Do you have Power?

How do you discover your individual potential to handle a challenging situation? You will never know how much power you actually have within yourself unless you venture out and take on a new task. Having been laid-off, this really hit home for me. You ask yourself: Why me? Was it personal? Did I personally not do something that caused me to be laid-off? The same goes for all of my friends in the struggling retail sector right now. I am sure you are asking yourself all of these questions, especially with the uncertainty of store closings, corporate closings and distribution center closings. It is sad that the brick and mortar teams never learned to work with e-commerce teams and vice versa. My question to my old management team still goes unanswered: Why do most store teams think they are superior to e-commerce teams? Why do vendors treat e-commerce teams differently than the brick and mortar stores? I feel this is what has gotten us into the issues that we have today.

All of this being said, today I find myself in a new e-commerce selling platform and I love it! In my opinion, direct selling is the next challenge to retailers. Why do I think this way? I see more and more companies offering their products through direct selling vs. traditional retail channels. I am going to use Proactiv as an example. Are you aware that the two doctors who created Proactiv were really trying to get their system sold to Neutrogena to put in stores? They worked for several years trying to get their products in stores until one day Allan Kurtzman, CEO of Neutrogena said no one will purchase an acne treatment system in a store; you need to try infomercials. So Dr. Katie Rodan and Dr. Kathy Fields went into direct sales with a company called Guthy-Renker LLC. Not only did they achieve their goal of helping people with acne, but they built a strong business model that until the past few years was only sold via social commerce platforms. Today the products can be found in over 100 countries, at kiosks in malls and found in Ulta locations. What a brillant move the doctors have made. Now they have their namesake of anti-aging products and have grown that business to over $1.0 billion! My point is that the doctors never gave up; they persevered until they found success.

Now my question to you is this: Do you have a plan of what you want to do? What if your proposed plan does not work out? You have no way of knowing success is right around the corner until you round the bend. Imagine if these doctors did had given up on their dream of helping millions of people treat acne. Imagine if they were not willing to listen to others about how to market their product. How many of you would have been without this product? I always joke that the Doctors and I are very close in age and I was never able to benefit from their product. In addition I have the acne scars to show for the lack of advanced treatment during my teenage years.

My challenge to each of you going through tough times right now is to discover the potential within yourself. You do have it within you. You do this by creating new opportunities to develop your special talents. I have to say since being laid-off, I have created a new passion for reading. I love continuing to learn and grow as an individual. By doing this, reading has helped me brand myself and given me the desire to write articles such as these. I have found my new passion is to help others navigate their journey based on my experiences. I truly am learning the art of networking not only for myself, but for others.

I encourage you to single out the one hobby that gives you the most pleasure, and repeat it until you have honed your skills in on that activity. As I previously mentioned, my hobby has been reading business and networking magazines. It has afforded me the opportunity to stay current on new trends happening in the world of business and retail. If you follow this example, I know you will develop new found confidence that will aid your decision making and allow you to exert the appropriate authority in all phases of life.