New post on weight loss

I have a new post on my weight loss page.

I will most likely return later today to blog about network marketing 🙂

Gotta go mow and take the kiddos to the pool.

New fragrance and free drawing

July has a hot, new fragrance……
Asian Plum-This exotic aroma is tangy and spicy and makes a perfect summer fragrance to enjoy in the house or on the deck.

Enter now for your chance to win a fabulous 16oz. jar candle, and an all-natural soap alternative.  Drawings are held weekly, enter as often as you like!

How do you make it work?

By working. That’s it. That’s how I’m going to get back into shape…by working out. It’s how I’m going to build my business. By working.
At 8am I woke up, and prepared for crossfit. Got the kids ready, and off we went. You can read more about this on the weight loss page of my blog.
After arriving home, and getting the kids settled, I made calls to my leads. Only got one on the phone, she was super nice and great to talk to. Received an email back from a lead I had left a message with. Two out of four isn’t too bad in my book. I mailed out five information packets and will follow up with those in about a week.
After about 1-1 1/2 hrs on business, the kiddos and I went out to play. We went to Boondocks and they had a blast. We returned home around 6:30, had dinner and now it’s about bedtime.
All in all, I feel today was a success. I woke up early, worked out, worked on my business, and played with my family. It doesn’t get much better than that.

Education for a lifestyle

Last month, my upline, Jackie Ulmer posted on her blog a great article titled ‘What is Wrong with Network Marketing?

This led to two great emails from the Director of my particular team (the Free to Relax team), and an up-and-coming leader also in my team. Jakie’s post is great, and if you have a moment, please read it, and come back to see what Kathy and Jordan had to say.

Kathy:

And I’ll add to this — my parents (and I) chose the College Degree route for me and after 4.5 years + summers (and changing majors 3 times) I graduated from Texas Tech University. I went on to use my degree for 3 years full-time, then 1/2 year part time before the birth of our first child. (side note — my income from my choice of major never quite matched the cost of my education.)

At that time (when our first daughter was born), I KNEW I wanted and WOULD be home with her (there were no other options in my mind from the moment she was laid in my arms) ….. she was and now her brother and sister ARE OUR WHOLE WORLD. Everything we do and every choice we make is based on, “what is best for Jordan, Clayton and Paige?”

Jordan will turn 21 this August and is working this business (but more importantly, Network Marketing) as her career. With all our heart, we support her in her ‘education’, in her ‘business’ — as we KNOW the value it has in her future. We also support her with the needed investment. The monthly expenses are an investment in her education, in her career, in her future and I THANK this industry and Scent-Sations for providing the income for us to willingly provide that …. with confidence and without hesitation that we have made a great choice.

Everything worth having comes with a price to pay.

Do your research, decide what it is you want, then go after it. MAKE it happen! And never forget —- we all pay a price. Education is ALWAYS worth the cost. Network Marketing is an education, if applied right and MORE THAN well worth the price you will pay!

Jordan:

Gotta add my two cents =)

After high school, not going to college was really never an “option” for me — at least not in my eyes (especially from the school I graduated from, which had us taking classes preparing us for college as early as our sophomore year!). So immediately following graduation I enrolled here at Texas Tech with a major in marketing and the plan to be earning enough with my business (network marketing) by the time I graduated so that I would never have the need for a REAL job.

That plan lasted for about a year — until I realized that my time (in my opinion, and that of my parents) would be much better spent working my business and furthering my NETWORK MARKETING education rather than an education that cost thousands of dollars that I “planned” to never take advantage of anyway.

I am so grateful for the opportunity to take the first few years of my business career and treat it like “college” — when I first made this decision I was hesitant to tell anyone that I had opted out of the traditional form of education in order to pursue my “internet business”, but now I say it with pride and enthusiasm because I truly believe I have the best of both worlds.

I would say that 99% of my friends (including my boyfriend) are in college — a few graduated this past May, some are now seniors and others are just about to be Juniors (where I would be had I decided to stay in school). One of my best girlfriends called me the other night after a long week of job hunting in the Dallas area (she just graduated) and said to me “You are SO lucky — you have everything set! You get to be your own boss and work around your own schedule. You get to live where you want and work where you want — I am so jealous!” That made me smile, because I realized she was right. I AM lucky. By the time the friends I graduated from high school with graduate from college I will be making more annually than almost all (if not all) of them — while they are job hunting for entry level positions, I will experiencing the freedom that comes from Network Marketing! This industry is incredible, and I couldn’t have chosen anything better!

It takes……

Network Marketing

It takes some Time

It takes some Money

It takes some Faith

It takes some Dreams

and it takes some GOALS

It takes some TIME

Do you have time? Yep. We all have the same 24 hours in a day. People often think that they ‘don’t have enough time’ for a business from home. In between getting to work in the morning, making sure the kids are fed and off to school, soccer practice, dance rehearsal, dinner, homework, dishes, laundry, the list goes on and on. We have responsibilities. We also have extra time, time that slips by, without using it to it’s full potential. Multitasking-where it can work for you, and where it doesn’t. Do you go to work each day? How do you get there? Do you drive? How long does it take you? Can you listen to a self-development cd/tape on the way there? Chances are, you have some sort of audio system in your vehicle, and it’s much safer than being on your cell phone. There’s probably 15-45 minutes of time you just picked up. While you’re at work, during your breaks, can you call your leads/prospects? Most likely you’ll just be leaving voice mails anyway since they are probably working also. Maybe not all of your breaks, but at least one. There’s another 15 minutes of time that you’ve gained. On the way home, listen to your audios again. While at the kids games/rehearsals/practices…can you bring along an mp3 player and listen while watching? You will absorb what is being listened to, without even realizing it. Or if it’s an event that doesn’t require you to be right there watching, you can make calls to your leads/prospects. Time is what we make of it. It’s up to us to use it to it’s full potential, and make the most of it. You can never get it back.

It takes some MONEY

People are often told when they arrive at a Network Marketing company they are looking at that they don’t have to make an investment, or at the very least just a small investment to get started. Ok, that may be true, and they may get along just fine selling product, making money and working their business that way. Eventually though, they will probably see the bigger picture of Network Marketing, beyond the quick paycheck of retail sales, and to the bigger paycheck that having a team can bring. This is where money comes into play. College educations aren’t free. Last time I checked (about two minutes ago), tuition at a private 4-year college is over $23,000 per year, and a public 4-year college is $6,185 per year (source). Wow! An education in Network Marketing and self-development isn’t free, either. There are tons of very useful websites, blogs and books that offer a wealth of information. Some are free, some are not. If you are going to take being a Professional Network Marketer seriously, you’re going to have to spend some money. Develop yourself. You should be striving to know more, grow more, and be more..unless of course, you are already exactly where you want to be. In which case, you’ve arrived, and good for you! Now let’s get back to those of us who have not arrived.

The old adage still holds true-It takes money to make money. Do you have money? Probably. Most people have some sort of income. Of course, how much we have varies greatly, and the basic way to get more is to earn it. Whether you go to work for someone else that tells you when you have to be at work, what days you get off, and that you can’t go home to care for your sick child, or you go to work for yourself….that is your decision. Are you looking at a Network Marketing company, and thinking you don’t have enough money to start? That usually is not the problem. The money is there, you just need to find it.

How much do you pay for your cell phone? How much do you pay for your cable t.v.? How much do you spend eating out, or going to the movies? What if you took $20 from each of those, and put it into your business? That’s $80 of available income you could put to your business in books, audio cd’s, etc. Is it worth it to you? Is having a life you DREAM of worth it?

It takes some FAITH

It might be God, Buddah, a higher power, or anything else that you want to call it. It might just be the faith you have in the company, and people you represent. Whatever it is, you have to have FAITH. If you don’t believe in your company, it’s values, it’s structure, it’s products, you’re in the wrong company. If you don’t believe in the people around you, it’s probably not going to work for you. If you don’t believe in yourself, LEARN to do so. You won’t get very far if you have no faith in yourself. It will only be a matter of time before objections, stinkin’ thinkin’ from your family/friends/loved ones, or just a couple bad days get you down, and you quit.

Faith in yourself will get you through it when no one else believes you can do it. Faith in your company allows you to feel secure that they are doing the right thing for you and all of the other representatives they have. Faith in your products allows you to present them to people knowing that they are of quality and value. Faith in your team allows you to ask for help when you need it, and knowing that someone will be there to support you when you have a bad day…week….or even a month.

You’ve got to have a little faith.

It takes some DREAMS

Dreaming allows you to envision where you want to be. Dreaming allows your heart to believe when no one else does. Dreaming awakens emotions in you that can be harnessed to propel you forward.

Everyone has dreams. Whether they believe it will ever ‘happen to them’ or it’s ‘nothing more than a dream’ largely depends on where they are at in their personal development. Dreams really do come true….unfortunately most of us don’t wake up from a dream and have it become reality overnight. We have to work to make those dreams come true, we have to learn, and we have to have a way to make them come true. Enter GOALS.

It takes some GOALS

I never understood the importance of goals, or goal-setting.

I grew up in a typical blue-collar household. My dad worked until my youngest brother was in school, then my mom went to work also. She had her own cleaning business, so she could somewhat control her schedule, however she worked really, REALLY hard, and still does to this day, as a matter of fact. My dad went back to school while I was growing up, to get a degree to become a teacher. He graduated, but never went on to get his teaching certificate. He never lived that dream, despite having worked so hard for his education…not to mention the money he paid. I had never heard of goal-setting until I was an adult…probably half way through my 20’s.

Did your parents teach you about goals? Did your schools teach you about goals? Probably not. If you got this valuable lesson early on in your life, I think you are lucky. It seems much easier to grow up in an environment where you learn that goals serve a great purpose in our lives, than to try to figure out how to believe that as a stubborn adult.

Brian Tracy brings the importance of goals to light in his book ‘Goals’. (I know…what else would it be called, right?) He tells a story about the students in a 1979 Harvard MBA program. That year, the students were asked “Have you set clear, written goals for your future and made plans to accomplish them?” Only 3% of had written goals and plans; 13% had goals, but had not written them down; and the rest….84% had no specific goals at all.

Ten years later, the members of that class were interviewed again. The findings were astonishing. The 13% of the class that had goals (not written down) were earning, on average, twice as much as the 84% who had no specific goals at all. Ok, so maybe not totally surprising, right? How about the 3% that had clear, written goals, and a plan to accomplish them? They were earning, on average, 10 times as much as the other 97% put together. 13% were earning twice as much as 84%, and 3% were earning 10 times as much as the 13% and 84% PUT TOGETHER!

That was a wake-up call for me. I had been told time and time again to write down my goals. But I never ‘got it’. I never understood why, I never understood how. I was told it was important, but no why. I need a WHY! Now I have it, and now I have goals. I will teach my children how to have, and achieve goals.

Where do you want to be? The 84%? The 13%? Or the 3%? I’m going to be in the 3%. My goals are written, and I am working on a clear, concise plan of action.

Leaders and top-level executives work to get where they are. It is not handed to them. They work, and they learn, and they build. They work on what they know, they learn what they don’t know, they work on learning what they don’t know, and they build on that. Work, Learn, Build, Achieve.

It takes…..

Success does not come overnight, but people often get into Network Marketing thinking that they are going to be at the top with little or no work, without spending any money, and without learning anything. It would be nice if that were true, but it’s just not. If that is what you are expecting upon joining a Network Marketing company, you probably should quit looking. You are going to be disappointed. If you are already in Network Marketing, and scratching your head wondering why you aren’t getting anywhere, it takes some time, money, faith, dreams, and goals. Do you have those?

I’m not a Network Marketing master, in fact, I’m not even a leader, but I am working. I am using my time more effectively. I am investing money into my education and self-development. I have faith-in myself, my team, and my company. I have dreams, big dreams. And I now have goals, so I can reach those dreams. I want to be able to look back at where I started, and have great memories of how I got to where I am going.