Book Review: The Miracle Morning for Network Marketers

As I have been working on integrating a better morning routine in my day, I have been looking at books that describe great morning routines.  My latest one is The Miracle Morning for Network Marketers Grow Yourself First to Grow Your Business Fast.

I was very impressed with this book.  This is one of a series created by co-author Hal Elrod. This book has a 90 day action plan, a a community with a Facebook page, as well as Hal's twitter feed and personal Facebook fan page.

Not only do you have this book, but access to a lot of like minded individuals who are working towards the same type of goals we all are.  Success in business and life.

If you are looking for a way to make changes in you  life this book and community offers some really beneficial ones.

I was really excited about the miracle equation that boils all that I have learned about success into a simple easy to remember equation.  That equation is Unwavering Faith +Extraordinary Effort = Miracles.

If network marketing isn't your thing then there are other books that may fit your needs.  Just look up The Miracle Morning to find a book for your industry or life.

Raising my Poppy

I have a rather large family that includes a foster son, two step-sons and 4 biological children.  As the end of my 30's began looming my husband and I began to talk about life after children.  What were we going to do once all of the children were out of the house because we were looking at a 5 year time frame.  Then out of the blue, surprise I found myself pregnant.

The arrival of our youngest became life changing, not just because we were starting over raising a child again but because of who she was.  Immediately we started receiving comments about her beautiful eyes.  Our daughter has these fathomless blue eyes with such a presence behind them that most people take notice.  It wasn't just the color that people were remarking on it was the presence behind them.

By the time our daughter was 18 months it was quite clear that we had an exceptional child on our hands.  Her intellect and creativity were so much more advanced than any of our other children and all of our other children were intelligent and creative.

I had been introduced to homeschooling when my other children were in elementary school, but I refused to join the movement.  I loved my children but I needed that 7 hour break 5 days a week thank you very much.  With Auria it was clear to us that public school would not be a good fit for her and private school was beyond our budget.  Homeschooling it would be.

In order to keep our daughter occupied and out of mischief I started preschool at 2. Just little things that she had fun doing and plenty of educational programming on TV.  As we progressed we started using ABC Mouse and other specific learning applications.

As our journey became more geared to formal learning I realized I was having to fight to get through what needed to be accomplished each day.  Its not that our child couldn't do things its that she didn't want to.  I started reading up on exceptional children and found that often these children required IEP's just as often as those on the other end of the spectrum.  It's not necessarily ADD but their brains are just going so fast that its hard to keep them focused on the task at hand because they are simply focused on something else.

I found a co-op that helped because she had regular contact with the same children weekly other than at church, but even at the co-op if the class bored her she refused to participate.

Recently I found a Facebook group called Raising Poppies and then because I homeschool it was recommended that I join Homeschooling Poppies as well.  As I began to read the entries I recognized my daughter in many of them.  Many of these parents were facing the same struggles as I.  There were many posts about children who would do science and math all day but didn't see the point of reading and writing.  There were others that were constantly taking things apart to see how they worked and there were others that had children who's creativity just operated on a whole different level than anyone else.  This was my daughter.

I am sure there are many who think I talk about my daughter's advanced intellect to brag or place myself higher than their children.  That is not the case.  I talk about it because the challenges that I face can be frustrating and bring awe of what I see every day.  I often have to remind myself that my child is only 6 because what comes out of her mouth is not a concept most 6 year olds grasp.

There is a point to this blog today.  Although my daughter is a joy to have, raising her has me facing challenges I would have never imagined.  We all have challenges in our lives that we face on a regular basis.  The key to overcoming them is to find others facing those same challenges and find a support and sounding board to find solutions to those challenges.  Don't feel like you have to go it alone.  Seeking out support and asking for help does not make you weak.  It makes you strong because you locate and utilize any resource that you can.  In the end reaching out can make a huge difference in how you overcome your challenges.  In the end the only thing that matters is that you one day find yourself successfully on the other side of those challenges, having overcome everything thrown at you.

Creating and maintaining new habits

If you want something different in your life you have to do something different in your life.  It is the very definition of insanity to keep doing the same things and expect different results.

We all have bad habits we need to eliminate from our lives and we all have things that we wish to incorporate into our lives.  Easier said than done right?

So what do we do when we want to eliminate bad habits?  Is that even possible.  Sometimes you can do what many people call cold turkey and just stop the bad habit, but most people are not wired that way.  For example you have decided to stop smoking.  There are a few people out there that can put down the cigarettes and never pick them up again.  Most people who want to quit smoking need something more.  Some use patches or medications to combat the cravings.  Some use gum to combat the need to put something in their mouth, but most need to replace the bad habit with something else.

So to eliminate the bad habit it is better to replace it with at least a better habit if not a good habit.  For example if your habit is to hit the snooze button 6 times before you get out of bed you can replace that habit by putting the alarm across the room so you have to get up in order to turn it off or you can do that and start going to bed earlier so you are more rested when its time to get up.

The first step to creating good habits is to decide what good habits you wish to develop and then create an action plan.  The 2nd is to implement that action plan and the 3rd is to maintain that action plan.

For some developing the new habit will come effortlessly.  For others gaining the new habit will take trial and error plus much struggling.  I have hear a couple of theories on habit formation.
I have heard it takes 21 days and I have heard it takes 30 days to create a habit.  I have also heard it takes 60 days to cement a habit.  I don't know which of these is true.  What it does show as that habit formation takes time.  It takes doing the new habit over and over again before it becomes effortless.

Your success or failure at building or maintaining a new habit will depend entirely on your motivation and commitment to doing it. You will face obstacles to creating new habits.  Things like unexpected events, lack of motivation to do the habit that day, lack of support from others or even others trying to prevent you from change.  It will be your commitment that will pull you through those obstacles until the new habit becomes ingrained and part of your life.

So ask yourself what do I want to change in my life?  What do I need to do to change it, and what do I need to do in order to stay committed to that change?  Then decide on a plan to get it done and implement it as soon as possible.  Putting it off won't make it any easier in fact it will make it more difficult to get started.

Creating your own system

Today I was doing my morning success reading and came upon a passage about having a system and sticking to it.  What does having a system mean?  It is simply a way to organize your tasks and be accountable for getting them done.

At 21 years of age I was introduced to the Franklin Quest Planning System.  It was eventually bought out by the Covey franchise and became Franklin Covey.  I used that system into my 30's when the local store shut down.   I didn't like ordering things so I decided to change to something I could just go to Wal Mart and buy.  Over the years I have actually gone away from complicated planners.  the ones I use now simply have each month and then each week.  I didn't need to break my tasks into time frames so there was no need for me to have a planner with time slots in it.  For me the simpler planners worked better in creating my own organizational system.

Once again I find myself needing to revamp what I am doing.  Sure there are all sorts of planners that you can spend a lot of money to help you with your personal and business needs.  Why spend money when you don't have to.  More often than not when you finally receive that expensive planner that you ordered, you will find that their system is just not right for you.

I have found that sitting down and honestly looking at my needs to design my own system is better for me.  Right now I just sit down monthly, weekly and daily to write down appointments, tasks and events.  As I am gearing up to become more serious about my businesses I need to reevaluate what I am currently doing and adjust it to fit my new lifestyle.

I have four aspects of my life that I need to organize and be accountable for.  The first one is my household responsibilities, the 2nd one is homeschool for my 6 year old, the 3rd one is my business activity and the fourth one is my personal and social life.  I don't like to have separate planners for each aspect.  I want it all in one place so that I don't have to waste time getting to one of several planners to find out what I need to do that day.

It has come back to needing to block out time to do household chores, morning routines, homeschool, business activities and personal time.  As I create my new system I need to build in accountability and flexibility.  Things happen and sometime our plans need to adjust.

If you want to accomplish anything in life you need to have a plan or system to do it.  Other people's systems may not work for you.  So creating your own system to accomplish what needs to be done is in your best interest.

Here is what to include in your system:  What needs to be done
                                                                  The steps you need to take to do it
                                                                 The time frame it needs to be done
                                                                 A way to motivate you to do it
                                                                 Accountability for getting it done

Creating your own system is not difficult, but it does take time and effort.  That system can mean all the difference between success and failure.

Getting over the personal blocks to my success

I am not new to network marketing.  I have years of experience under my belt.  What I do not have is years of success under my belt.  Why is that?

I have had training from some of the most successful network marketers out there.  I know the need to do certain activities and I have even participated in those activities.  In fact with all that I have done, I should have been well on my way to living the life I want to.  I am not.

I have recognized that there are things within me that are holding me back.  Some of it is fear. Its not fear of rejection or fear of failure that is the problem.  Yes they exist, but that is something that I have learned to overcome.  The fear I am talking about is fear of success.  You may ask why would anyone fear success?  If you have lived a life where no matter how hard you worked, you were always looked over and each and every success that you have had only comes after conditions of others changed to allow you the success you desired, success would be a major change.

My ancestors were illiterate dirt movers.  Struggle and failure has become ingrained in the very fabric of my DNA.  My mother has worked very hard to overcome that with a small margin of success.  Keeping after dreams was not encouraged growing up.  Even though success is what I desire, it is not familiar or comfortable.

It is quite possible that as a result of this fear, I sabotage myself anytime I get close to the success that I want.

Until I took steps to change it, my outlook on life and my achievements was overwhelmingly negative.  I still have to battle with the I can'ts in my head.

I have a tendency to think differently than other people.  As a result of this I often have a difficult time relating well to others.  Its not that I don't like people or that I don't try to reach out, its that I have a difficult time finding people who think on my wave link.  We attract what we know.

So what am I doing to overcome all this?  Awareness is the first step.  I know the fear is there.  I need to recognize each time I pull back due to the fear and push harder instead.

I need to eliminate the word can't from my thought process and instead replace it with how can I accomplish it instead.

I need to try to find better ways to understand and relate to people.  Instead of using the fact that I just don't understand why someone feels a certain way as a wall, I need to find ways to set that aside and find other ways to connect.

Yes I have some pretty large obstacles to overcome, but with work I can and will overcome them.

Maintaining your motivation through life challenges

I was going to have a great weekend.  My vendor event was going to be amazing and I was going to find myself really busy with follow-ups this week.  That was my idealized weekend.  Here is what really happened.

I fell down the stairs carrying boxes out to the car.  That meant I wan not able to catch myself and landed on the edge of the steps causing deep bruising in the top portion of my backside.  I got to the event and began setting up.  It was outdoors and not only was it hot, but it was windy.  My easy up tent wouldn't stay up and things kept blowing around.

The attendance at the event was minimal and few of my target market attended even though it was a fundraiser for a private school with pre-K and Kindergarten.  I did talk to the head mistress of the school and she said she would give my card to the preschool teachers.  I went home early as I found sitting highly uncomfortable and the wind was not my friend.

I spent Sunday laying down doing my best to deal with my discomfort.

Its Monday and I have no new leads to follow up on.  Now what?

In life and business these things happen.  If I want to make a living with my businesses I need to get over it and just work through the challenges.  Easier said than done, right?

So I made some goals for this week.  I will write new affirmations.  The ones I have are old and losing their effectiveness.  I will post on my business page once each day for 5 days and I will talk to 1 new person for each of my businesses for 5 days.  Until I can do this on a regular basis, how do I expect to get anywhere?

Challenges will happen, but the best way to overcome them is to plan for them and create a contingency plan to overcome them.  Sometimes you will have to come up with a plan on the fly because you were unable to anticipate the challenge.  Other times you can see a challenge possibility ahead of time and plan accordingly.

If you come across an obstacle, you have to find a way over, under or around it.

Motivation to succeed

I am going through some difficult life changes right now.  During this time I am getting more motivated to build a successful business.

Yesterday it was made quite clear to me that a person I am very close to has no faith that I will succeed in my business endeavors. It was a huge slap in the face.  I could decide to agree with this person and quit right now, or I can use it to help drive my motivation and determination.

When I first started getting back into direct sales my motivation or my why was pretty vague. As time went on over the last year and a half it has morphed and changed.  This has been a good thing.  My original why was something that would be nice to have but not something that I had to have.  No matter how I tried to find something that would motivate me beyond the casual conducting of my business, my life was okay.  I had enough, more would be nice, but it wasn't necessary.  Yes the personal development part of working on my business was necessary, but the money wasn't.  It is really hard to stay motivated to build a business when nothing seems to be going your way, if you don't have a concrete reason you need to be successful.

I predict a huge spurt of growth in the very near future.  Here is why.  The money portion of the business is no longer a luxury, but a necessity.  If I wish to continue to homeschool my 6 year old and not have to go out and get a job,  I need to make a significant amount of money from my businesses.
There is really one more motivating factor that will make a huge difference to my success.  I got my stubborn on when I was told I will eventually have to go out and get a job.  I now have to prove to this person that they are wrong and that I can make a success out of what I am doing.

This is what is going to motivate me.  Now you may be struggling with your own goals or business.  Maybe you also lack a why strong enough to motivate you to actually reach your goal or have success in your business.  Maybe you have built in a safety net and knowing you have this safety net, it has prevented you from going all in.  If that is the case it is time to take off the training wheels.  Find that one or two things that will hit you right in the gut.  A reason so big that you just have to get it done.  If you need to eliminate that safety net in order to make yourself go all in, do it.

Its not enough to want success.  For most, that success will not come easily.  You have to need that success like the very air you breathe.  When you find a why or motivation that will do that for you, you will find that elusive success.

Morning Routines Can Make You More Productive

I have learned a lot of different things in my lifetime.  One of the more important things is the necessity of early morning routines.

Does what time you get up in the morning make a difference?  Believe it or not it does.  Earlier this year I began to get up at 5:30 in the morning in order to have a couple of hours to myself before my 6 year old got up.  I created a morning routine and stuck to it until I realized that it was easier to let her sleep longer in the morning so she would be more cooperative.  She is really not a morning person.
I started getting up at 7:00 in the morning instead while still maintaining my morning routine.  I found half the time she got up before 9 and the other half I just had a hard time sticking to my daily tasks.   I am now getting up at 6:00AM and finding that my earlier productivity is back.

So what kind of things do I do in my morning routine?  I do spiritual study, journaling, exercise, affirmations, meditation, visualizing and success study.

With my journaling I do two forms.  I use a guided journal and I use a free form journal.  My free form journal gives me the freedom to write whatever I feel that morning, while my guided journal helps me focus on what I did well, what I need work on, what I am grateful for and what I feel.

Meditation, affirmations and visualization kind of work together.  I do my affirmations separately, but during my meditation time I focus on them and then visualize the actions I need to do to make success a reality.

I exercise 6 days a week.  I spend 3 days focusing on my cardio vascular health and I spend 3 days focusing on muscle resistance exercises. I really miss this if I have to miss it due to injury so I try hard to do things in a manner that won't cause injury.  Most of my exercise stopping injuries have happened outside my exercise routine as a result.

Success study is a big part of my routine.  I take at least 30 minutes and either read or watch some kind of podcast to help further my knowledge and understanding of the career that I have chosen to pursue.

What happens if I interrupt my routine to check out my facebook or email?  I find that my routine takes much longer because I get lost in trying to respond or like certain posts.  There is time in the rest of the day to get to my computer interactions so it is best for me if I do not touch the computer during my morning routine.

What has having a morning routine done for me?  There have been so many benefits of my morning routine.  I feel less stressed, I am healthier and I find myself more productive during the day.

If you want to make some serious changes in your life and do not have an early morning routine, doing so will be the first step in making those positive changes.  Start slow and don't try to do too much at once.  Just learn to do better each day and eventually that morning routine will help to effect change in the rest of your day as well.

Visualization, its not just a new age technique anymore

Today I was doing my own personal development reading and came across a section on visualization.  This is not a new concept and I have ignored the concept until now.

When I first heard of visualization I thought the concept was ridiculous.  Just visualize what you want to have happen and it will.  It really sounded like new age hogwash to me.  The thing is, I keep hearing about the concept over and over again.

The realization that visualization is not a ridiculous concept came from reading a book written by a member of my church, featuring several stories about visualization from prominent church figures.

Here is the trick .  Visualization starts by picturing in your mind the end result you want, but for it to work properly you can't stop there.  Visualizing the end result may help you to see what it is that you want to accomplish, but it doesn't help you see how to accomplish it.  In order for you to actually achieve that end vision, you need to also visualize exactly the steps you need to accomplish it.  You need to visualize yourself actually doing the things you need to do as well as the actual outcome hoped for.

It doesn't do any good to visualize yourself at the end of the journey and then sit and wait for the end result to happen.  Even if you visualize yourself as a  millionaire everyday it won't happen unless you take action to get yourself there.

Visualization helps you to practice overcoming obstacles in your path and solving problems that may come up along your journey.  Visualization can help you be more confident as you do each task that needs to be done to accomplish your goal.  Visualization can help you enforce your belief that you can reach your goal.

What visualization is not, is a magic wand that will make things happen just because you see it happening in your head.  Yes, visualization can help attract the positive outcomes you want, but they will not happen unless you do the work necessary to get there.  For example you can visualize yourself winning the lottery, but it will never happen if you don't buy a lottery ticket.  Of course visualization can never guarantee anything based on luck instead of skill.

Visualization is not meant to be used by itself.  When combined with goal setting, affirmations, study, and action it can help you to accomplish great things.  Used by itself its just daydreaming.

The Power of Gratitude

It has been said that you can't expect more in your life if you are not grateful for what you already have.  When we focus on our blessings instead our lack we change our perspective and attitude.

How many of us have sat and gone through the woe is me phase?  You know the one.  The one where we sit and contemplate all that is going wrong in our lives.  What did this accomplish?  Did it make it better?  Did it make you happy?  Did it change anything?

On the flip side, think of a time where you thought about all that was going right in your life and all that you had.  Did you have peace?  Did you want to share that peace?  Was life good?

I have done both.  What I have learned that focusing on being grateful for all that I had changed the way I thought about things.  Instead of my life being limiting, I found motivation to become more.

I may have run into some difficult stages but dealing with those stages with a negative attitude was very different than dealing with it having a positive attitude.  Having a negative attitude only made things get worse, but having a positive attitude helped me to change the direction my life was going.

When we are truly grateful for our lives and all of the blessings that we do have we feel joy.  That joy often prompts us to spread the joy that we feel.  When we try to spread that joy we find the not so good things much easier to deal with.

As our gratitude increases we find ourselves taking action to create more to be grateful for.  The miracles we see can be attributed to a change in attitude and activity in ourselves.  Those miracles were probably already there just waiting for you to notice them or take action to make them happen.

Getting Past the Naysayers

How many times have you gotten excited about something and then go to tell someone about it only to have their reaction be that will never work?

I have had that reaction over and over again.  When you hear someone close to you say that it can be difficult to maintain your excitement.  It may even discourage you from taking that important step of taking that chance and having it turn into more than you can ever dream of.

These naysayers can be family or friends that you love and have been with forever.  It can come from acquaintances or even industry leaders.  Yes sometimes the great idea is really a non starter, but most of the time its about people who can seem to think outside their narrow reality.

When it comes to direct sales, there  are a lot of naysayers out there.  Here is the thing, the direct sales industry is one of the largest industries out there so if it has worked for that many people, why wouldn't it work for you?

There are countless inventors who were told that their idea would never work.  Most of our modern conveniences wouldn't exist if those who invented them had listened to their own naysayers.  Life would be much different without the lightbulb.

If you have people that are telling you what you can't do in your life, its time to distance yourself from them.  Life isn't about taking the safe path and doing what everyone else is doing.  Life is about taking chances and finding your true potential.

Find people who have similar dreams and flock together to support each other on the journey of discovery and potential.

Faith is not just a word used in religious references, its a word that helps the impossible become possible.  Faith is the belief in things unseen.  So believing in yourself and your dreams is the first step.  Believing that anything that your mind can dream up is completely possible is the first step to making them a reality.

So ignore all those who tell you that its not possible.  Dare to dream.  Believe it can happen.  Find positive people to support you while you act to reach your dream.  Finally no matter what don't give up.  It took Thomas Edison 10,000 failures before he succeeded in creating the lightbulb.  You only lose if you let those naysayers win.


Mindset is more than half of the battle.  If you are the biggest naysayer to your own dreams its time to take steps to change that.

Book Review: Out of The Silent Planet

C.S. Lewis is a classic author most known for his Narnia Chronicals.  He was a very prolific writer and actually also wrote a science fiction trilogy.

Out of The Silent Planet is the first book in C. S. Lewis's Science Fiction trilogy.

I have a tendency to dislike British authors and especially classical British authors.  I did like C. S. Lewis's Screwtape letters, but until now had not read any of his other works.

I found Out of the Silent Planet to have a slow plot line.  Believe it or not even in this work of science fiction you will find some not so subtle christian themes.

This book was written long before the people of  our planet made it to space.  You can tell that C.S. Lewis had no idea about how space travel would work.  As a result the book lacks any explanation on how space travel would occur.

I understand why this science fiction trilogy is not well read.  Due to his lack of knowledge or understanding of science there is no foundation for the story.  The antagonists are not well developed.

I am also not a big reader of science fiction stories.  This was not my usual choice of genre and I thought that I would give it a try.

I didn't really like this book, but it did give some interesting concepts to think about.

Its all about the follow up

It doesn't do any good to network or do events to get names or leads if you don't follow up on the ones you do get.

This week has been a little busy with events for my Fundanoodle business.  I managed to get about 16 names or leads from the two events that I did.  That may seem small to some, but for me that is quite a bit at one time.  So now what do I do?

So I have some people that are interested in hosting a play date, so I will contact them to see just what they need from me to say yes and book a date.  I have 2 booked dates already and now I need mail out a catalog and other information or call to make arrangements for hostess coaching.

There were a couple of people who were interested in not only a play date, but the possibility of joining Fundanoodle as Ambassadors.  I have already emailed those with our Youtube channel and website so they could get their questions asked.  In those emails I attached a copy of our hostess benefits and our compensation plan. These I will follow up with a phone call in a couple of days.

I have one who wants to purchase a couple of items and I will deliver those tomorrow.  I have a winner from my event raffle that I will need to contact and arrange for delivery of her prize.

There are some people that have contacted me through my website.  I have received no answer from them so I will be mailing them a letter, some information and a catalog to make sure that my email did not go into the spam folder.

From my event on Tuesday, I received some leads.  These are people or organizations that might be interested in what I have to offer, but I have had no contact with them previously.  Those I will probably wait until next week to work on because they are not expecting me to contact them.

The point is that the money is not necessarily in the events that I attend unless I am doing cash and carry, but in following up with those I come into contact with and who express and interest in fundanoodle or for that matter Plexus when I talk about that.  

The fun part was talking to and getting to meet each person, but now the work begins to turn those maybes into yes's.

Its not even mid July and the heat is stifling

I write this blog for many reasons.  To inspire,  to share, and to just sometimes vent.  Today is one of those venting days.


Its summertime and the temperatures are rising.  I have a very large house that has two heating and cooling units.  The way they were installed makes them completely inefficient.  Upstairs the hallways don't have any heating or cooling vents at all.  The master bedroom is either freezing in the summer or a sauna in the winter.  The other upstairs bedrooms don't seem to get get the air or heat efficiently.

Our downstairs heat and air does not seem to work well either.  I had guests over last night for a product demonstration and my house was only 5-6 degrees cooler on the inside than on the outside.  Its not even noon and its already 80 degrees inside.

We need our heating and cooling system completely redone.  This is what I really dislike about being a homeowner.  Any fixit expenses come out of our pocket.

My husband has not had a raise since 2013 and we have little extra money as a result.  Inflation has gone up but our spending power has gone down.  It takes time, effort and money to get a business off the ground and the money is beginning to dry up.

This is where faith and effort come in.  If I want to overcome these issues I must do the work and have the absolute faith that my efforts will bear fruit.  I need to get over myself and stop sabotaging my own progress.

Being an entrepreneur  is not the glamorous life.  Its is working on building relationships while getting your products or services known to the masses.  It is holding on by the skin of your teeth and plodding onward when you are at the end of your rope.  Then one day after you have kept up all the very hard work all of a sudden you realize the it has all paid off and you can live the life you wanted.

So trials and tribulations aside.  I choose to grow onward so that the ultimate reward can be mine.

I am seeing results what now?

This last week has been quite interesting for me.  I have been doing all that I can to get a foundation for my business ventures.  Here is the thing.  I am beginning to see signs of momentum here and there so how do I keep it up?

Here is what I have been doing.  I have been scheduling events to get myself out there and known to the public.  This week I have a product demonstration and a vendor event.  In two weeks I have another vendor event.  I have been posting on social media and I have been getting out and talking to people.

My first vendor event netted me two new contacts.  I didn't see results from that but it was a start.  Last week I posted in a Homeschool group and was able to schedule my 1st Learning Fair.  I have events scheduled for both August and September already.

So now that I have some things going on is it time to sit back and let it happen?  Absolutely not.  Now is the time to actually work harder.

I may have a few things going but until I begin to see my schedule filling up I need to continue to get myself out there and meet people.  I need to get my business out there even more.  If I sit back and just let things happen I risk losing any momentum that I have started.

When you are doing direct sales you have to be very active in building your business if you want to ever reach the top of your company's pay structure.  Yes 80% of Direct Sales people who actively work their business make it to the top tier of their pay scale within 5 years, but the key word there is active.

My plans are to continue to get out there.  Do my follow ups and keep talking to people.  I have a group of people that I emailed about our business opportunity.  This week I am going to send all of them something in the mail. That way I will know that I am reaching them.

I have a non business play date scheduled for my daughter on Saturday with a group of mom's I have never met.  You bet I will at least tell them what I do and introduce them to my businesses.  The more people I meet and talk to about my businesses the more of a chance that I will be building my business.

So the moral here is when you begin to see a growth in your business is not the time to back off.  Its the time to double down to ensure your success.

Game Review: Gardenscapes

I have a little bit of writers block today so I thought I would do something a little bit different.  I am not a big video game person but I do love challenging puzzle games.  When Tetris first came out I was a big fan.  Candy Crush was an addiction as well as hidden object games.

Today I have been playing a game on my tablet which has taken me away from all of my chores.  Yes its that addictive.  There was a special event where you got to earn unlimited game play as well as power ups.  I achieved the 6 hour unlimited play after I achieved 2 2 hour unlimited play rewards.

Gardenscapes allows you to have the puzzle game challenges you like such as with candy crush while restoring a huge garden.  So puzzle play along with a little building as well.  For the garden you get to choose plant types or shapes, paint colors etc.

This is a great game.  You can buy coins and powerups as well as additional game time.  Otherwise you get 5 lives to get through  a puzzle.  The saving grace for those of us who do get easily addicted tot his type of game is the limitation of lives.  Otherwise I would find myself playing this game all day instead of anything else I want to do.

So Gardenscapes is a fun game with addictive qualities.  This game is on Facebook, phones and other devices.  By connecting to Facebook you can transfer progress to any of the devices you play it on.

Have fun but you might want to set limits on how long you are allowed to play at one sitting.

Harvesting Your Garden Can Bring Surprises Just Like Life and Business

In an earlier blog I had talked about the parallels between gardening and other aspects of life.  As I go through the harvesting phase of my gardening experience this summer I want to continue the analogy.

I have a 6 year old daughter that I home school.  As part of our science program I decided to plant a garden this year.  It was not a large one and I only planted a few plants of each variety.  Gardening has not been my forte and in fact house plants don't survive very well in my care, but I did it anyway.

My garden has been a real learning experience.  I had to figure out when to plant each plant because those planting times were not all the same.  I have worked to water and weed my garden throughout the garden season.  I have had triumphs and I have made mistakes that cost me plants.

I started my garden in pots for some strawberries, tomatoes and cucumbers.  The strawberries got flooded out.  I planted some strawberry starts and had better results but I had some trouble with animals getting my berries.  My daughter has enjoyed a few handfuls of berries though and I call that a success for me.  My cucumbers have given me a couple of successes so far.  I planted 3 plants from seeds.  I thought that I had planted one kind of cucumber but had planted another and had to throw out about 10 cucumbers that were overripe.  Now I know what I planted and will harvest at the appropriate time since I still have cucumbers growing.  My tomatoes have been a mixed result.  I did plant all of them in pots.  I transplanted two of my plants and kept the rest in the large pot I planted them in.  The ones I transplanted have lots of flowers and I anticipate a decent harvest.  The ones in the pot are still green but have no flowers at all.

I also planted carrots, beets, Kohlrabi, Green and wax beans, corn, cantaloupe and watermelon.  My peas had a small harvest but half of the plants died.  My carrots had a mixed result as I did harvest some too soon and others too late.  The beets were too small and no one ate them.  My wax beans didn't grow and I got a few meals out of my green beans with some still growing.  My corn is growing but not without difficulty.  In fact I planted additional seeds in order to have more chances of success.  My cantaloupe is beginning to grow and ripen.  I can't wait to have a home grown melon and my watermelon is beginning to flower.

My big surprise this season is a blackberry bush that was planted before we moved in and hadn't been producing.  We are picking blackberries from our backyard this year.

So the results of my hard work have been mixed with success, mistakes, overcoming those mistakes and some failure.  Life and business is like this as well.

In business we promote our business and products.  Some potential customers or business partners become lucrative to your business.  Some never pan out.  Some give you some small success while others take extra work to get them. There are some that even come out of nowhere and you wonder how that happened.

In life we see the same as we work on relationships, goals, projects and dreams.  Don't get discouraged as things don't happen the way we want.  Each experience teaches us something valuable.  The next time we will be able to do even better.

Happy 4th of July

I am unapologetically patriotic.  Both my husband and I have had family members in the armed services since at least World War II if not before.  We even have sons and a niece who have served.

Our country is not perfect.  It has done some major wrongs since its birth.  Today we are not united.  There is a growing sentiment towards moving away from what has made this nation great and turning towards a system that has done no good in other countries.  WE are at war with ourselves.

Our nation's freedom has been bought and paid for by the blood of countless supporters of freedom.  Yet we have groups of people who spit on the idea of religious and ideological freedom for all its citizens. We have people who want to hold back those who strive towards exceptionalism.

Yes there is much wrong in our country and we are still fighting to maintain the freedoms and rights so much blood was spent to gain.  Freedom isn't free and even if you are one of the people who are fighting against the freedom we have today you have the right to do that because of the blood that was spilled.

Today I celebrate our Independence and that fact that our country is like no other.  Our country may not be perfect, but I still believe that it is the best country in the world and we enjoy more freedom than any other country in the world.


Today is not just another day off of work or a day for summer fun.  Its a day to reflect on the freedom that we enjoy as Citizens of the United States of America.  In the words of John F. Kennedy " ask not what your country can do for you but, what you can do for your country."

Review and Comparison: Keto O/S VS. Plexus

I decided to do a little experiment.  I had been hearing about this Keto O/S by Pruvit as a weight loss miracle supplement.  I will have to admit that I had lost faith in my Plexus products.  So I did a 4 week experiement. All four weeks I did a low carb, low calorie, Ketogenic diet and all 4 weeks I worked out 6 out of 7 days.

Week 1 was a low carb ketogenic diet only: 5 pound weight loss
Week 2 added 5 days of Keto O/S: 5 pound weight loss
Week 3 was back to  just the low carb ketogenic diet: result 3 pound weight loss
Week 4 was the newly formulated Plexus slim:  inch loss but no weight loss

Here are some factors that may have affected the results.  You always lose more weight the 1st week of a new diet program and that lessens over the time of of any diet.  Bodies often go through plateaus.  If you don't eat enough calories your body may hold on to fat because it thinks you are starving.

This trial was only for a short time so it is no indication of long term results.

Here are some other things that I noticed.  It did take a lot of will power to get through the 1st week of the ketogenic diet.  The 3rd and 4th day were the worst with the sugar and carb cravings, but it got easier after that.  Eating only meat and a few veggies got a little boring although I did find some low carb sweet fat bomb recipes that helped.

With the Plexus slim I didn't lose weight, but I did lose inches.  I also had more energy than any of the other 3 weeks and felt better overall.  I found myself waking up before my alarm went off about the 3rd day.

As you can see with this short experiment the results are open for interpretation.  Personally I think that it was too short to come to any conclusions, but if I had to I would say that yes Keto O/S works if your focus is on weight loss.  For a long term health solution I felt better on the Plexus.

If anything I restored my faith in my Plexus products and can once again share my experiences and products with confidence.

Here is my concerns with Keto O/S.  A Ketogenic diet is not recommended for a lifestyle change.  In fact if you get books on the diet you will find that there is a time limit placed on following the diet.  Keto O/S is supposed to keep you in ketosis even if you are not eating a ketogenic diet, but I have a promoter who states it makes all other supplements obsolete.  When you are not getting a lot of carbs there are vitamins that you are missing out on such as B complex.  So if you are going to do this you do need a good multi-vitamin and B complex supplements.  Keto O/S does contain prebiotics but no probiotics so it does do some benefit for gut health but not completely.  Even the promoter I talked to said taking an additional probiotic was a good idea.

Overall the best diet is the one that you can stick with and that works for you.  Keto O/S will work for some people and so will Plexus.  The one that works best for you I can't say.