Reflections of a Princess

This morning I woke up early, the room is quiet and I realized after my morning Jesus meeting?that I had not really taken the time to reflect on the way things have been going for me lately.??

As I sat there sipping my coffee and enjoying the quiet, I think back to 4 years ago when I took the leap of faith I was lead to start my own business as a Mary Kay consultant. I booked my debut party and invited 6 people to come and try the products with me for free. Not one person showed up, my daughter, who at the time was my recruiter, tried her best to comfort and encourage me to the best of her ability. I said okay I am not giving up. So we decided to go introduce myself to the neighborhood. We walked up to each and every door, knocked and nervously introduced myself as their new Mary Kay consultant and let them know I was having a little get together and they were welcome to come and try the products with me. I just needed their opinion on what they thought, I was not worried about making any money at the time, just practicing my lines so to speak and how to teach them to use each product. To no avail each person declined graciously and I handed them a book and told them if they changed their mind my information was on the back of the book.

Let's fast forward a few months, I was sharing and telling everyone that I was a consultant and creatively handed them my business card and a book. Basically, not realizing I was just begging at that point for them to buy, buy, buy from me. Not even offering them any value or letting them know what they were going to try. I was so desperate for this to work I did not know that I was actually driving them further away from doing business with me in any way, shape, form or fashion.

I went to all the Unit meetings, talked with my director every single day almost, telling her this was not working for me. I was no good at this and just wanted to give up, so I started using what we call Lead boxes, I would go into a business such as a nail salon or ice cream shop, hair salon and ask them if I could leave this box for people to put their information in and I would be back in a 1 week to empty the box of names. I was getting a bit frustrated that each week as I went back to empty the boxes I was not finding even one name in there. Empty, yes it was empty, nothing and no one was willing to even give their information. Ugh, was my reaction each time I would go check another box. I was so excited when one day I go and check a box and there was one name in there. ONE. So I called the lady with excitement and she agreed to come and try the products with me. I made a sale and was so excited over this, I called my director immediately and told her I had made my first sale. Now keep in mind this was like a month into this, waiting for it all to just fall into my lap. If you have ever done direct sales you know that you just can not do this. It is hard work and you must WORK at it to make it work for you.

This went on for a bit and I was doing good, I was making some sales and sharing the opportunity to do what I was doing. Though I was signing people under me to do this, I was not a very good recruiter as I was telling them to do the same thing I was doing. My mindset at that point was if it did not work for me how was I to convince someone else that it would work for them. I was basically lying to them in my mind but would not tell them that. Little did I know that eventually my team would fall apart and I would be back to square one again.

Fast forward again 3 years, I was making a few sales and telling a few people what I was doing but I was not happy. I was invited to a party of another direct seller who sold jewelry and she was making so many sales, I was intrigued and decided this sounded so much better than what I was doing and I did not have to go anywhere. Just use Facebook Live and bam I was in business. I quit selling Mary Kay for about a year, now I was at a standstill in this business as well. This product was not consumable at all, jewelry boxes get full and you have to find new people to buy all over again.

Scrolling through my emails one day, I see this email telling me this is the last month I will be a Mary Kay consultant or I had to sign a new agreement and start all over. START OVER??? No way was I going to do that. I sat and thought about it, I decided if I can get just 2 people to place an order that I would quit the jewelry business and go back to Mary Kay. So I looked at some things my director had going on, mind you I never stopped checking in on what they had going on in the unit. She has given everyone a really awesome sale idea. So I used that and low and behold I got 2 orders for the sale. That was just what I asked God for and He provided me a way back into the pink bubble again. So here I sent them their invoices and placed my order.

I was an active Mary Kay Beauty Consultant again. Here we go I thought setting myself up for disappointment. Then I had a shift in mindset, my director called me and she was so overly excited that I had placed an order. We talked about what my comeback would look like, strategized if you will.

I told her I was back and willing to do the work and just see what the next year would hold for me. I let everyone know I was back and on a mission to make women happy with their skin and learn to love their skin again and how to take care of it. I did all of my training again, went back through all the education materials that the company provides to us.

Fast forward again one year later, here I am having listened to my director and giving her full permission to push me and boy did she. I started booking parties with tons of referrals, going live and sharing about what this company has to offer and what they can do to be successful. I was so eager to complete my mission, that now I have learned from my customers what they want and how to keep them happy. Letting them know my goals and sharing with them.

When I started tracking my activity and sales and seeing the progress I was making by leaps and bounds. To my surprise I reached an amazing honor of becoming Princess Court of Sales for the very first time. Now I realize that you get out of life and business what you put into it. Life gives you lemons don't sit around and suck on them, by golly get up and make some lemonade. This works the same in business, when you stare at the lemons long enough they get squishy and eventually go bad and are no good anymore. So I decided to keep the lemonade flowing, never letting the pitcher get EMPTY again.

So if you are on the struggle bus right now in life or in business, don't let the engine stall and just sit there waiting on the tow truck. Get up, Get with GOD, Get cute, Get out and do something to make the bus roll down the road again. I did and am so glad I did. Will you be glad you did or will you be sad you did not?