Ryan Saks: Smoothie Sales

In high school, Ryan Saks was one of the top wrestlers in his home state of Ohio. But he didn't limit his competiveness to the mat.

When it came time to raise money for the wrestling program, he raised $5,000 while most of his teammates mustered $500.

His approach: "We didn't wait for people to come to us—we'd approach them on the sidewalk, or wherever we were, and told them the story behind the team and how we were looking for community support."

In July, Ryan, a 22-year-old who has enjoyed Platinum-level success as an IBO, took the same straightforward path in running an XS Smoothie Sales booth at a two-day athletic event in Akron, Ohio.

"We'd approach the people and we would give each person an option of being a customer or a contact to be a customer later on," Ryan said. "We just went after it."

The result was $2,300 in gross sales, with a profit of roughly $1,500 that reveals Ryan and his team as an up-and-coming marketing force.

Ryan, who works directly with Scott Michaels, a Double Diamond on the Yager Team, comes from solid entrepreneurial stock. His grandfather, Ray, owned 27 Arby's restaurants and his father Robert, an Emerald IBO, oversaw restaurant operations.

For any IBO who has had success in another arena, Smoothie Sales success is simply a matter of transferring the same principles to this new endeavor. Ryan channels athletic success into the business realm.

"With wrestling, I learned to be relentless in the pursuit of what I wanted," Ryan recalled. "I would stay after practice two hours longer than others. I knew from a young age to do whatever people weren't willing to do so I could have the results others aren't going to have."

Vishaal said Ryan and his team were swift in implementing the tips he passed along, as well as in purchasing items from the XS Gear site to help create a professional presence at the event. Among the key items purchased from the site: cups, tablecloths, banners and a tent.

Though Smoothie Sales Events typically require a staffing of only two to four people, Ryan rotated upwards of 20 IBOs, with 10 at any given time, to provide a training experience and to build team camaraderie.

"Ryan is such a meticulous person, just like myself, and he made sure everything was run to a `T,'" Vishaal said. ""I'm very impressed with Ryan abilities and commitment to his team and cause. When I walked into the event, it looked like I was just at home," Vishaal recalled. "Anybody can go out there and do this. It's so duplicatable."

The event, Vishaal added, was "one of the better-run, most developed and youngest and most energized event sales I've seen."

Ryan said he benefited significantly from the guidance that he received from Vishaal in the weeks leading up to the event, an athletic festival in Akron, Ohio. He has dubbed Vishaal "the Roger Bannister of the XS Smoothies," a reference to the first man to break the 4-minute barrier in the one-mile race.

"I felt capable of doing it—I'm so used to copying off people," Ryan laughed. "Vishaal is an amazing mentor in terms of making sure I got everything prepared."

Looking to the future, Ryan is confident that "if everyone puts in the work and goes after it, it'll tip" and Smoothie Sales will proliferate throughout all of XS Nation.

Over the last year, said Vishaal, Smoothie Event Sales have gone from a hypothetical model to a tried-and-true system that is in place and generating major profitability.

"This is so easy and relatable to Generation Y," Ryan said. "And while you're training your IBOs and building a team and sense of community, you make profit along the way and create an environment for them to grow."

So what’s your Retail Sales story? Got one…please send it to us at success@xsgear.com