Scentsy in the Good Old Days

Scentsy Wickless candles currently has over 200,000 consultants. When I started with the company, back in the olden days of 2006, there were only 500 consultants company wide. That’s such a wild concept considering my own personal group is larger now than the entire company was when I started my Scentsy journey.

As I sit here in my rocking chair, quilt on lap, reminiscing about what it was like to walk a mile to school, uphill, barefoot in the snow, I’ll share what it was like when I was a brand new Scentsy consultant.

My Starter Kit

I received a Java candle warmer as shown in the above photo, lower right image on left page of the catalog.   It was brown and shaped like a small coffee pot.   It’s now retired. The candle bar I received was Rum Cake.   It’s similar to our current Sugar Cookie, only about ten times stronger.   It’s now retired.   The room spray was Flower Shop.   The container was metal, not like the now plastic canister. It was very strong smelling; obviously floral and heavily rose scented. Not my favorite. It is now retired.

The party testers had metal caps on them (shown in above picture). There were no basket testers or mini testers. There was no New Consultant Start-Up Guide, no eBooks, I don’t think there was even much of a Policies and Procedures Guide.   When I asked if I could have an external website, they weren’t sure how to answer that as no one had one previously. The catalog was 12 pages, approximately 8″ x 8″ in size, warmers were priced at $14.95. I think bars were $2.95 each.

Products

We didn’t have midsize warmers or plug-in warmers; there were no diffusers or scent pods. There was a brick included in the optional Consultant Scent of the Month kit, but it was wrapped in cellophane (I found an old chunk in the back of a drawer and is also shown in the above photo).  Bricks were not available for customers to purchase. Some of my favorite scents that are no longer around include Tuscan Garden, Rum Cake, Black Pepper and Clove, Pomegranate Orange Zest and Fresh Brewed Coffee. Hanging Fresheners were called Car Candles and they were not available in all scents.

Fairs and Shows

To give you an idea how small of a little group we were back in the olden days, if you wanted to do a vendor event, we just called Scentsy and told them how much inventory we wanted to “borrow” and they’d ship it out.   Then after the event, we could pay for what we used and then send back the rest if it didn’t sell.

Regional Seminars

The first regional event where I gave a presentation as a Director was called a “Blitz” (next known as World Tour, then called Spring Sprint, and now back to World Tour). There was a spectacular turn out of almost 30 consultants and potential recruits.   It was the Midwest Blitz held in South Bend, IN.

Websites

The corporate consultant websites that we now have is at least the third one, with numerous updates since I started. We’ve upgraded and migrated a few times.  There was no web policy at the time.  Initially I was told I could have an additional, external website because at the time our corporate replicated websites left much to be desired.  They were bare bones and served a purpose, but didn’t contain a great deal of information.

I built an extensive external website but once complete, I was then told that we could not use the word Scentsy or any of the images or product names.   So then I needed to rework the entire site to remove all references to the company, no secret keywords, no meta tags, nothing that had reference to Scentsy wickless candles. It was a generic “wickless candle” website and somewhat covert; no different really than those you see now for companies like Melaleuca that can only advertise as “wellness company”.

Then lo and behold, as with any young company going through growing pains, someone else came along and decided that we once again could have websites that used the word Scentsy, and could have product images and could once again be overt about it. If you want to survive working with a new or young company, you really need to be flexible and learn to adapt … a lot!

Everybody Knows Your Name

The theme song to the 1980’s television sitcom was “Where Everybody Knows Your Name.” This is what it was like at Scentsy back in the good old days.  There were a handful of staff members, most of whom have since moved on to other ventures. Only a few of the original ones are still there, but it was very easy to get any one of them personally on the phone at any time, including Orville.

I could call up and say “This is Laurie Ayers” and would always get a friendly response like “Hi Laurie, how’s it going?”   Laurie Willis was the Customer Service department (yes I think she was the entire department then) so I didn’t want them to get confused, otherwise I could have omitted my last name and they’d still know who I was.

Bring Back My Bar

Biannually, Scentsy runs a limited time only Bring Back My Bar Promotion.   Twenty or twenty-five scents that have been retired are brought back so that you too can experience a whiff of Scentsy in the good old days.

Still Plenty of Room for More

Just because 200,000+ people have decided to jump on the Scentsy wagon, there are currently much less actively working it as a business, seeking to gain new customers. Many get a Scentsy account for personal use or to order for their immediate family. Consider the US Population in 2023 is 340 Million and growing.   Add another 39 plus Million people in Canada. We are a global company, with consultants in North America, Europe, and Australia. You can clearly see that current Scentsy consultants only make up a tiny grain of sand in the vast sea of potential candle lovers so just let me know if you’d like information about starting your own candle business.

Didn’t See it Coming

I didn’t plan on starting a candle business.   I went to college for business administration and homeland security. Life takes some unexpected turns sometimes. I’m thrilled that I have been a part of Scentsy since the olden days and that I have made a contribution to the Scentsy of today and also of tomorrow.

About the Author: Laurie Ayers is a Michigan entrepreneur and a Superstar Director with Scentsy. You can read more about her on her Scentsy webstore here.