How female executives are finding new paths while continuing to influence an industry they helped build
By Jenna Lang Warford
“(Direct selling) companies need to lead the way in click-and-share because consumers are catching on that not all Influencers actually love what they are selling, and in direct sales we truly love what we are offering.” – Sierra Whitener, Podcast Host & Former Direct Selling C-Suite Executive
“When people make an investment in a product they’re expecting a return. So don’t put something out just to have a launch. Put out something that you want to be known for.” – Grace Keohohou Hao, Co-Founder of DSWA & Top Field Leader
“My job is to help make it even better, to speak the language that the field needs to hear. This role is a dream come true.” – Shellie Sullivan, Vice President, Boards
Today, 43% of all global entrepreneurs are women and the largest percentage of them are 40–59 years old, demographically the older end of the Millennial population (1981–1996) and the majority of Gen X (1966–1980).
According to the World Federation of Direct Selling Associations, the direct selling channel is still being driven by women, who represent 70% of direct sellers. Fifteen years ago, that statistic was 83%.
The number of female executives leading the channel, however, appears to be growing. Considering female attendance at executive events in the direct selling channel in 2008 was anecdotally low (statistics not available), 2025 is showing to be significantly higher.
As direct selling companies evolve, women leaders are opting for new challenges while still remaining in the channel.
Why They Shifted & How They Support the Channel
Shellie Sullivan, whose corporate direct selling career began at Avon, has held various vice president and C-suite roles leading sales teams for 20 years, including Urban Retreat and Rodan + Fields. In 2024, she accepted a role with Boards, a field activation and communication platform serving the direct selling channel inadvertently.
Boards wasn’t originally intended to serve the direct selling field but discovered that 90% of its 3 million users were direct selling field members. When the company’s executives recognized that they needed some direction on optimizing that, they reached out to Sullivan.
Sullivan had spent some time in the tech sector before and had heard of the company. “Boards has tier-one investors like those behind Shopify, Canva and Pinterest; plus it’s built by some of the most brilliant minds in tech. What they needed was expertise in how to serve direct sellers. It was something to which I was excited to contribute.”
What Boards got was the dream team of not only Sullivan but a collaborative group of women with whom she’d worked previously: Bonnie Bradley Yunt as Account Executive, Renee Smith as Sr. Educator and Katie Jackson as the Brand Strategist. This seasoned team leads Boards’ initiatives in supporting the field members of the direct selling channel.
“Every month we have about 50,000 new direct sellers download our app,” Sullivan says. “This field loves this tool, the field is endorsing it, and my job is to help make it even better, to speak the language that the field needs to hear. This role is a dream come true; for me to be able to be a part of developing something that actually supports the corporate team and the field made the decision to come here really a no-brainer.”
Sierra Whitener is also a former corporate leader with national and C-suite experience, including at Avon and lifeRegen. She has now shifted to a role supporting those in the channel, rather than being in it herself. Her reasoning is that it was a natural step.
“I worked for many startup companies, and when you begin building for them, you take a step back and you realize, ‘Why am I just not building for myself?’ And that’s the truth. Do I love the corporate world? Absolutely. Do I miss it at times? Absolutely. Is it challenging to run your own business? Again, absolutely. Are the perks incredible and outweigh corporate life? Hands down, yes.” And with this new entrepreneurial adventure, Whitener says she gets the added bonus of helping support other entrepreneurial women, many of whom are in direct sales.
She is now co-host of “Unapologetically Bad*ss,” a podcast featured on both Spotify and Apple that focuses on mindset, especially supporting female entrepreneurs. She also owns a boutique, a venture that adds to the insight she offers listeners. Her co-host, Renee, is a senior educator.
Grace Keohohou Hao, who has been associated with direct selling since she was carried to events on her mother Nikki Keohohou’s hip, entered the space professionally 28 years ago. Then in 2001, she co-founded Direct Selling Women’s Alliance with her mother. DSWA, which offers consulting services and training for corporate teams as well as training and development for the field, has a world-renowned coach-training program.
In 2022, Hao stepped down from her role with DSWA and became a field leader with startup Bella Grace Global. Today she is a top earner with the company, which during 2024 launched into 29 countries and expects to enter Asia and Latin American countries during 2025.
Hao says, “I never had a desire to be a part of a household name. I always had a desire, I think, unconsciously, to be a part of building something that became that. And early adopters in any market, any niche, any business are usually the ones that support the development and design of the brand, but they also benefit from the success of it.”
She continued, “When I met with Bella Grace and I had the conversations with the owners, I saw the marketing and unique approach to sharing what we have to offer. That’s what led to the decision of going into the field: my conviction of what was being offered, my conviction to the experience that I had with the product, my conviction to the fact that I could build this with a group of people that are just as hungry and passionate to grow and scale a business as I am.”
Biggest Areas of Opportunity for Direct Selling
The biggest wins for the channel are created through clarity, according to Hao. “Clear is kind, unclear is unkind. So have a streamlined approach when it comes to compensation so that people don’t feel confused. When people don’t know how to get paid or how they are paid, they’re less likely to do something with the opportunity.”
She also advocates that having less product can be better than having a large catalog. “There’s such noise and such competition out there that whatever you’re doing has to be leaps and bounds ahead of everyone else both in and outside of direct selling. Why? There are several reasons. People are conscious about ingredients now, and they’re conscious that when they make an investment in a product they’re expecting a return. So don’t put something out just to have a launch. Put out something that you want to be known for.”
Global Growth
International growth is exciting to announce, and as someone who had a global business with DSWA and now leads an international team of distributors, Hao emphasizes that a company should create a smooth experience for global business before going to market internationally.
“You can succeed when the brand has the ability to focus on a niche market (because they have client and customer acquisition in that market) or has a global business with global manufacturing (which does require massive resources to be able to execute well). When you have the ability to scale in that way, to build globally, your company will be looked at more closely than businesses that are only localized. Because that’s the way the world is spinning these days.
Keeping the Corporate Team Engaged Without Burnout
For Sullivan, her experience in leading sales fields, as well as corporate sales teams, means it’s easy for her to recognize the magic of optimizing what the field is already passionate about. It lowers the stress and even the workload of corporate teams—something she herself experienced.
“Throughout my career I’ve taken time for little hiatuses in the channel to keep me fresh. In the past I’d worked with a top-notch tech team helping with a product for network marketers and I really fell in love with the tech energy. Frankly, when you’re leading a sales organization it can be draining, and honestly I let myself get in that place of total burnout.”
Leading what the field already has buy-in for, and has adopted, creates synergy for corporate teams. Whether it’s empowering with tools to create trainings or facilitating the discovery of new markets, it’s a way for corporate teams to create effective strategies that eliminate the guesswork on adoption and maximize odds of success.
“With Boards, our app’s growth was organic; we never spent a penny on marketing, the field discovered us and shared it with their teams. Honestly, that very action is a testament to how this industry should work. And engaged corporate teams are now partnering with us—at no cost to them—and that’s a win for everyone.” Sullivan says the benefit is found not just in sales and recruiting but in keeping the corporate team from burning out.
Creating the Distributor Experience
The world is accustomed to the ease of buying online—and it’s important to consider that not just for the customer experience but also for the Distributor experience.
“I had a conversation with a woman today, after we did an event together. She told me ‘I normally do everything online now. This event took me six hours from start to finish to get there, set up, introduce people to a product. I’m exhausted.’ It’s clear that Distributor demands have shifted. People value their time. They don’t necessarily want to be present to transact; Distributors often want a link and to have the company drop-ship the product to the consumer. The key is to make it as easy as possible because the competition is stiff,” says Hao.
“People can be an Amazon affiliate these days. They can be an Uber driver and make daily pay. So what sets us apart is the pay, the quality of the product, how orders are happening—typing in orders for customers is archaic!—how we are delivering the goods, how the client is accessing those goods. A brand that has archaic systems is going to be overlooked.”
She added, “Companies have to pay more attention to the Distributor experience now more than ever before. It’s important to double down on that, because the Distributor is the first customer. The second customer is the client. The third customer is the referral.”
Top 3 Things Corporate Leaders Should Consider Doing
An oft-recounted story in direct selling is Vince Lombardi’s “This is a football” reminder of the importance of the basics. Having worked with dozens of corporate teams and now as a field leader, Hao thinks some basics simply bear repeating. “It’s cliche, and it often is the most overlooked, but connection and communication are so key to building success.
“Reaching out, reaching up, reaching through, creating; communication is relationships. And it’s important that your field feels that you are open to that communication—the good, the bad, the indifferent, the celebrations and the tragedies—seeing it as education rather than seeing it as a complaint. It is not a complaint.
“With my team, I know that if they’re coming to me, it’s because they have an opinion that I may want to consider so that I know better. Therefore I can do better.”
She continued, “Make it easier for people to communicate. Look at it as ‘There is a solution for this; They are making me aware of this, and I can do something about it.’ And I love that approach. My husband, who was a football coach for decades, shared something with me that I took to heart because I recognized it as part of my leadership.
“He said, ‘Grace, I tell my players that it’s not when I am giving you feedback that you’re meant to be concerned; it’s when I’m no longer giving you feedback that you should be concerned. Because when that has happened, I’ve moved on to another player.’”
Another recommendation Hao has is using that communication so the corporate team can move while the stakes are small. “There are so many things that when we listen to feedback they can be tweaked. And a tiny tweak done at minute three is so much different from something that has to be done at the 12th hour, or worse, something that won’t happen because you stopped listening or you stopped taking feedback.”
Sullivan’s observations on preventing burnout on the corporate team dovetail with this approach: By communicating consistently with the field and building strategies around what they’re passionate about, a team leverages the field’s passion and has much less work to do in creating buy-in.
The direct selling channel is evolving, but the commitment of those who seek to remain associated with it, and serve it by seeking new opportunities peripheral to it, is a testament to the level of belief in the opportunities that aren’t available through other avenues of entrepreneurship.
