My Story
Hi I am Colette Gunnell one of the original Co-Founders of Scentsy Inc. and SuperStar Director of the STELLAR STARS FOUNDATION TEAM! I am grateful for your support and for you sharing a love of all our amazingly scented products! Thank you so much!
Here is the story of my incredible Scentsy journey:
The idea for Scentsy was born on July 25th 2003 at a birthday lunch for my mom. Back up…a few years before...I was a stay-at-home mom of 4 small girls. I had always had a love of candles and having my home smell good. But as I started having children I worried about the flame, smoke, soot, and safety of having a burning candle going at home.
I had read that over 20,000 house fires are started each year from burning candles. So I had started experimenting with melting different tarts and votives etc. as an alternative.
I had a neighbor that told me that to scent her home, she would break the glass around a jarred candle and cut up the wax inside and would warm it in her little potpourri crock pot.
At that time I had been using a flat coffee mug warmer to warm my jarred candles and that was the gift I decided to give my mom at the luncheon that day.
When she opened her gift my sisters and sisters-in-law started talking about candles. My sister-in-law Kara was there and (unbeknown to me) had recently seen the Oprah Winfrey show on Millionaire Moms and had been praying for an idea to be able to earn some extra income for growing her family.
At the luncheon I mentioned what my neighbor did to scent her home...and Kara called me that night after the luncheon and asked if I would like to start a company selling wax chunks in warmers?! and of course I said YES!!!
We quickly figured out a business plan and we got a business license and had to come up with a name for our new Wickless Candle company. We had a long list of possible names and were looking at all the forms of the word SCENT...Kara said what about Scentsy?! and we knew immediately that was the perfect name!!!
My good friend helped us design the Authentic Scentsy logo and packaging with the fun Sister Frisky font of Scentsys original logo.
We were so excited! We started searching for the perfect warmer to melt the amazing smelling wax and when we found the warmer heated with a 25 watt lightbulb we immediately fell in love. It was warm enough to melt the wax, but not hot enough to burn you. We married the soft wax of a jarred candle packed with as much scent as it could hold with the beautiful warmers heated with a lightbulb...and Scentsy was officially created!!!
FUN FACT: The first Scentsy bar scent we ever poured was Red Delicious. It smelled like a fresh apple and we poured it in an ice cube tray...but quickly realized we needed to change the shape of them. That was when we found plastic bead organizers and our original Scentsy bars were poured into those bead organizers and banged out then shrink wrapped and labeled individually.
By October of 2003 we set up shop in the unfinished section of my basement with the other half set up as a playroom for our kids. We had all our products ready to go and now we had to figure out how to market a wick-less candle that no one had ever heard of.
I had had experience with party-plan companies by being a consultant for others before and we quickly realized that Scentsy was a product that needed face to face interaction to sell. So we had 8 consultants that were helping us sell them and then we found some booths to rent at some fairs and shows at the Southtowne Expo Center in Sandy Utah. We were excited to start getting the word out to others.
The fate of Scentsy took an inspired twist on March 13th 2004 when we were at our Scentsy booth at the Spring Home & Garden Show in Sandy. I was taking a break really quick to eat some food and found a bench at the end of our row by our booth and sat down on a bench.
Back up a bit earlier…During the show I had my eye on a booth right across from us that was selling hand held 3-in-1 video games that plugged directly into your TV. We were several thousand dollars in debt at this point from starting Scentsy so I was hoping to be able to TRADE a warmer for a game controller at the end of the show.
As I sat on the bench I noticed a young man talking with the girl at the booth of the 3-in-1 games and a few minutes after the spoke to each other he came and sat on the other end of the bench that I was sitting on. That man was Orville Thompson.
We struck up a conversation and I asked about the games and then I asked if he was married and he said yes…I quickly told him he need to take a Scentsy warmer home to his wife and asked if he wanted to trade? He asked me to tell him about Scentsy and of course I quickly explained that SCENTSY WAS THE HOTTEST NEW THING IN CANDLES!!! Little did I know that that moment was going to change my life FOREVER!!!
Orville quickly saw the potential of this new tiny wickless candle company named Scentsy and he took some products home to his sweet wife Heidi and by May 1st 2004 we had written up a contract for the sale of Scentsy and Heidi and Orville came to pick up the products and equipment from our unfinished basement to head for Meridian Idaho and on July 1st 2004 they launched Scentsy as we know and love it today!!!
FUN FACT: The scent Orville took home to Heidi to warm for the first time was Banana Nut Bread.
I still remember as they drove away down my street with our little candle company in tow…tears filled my eyes because I love Scentsy with all my heart and I knew Scentsy was in excellent hands and was going to have a much better life in their care.
I couldn’t be more proud of and grateful for Heidi and Orville Thompson. They have the biggest hearts of anyone I know and they have built and grown Scentsy much bigger than I could have ever dreamed or even imagined. I always knew Scentsy was going to be the HOTTEST NEW THING IN CANDLES…but I had NO IDEA it would reach many other countries, partner with huge companies like Disney and inspire and help hundreds of thousands of consultants reach their goals and dreams like it has.
Fast forward to today...I am a mom of 5 girls with 3 amazing son-in-laws and 3 incredible grandkids. My husband and I (along with my daughters) work Scentsy together full-time and we enjoy every second of it. I'm so grateful I am blessed to work with my best friend and husband every day!!! I pinch myself everyday because I can’t believe my life is real. I am blessed beyond measure and I have met the most inspiring amazing people in the world because of Scentsy.
I am so blessed to still be a Scentsy Consultant and I get to do all the things I have always loved with Scentsy. To this day I am thrilled to lead and train a large and thriving team and I am still extremely involved with Scentsy and absolutely still love to sell products at Fairs/Shows, home parties, online, through fundraisers and any other way I possibly can.
I hope anyone and everyone will one day join my team and start your own Scentsy Business! There are so many amazing opportunities and possibilities of starting your own Scentsy business. I have seen so many dreams come true for me and countless other consultants over the last 18 years and whatever YOUR reasons are could be for joining…I know that a Scentsy Business can help you achieve your dreams and goals too!!!
Being a Scentsy consultant means being part of a family and community with plenty of friendship, fun, and support for each other and success!
Scentsy has wonderful high quality scented products and provides magnificent Business tools, programs and trainings that help their consultants succeed!
Scentsy has truly blessed and changed MY life in so many ways! It has been such a thrill to watch Scentsy grow from a little section down in my un-finished basement to what a wonderful company it is today! I have met life long friends and been tremendously blessed financially.
Our STELLAR STARS FOUNDATION TEAM really is built with STARS like YOU!!! We have so much fun as a team and we love to connect on our Team Facebook page with monthly challenges and by sharing tips and best practices to help build and grow our businesses together!
Now is the perfect time to Join as Scentsy is growing and expanding like crazy! We are currently in the following countries: United States, Puerto Rico, Guam, Canada, Germany, Ireland, The United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Spain, Austria, France, and Mexico. (And sales only to Italy, Poland, and Luxembourg.)
To join now click the JOIN button link below!!!
Email me at: Colette@scentsy.com or Call me at: 801-510-6125 I would love to help answer any of your questions.
