Christi's Story continued...



At the time Direct Sales seemed the best marketing strategy, and who better to peddle products than her 100 students who were perfectly coiffed, poised and beautiful. The company quickly grew into 17 states and Canada. However, Christi was frustrated with this one-dimensional way of marketing, and it was also becoming more and more difficult to maintain the quality of her representative's work. To facilitate a more in-depth training program, she opened a 10,000 square foot training center in Dallas in 1983, where her reps could travel and receive updated training. They were then qualified to share the knowledge with their clients. After the initial opening of the training center, an employee suggested Christi open the center to the public on certain days of the week to create more revenue.
She opened it as the Christi Harris Makeover Center. This elaborate facility became a beauty playground for women and teens. Her maiden advertisement, for the then $25.00 makeover lesson placed in the Dallas Morning News, drew more than 450 appointments in its first week. In the following weeks, as the flood of women who wanted Christi's instructional makeovers continued to rise, the retail business insured. Expanding to include a full-service hair salon, spa and optical boutique. Private rooms for consultations from wardrobe to fitness were added and to take service to an even higher level, a beverage and bar area was added for those clients who wanted to linger and further enjoy the Christi Harris experience. With personalized instructional workbooks in tow, women left the center with the confidence and knowledge necessary to recreate their new look at home every day. Harris continually perfected the lessons through the years, encouraging women to take ownership of their own beauty through her makeover and self-improvement centers and her national mail order division.
Her simple conviction that women were frustrated with the skincare status quo simply being told what potions and lotions they needed for their skin type was no longer enough. Christi built her skin treatment on the premise of giving skin what it needs to self-correct and normalize, eliminating varying treatments for oily or dry skin.

Further, with an innate understanding of women's psyche, Christi knew every women wanted to be her own makeup artist, replicating the look professionals were able to achieve to be their most beautiful, not just on special occasions, but every day. It was this niche Christi Harris intended to fill.

Working with women of all ages, young Christi learned most women owned a drawer full of cosmetics, yet utilized only a fraction of them regularly not knowing how to use those products to her best advantage. Thus drawing from the knowledge she gleaned from her modeling and self-improvement school, Christi developed a unique system to teach women how to recreate their beautiful look at home.
<< GO TO CHAPTER 2 GO TO CHAPTER 4 >>