We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Cori Wickert a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Cori, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear from you about what you think Corporate America gets wrong in your industry and why it matters.

I think people in corporate America have frowned upon network marketing opportunities for decades now. I do believe in the current day we are starting to break that mold, finally. People in corporate America are taught to use a degree that they have gone into usually a substantial amount of debt to earn, and with that degree get a job, mostly starting at an entry-level position and climb the corporate ladder day in and day out until someone tells you that you can retire, or that you’ve saved up enough money to retire. I think that if we were educated from a younger age to look for opportunities, rather than “just jobs”, there would be so much more success to go around. In the network marketing industry, we have the ability to build our own business from the ground up. You can do this in several different ways, first and foremost, direct selling, which means selling a product to a consumer. You can grow your business more by forming a sales team and teaching other people to do what you do! Corporate America gets weird about this, which is so silly to me. In the corporate America world there is also tons of sales opportunities where you do the exact same thing. Don’t get me wrong, I have tons of friends and family who are in corporate America and they love what they do! I personally am just not OK with clocking in and clocking out and spending 40 hours a week working for two days of freedom. When you build a business for yourself, you create choice and flexibility to live whatever lifestyle you want. It’s definitely hard work, and I can honestly say you will work harder in business for yourself than you will in corporate America, especially when you are starting out. But you are reaping the benefits of owning your time, your schedule, your income, and your life. I think corporate America has it wrong to frown upon entrepreneurs or people in business for themselves just because we want to live a more abundant life. I know it seems different, but I can confidently say this is the new business norm.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I am a Kansas City native. I have 12 years of experience as a cosmetologist/hairstylist & business owner. I have 5 years of Global Network Marketing under my belt as well, that includes being apart of the top 2% in the world with my company. I am a morning person and I LOVE a good routine. I truly believe that mindset, habits, and routine are the building blocks for success. I am disciplined about those things because that projects how I show up for the world everyday.

My passion is people. I am most proud that I have taken my insane passion for others, and turned it in to serving them in the ways, I know best, by helping them feel incredible about themselves. I when I started doing hair at the age of 18, I realized that people would come in and sit in my chair, not only were they there for a service they were paying for, but they were also there for a friend, a therapist, a hype, girl, I had a few hours with my guests individually to make them feel the best I possibly could. That quickly transition into my other business through overall health and wellness. Connecting the dots in peoples overall health through nutrition, and helping them feel confident in their skin. I have been able to serve hundreds of people from all over and I have the opportunity to teach other people to do the same.

I think what sets me apart is my genuine passion for it. I don’t just show up to make a sale or to make a dollar. I genuinely care about every client that comes in my path and I carefully dissect a game plan for them, whether it is while they are in my chair, or I am Customizing a personal self care package for them. My genuine intentions of building. My businesses has been able to shine through and people recognize that. The “thank you’s” and “I couldn’t have done it without you” and “you’ve changed my life” and “I’ve never felt so confident” messages literally wake me up and get me going.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

Resilience is a word that hits hard for me personally. I think I have built resilience in my life for all of my 30 years. I grew up in a small town in a divorced household. Everyone in my town was very blue collar and most lifestyles were very mundane. I was a lost kid and I didn’t really fit in anywhere. I was extremely bullied through middle school and high school, enough that I begged my parents to transfer schools or to be homeschooled. I knew all I wanted to do was to get out of my town so I left the night I graduated high school and started cosmetology school since it was familiar to me, I grew up working in the hair salon in my hometown as the receptionist. I didn’t have support from my family initially because I wasn’t going to a traditional college. I was in a new city at 17 while putting myself through school and waiting tables on nights and weekends.

Fast forward 4 years and I was opening my own LLC as a salon and business owner. So many people doubted what I was capable of, I knew I wanted more out of my life.

Fast forward about 4ish years. I had built a successful salon business, but I was tired of trading my time for money. I knew I wanted more freedom in my life so I started taking my side hustle seriously to establish a passive income. My (now ex) husband doubted me every single day. He wanted me to play smaller and not live such a “loud life”. He didn’t believe I would be successful and didn’t support me, when I was working evenings and weekends on building my side hustle he made fun of me. I quickly promoted to a top level in the company and he still wasn’t supportive. Again, I knew I wanted more out of my life so I continued to put my head down and work hard even when I didn’t have the support or belief of the people who were supposed to be in my corner..

We’d love to hear the story of how you turned a side-hustle into a something much bigger.

My side hustle started with me, falling in love with nutrition products that I tried to avoid from a friend, once I got my hands on them, my life completely changed. I had already built a very successful business as a hairstylist and small business owner at this point, and I was not looking to add anything else to my plate, but it fell into my lap. I used my love for a product in the network of clients and acquaintances that I had made by building a small business to introduce a new brand of products into their life. This is now my main stream of income, it took me nine months to build my side, hustle business up to the top 2% of globally of our sales reps. I have gotten to mentor and train other business builders and teams within our company, and I get to mentor business builders every single day to success.

Contact Info:

• Website: coriwickert.arbonne.com
• Instagram: @coriwickert