Passion, Inspiration, Change and Acceptance

Yikes, it's been a while since I posted a blog. I suppose not so surprising. At least not to me, or my husband or my best friend or my business coach who see my journey up close and personal.

Like many, if not all of you, I am pretty busy. I have a 9-5 job, as well as my Wine, Women & Wax business. I train my dog in agility and myself in endurance sports (obstacle racing currently). I attend social and business networking as well as live music events. So, it may seem insane that I decided to add another HUGE item to the top of my list. I started another business. 

Now I have added the title Chapter Director of the Chicago Chapter of Over 40 Females. It has been a fun, scary, exciting journey so far, and I've only just started. 

How did I get here?

Can I handle it?

Is my other business going away? 

I'm going to be super frank and honest here, no sugar coating or beating around the bush, so ... you've been warned.

How did I get here?

I have been in the home fragrance and decor business for nearly 8 years now. Like many other direct sales professionals, I've cycled through abundance and struggle. The past 2 years, it's felt more like struggle than anything else. Every business changes, and ours has as well. Online sales have changed a lot of how we do business, the marketplace has changed and shifted.

So, I have been working with an amazing business coach, Christine Gallagher during the past year. We narrowed my target market, and although my business hasn't grown by leaps and bounds, I am enjoying working with my customers more because they are the right customers for me.

In one of our discussions, well in 3 of our discussions, I mentioned this idea I had that I wasn't sure what to do with. I had this vision of a recurring service event for women. An event where women would come and be pampered, and have fun, and not be subjected to a hard sell. Every time it came up, I started trying to work out how I could make it happen, then I would run into a stumbling block and stop working on it. 

The third time it came up, Christine lovingly and firmly told me "You know this means you are actually going to have to do this right?" So, I started doing some research, as directed. I can let myself down, I certainly can't let her down! In the process, I found this amazing National Organization, Over 40 Females. They are doing exactly what I had envisioned and MORE. Of course, they aren't in Chicago, well, we weren't. I contacted the organization, interviewed with the head of chapter directors and we decided it would be a great fit, and a very symbiotic fit with my current business. 

Once I had made this decision and started down the path of launching this organization, a lot of stuff came up. Old stuff that I had totally convinced myself I had dealt with and overcome. Loads of self doubt the biggest. On another coaching call with Christine, she so perfectly described what had happened to me, that I hadn't even seen myself. She said, it seemed like the light inside you had gone out. It had. 

My spark for my business had gone out. I felt stuck and frustrated and didn't know where to turn. New customers trickled in, but didn't flow. I felt like I was working SO hard and getting little to no results in return. I didn't want to work on my business because I wasn't getting results, and I wasn't getting juice. I felt tired of beating my head against the proverbial wall. And the same question kept coming up over and over again. Get in front of the right people.

I am having SO much fun connecting other women. I am having SO much fun arranging and coordinating monthly events. I am having SO much fun meeting other powerful, vibrant, successful business women and standing shoulder to shoulder with them. 

I took note this week of a phenomenon I've experienced already several times in launching and growing this group. Women LOVE to connect and promote other women. I was looking for speakers for my June event, reached out to my connections on Linked In, and received nearly 100 responses and strong connections and recommendations. 

So, I see a path in front of me now. It's a little different than the path I saw before. It's exciting and empowering... hmmm a coincidence that the mission of Over 40 Females is Connect, Encourage and Inspire? I accept myself, I accept that I had some more changing and growing to do. I accept that my business had to change more than I knew. Your journey never unfolds just as you think it will. 

Now, I see my Wine, Women and Wax business growing alongside my exciting , vibrant, Chicago Chapter of Over 40 Females. I see myself serving women better than I ever could have before. I see myself bringing women together for more reasons than I ever could have with my Wine, Women and Wax business alone. I feel such passion and inspiration every day when I go to work on BOTH my businesses, I wake up with ideas, I have trouble falling asleep because I have so many ideas I want to unleash.

And I LIKE what I see! 

Kids have it right

A lot of kids get a bad rap these days. We hear much lamenting about when I was young we this and we that, and kids today are spoiled, and don't know what life is all about... but kids still have it right.

 
I was introduced to this boy this week, I absolutely LOVE him and simply can't get enough. I have probably watched this video 15 times. 


Kids live in the moment. They don't put their dreams on hold, they don't set their happiness aside for another day. They have it right.

I read a blog post today by Jane Powell (love her too). She gets it too. 

I forgot for a while myself. 

It's easy to forget. We go through college and someone tells us it's time to work for what we want, and grow up and stop living with our heads in the clouds. Then we go to work and we put our dreams and our happiness on hold for "someday".

Luckily for me, my run on the hamster wheel was interrupted. My life changed when my husband was laid off in 2005 from a corporate job that had made him so depressed he was a completely different person. We likened the layoff to when a loved one has been really sick for a long time, and they pass away. It’s sad, but it’s really a relief that the suffering is over. We decided it was our last best opportunity for him to pursue his life long dream rather than go back to doing what he hated somewhere else. 

We took a huge leap and walked away from a 70K income and invested another 70K in the additional training he needed.

We decided we didn’t need to suffer any more. My husband’s happiness in his career was more important than his income or our lifestyle. I didn’t know how, but I knew I’d do anything to work it out.

So I started my business alongside my corporate position to supplement our income. I found in helping my husband make his dream come true, I not only found a dream I didn’t even know I had, but I figured out that life is supposed to be good and happy. Every day.

We enjoyed an AMAZING summer along the journey while he was building his hours.
I'll tell you... I can't WAIT until we own our own private plane. I loved driving to the airport and just getting in the plane. I loved the FBOs, kind of like a first class lounge, but it's for the private aircrafts. I loved being able to watch Mike and Jay or one of the other pilots he flew with fly the plane. On a trip back from Atlanta, GA we saw the most amazing lightning storm. Cool stuff!

We learned that it is truly never too late to bring your dream to life. At 43 years of age, my husband got hired as an airline pilot! No more sitting in a cubicle for him. We learned that anything really is possible!

And we’ve figured out that life is about each day, making the most of who we are, where we are and most importantly who we are with.

I look around and see that it wasn’t just me experiencing this - we all get so busy living life, that we forget to Live Life.

It is now my mission in life to help people find their happiness every day. Whether that is making their whole home sparkle and smell amazing, or creating a special space where they can escape and regroup, or giving them the chance to reconnect with some of the most important people in their life, or helping someone create a new career and like me, learn to dream bigger dreams.

It's easy to forget. And it's funny. You know the people who make amazing things happen in the world... the innovators, the memory makers, the Disneys and Gates and Mother Theresas of the world... they never stop dreaming. And that's what makes them great.


So today be a kid. Go out and play. Share what you will do for the sheer joy of it! Share the dream you dare to dream!

P.S. Ready to reduce your stress? 

Claim your F.R.E.E. report on why and how to take better care of YOU 

@ www.WineWomenandWax.biz

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Today is the only day that we have

Time...

Is it just me, or did we all think our parents were insane when they told us that time goes faster and faster as you grow older? WOW were they right!

This time of year, it's so easy to look back and reflect on lazy summer days. Didn't summer seem to last forever?

Remember being BORED? HA What a concept! Can you remember the last time you were bored?

As women entrepreneurs, we are always seeking better time management skills, training and techniques. Trying to squeeze an extra hour or two into any given day.

I posit that a large contributor to the phenomenon of time moving ever faster is our lack of ability to be present in the moment. We are always thinking about the next thing on the list, and the more we do that, the faster time goes. Certainly this isn't true 100% of the time, sometimes things that are magical just go by in a flash despite being fully present - like your wedding day, or Christmas morning. I think that's part of the magic maybe :)

My wish for you today, is that you be fully present in today. Today is the only day that we have. There are no guarantees. As a girl who was struck by a car as a pedestrian not once, but twice in my grade school years I can positively say that any one of us can step off of a curb and be hit by a car or a bus. There are no guarantees.

It's still important to have a schedule and a plan and all of those things. But take some time to breathe in the space you're in and enjoy today. 

It's the only day we have!  

I love what I do

Image via WikipediaI read a lot. I particularly read a lot about my industry, direct sales. I read information by trainers and those who have achieved what I aim to achieve myself. 
Today, for some reason, it struck me that when I hear other people in my industry talk about how much they love what they do, they often talk about how they love what they "get to do" or what they "don't have to do". 

"I love that I can be home to put my kids on the bus and get them off the bus."

"I love that I don't have to ask my boss for a day off."

"I love that I can work in my PJs."

"I love that I get a free company trip each year."

"I love that I don't have to wake up to an alarm in the morning."

"I love that I can take a nap in the afternoon."

"I love that I make my own schedule."

Those are all great benefits, to be sure. But it got me to thinking that I don't often hear people talking about actually loving what they do do when they are working.

I LOVE what I do. I love when the new product line is released. I love pouring over the pages and picking my favorite items. I love smelling the new scents and taking the sparkly shiny new pieces out of their blue boxes. 
I love becoming friends with my customers as we work together.
I love doing a home party! Hanging out with a room full of women, who are usually drinking wine :) laughing, sharing, connecting.
I love helping women pick out a new look for their home.
I love helping women pick out  the perfect gift for their mother, daughter, sister.
I love helping women start their own business.
I love working with women as they embark on a journey of self discovery and empowerment.
I love watching women become strong, confidant business women.
I love learning from other brilliant, powerful business women.


I love what I do. There are great benefits too, don't get me wrong. 
But why do I do what I do? Because I freaking LOVE it!

What do you love about what you do?