Blogging in Direct Sales

TGIF!  Can you believe that another week has gone by?  What did YOU accomplish in your business this week? CELEBRATE without qualifiers.

I am celebrating that I have blogged for 804 days and I am awesome at sharing my strengths, hopes and experiences.

Thank you Eryka Peskin for showing me how to celebrate my successes! So, many people ask me “why should I blog”, “what will I say”, and the best one “will people read it”.  My answers are always the same..

When Vanessa Coppes challenged me, I asked the same questions.  For those that know the story, I did it as a challenge that had an accountability factor to it.  My original why was to clear my head of “stuff”.  I tell new recruits to just keep asking me questions because I don’t know all of the stuff that is in my head. Sometimes I amaze myself.

As I look back on my blogs, there is a lot of negativity associated with sharing personal struggles and business tips.  A new Thirty One year and a NEW attitude.  The changes actually started after our Leadership Retreat combine lessons learned there with several counseling sessions with a therapist/life coach and some kick butt coaching with Britt Bolnick, and Eryka Peskin for a new emerging style.  I am still sharing my strengths, hopes and experiences but it feels different.

Okay, I squirreled for just a moment.  The truth is the best way to blog is to blog about something you know.  For those in direct sales, there’s nothing better to write about then sharing your amazing products and their uses.  Share what you learned at National Conference or at a training session or tools that work in your business. You are not selling, you are sharing your knowledge. Some of my learning lessons may seem like no-brainers but I am a slow learner. I always say that is because I am OLD, you know creeping towards that Senior Citizen classification.

Will people read it? YES! I am amazed and humbled by the people who follow my blog.  The biggest smile comes when I get a new Twitter follower.  Why? Because the only things that I tweet about are my blog and some of my posts on Facebook.  So, for me, the excitement of sharing my blog with more people means sharing my business with more people.  You may not become a professional blogger. You may not have thousands of readers. What you may have are friends, family, employees, team members or followers who not only read what you write but will share it.  They are sharing your business which is potential customers, hostesses and team members.

Do I look at my blog dashboard to actually see how many people open my blog? NO!  It is the old adage “what I don’t know won’t hurt me”.  I measure my success by the personal emails and the comments that are shared about how lives or businesses are transformed –   these are the things that touch my heart.

Direct selling is all about building relationships. I am building relationships every day through my blog.  Some I already know while others are learning who I am. When all is said and done, if I have helped one person to smile or get through a day – my job is done.

What do you have to share? Remember it takes 21-days for something to become a habit – so try it everyday for 30 days. Then, if you want, do it weekly. Try it. Don’t let fear stop you from building relationships or sharing your knowledge. Believe me you probably have more to share then you think – I know that I do.

Have a ThirtyOne-derful day

Is Your Spouse on Board

This is a re-blog of Becky Spieth’s website post on this AMAZING training.  No, I haven’t taken it yet BUT I can tell you that at a recent leadership retreat, Becky Spieth changed my life.  She not only opened the door to things I didn’t understand about my business but she also helped me with my marriage.

When it comes to your direct sales business, your partner is mostly concerned about ONE thing… MONEY!

Your spouse wants to see the money coming in. After all, it IS a business. It should be making money, right?  My hubby is always asking me what the “bottom line” is.

You want to see the money too. But you also want to have fun with the business. You want to build friendships, give prizes, and buy cute gift bags. WOW!  That sounds like me, what about you?

Your spouse sees you spending profits and you see them as uninvolved or unsupportive. This disconnect in your relationship is harmful to you, your partnership, and your business.

Some of the biggest questions I have been repeatedly asked are:

• How do I get my spouse excited and involved in building this business for our family?
• How do we build a vision and our goals together?
• How do we create a family plan?
• What are the best ways to make my spouse feel valued, appreciated, and needed in my business?
• What areas of my business are best suited for my spouse?
• If you want to feel like you and your spouse are a team and are ready to skyrocket your business to a new level of success through the support, love, and encouragement of your relationship then this training is a MUST for you!

Join John and Becky Spieth on

Sunday May 17th at 7:00 PM

to learn the answers to ALL of these questions.

If you want to feel like you and your partner are a team and are ready to skyrocket your business to a new level of success through the support, love, and encouragement of your marriage then this training is a MUST for you!

We will cover the 7 Must-Know Ingredients to a healthy marriage/business partnership which includes:

Showing You’re Serious – Without Being Pushy
Investing Your Attention in Order to Get Some SERIOUS Interest
How to Ignite a Fire….Visually
The Art of Crafting Your Desires
Getting the Ultimate Relationship Trophy….Validation
The Balancing Act: Getting the most out of life, love, and money
How to Keep the Blaze Burning on the Road to Success
BONUS:As a bonus you’ll receive a 2nd Training FREE which includes a Q&A for your spouse.

PLUS: Exact scripts for….Getting Your Spouse on the follow up call. We will be answering your spouse’s biggest questions about being involved in the business.

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

Who is joining me on this call?  I LOVE my hubby and I know that in his own way he supports my business.  BUT (I hate that word, LOL) I want to learn how to find some harmony in my life.

Have a ThirtyOne-derful day!

Unlocking the Mystery

How many of you have heard about the DISC personality test?  How many of you have ever taken it?  I took it once but the results didn’t make sense to me.  I seemed to have a little bit of all of them in me depending on the situation – home, work, business, family, or friends.

I am grateful that Becky Spieth during our Leadership Retreat walked us through this process.  It was such an eye opener for me.  I totally got why I wasn’t connecting with some of my team.  I now understand my test results and am grateful to now know how to work with my team (and my family) by figuring out their behavior style.

For those that aren’t familiar with DiSC. It is a personal assessment tool used to improve work productivity, teamwork and communication. DiSC is non-judgmental and helps people discuss their behavioral differences.  

It definitely helped me.  I can even see how it can help in my marriage since I am an “S” and it is pretty safe to say that hubby is a “C”.

A quick overview is:

• D is usually the leader and go getter.  The person to get it done.  Their traits are dominant, direct, decisive and demanding
• I is the talker, the cheerleader and the socializer. Their traits are usually influencing, inspiring and they are generally interested in people.
• S is the steady, stable, secure and sympathetic person.  They are the steady Eddy, the Peacemaker & family focused.
• C is the thinker and fact finder that loves graphs with data to get it right.  They are usually conscientious, compliant and correct.

Well, I am an “S” along with 69% of the rest of the world.  Here are some more traits of an “S”:

• Supportive
• Sentimental
• Bridge Builder
• Peacemaker
• Great Listener
• Family Focused
• Thinker
• Feelings
• Loyal

I found out that I have a strong “D” on my team.  As a result of this test, I was able to talk with her about how I felt and realized that I had misinterpreted many situations.  Now when the emotions kick up, I remind myself of this test.  A HUGE help when dealing with the Negative Nellie in me.  When I look at the rest of my team, I THINK I have attracted many of the same type of people.  I am blessed to have each and every one of them.  According the studies on “S” personalities, they develop into amazing leaders who will be consistent, and dependable.

I challenge you to take the test and see what is your behavior.  Let us know if you think it fits you and the things that you do everyday.

Have a ThirtyOne-derful day!

 

Courage

Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.” Joshua 1:9 (NIV)

Just when I think I can’t hear God.  Just when I think I don’t know what God wants me to do, he whispers in my ear.  It means stepping out of my comfort zone.  It means sharing things with others that have been buried deep inside.  It means trusting without fear that God has this.

But when I thought about today’s blog, this “crazy” thought popped up and I needed to share.

We ended our Leadership Retreat last weekend with what some might say was a true “come to Jesus” moment.  Okay, so it may have been 2 hours but it felt like only moments.  As Becky Spieth shared her story with us, tears flowed from everyone in the room. Not because of her story but how her story touched each of us that day.  We may not have walked the same path.  We may not have had the exact same experiences BUT we all needed to hear her words.

As she played Amazing Grace to settle our hearts. I cried like a baby.  God was asking me to open my heart.  He was reaching out to me.  It was the first time in a VERY long time, that I  was not worried about what others thought.  These were my Thirty One sisters. God has a plan for us – we are going to move mountains with “this purse thing”.

At the end, Becky invited each of us to come up (if we wanted) for individual prayer.  In the background was a song that I hadn’t heard in a long time – At the Foot of the Cross.  It was at this moment that I realized that on the outside I was doing all of the “right things” while on the inside I still harbored doubts and fears.  I still believed that my past filled with sin kept me from God’s grace.  I still believed that God really didn’t speak to me.  I still believed that I didn’t deserve love – unconditional love from anyone including my hubby.  I was standing in line for prayer to support someone else – not for me.  It was then that the roles were reversed and God truly touched my heart.  I felt a warmth that can’t be described.  As we left, I felt renewed and ready to hold fast to God’s love.  I realized that I had been “emotionally divorcing” from my life in an effort to “look good”.  This was the only way for me to not “appear” to be a chronic whiner or complainer – a Negative Nellie or Doubtful Debbie.

Only a few days after being home, I let the routine of life fill me with old feelings.  I struggled to find the courage to believe that my business was going to be successful. I struggled not to “emotionally divorce” my life.  I struggled to tap into God’s word.  Then I was doing my devotions when I realized that I haven’t really been doing devotions.  Yes, I read God’s word but it was that quick read in the morning via an email on daily devotions.  I wasn’t praying about it nor was I asking God what he wanted me to get from the reading.  I wasn’t actually reading the Bible and having a relationship with God.  As I read my Leadership Bible, I realized that I needed to return to having conversations with God.  Believe it or not, hubby has a better relationship with God than I do.  No, he doesn’t go to church BUT he talks to him each day.  Okay, so he might get mad about things but he actually asks God for guidance. I feel like my conversations have returned to those old “foxhole” prayers from my days of addiction.

I ask that you listen to the words of Amazing Grace and At the Foot of the Cross. Let them touch your heart as God begins to work in your life.  I pray that this blog has touched someone’s heart. I pray for healing, for comfort and for grace each of you reading this today.

Have a ThirtyOne-derful day!

 

 

Change for You or Others

Today is the last day of our Beacon of Hope Leadership Retreat.  It will be nice to head home and snuggle with hubby.  As far as my business, watch out!  I am energized, motivated and ready to ROCK like a STAR again.  Words can’t express the magnitude of this past weekend Spent with AMAZING Thirty One sisters, and learning from the AWESOME Becky Spieth and Hope Shortt.  My Goals are in place.  I am focused on my emotional why.  I am ready to DREAM BIG and the sky is the limit.

To reinforce the positive energy, God sent me a message through Tiny Buddha:

“One of the most freeing things we learn in life is that we don’t have to like everyone, everyone doesn’t have to like us, and it’s perfectly OK.” ~Unknown

“Some people come in our life as blessings. Some come in your life as lessons.” – Mother Theresa

After being in a room filled with over 50 leaders in various stages of their business, I entered looking for validation and acceptance; feeling less than, insecure and wondering if I belonged.  Funny thing is that the only one that really doesn’t accept me is me.  I won’t say that everyone likes me and that is a hard pill for me for me swallow?  See I am a people pleaser from way back.  I want people to like me.  Not always a great trait as a Social Worker or a boss.  I struggle with conflict especially if I know that the end result will be a person who doesn’t like me.

This weekend was another SMACK in an effort to teach me this lesson.  I know that when I finally learn it, the blessings will flow.  You are wondering how I know that?  I know it because I keep repeating the same lesson over and over again.  Sort of like repeating the same grade in school – keep doing it until you get it right?  It is like when I used to practice the piano, practice and practice getting it right until the very end.  Then PLINK!  A wrong note and I had to repeat it again and again.  I figure God is trying different ways to teach me this lesson, short of hitting me with a 2 x 4 board.

I have a few soul connections – you know people that are always there for me, who love me, support me in tough times, and bring me back on track.  I have been reflecting on the reasons why they like me.  Not easy since some days I don’t like me.  It is forcing me to see myself through the eyes of people who truly like me and accept me wholeheartedly. I am desperate to be that person.

As of TODAY – I am DONE with feeling bad about myself because of what others say.  I am DONE with taking on other’s insecurities in an effort to fix a struggling relationship.   I no longer want to compare myself to others while seeking their approval.  The truth is, there are some people who will never approve of me or what I do. It is okay.  Isn’t that why we have 31 flavors (or more) of ice cream?

Of course, we want people to like us, but it’s not healthy to dwell on it if they don’t. I love this:

I learned from this bitter experience that you cannot force anyone to like you, but you can like yourself for who you are. How others will perceive you is none of your business. As long as you are happy and satisfied with yourself, you are good to go.

As Marcus Aurelius correctly said, “The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts.”

I am changing my thoughts and my actions.  I am starting to do things that make me happy and I am noticing a ripple effect. I am not quite that same old person, laughing, giggling, and enjoying life to the fullest but each day I get a little closer.

Is today the day that you stop focusing on others and start focusing on yourself?

Have a ThirtyOne-derful day!