the businesses that I get to spend some time with in the coming days. Tomorrow, Friday, I can't believe it's already Friday. I have Chris Torres with Master Touch as we round out next week. On Monday, I've got Jack Price with Vision Home. Tuesday, I've got Vicki with Naples Home Watch. Wednesday, I've got Mallory with Boring to Bombshell Nails. And Thursday, I have Tiffany with Clear the Clutter. So I actually still have a slot open on Friday if anybody wants it. These are all— I'm not You know, again, this is not in any way— it doesn't bring me any financial benefit. I'm simply wanting to share some of my time and my resources. So I say that to say, if Friday doesn't get filled, that's okay. I'm not chasing anybody down for these, but I'm here if you want to showcase your business. Feel free to reach out to me at Renee@YourNaplesExpert.com, and I look forward to meeting with these business entrepreneurs. So Beth, why don't you take us home and just any wrap-up comments that you'd like to share with our viewers that may be online or in some cases joining us a little bit later in the playback. And I did want to say good morning to Nicole and Gabriella who have both left messages online. So I wanted to acknowledge their, their attendance this morning. But Beth, give us a little bit of a wrap-up. I think versus all of the other businesses I've talked to that offer a product and a service that's available for purchase. Yours has been a little different where you offer some income potential and a product or service. So I think that's an interesting and neat opportunity for the audience today that they could be thinking not only about the benefit of your services, but the benefit of potential residual or income off of their just sharing their satisfaction with your services. So I wanted to wrap up with that, but what would you like to share with the audience, Beth, before we close for the day?

Well, what I would, what I would say is, you know, we are in some challenging times, and we are in some uncertain times, and we can get really paralyzed as a household, as a person, as a society, because we don't know what's going to happen. And I, my interpretation is it, it's going to be a very, very slow recovery. However, that said, instead of getting stressed out about all those things, there are certain things we can control. We can control how we receive information and how we shop and how we save and, and the things that are unnecessary. And so many of you have probably done a great job of reevaluating that budget. I want to offer that hope that, you know, when we have challenging times, a lot of times we, if we have the right mindset and we have the right vehicles at our fingertips, we can actually come out of those times so much better than when we entered the times. So, what we have could be part of that solution. We don't pretend to be all things to all people, but it can help a lot of different people. So, I want to encourage people that there is hope at the end of that tunnel, whether it is from saving money on your budget, having a healthier home, We, one of the things we didn't talk about was how we have a nutritional line, which everything's based on science, and that really is our crowning, our jewel in the crown. Or just looking at a way to be able to not just bring income into your home in a solid, solid residual way. Nothing against any of the other companies, but our price point is so low, we actually have a 98.1% month-to-month retention rate. That's huge. And so this could be something that could possibly turn your household around. So don't be afraid to get information because that's all this is, is information gathering, and then you be the judge.

Well, and I love your approach because, Beth, I don't think you're a, a, um, multi-tier marketing stalker. I sincerely sense that you're there to share your, your passion and information with others. So I, I, you know, I hope this helps for someone who may be looking for a solution for where to purchase their products, or for someone who may be looking to do that and supplement some of their income, or in some cases replace it. So thank you so much, Beth, for spending 30 minutes of your time with us. And as always, for those of you watching, we appreciate you. We hope that you see value in these connections. Again, we are here to, to to band together as a community and try to come out of this stronger because of that connection. So thank you for joining us today. The week— the work week is almost over, unless you're in my business, which blends from one 7-day week to the others. But for most of you, the week is almost over. You can enjoy your weekend, and I appreciate you spending some of your valued— valuable and valued time with us today. Have a