By Tammy Hudgin with Creating Your Presence

As a stay-at-home Mom after working in corporate for 13 years, I ended up in the direct sales industry.  I started with PartyLite (candles), then moved to Lia Sophia (jewelry) after a two-year break.  Lia Sophia was fairly new to Canada back then which allowed me to build quickly.  At the same time, I started using Facebook to try to find new customers and expand my network. 

Six years later, I had built a successful team and a monthly income that allowed me some extra pleasures in life.  I contributed this success to Facebook actually, as I spent many hours a day looking for people, working my Business Page (they were called Fan Pages back then), and running a group of other small business owners (which grew to over 5,000 business owners until we shut it down as it became hard to manage).

As I worked in the world of Facebook and met more and more people, I started to get out in person and attended Vendor events, along with Networking meetings.  This all led to an increase in my exposure and building a network of people who represented team members, clients, and hostesses.

It all changed when Christmas was coming up and we were notified that there was an important Zoom call for everyone regarding the company.  The company was closing at the end of December. Say what??  But, but, but …. Let’s just say, I can’t repeat the words here.

Okay Tammy, what are you going to do?  How long can you go without that income?  I know … I will go to another jewelry company, perfect!

In January of the following year, I started with another company, Tocara, but they were (are) double-to-triple the price point and mostly sterling silver, whereas Lia Sophia was fashion jewelry with a crazy customer plan lol … would this work?  Are they the same market or different?  Will my customers spend the extra money?

By using the powers of the network I had built and Facebook’s algorithms, by the end of January, I brought in $10,000 in sales and continued selling to earn a trip by the end of April … CRAZY!!!

Now, that was quite the surprise, I admit, but to be honest, it really wasn’t the end result for me.  Since I had been using Facebook to build my jewelry business, other small business owners/entrepreneurs were reaching out and asking me to teach them how to use Facebook, too.  Hmmmm … why not start doing Facebook training classes and name them “I was a FB Nobody” … done!

I started to travel around Ontario holding classes and teaching the ins and outs of using Facebook to build.  This led me to where I am today – managing other business owners’ social media, running workshops, personal coaching, and speaking engagements (well, to be honest, I have a few more hats that I wear, but that’s the gist of it… lol).

My social media business is what I do, but I’m known for teaching it, as I offer an approach of really understanding it and working it to our advantage (and no, you don’t have to invest in Ads lol).  For me, Lia Sophia was the door that opened to lead me to where I am today.  If I had not studied the ins and outs of Facebook, if I had not understood that networking and building relationships were the keys to success, then … well … I’m not sure where I would be today.

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