This week, a previous podcast guest has returned to give us the scoop on her newest venture—GenieChat! Jessica Kane has been changing the direct sales space for 15 years, and with GenieChat, she’s made it easier than ever for sellers to capitalize on conversation-powered marketing. From unlimited content creation to AI-generated messages to prompts for follow-up, GenieChat is helping take the guesswork out of forging successful sales relationships!

Connect with Jessica and download GenieChat for yourself on ⁠her website⁠!

Time based notes:

• 1:38 Jessica Kane introduction
• 4:48 GenieChat overview
• 12:43 Tips to create conversation
• 17:35 CRM functionality in GenieChat
• 22:26 GenieChat and 3 + 3 + 3
• 24:48 The future of GenieChat
• 27:50 Transparency in direct sales
• 30:35 Find GenieChat online
• 31:20 Jessica’s favorite office supply

Capitalize on Conversation-Powered Marketing with Jessica Kane

This week on the Modern Direct Seller Podcast, a previous guest returned to give us the scoop on her newest venture—GenieChat! Jessica Kane has been changing the direct sales space for 15 years, and with GenieChat, she’s helping take the guesswork out of forging successful sales relationships.

Jessica, for those that have not met you yet, why don’t you get us started and share a little bit of your story. Tell us your background, your experience, and then of course, we want to hear how that has led you to your latest project, GenieChat.

It’s so funny, because I feel like that’s the worst question. I’m like, “Oh, God, where do I begin?” And so, honestly, right now, I’m just saying “I help network marketers and direct sellers and entrepreneurs harness conversation-powered marketing.” That’s truly what it is. And, it’s funny, you know, I’m a four-time founder. I’ve done high-growth, direct-to-consumer. I’ve done DC-funded. I have acquisitions. I’ve done events. I’ve had a fashion brand. Like, all the things, right? But, every brand I built is specific to the female consumer—who I’m passionate about—and it was anchored by conversation-powered marketing using social media. And, it took me years to go back and go, “Oh, wait, this is really what I was doing.”

There’s a common denominator that has built the success.

And, for me, it came intuitively. And, that’s kind of the worst thing, because you can’t replicate or scale or teach a team to do something if you’re just doing what’s intuitive. But, my approach is all about helping small business owners, helping those people feel confident. Whether it’s confidence in your fashion, or confidence in your business, or confidence in your tech or your opening script, I’m just really passionate to help people feel confident.

And, you found a way to do that at scale, which I think is so incredible. A lot of people are doing this in, like, a one-on-one consulting way, or through coaching, but you’ve really built this tool and system to help people do this at scale.

So, tell us a little bit about GenieChat. You’ve worked with a lot of direct sellers over the years at some of the largest direct sales teams, so you really know this industry inside and out. So, how did that lead you to GenieChat and really creating a brand-new tool that can support the industry?

I mean, it’s that disrupter gene in me; I can’t help myself. If I see a problem, I want to solve it. So, GenieChat is an app. But, the focus is really on education and service to help the direct sellers, network marketers, breathe a sigh of relief. There is so much pressure put on teams, and newbies, so it’s just creating the systems to be able to relax for a minute and actually remember, like, why you love your business and why you love the people you serve and your product instead of being sucked into the day-to-day admin of it all. And so, when it comes to relationships, that’s the cornerstone of network marketing and direct sales.

If you don’t have relationships, you’re not in direct sales, and you’re just another direct consumer brand with Facebook ads. Like, there’s a reason why your company needs you—the direct seller, the human—because you’re going to do this job better than any AI or any chatbot. You’re not inviting the progressive chatbot to your birthday parties; you’re not a relationship. And so, I’m very passionate about helping you scale that relationship, but still keep it intentional and authentic. That’s key. So, GenieChat is conversation-powered marketing. It is a next-gen, AI-powered keyboard app.

What does that actually mean? Like, we could take each of those words and dissect them.

So, there are other keyboard apps out in the market that help you have all your content and all of the things you say at your fingertips, right? Which is great. But, I wanted more. I wanted not only to have what I needed there, but I wanted a company to help give me the words. Like, if I was a new direct seller, and I didn’t have an upline, and I didn’t have Becky’s “PMs, DMs, and Texts” download—which is amazing, by the way—and I didn’t know where to go, then it’s like, “Where do you go for the words?” And so, that’s why GenieChat started. The whole point was to help give direct sellers the words, and it’s preloaded with scripts that I created. And, we’re adding all the time. So, even if you don’t have an upline, or anyone to help you, then I want to be able to partner with even more coaches to get the words in your hands.

I have worked with so many people with learning disabilities of varying types that what I finally learned is that it wasn’t an ability problem. It was a cognitive ability to just get the words fast— the executive functioning. And so, that’s why having your favorite snippets of words in your keyboard or in your app is so key, because it’s not that you’re not good enough, but I’ve talked to so many direct sellers who feel so inadequate because they’re not like So-and-So. And it’s just, you have a superpower, but it’s not having the words on the tip of your tongue.

Not to mention that most direct sellers—most women in business—are wearing a lot of hats. Like, I don’t know about you, but I feel like I have enough in my brain. My head is full. So, even if you are really great at wording and verbiage and what to say and how to say it, literally having it on your fingertips, on your keyboard, and not in your brain is huge.

Right. So, that’s where, with GenieChat, so you have your snippet part, which is where you can create unlimited content folders. You can create AI-generated responses; that’s the AI-powered part. We have a magic message generator, which is exclusive to us, and you have it at your fingertips. If you’re like, “I don’t know how to explain the benefits of CBD,” then you can literally put it into our magic message generator and have 20 options to choose from and edit to personalize and make your own snippet.

Okay, so let’s talk a little bit more about messaging, because I think this is something that, again, people get really hung up on. I hear it all the time: “Becky, can you just write that message for me?” Or, “Somebody sent me those. What do I say back?” And, I know that that’s a pain point for many direct sellers, especially if they’re working to build their confidence or just get started in this industry. So, what are some of your best tips for creating conversation with friends, family, and followers?

You know, I have a few. But, the first one revolves around curiosity. I think that, way too often, people are going into the conversation with just selling on their mind. I actually say, “If you’re only focused on selling, you’re going to get ghosted, but if you’re focused on serving, you’re going to sell.” And so, when you go into the conversation, it’s a mindset shift. Just go, “Okay. I’m curious about this person. They may not be my recruit, they may not be my best customer, but who cares?” You don’t know who they know. You don’t know what groups they know. So, be curious not for the sale, but for the person, and then actually care about listening.

So, you’re asking questions. The best are open-ended; they’re really the who, what, where, when, why, and how. Like, “How did you get started with this or that?” Or, “Oh my gosh that’s a great little craft thing you shared! Tell me more about whatever.” Showing interest in someone’s life is actually super meaningful. And, I think we all kind of take it for granted, because everyone is too busy caring about themselves. So then, when you come to someone and go, “I want to learn about you. How can I help you? Tell me more,” people are actually more open to talk about themselves.

Personally, I don’t even mention myself unless they ask me a question. I don’t even bother. And, if they’re not asking you a question, by the way, then you’re not having a very good conversation. They should be curious about you, too. So, if you’re curious and you’re asking great questions, they become curious about you. Like, “Who is this person? Oh, that’s cool! They speak my language,” or “They have my humor.” And, it’s about listening. Just listen. Care about people.

I know that GenieChat has what we’d like to call a “light CRM,” right? Like, there is a CRM functionality in GenieChat in addition to the keyboard. So, tell us a little bit about what that looks like and how that works.

You know, it’s funny; I have used every CRM on the planet. And, I like to tell my husband, “I don’t need a Hummer to go check the mail.” Like, I don’t need a super-powered, big-wheel, hot rod to go down the block. And, it’s like everything is super-powered now—which is great. I’ve been there and used that. But, when it comes to this, simplicity is key, and that kind of complication is a distraction, and you instantly just kind of freeze, because it’s like, “This is too much,” right? And so, when we made the CRM function of GenieChat, it was very, very intentional and very simple. And, it comes down to this: Who do you need to know? When do you need to reach out? And, what should you say? That’s it.

So, in the dashboard, you don’t have 7,000 buttons you have to worry about. You literally have “contacts,” “reminders,” and “snippet library,” because that’s all you have to focus on. And, in your “contact” folder, you can add your notes, and add your tags, and add entries, and you have the chat timeline, so you have all the information. And, what I really love is that you have their social media connected instantly. So, when you set a reminder for yourself, you can one-click a button; it opens our social media for you; you use your snippet keyboard to paste whatever you’re going to say; you go back to GenieChat; and you’re done. I mean, I literally knock out 50-plus intentional, authentic engagements that are follow-ups within 15 minutes.

And, it’s manual. A lot of people are like, “Well, I want automation. I want automation.” And, trust me, I love automation. Automation is so necessary. In marketing, though, you have what’s called “top of funnel,” and the top of funnel is the wide part, okay? That’s where you’re doing the most action, the most engagement. You’re out there commenting. You’re out there DMing. You’re out there friending, and you’re talking to, like, a million people, right?

But, if you’re only focused on the end of your funnel—meaning the people who posted, and whether they ordered and reordered. That’s your “end of funnel,” and that is important. That’s where automation helps you manage and scale your business. But, when you’re top of funnel, you can’t forget those micro-moments when you’re commenting here and commenting there and DMing here and DMing there. You have to remember to follow up so you can even get those customers in your funnel to begin with, so you can even earn the right to sell to them. GenieChat really is your “top of funnel” follow-up reminder system. You can do more with that, but if you don’t get that follow up, then you’re not going to have more customers to care about down in the funnel.

So, I think what I’m hearing is that at the very tippy top of your funnel, before somebody even has any real awareness of who you are, they probably don’t even know what you sell at that point. But, you’re being intentional. We often connect with somebody that’s leaving a comment or sending a DM or whatever it may be. But, there’s no way for us to really remember to go back to those conversations or those profiles or those other people—because they’re not even in the funnel. Like, they’re not even there. You don’t have their phone number to talk to them.

Which is totally fine, right? That’s why, when you create a contact record in GenieChat on your phone, and you are powering through your engagement, right? You don’t even have to know anything but their first name or a handle to create and save that contact record. Most people have you fill out all this crap—like, even save the contact info, right? No. If all you know is “They’re Jessica, and they’re on Facebook,” then, put it in. Save it. Done. Go to your next person.

You know, what’s kind of scary is that you wake up the next day and you have, like, 50 follow-up reminders from whatever you did last week, and you’re like, “Oh my God! Agh!” But then, you should go, “Holy crap. Those are seeds that, if I don’t plant and water, they don’t become anything,” and you should be excited, because then you’re realizing how many moments you missed before you actually started tracking those follow-up reminders.

Okay, so I’m going to reframe this a little bit. For those that are listening that know the 3 + 3 + 3 model that I do a lot of training on? So, that’s really being intentional, every day, connecting with three current customers, three future customers—the people that haven’t shopped with you yet—and three people that you would love to have on your team. So, when we’re thinking about GenieChat and the CRM functionality, you may already have a system to take care of those three customers that are your current customers—that first three. But really, for the second and third three—those future customers, future teammates, people that might be a little bit colder to you right? They’re a little bit higher up in the funnel, because they haven’t yet shopped with you. This might be a really great place to be tracking those conversations and giving yourself those reminders to do the follow up, which is really the most important piece of the puzzle here.

GenieChat will essentially give you a push notification, right? So, if you’re on your phone, and it’s time for me to go follow up with Jessica with GenieChat, I’m going to get a little pop-up on my phone, like, “Ding ding ding! Today’s the day! Here are the people that you said you want to follow up with on this specific day!” And, that’s going to prompt you to stay on top of it, and also check off your 3 + 3 + 3s for the day.

Right? That’s that accountability. I use GenieChat for my business for GenieChat. I’m reaching out, because we have an affiliate program, and I’m working with leaders, so it’s kind of the same idea. And, it’s so funny; I’ll get so many reminders that I literally go, “Oh my God!” Like, “Oh my God, this is so much work.” But then, that’s where I get excited, too, because I created all these intuitive ways to complete the work in a snap. And then, you get it done, and I swear, it’s like you went and you did your leg day, and you got done, and you’re like, “Oh, I feel so good!”

But then, you’re not sore the next day, and you can do it from your phone.

And, you can make money from it! This is a money-making activity. And if we have our way, there’s more coming in the future.

Launch your own user-friendly, personally branded website at ⁠OhMyHi.com⁠.

Take Action: How can you use GenieChat to improve your direct sales biz?