I like having my own business [as] I find I have more time to realize my full potential and also give my children more freedom to create their own lives and to discover themselves as well. When I was a full-time mom, I found that I was a helicopter mom!
Eve Phua
In this episode, I spoke to Singaporean entrepreneur, Eve Phua who is the founder of Believe Beauty Academy, a beauty and wellness business where she helps women look their best – using products by Mary Kay.
Last year, Eve topped her personal sales for the Mary Kay Singapore Sales Director Category in spite of the pandemic. Besides achieving her own sales, she also leads and trains her own team of beauty consultants.
But if you think this episode is all about the direct selling business, you can’t be more mistaken.
Eve, who used to work in the media industry, talks about how education has enormously influenced her life and career choices. But when she got married and had kids, she wanted to focus fully on her children. And surprisingly, it was motherhood that brought her into the journey of doing something for herself.
Being a mumpreneur meant finding her purpose, helping other women look gorgeous and confident and building her financial future and independence.
Interestingly, the pandemic made her move from on-site teaching to online teaching via Zoom classes and FB Live. When beauty salons were closed last year in Singapore during the lockdown, customers couldn’t go for facials so there was a surge in sales for personal care products. She was pleased that she could still engage in teaching and consultation via Zoom and could even conduct virtual skin analysis.
We help women and inspire them to step out of their comfort zone because my teammates and I, well, we were once very timid as well. We were once very reluctant to go on Facebook Live. We encourage each other and this is the community support that I like.
Eve PHUA
She admitted that being in business taught her to be a better parent as she realized that it is not healthy to over-parent! By running her own business, she stopped hovering around her children and gave them the freedom to discover themselves.
She also spoke about her first year in the business and how she used that year to learn and make mistakes. In her second year, she focused on turning customers into product lovers and some keener ones into beauty consultants. Her third year was about reflecting on her purpose especially during tough times as she grew her team. She eventually found that she could use the Enneagram tool (as suggested by her mentor) to understand her team members. She said that she now understands that team conflicts are due to blind spots and that is where knowing oneself is of the utmost importance!
Some people might think that when you ask them to come and try products or ask for their reviews, that you want to ask them to buy products. That is one of the things that people are quite resistant to!
Eve is highly inspired by Mary Kay Ash and Oprah Winfrey and her favourite books are Simon Sinek’s Start With Why and Grit by Angela Duckworth. Aaron Kwok is her favourite musician/artist of all time.
She said that Mary Kay gave her a chance to love herself again!
In this episode, Eve talks about:
- Why it is crucial for mothers to take care of themselves even as they care for their families
- How she transformed from being a timid person to someone who now happily and eagerly turns on her phone to livestream
- The challenges of retaining her customers
- The big elephant in the room – unethical people who spoil the direct selling industry
- The myths of direct selling and the fear of selling
- How long it takes to truly succeed and see results in this direct-selling industry
- What she is most focused on now as a team leader and what she uses as leverage
- Why it is sometimes OK not to move up the path of direct selling (and she explains how this can happen)
- What successful team leaders focus on (and it’s not about managing others)
- How she uses psychometric tools to help her understand her team members