Local company’s convention brings sellers from across the country

Topanga Scents, a luxury detergent brand based in El Dorado, held its first convention for the company’s national distributors that promote and sell its products this weekend.

On Saturday, the convention held a full day of business sessions for distributors, many of whom traveled from all over the country to be in El Dorado for the weekend events. The company conducted the sessions at the El Dorado Conference Center.

Distributors were greeted with music, Topanga Scents gift bags, Spudnuts from the local Spudnut Shoppe, and door prizes from other local businesses.

Celebrating El Dorado and local businesses was a running theme for the event. The name of the convention was “Welcome Home,” as a way to introduce the company’s distributors to the place that Topanga Scents calls home and to aspects of the city that company founders and co-owners Seth and Erin Williams think are special to El Dorado.

Brooke Bonsall, the convention chairperson, helped to open the convention with a warm welcome.

“I would like to welcome you all to the hometown of Topanga Scents: El Dorado, Arkansas,” Bonsall said, garnering a large cheer from the crowd. “Hopefully this convention will provide inspiration, motivation and the necessary training for all of us to grow our businesses.”

Seth Williams was inspired to create Topanga Scents when he smelled the scent of a luxury detergent on someone he encountered in a store back in 2017. After beginning to buy luxury detergents himself, he realized how expensive they were and decided to create a luxury detergent brand of his own that was more affordable.

By 2019, his sister-in-law Erin Williams was on board as a co-owner, and now the company has over 2,000 distributors in Arkansas alone, and 5,000 distributors across the country in 47 different states.

To help inspire and motivate the more than 100 distributors and guests in attendance, El Dorado author Shaneil “PJ” Yarbrough was the featured speaker.

The theme of Yarbrough’s speech was H.O.M.E (Hopeful, Opportunity, Meaning, Empower), a play on the convention’s theme. She shared how the acronym resonated in her own personal life and explained how everyone can utilize the acronym’s message in their own life.

“Welcome to the place where you can remain hopeful, seize every opportunity, find meaning and empower yourself and others,” Yarbrough said. “’Welcome Home.’”

She concluded her address by encouraging all in attendance to take her message, use it and pass it on to someone else.

“Maybe you know someone who could use this message,” Yarbrough said. “Topanga brought you to El Dorado with the intention of you finding ‘H.O.M.E,’ and I hope that when you leave here this weekend you are able to help others find that hope, find opportunities, find their meaning and, last but not least, be empowered and empower others.”

At the conclusion of her presentation, Yarbrough received a standing ovation.

To round out the opening ceremony of Saturday’s event, Seth and Erin Williams came to the stage to welcome everyone and talk business with the distributors.

“We’re so glad everyone’s here and we’re so thankful you’re all in our hometown and a part of our company,” Seth Williams said. “We hope that you take a lot back with you; we have a lot of good information for you all today.”

The convention weekend concludes today with a Hometown Market featuring local vendors and businesses for distributors to purchase products from. For more information on Topanga products and or to be matched with a local distributor, visit topangascents.com

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