I have shared this with a few of you, but I thought it might be a good time to share my story with the world (you know, the hundred of you that might read this). I look back sometimes and I think ‘how the heck did I end up here?’ but I really like my journey and I think there are a lot of people out there like me.
I am like a lot of you, I went to college after high school because that is simply what you do. There was never any doubt in any of our minds. I was a 3 sport athlete, in student council, and had a 4.0. I wasn’t NOT going to college. But, I had no idea what I wanted to be. I liked to write and I liked health. I started off as an English major but thought ‘what am I going to do with an English degree, become a professional writer?’ I wish I could go back and slap that silly little girl for thinking like that was impossible. So, after my first year I switched to health sciences. I flew thru those classes. College (or any school for that matter) was never hard for me. I’m sure if I would have done pre-med or accounting I would have cried myself to sleep at night, but I went the safe route. Besides, did you guys know that there are boys and beer in college?
I met my husband while I was away at school, but unfortunately he lived back home. We were long distance for a while so, when I graduated, I wanted to be with him. The thought of going on for more schooling seemed crazy. But, I didn’t have a ‘job’ so I went to Massage Therapy School. At least it was local so I could be with my (at the time) boyfriend and work and go to school. Well, after about 18 more months of school, and more loans, I had a career and a job. Halleluja. Now I could work 40 hours a week and pay bills. It was very glamorous. But, I was happy. I liked my job, we had enough money to not be poor and I was helping people feel better which is what I always wanted to do. But 2 years ago I hurt my shoulder. It was scary. I don’t know if the rest of the world thinks about this type of thing but if a massage therapist cuts their finger bad enough, they miss a week of work. If you need shoulder surgery, that’s a good 6-8 months. I had my surgery, I recovered (mostly), and went back to work. I quickly realized though that I could not keep up with my previous work load. I had to go part time.
Enter Shaklee: A girlfriend of mine had reached out a year earlier to let me know about an opportunity to work from home and vitamins and green cleaners. At that point, I was too overwhelmed with my pending surgery to think about anything. I told her I wasn’t interested. So, now I’m about to go part time and I see her post on Facebook that she had just left her Athletic Training job to stay home and sell Shaklee full time. I still didn’t know much about Shaklee or direct selling but knew there were a ton of companies out there. I did some research. This is no offense to any of the other companies out there, they each have their own ‘thing’ that makes them unique. But, I simply wasn’t interested in bags, or make-up, or jewlery, or candles. I wanted something I was passionate about!
After some more soul-searching I felt like Shaklee made the most sense from a ‘passion’ stand point. I have always been green-minded, and crazy about food and health, and wanted to get the chemicals out of our house. But I needed to look into the business side a bit more. I didn’t want to invest in a company, build a business just to have them go out of business. Shaklee had been around forever, had a reputation of being safe and green and trustworthy. They were definitely the grandma on the block, but a cool Grandma that rides a skateboard and wants to teach a new young whipper-snapper how to sell some shit. I also thought about how I didn’t want to have to throw a new party every week. I wanted a product that people would continue to buy moving forward. The thought of having to replace your customers with new ones month to month sounded way too exhausting. Shaklee seemed to meet all of my criteria.
Getting over myself: Honeslty the biggest thing holding me back was what other people were going to think. Whether my husband was going to think it was a waste of money, whether my family was going to think this is another one of my crazy ideas, and whether my friends would think it was stupid. I have a college degree for crying out loud! Someone like me gets a ‘real’ job and works until they are 58 like you’re supposed to damnit! But, there was a little voice inside me that was saying ‘I can do it’. And, of course, on the outside I’m telling everyone ‘I’ll just see what happens’.
OUT OF MY MOUTH: Well, even if it just pays my gym membership…
IN MY HEAD: I’m going to crush this!
OUT OF MY MOUTH: If nothing else, I get all those amazing products for a really good price.
IN MY HEAD: I’m going to blow everyone out of the water and be one of the top sales people in 4 years. Who run the world? Girls! (I have a pretty active inner monologue)
I don’t know if you’ve gathered this about me, but I’m a little competitive. (More competitive than you are!!)
So, I took the plunge, and signed on to become an idependent distributor for Shaklee. My only regret is that it took me a year to say yes. Just think if I would have started when my friend first asked me.
Part 2 will be all about how my first year in the business has been (spoiler alert: it’s been good).
Email me for more information: creimholz@gmail.com
candysbrain 