Missed the Boat and Caught a Ride

Well hello and Good Morning. It's Monday and it’s time for the Monday Mingles Business Edition MEME, bought to you by none other than Lynsey Jones, The Party Plan Coach.  The MEME has already started as of January and I am doing some backtracking. Today's topic will explain how I got started in Mary Kay Cosmetics. It may be a long story, but I can tell it with a little humor (I hope) and a feeling that overall, I did the right thing.  I am what you call a second timer.  I have been a member of the Mary Kay Sales Force twice!  Why? That's a story that I will re-tell here.

You Have Great Skin

I was first introduced to Mary Kay Cosmetics by a compliment. I was in Key Food and a nice looking lady came up to me and paid me a great compliment - "You have Great Skin. What are you doing?" ("who me?! - pointing to self looking around at who she could have been talking to)  - I was flabbergasted. Here I am, 27, "Too Cute for Words" and working my dream job at Lenox Hill Hospital in the Department of  Nuclear Medicine, and I was just approachted by a stranger, gave her my phone number (to a complete stranger in New York mind you!) and set an appointment for a facial at the same time.  Fast forward to the facial - I was introduced to a good product and was asked if I would consider joining the business. I don't know what Barbara (something) saw im me, but what I saw was a "brand spanking new Grand Am" sitting outside on the street. And that is what got me intrigued enough to go "take a look-see" at the Freeport Yacht Club on a Monday Night. What I saw - the camaraderie, the fun, and the prizes, convinced me to tender my check to a sharp looking lady in gorgeous red suit. I was in. The problem was, I did not see the potential of a home based business. I made too much money to care at the time. Sad to say, I let the opportunity slip out of my hands. I missed the boat, right at the yacht club.

Professionalism

I was later introduced to my current recrutier quite accidentally. I was a warm body at a skin care show. Still "too cute for words", I became a loyal customer. My consultant chose to follow up with me and send my products all the way from Virginia to New York.  Let's face it. I could have bought anything at Macy's, but it was my consultants attention to detail, her knowledge and her professionalism that kept me her customer. That said a lot. Professionalism became the lure that led me to take a second look many years later.

There's No Business, Like Show Business

There's No Business LIke Show
Business - Fun, Friendships, Prizes
and Much, Much More!

Years later after my first contact with Jean, I relocated to Virginia. I worked in my chosen profession until I could not. But all of that time, Jean stayed in contact, by mailing me the catalogs, sending me invitaitons to events and the occasoinal re-servicing phone call. On one of those phone calls,  Jean heard someting in my voice - a dissatisfaction, a longing, a need. The next day,  I received an invitation to an event and a phone call asking me if I got the invitation,. That Saturday, I was picked up in the most beautiful Pink Caddillac DTS imaginable, and was swept off to the Career Breakfast. What I saw there was a camaraderie like no other, recognition of professional women who chose to work their businesses to the utmost of their abilities and I received a gift just for coming.  Later on in the event , the question was posed "If not you, then who and why not now?" That was the question that made me think - "Who  would be most served if I joined a business, and why not now?"  That moment bought tears to my eyes and I signed. You see, earlier in my life, the business was not explained to me as to how it could help me in the present and in the future.  At this Career Breakfast, I finally got it. I saw a way to show my son that a person with a disability could be successful, I found a place to sta,y where I would find lasting friendships and the recognition, that so many of us deserve, but do not recieve and I found my future and a knowledge that "There's No Business, Like Show Business!"

The life-lessons I have learned along the way have been many and I will share with you some of those lessons.

Lesson 1: Don't Pre-Judge. I was "too cute for words" and had a well paying job. The business appealed to me then  because it seemed like fun. Later, I probably was so low, that you couldn't get anything under me, and yet someone saw something in me and offered me the business opportunity.

Lesson 2: Follow Up - I was in New York and yet a Consultant in Virginia stayed in contact with me. And when I re-located and turned down countless invitations, she still followed up with me and serviced me with the product.

Lesson 3: Be Professional. Show that this is a real business and that you are reliable as a business person. You never know who is watching. I did. And the professionalism of the women I met impressed me enough and made me want to join them.

Lesson 4:  Be Memorable. Barbara Who? If I had remembered her name, I may have re-committed to being her business partner.  Instead, I forgot her last name, lost her number and the rest is history. This is also a reminder to FOLLOW UP!

I may have missed the boat,
But I caught a ride to my future!

 Lesson 5: Find the Need and Fill it. I don't know what it was; it may have been the lack of feeling productive, it could have been lonliness. or it could have been the day in, day out ddrudgery of being  a wife, mother and catch-all, but Jean heard it in my voice and Sent an Invitation and I Caught the Ride in the Pink Cadillac to my future. Thank You Jean.

So yeah, I missed the boat, but I caught the ride in a Pink Caddie and I am taking my business into the future.  Wanna come along?

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