Tracey Hall on: Direct Selling, Foster Kids, Mental Illness and Ethics (scroll down for video and podcast)
Tracey Hall is a doer. A helper. A powerhouse.
She doesn’t wait for “other people” to improve situations. She steps up and makes things happen.
Tracey is a mother of 3 grandmother of one. Living with mental illness but that hasn’t stopped her creating a business that gives back to others.
Tracey started Ethical Direct Selling because of her over 30 years in sales and seeing the good, the bad and the ugly. So now Tracey, with integrity, coaches business people in how to succeed in business.
She has a podcast called Talking Ethics, 15 minutes with biz owners.
She recently was a finalist in the 2018 Ausmumpreneur Awards.
And now Tracey is about to launch a foundation/not for profit called Heroes of Today to build homes around the world for foster children.
I was so pleased to get to chat with her for this interview.
ETHICAL DIRECT SELLING
Tracey’s business is “Ethical Direct Selling”. She coaches business owners how to succeed. Her niche is the direct selling industry.
Tracey has been in the network marketing for 30 years and spent 10 years mentoring people before someone suggested to her that she make a career out of that and get paid!
She says, in her time, she has seen “the good, the bad, the ugly and the very ugly”.
Tracey explains, “Things like spamming your friends, and trying to sell to your friends when they might not be your customers.
So understanding who your customers area to start with is a really big thing for me. My target audience is people who are in network marketing or direct selling. So they’ll understand the language that I’m talking.”
Tracey explains that it is a relief for everyone, when business people learn to direct their message to the right people.
‘Because otherwise, what you’re doing in alienating people who were never going to be your customer. I started with none of my family or my friends wanting to book parties with me. So I had to start from scratch, pounding the pavement and doing the hard yards.’
Working on her business helped Tracey to build confidence. As a teenager, she was very shy.
‘I would just hide in my bedroom and read books the whole time. When I found this Mary Kay thing, and it was all pink and girly and they wore uniforms. They were fabulous and beautiful and stylish and I thought “I’ll never be like that! I’ll just sit back and listen and watch.
It wasn’t until I got my first ribbon for doing my $100 sale or something. It was just like this whole thing of them having that belief in me. I don’t have to be put down all the time. At home it was always, “you were a mistake, you shouldn’t have been born” to all these women going, “you’ve done well! OMG”.It was like I’d been trapped in this shy body, and this person came out.’
MENTAL HEALTH
Tracey is passionate about people portraying themselves honestly, in order to find strength in that and to help others who may be experiencing something similar.
‘We shouldn’t have to hide our true selves. That’s what I wanted to share. Hey, I might live with this every day, but that’s my thing. But I still have a message, I still get up every morning. I still get my kids to school. I wasn’t like this 7 years ago when I was suicidal. I want to show people that I’ve come from that shitty place to up here and I’ve got more growth to happen. So if I can do it, and I’m just one person, then others can do it too.’
AUS MUMPRENEUR
Tracey was recently a finalist in the Aus Mumpreneur awards.
She had thought about entering, but she allowed a doubting voice in her head to cause her to hesitate when considering nominating herself.
Then she received an email notifying her that someone else had nominated her. So she went for it!
She said, ‘It was a great validation for your journey. So now I’m telling business owners, “put yourself in for these awards. You just never know who you’ll impact by doing it.’
HEROES FOR TODAY
Tracey’s passion for this project to mentor and house foster children is obvious. She explains,’That’s really close to my heart. I know a lot of people who know of someone who has been affected by being in residential care or having child protection involved. I took on a 14 year old girl who was living with her mother and couldn’t live there anymore so she went and lived with me. And to see this timid girl come out, like she was blooming, and I thought, “Wow!” Just the impact of being in a happy, healthy, caring home can make such a transformation in such a short time of 8 months. And I thought, “What if I took on one more?” But I felt it wasn’t enough to change what is going on in the child protection arena. I thought, I could build houses! This idea came about in 2015.
It’s taken me this long to get ready to do it. If I can do this, we can build these homes, they can be safe, secure. They’re our heroes, our future, and they need our help. The more heroes we save, the better my nursing home quality is going to be.
I want to build these homes. I want these kids to feel safe. Because our system is not working. These kids are not going to school. They’re on drugs. They’re abusing alcohol. They’re being sexually abused. They’re getting pregnant. They’re committing suicide. And I don’t want to see it anymore. Someone has to stand up and say, “Enough is enough”. I want to be that “enough is enough” person.
We are just about to get registered as a Not For Profit. As soon as that’s done, I’m going to try to get on TV and spruik the hell out of it. If anyone knows anyone who can give some land to us. A couple of acres down in the country. I don’t want anything in the city. I want it in the country. I want kids to experience life without all the crap that’s around, with the drugs and the alcohol and everything that’s around. And experience what it’s like to have mentors who care what they are doing. To have psychologists on board who are there for their safety well being.’
Tracey is looking for people to participate by being mentors and offering support and life skills to these foster children. Anyone who is willing to get involved and happy to share their story with the kids should get in touch with Tracey. As you would expect, police checks and Working With Children checks are a requirement.
Tracey is, in her words, ‘Living, breathing, smelling, everything..tasting my business of being ethical in the way I approach everything.’
She definitely is walking her talk.
Interview conducted by Olivia de Sousa-Ferres for the SEMBA Facebook Page.
You can find the SEMBA South East Melbourne Business Associates Facebook page here.
You can contact Tracey Hall from Ethical Direct Selling here
SEMBA is sponsored by Officeway. Their office furniture website is here.
Interview Subject: Tracey Hall on: Direct Selling, Foster Kids, Mental Illness and Ethics
