A little link love

I’ve thrown myself back into blogging with a passion, and as such, have begun following and been followed by quite a few new women this week. Today’s post is just a quick little link love to a few of the posts I’ve read from some “new to me” blogs this week. Check them out, moms, you might just find your new favorite blogger mom to follow.

1. The Planet Pink for some very sweet musings about our babies growing up.
2. Mama’s Little Chick on the elusive quality of happiness.
3. HMCinCali on dealings with a pre-teen (I’m not there yet – lol)

Thanks to all my new followers this week for joining me on my journey. Looking forward to reading much more from all of you in the coming weeks and months.

Groupon

For the past several months, I have subscribed to a service here locally called Groupon. This is essentially a couponing website, where every day a new local company will offer a hot deal to all subscribers. Now, most days these deals are not anything I am interested in, product-wise, OR they are for businesses that are located just a bit too far away for me to want to take advantage of them (really, I am not driving 50 miles to get $10 off at a meat market). But occasionally they will have something that is personally of value to me. Not long ago, I got one for $100 worth of tree trimming services for $40. Not a bad deal. Well, assuming you need tree trimming, which I did, at the time (I have since gotten DH a chainsaw, so I think we’re now good in that arena).
If you are a girl looking for a deal, like myself, you might want to hit up their homepage at http://www.groupon.com/ and see if they are offering this near you. It’s free to sign up, and deals are automatically delivered to your email inbox once a day. If nothing else, you certainly do learn about a lot of other businesses in your area.

Thirty-One Conference 2010

I am finally getting around to posting about the Thirty-One conference I attended in Columbus, OH July 7-10. It was amazing! The energy of the other consultants, the execs and the home office staff was completely contagious, the product reveal was mind-blowing, and the free schwag was a great added bonus!

I probably took about a billion photos, but I’ll share just a few of my faves here.

The new consultant join kit, just $99 for all new girls that join this fall!

The $40 add-on kit, existing consultants can order through August 4th (mine will be here Monday! Woohoo!)

The $80 add-on kit, also for existing consultants (again, arriving Monday – SO excited!)

The warehouse at home office – look at all that product!!

Some of the people working on the custom embroidery side of production. That girl waving in the middle was my absolute fave person – so enthusiastic and energetic – LOVE her!

Two of the members of my team who attended, being silly at the awards dinner. Love you, girls!!

I already can’t wait for next year’s conference. I am hoping that even more of my team will make it – such an incredible experience and definitely something that every Thirty-One girl should attend!

Kindle

I love my Kindle. I truly do. I think it might be one of the best inventions ever. There is hardly a day that goes by that I don't use it, if only when I'm sitting at the horrible red light near the house that often takes 15 minutes to get through.

I am an avid reader, and have been for as far back as I can remember. Not that I'm often found reading anything that truly fuels my soul or anything like that. No, most often I am reading what many would deem pure trash. Junk fiction. Albeit often by some of the top fiction writers of our time (think Stephen King, Michael Crichton, etc.) Lately it's been anything vampire related. (yeah, I know, so shoot me) And the vampire thing didn't even start for me with the whole Twilight extravaganza, it was back with Anne Rice and Interview with a Vampire (though if I'm remembering correctly, I liked her books on witches even better than her vampire books.) My husband makes fun of me endlessly for this little literary addiction. Particularly since much of the vampire fiction I am drawn to tends towards more of a teen audience, much like the Twilight books.

But in any case, the invention of the Kindle has allowed me not only to conveniently carry around not just the book I am currently reading, but the next one after that, and so on. AND also to maintain some sort of secrecy about the fact that I'm actually not enriching my mind any, but rather just digging the latest in the Vampire Academy series. There's something truly fabulous about sitting in the middle of Starbucks, secretly feeding my guilty pleasure with one of these books, and nobody is any the wiser. Though apparently I don't mind sharing it with the blogging world.

And while I've got you here, you really should check out Vampire Academy. They are pretty fabulous, you know, if you're into that kind of thing. ;)

a new kit for fall

To go along with the launch of the new Thirty-One fall catalog, we now have a brand spanking new consultant join kit (and can I just say OMG it's awesome!) For just $99 you get all the products pictured on the right, as well as all the business supplies you will need to get started (catalogs, order forms, etc.)

My business has been growing by leaps and bounds this year, and I am constantly amazed at both my success and that of my team. I feel so blessed to be able to share this opportunity with so many women who are truly benefitting from what Thirty-One has done for their lives and their families.

If anyone has any questions about the company, the products, the kit, the opportunity, or anything else Thirty-One related, please let me know. I could honestly talk for hours about Thirty-One and would love to help you out. :)

motivated and energized

I just had a great call tonight that Thirty-One put on with Michael Bernoff speaking to us. What a fabulous speaker this man is! He has me so energized and motivated about my business that I just am not even sure where to start. I would highly encourage any women in business to take a look at some of what he has to offer.

One of the biggest things he emphasized was that in order to really succeed at whatever you are attempting, you first have to believe in yourself. And this is where we as women often fall short. We give and give and give (to our kids, husbands, employer, friends, etc.) and then there is nothing leftover for US, so of course when only that last little bit of energy and drive is all we are putting into US, then yes, we are not going to be the success that we are hoping we will be. And then we are our own self-fulfilling prophecy. We don't think we can do it (whatever IT is) and so we can't. You have to soar yourself before you can help others soar. I know we all know this, but how many of us are actually practicing it in our daily lives? How many times have you said "I wish I could _______" but then done nothing to advance yourself towards that dream? The world isn't waiting to just hand you success, you have to want it and work towards it, and I challenge you all to think of one way today that you can begin to do that. I know I will.

on shopping

Those that know me know I believe really strongly in buying from other moms as often as I can. I've had people comment that my home looks like the pages from many direct sales companies, and I love that. I get my make-up from other moms, my skincare, much of my food/spices, many home items, most of my jewelry (at least that that I don't make myself), items for my kitchen, etc. I would so much rather purchase from and support another woman in business than hit up Target, JC Penney, etc. Some of these moms I'm shopping from I actually know, from my local networking group, others I just "know" from online shopping groups, etc.

If you're not yet shopping from other women, why not? Here are some interesting statistics from the DSA website about Direct Selling and the women doing it:

: Direct Sales employs over 15 million people, almost 90% of which are women.
: The majority of women in direct sales are college educated.
: 32% of direct selling women are selling in the clothing/accessories and personal care arena (think purses, jewelry, make-up, etc.)
: The South leads the US as far as % of direct sellers, with 35% of direct sellers in the US residing in this region.

Additional statistics, if you're interested, are available here.

I would challenge you to take a look at some of the products and services available from the wide variety of direct sales companies available today. You might just find your new favorite product!