Empowering women
Kim Abelar worked hard to be where she is today, and helps empower women through her all-women marketing group.
“All women in IFern MiniLadies have gone through something unimaginable to face in life. Yet, here they are, all financially stable, mentally healthy and billionaire in the making.”
CALL her “Rissiel” and she can easily identify you as a grade school classmate. However, once you say “Kim,” christened on her since she is said to be a dead ringer for former actress Kim de los Santos, Abelar will count you as somebody who knows her from high school.
Her initials RBA also stand for Revolutionary Business Advantage, something that was coined for the corporate branding of IFern, a multi-level marketing company known for health and wellness products. Abelar loves it when her office staff refers to her as RBA.
In May this year, Abelar was inspired to create a group of women inside IFern. She gathered a group of women to empower them and started IFern Mini-Ladies.
“The group is for them to be able to share that power with other women who lack motivation and opportunities,” Abelar said. “Even before they joined IFern, they were already using the products, which made them thrive.”
Their main hub is in Ortigas, Pasig City. “We’re planning to expand since we have a lot of distributors nationwide and the brand is growing globally,” she said.
All kinds and types of women are welcome to join IFern Mini-Ladies and talk about business. “We make sure that it’s a safe space for all their personal stories, too,” Abelar said. “We have a quarterly event to cater to more women in all parts of the country. We invite speakers who share helpful and inspiring tips to become a businesswoman who advocates or stands for something.”
Abelar never thought she would also get into network marketing even after she met her partner, IFern Chief Executive Officer Tommanny Tan. They have been together for a decade now.
“I thought I wasn’t cut out for network marketing,” Abelar said. “But then I realized, these people are actually the ones you can easily connect with and be inspired with in so many ways.”
“I learn from these women in as much as they also learn from me. The only challenge we could be facing now is how we reach out to women who are still afraid to find their success because of lack of resources and opportunities,” she said.
In Abelar’s recent trip to Baguio, where she brought 32 IFern ladies to bond with them, she gave them a lunch treat at The Barn, where she ordered glorious Tomahawk steaks and was given a stratospheric, six-figure food bill.
“I initially thought I told them the wrong thing, but it was my way of getting to know the new members of the IFern Mini Ladies,” Abelar explained. “Since I am their boss, I want to bond with them. I should know each and everyone, so I know how to deal and communicate with them.”
The ladies come from different places with individual backgrounds. “So, I want to know their personality and background. I want to
know how to interact with them. We became like family when we went to Baguio. We stayed in a four-bedroom house,” Abelar said.
The Mini-Ladies
IFern Mini-Ladies has been around for less than a year, but many members already got their Mini Cooper cars (attached to their name, Mini-Ladies) after becoming a top seller in such a short time in their respective tier.
“After hitting sales of P150,000, you will get your reward of P50,000 which you can use as a down payment for your Mini Cooper,” Abelar explained. “After that, you will get incentive points or luxury points which you can use for amortization for your Mini Cooper.”
Today, the ladies are earning a monthly average of P300,000 actively selling IFern products. Their top seller for the month delivers P4 million worth of sales. There are more than 30 ladies who proudly drive a Mini Cooper to date.
This pandemic, IFern is also the top buyer of Mercedes-Benz cars. “We bought 31 units,” Abelar beamed. “Owner of Autohub Group, Mr. Willy Tee Ten, who also sells Rolls Royce and other British luxury cars, approached us to help him sell his Mini Cooper that already piled up. That was how the IFern Mini-Ladies started.”
With no reason to brag, IFern ranks as “one of the top-selling and best-selling vitamin supplements that helped Covid patients not to experience severe symptoms,” Abelar said.
“With a lot of businesses closing and the economy declining, we took the opportunity to help more Filipinos build and make their IFern business prosper. Remote work setup was the only solution most of us could depend on. Yet, we still managed to stay on top.”
IFern Mini-Ladies is fortunate to carry a strong brand. “A lot of women want to change about how their clients want to see them,” Abelar said. “The impact of women empowering other women, to have a voice and be listened to, that’s something I really think made or makes them want to join IFern Mini-Ladies.”
Tried other businesses
Through the years, Abelar has tried a lot of businesses. Some thrived while some didn’t. She presently owns Qubiertos Restaurant in Quezon City and RBA Restaurant in Rizal. “I spend most of my time focusing on marketing efforts for both and for IFern, too,” she said.
“Brainstorming with the ladies and other IFern employees take up a lot of time, too. I help them build more connections to strengthen their PR and communication skills.”
Abelar has two children from her previous relationship. Even if she has been with another guy for the past decade, she refuses to have more kids. “I don’t want to ruin my relationship with my children,” Abelar reasoned out. “If I have other children, I might lose my attention to my two kids.”
Her eldest daughter, Nicole, is now 21 and is a champion golfer. Her son, JV, is turning 13 soon. Both of them are in good terms with her present partner.
“When I met Tomm, he already has four children including twins,” Abelar said. “He is not my husband, but fate brought us together. I keep on telling that fact to people. That we are a blended family.”
Tan, however, is not just her partner, but also her boss and mentor. “Every time I will do anything, I need to consult him,” Abelar said. “He has been in this business long enough, while I am just starting.”
Abelar was a third year undergraduate in Hotel Restaurant and Institution Management at the College of St. Benilde. She was only 19 years old when she conceived her daughter, compelling her to give up her studies.
Erstwhile sexy star Hazel Espinosa, who had her showbiz career along with the likes of Aubrey Miles, Ynez Veneracion and Aya Medel, is Abelar’s older half-sister. She has three older brothers with her mom’s first marriage. She is the youngest in a brood of five.
“My sister is the daughter of an American with my mom,” Abelar said. “Hazel is very pretty. She was a sexy star who didn’t resort to any surgery. Her beauty is real. She was in the teleserye of Judy Ann Santos and Piolo Pascual, ‘Sa Puso Ko Iingatan Ka,’ where she played the mother of Judy Ann.”
Abelar did get to obtain her culinary degree from the Center for Asian Culinary Studies in 2015, after which she put up her two restaurants.
She believes there is really no limit to what women can accomplish and there are no struggles one cannot overcome. She is living proof of that. “I was not born into a wealthy family,” Abelar admitted. “I worked hard and grabbed every opportunity I could to build my own version of success.
“All women in IFern Mini-Ladies have gone through something unimaginable to face in life. Yet, here they are, all financially stable, mentally healthy and billionaire in the making.”