Why you should buy the lipstick, leggings and spatula

For me I really had no idea what the whole direct sales industry was about when I first joined.  And my experiences have left me a better person, a more educated person, a person who isn’t afraid anymore.  See the thing is that the vast majority of people who join these companies are moms.  A lot are stay at home moms as myself.  There are also working professionals who need a breath from the stress of their corporate job, teachers who are looking for a creative outlet and students up to their eyeballs in school debt and can’t get hired.  They are people who have worked their entire life 30+ years at the same place and have been pushed into ‘early retirement’.  I know because I have these woman on my team.  If they thought it was going to be a ‘get rich quick’ thing, they will quickly realize it is not.  You work for everything you get in direct sales.

 For me I was looking for extra cash.  I would say without looking up any stats that would be the number one reason a person joins a company like this, extra money.  For the ones who stick with it, are focused and passionate they are successful.  But there is that…success…in direct sales you can determine what you consider ‘successful’.  Because not everyone wants to be the free car driving, ditch their career for another top of the top.  I myself had no desire for 6 years to do anything but make just enough extra cash to periodically take my kids for ice cream.  I didn’t want anything besides that, and that is OK if that’s where you’re at- these people need support and customers too.  Sometimes all they really need is to believe in themselves again.  And sometimes that just means wrapping up a goal they set for themselves.  And maybe it seems a little to simple, or maybe it seems a little silly, but for me and the woman I have gotten to work with it isn’t.  For me it wasn’t about the car or the jewelry or the purses, it was how I was growing as an individual and the people I touched along the way.  I didn’t even know about that part when I signed up.  Every little step I achieved pulled me from that sweat pant wearing, wondering when I had last showered place and allowed me to be OK with stepping out of my comfort zone and giving myself permission to recognize that I was just as good as the showered, put together woman in line behind me at the store.

 I fell in love with my clients, many are now my friends.  It opened the doors to other opportunities for me that I would have never dreamed possible.  It brought my life back, it brought me back.  It paid for piano lessons, new shoes for the kids, spending money on vacation, dance classes, school trips, teacher gifts, Christmas many years in a row and so so much more.  But the thing it did for me that no money could ever buy was give me, me back.   As a stay at home mom you can easily become discouraged, weary, tired and lose your self confidence.  When you go to a job that drains you, get stressed out and burned out, you lose your self confidence.  When you have worked so hard, studied and been loyal and don’t see it coming together, you can lose your self confidence.

So listen, here’s what it’s really about because it’s not about their diamond ring, or car or cash or even a trip to Italy…it’s about building stronger people, who can raise their kids better (which means better friends for your kids) because they have confidence, they have been given the opportunity to dream again, they are passionate about building a better life for themselves and their family, they have found something  that is building them into the person God intended them to be.  So if for no other reason, yes you should help out that crazy, over excited person that wants to sell you a spatula, a bag, a work out video or a tooth pick because it’s not always about the product (although in my experience these products trump any you can find anywhere else) but it is about the person you have just empowered.