Pink Caddy

As a lot of you know, I am earning my Pink Cadillac with Mary Kay!! I've earned 2 cars already, but an upgrade also comes with a pay raise. YAY!
In order to do this, I'm looking for more women who have thought of direct sales as a source of income. My job is to help you become successful. 

The things that set Mary Kay apart from other direct sales is...
#1 - 50% commission rate (Highest in US)
#2 - We actually get free cars and ANYONE with a consistent working pattern can earn one. (other programs give you money to go and get your own car, but ours is MADE FOR US. They start making it as soon as we earn it and it arrives a few weeks later. They pay for taxes, licensing, and up to 84% of the insurance.)
#3 - Consumable product. It is not only something most women use already (mascara, face wash, foundation), it is something people come back and buy time over time. I'm still earning money from work that I did when I first started 4 years ago. 
#4 - You can just sell and make a good income or you can team build also and replace your income. It's not ALL focused on recruiting. (also not multi-level which I love!)
#5 - We have the #1 training in the country and an adoptee program. If you choose to move, you can plug in with a local director (who helps train you) and you also still have your family. 
#6 - Faith really does come first, family really does come second, and we really do encourage you to place your business THIRD. 

In the end, this is a long standing company - #1 direct sales company in the US. We are recession proof and we make women feel beautiful. We focus on improving YOUR confidence and your growth as a person which helps you to be as successful as you want in any field you're in.   

I have talked to A LOT of you about this business and would like to get you started NOW. I will offer you a special incentive if you start between now and the end of the month. 

Seriously this is the time to do this! We are on the rise and I'm taking people with me! I am passionate, and my heart belongs to this company - not because it started there but because of what I found after I started. They give us MOST of their profit. No company in the whole world give as much percentage, incentives, trips, and income as this one does - I PROMISE YOU THAT. 

Here is a video of a REAL person in this company who started out small and is now so successful and so admired. 

I'm not here to try and convince anyone to do anything. I'm here to answer questions and see if this is something you'd like to try or not, after you have all the facts. 

We all have dreams in our lives, I'm making mine come true already. Money doesn't buy happiness, but it does buy you choices. And CHOICES are so much fun to have. 

Things I've learned working my Mary Kay business

Confidence and humility go hand in hand and lead you to success. Confidence without humility is arrogance and humility without confidence is timidity which is also selfishness - you're so worried about what people are thinking that you're only focused on yourself.

Being a people person is more than just having people like you. It's about liking people and understanding who they are. It's nice to be important, but it's more important to be nice.

True success is built when God comes first, family comes second, and career comes third. And a strong family is built when the people around you can see you set goals, achieve them and miss them, and witness your work ethic. Children learn more from watching than telling.

Believing in people comes from believing in yourself. When you believe in others they can achieve anything. But accepting what they choose to do or not do is a form of maturity and love.

Friendship can be powerful. It can be so strong that you'll put forth any effort to stay close to the people who lift you up and help you be who you want to be. So powerful that it can lead you to your deepest dreams and desires without you knowing it's happening. True friendship is not sitting around talking about random stuff, but constantly encouraging others and lifting them up so they can be their best selves.

So many more things can be said, but if you didn't know me before Mary Kay, I will tell you I was a lot more selfish than I am now (is this even possible???), I was super negative about everything, I judged people a lot, and I did not care very much about other people's feelings. This business is so much more than skin care and makeup. Although those things are fun, we truly and honestly focus on improving who a person is on the inside. When people talk to me about Mary Kay and all they do is talk about the products, I feel so weird about it because the products are not what I think about at all. I think about the women that want to change their lives and their situation. If you don't believe me, that's fine, but that's how it is.


I love sharing the products with people because they literally are the best out there, but more so I love talking about enhancing myself through keeping a positive attitude, loving my life, and doing things that I love to do. This business allows me to do so much not just because of the money and the choices it provides, but because I am an independent women who has goals, success, quality friendships and joy all around me. I seriously could not ask for more, except I do. I want more from this business because I know I can help others achieve what I have achieved and feel how I feel.

Change

The hardest place I've ever had to move from was Arizona. I truly loved my life there and even with how hard it was, I knew there was more for me somewhere else.

Finishing my Bachelor's degree seemed a long road(9 years), but I did it and had dreams for my future (all of which involved traveling). I, however, felt that getting married would move me along a better path, so I chose that instead.

With both decisions I prayed. And both decisions I honestly felt that life would be great no matter what I chose which made them harder to actually go through with. Because of not just these choices but a lot of changes I've gone through, I've learned that change is always good. It has always helped me to be a better person and I love change now.

I could have never imagined having as great of life that I do. I have a husband who will literally do anything for me and strives every day to make me happy. I have 2 dogs that I adore (one more than the other though haha) and they make me happy. And I seriously have the best job in the world. It's my 18th try at a job. I've done so many different things and this blows them all out of the water. I get to make my own schedule, meet amazing people, have the best and most positive support group helping me, build women's confidence, and make more money than I ever thought was possible for myself.

And it will all change.

Very soon my life will be something I honestly and truly never wanted. People tell me it'll be the best thing ever. Do I believe them? Yes, I actually do. But does that make me want it? No, and I have no explanation.
I have no idea why I feel this way. I always have. With every congratulation, my heart wants to burst out with tears. I do have faith that it'll be okay. I do know that it will be great. But that doesn't in any way change how I'm feeling now. And I don't know how long I will feel this way. Nothing anyone says can help.

That is why I'm writing this. I don't want to explain this to everyone and I don't want anyone to think I dislike them or am upset with them for not responding the way "I should." I just need to do my thing... and I don't even know what that means.

Is she a Feminist or a Shrew?

Feminism is sweeping the nation and the world. It is a very popular topic. More and more women are striving to find their own place in this feminist movement. The definition of feminism INCLUDES having a feminine character. But is that what we are focusing on?

When you hear someone say "she's a feminist." The first impression that comes to mind is someone who stands up for her rights. Someone that wants equality between women and men. That is what it is supposed to be. That is the definition, but I think it's being taken a little too far. People feel the need to become more like a man to be equal with a man. What is so great about men anyway? If we want equal rights, does it make sense to completely change ourselves? That is not equal, that is conforming. Isn't it more about individuality and being more of what you actually are?

Feminism seems more of an excuse now; an excuse to be condescending. When did that become okay? I, for one, do not want to be thought of as malicious, criticizing, downgrading and vulgar. It might sound a little abrupt and generalizing, but most people would agree. There are the few people out there that are ruining this movement for all of us. Feminism should be a positive thing. It should be a term that shows we are focusing on becoming the best us and achieving amazing things. We should embrace our femininity to be proud of who we are, not strive to be something someone else is.

What is a feminine character? Yes, women have been described as having sensitivities and gentleness. This is NOT a bad thing! It is part of who we are and part of our hormones. Embrace ourselves and use our strengths to propel us to where we want to be. Women have such unique qualities that can be used to really make a difference in this world. But a rising number of women are throwing away who we are to replace it with harshness and abrasiveness. How shrew-like do we need to become before we will be satisfied with our achievements? I suspect it will never end. Women who have this mentality of what feminism is will never be satisfied with how they measure up. These women have great pride in what they do and who they are and that gives them satisfaction, but it will never replace their low self-esteem. They do not recognize themselves as special, beautiful, and lovable.

Real feminism is embracing who you are and rising up anyway! It's being who you are and focusing on being a better you. THIS will bring success, this will bring you equality, and this will bring you confidence that is mixed with joy. We do not need to be rude and demeaning. We do not have to be loud and disapproval. What we can be is influential, uplifting, powerful, and assertive. We do not have to take crap from people, but we should react with kindness. People all over the world respond to kindness much more than they respond to people who are argumentative. If there is anything I've learned in the last couple years of leadership it would be that I can do it successfully and well by being lady-like assertive. This is different than being pushy and it's definitely different than being coarse. It is doing what you need to do to get the job done and being a women while doing it. It's not being passive or aggressive. It's simply, assertive.

Who do you honestly want to be? How do you want people to view you? Do you want to be surrounded by people who love you and care for you, or would you rather have people be afraid of you and avoid talking to you? I know women. I know what is deep in their hearts. No matter what they say on the outside, I know that on the inside they would like to be the person they were honestly meant to be (which is influential). Sometimes they just don't know the right path to get there. Sometimes they think there is no other way and they become a shrew. I know this because this was the path I was going down until I realized there is a better way; a better way to advocate for women. And this way actually brings phenomenal results.

Need Something Quick? Hungry? Grab a Snickers!

I believe that how we feel should be a direct measure of what we do. Now, I'm not talking about when we are angry and we have the urge to punch someone. It's not that kind of feeling. I'm talking about listening to our body and our emotions and being in tune with ourselves.

It was a few years ago when I let go of my childhood habits to eat frozen pizza, burritos, and chicken pot pies every day and try to eat better. Most likely around the year of 2005. I can't be sure, but I do know that something happened inside of me and I decided that I wanted to eat healthier.

At first, I can remember trying to cook more foods instead of just heating them up. I remember not eating Ramen Noodles and that I was sad about that. They were a staple in college, but when you look at the calories I was kind of shocked even though I didn't really know what it meant. Such a small portion for what I call expensive. I now say that a food is too expensive for me and when I say that I'm not talking cost, I'm talking calories. See, I never thought that counting calories really mattered. And still it's really about eating well and listening to your body. But in the case when your body has lost the ability to cue you when you've eaten to much, then counting calories can be extremely helpful in getting you back to the place where you can know how much is enough or too much.

I also ended up majoring in Health Science. I did an internship with a dietitian/bodybuilder. It was then when I realized I did not want tell people what to eat for the rest of my life or how to exercise. It was personal reasons, but nonetheless it wasn't for me. There was a lot more I could do with Health being my major so I kept it and finished, but that story is for another time. I will be forever grateful for that internship and what it taught me. I wrote diets for people, all kinds of people. People with Celiac disease, msg sensitivity, lactose intolerant, ect. What I came to understand and FEEL about this is where I come from today. What I am saying hasn't all been tested and proven. What I'm getting at is NOT FACT, however, it is what I believe and what I feel. It is in short, my opinion and based on some studies.

Our bodies are capable of so many things! If we sit down and think about it, I believe it is truly a miracle any time a baby is born and is alive. Life is completely remarkable! There are so many small processes that occur in our bodies that NEED to happen in order for it to function properly. Some things are so small  you would maybe find them to be "insignificant," but no! If one of those things doesn't happen, we would not function as easily as most of us do, or not at all.

With that being said, I believe our bodies are made to take in certain things and not others. Our bodies are amazing at adapting, but there are some things that we eat that make it harder for our bodies to process them or not process them at all. And in that, not function properly. Our eating in the past few years has, I believe, caused a lot of the diseases we have today.

 High Fructose Corn Syrup is one of the things that I don't believe should be put into our bodies EVER. I do understand that it is not something that is easily avoided. It is in everything. But I do believe that we can watch out for it so our intake is significantly less. There are correlations between HFCS and obesity which is what the graph above demonstrates, but the more we are educated on this, the more that number of consumption will go down. I think we are off to a good start in the last few years. I'm really not going to go into the scientific reasons why it's hard for our body to process this because you can read up on that yourself. My goal is to get people thinking about it and possibly make small changes in their lives.

What makes me even more irritated is the fact that sugar is already sweet, but we've gotten so addicted to sweeter things than just plain sugar. Artificial types of sweenters are sometimes 200x more sweeter than regular sugar. So, we feel we need to sweeten things up more because the taste isn't how we like it. It's not what we are used to which makes it so much harder for people to eat regular vegetables and fruits. They just don't taste as good. And it's true! It's not going to taste as good when we are magnifying the taste of everything else. They are also hard for our body to process and can have negative side effects.

Along with those two things, there are numerous other things that are added or made in our food before we get it from the store that can have unwanted side effects in our body. We need to learn to listen to our bodies. When we eat something, do we feel good after, or do we feel tired? Do we feel happy or blah? These are things we need to pay attention to more. When you get done eating a meal and you don't feel energized even just a little bit, then we should probably eat something different next time. (And I will be honest here. It is hard to feel things things when we don't really know what kind of feeling we are looking for, because it's subtle.)

Good old fruits and veggies. I know it's drilled in people's minds over and over again, but honestly they are here on this earth for us to eat. Not the artificial flavor of them, but the actual thing!

I'll tell you a little secret. I don't like vegetables most of the time. I never really have liked them. But I'm learning. It's a process. But I will tell you, the more I eat them, the more I like them. I'm used to LOTS of sweet things. My body craves them because they're addictive. Vegetables don't give you that super sweet taste. They are raw, but real. It's what we need to be eating to be healthy. To keep on going when we are in our 70's and still feel good. There is so much that goes into that, but eating right is the start of it all.

It all brings us back to the fact that we need to learn to understand what our bodies are wanting and how we feel afterwards. A lot of us have lost our natural triggers that tell us what we need, how much we need, and how we feel when it comes to food. We just want to be satisfied quickly. But that will just bring us more diseases, more obesity, and more depression. Who wants that in their lives? I know I don't. So, it's time for a change. It will become a lot easier when more people believe the same way and try to do something about it. I don't agree with everything about the food guide pyramid, again personal, but I do think it's a good place to start. And hey, this ^ picture looks pretty cool and appetizing. :)

Why the heck would anyone wear makeup?

God made you beautiful. Why not just accept it and why do we try to change the way our face looks? As girls, we are constantly trying to improve our image to be better and be more beautiful, but honestly, weren't we made beautiful? There are two kinds of girls out there in general (I know there are more but we will just talk about the two at the moment). One type of girl will wear a full face of make up every day and the other type of girl couldn't care less.

This second type of girl will wear mascara usually, but really that's about it. Just the basics of the basics and some times not even that. She doesn't care about getting ready for the day and thinks it's a complete waste of time or she just doesn't have the time. Thoughts will come into her mind like, "I just don't get why someone would put so much makeup on their face. It's deceiving to others when she looks completely different with it off." Truth: this was me. 

There are other variations of this girl, but you understand what I'm talking about. All those pictures that go around the internet that show how much different a girl would look all made up. I've seen them. If this was 3 or 4 years ago my thoughts would say, "that's disgusting." But, I see things in a completely different light now. When I see those transformations on the internet now I think, "WOW!" 

What changed my perception? And that is all it is, perception. Let me take you back to a time when I didn't care. First off, I didn't want people to be shocked if they saw me without makeup. I wanted to be REAL. I wanted to look natural; as I was into more "natural" type things. But another thing that I didn't tell people is that I didn't know how to make it look good. Granted, I hated foundation because of the way it felt on my face. But as far as eye shadow went, I didn't know how to make it look the way other people's did. Cheek color was laughable and I thought only old ladies wore it. Lip stick was also something of the past and I didn't want to be that "girly."

I was proud that I could get showered, dressed, hair done, makeup and everything in about 20 minutes. I wasn't like those "other" girls and I didn't need to a take a lot of time in the bathroom. But what I didn't realize is that I was taking pride in what I thought wasn't being prideful. What a concept right? It took me a long time to figure this out. 

It takes a lot of courage to go out and look nice. Do you realize how many people will ask me in a store why I am dressed up for that day? People will compliment me like crazy and all I did was put my makeup on and not wear my sweats to the grocery store. It is amazing to realize that not taking care of ourselves has become the norm and it is abnormal to look nice. I know this is a controversial issue, but what have we become? 

Have you ever heard of the "Great Generation?" They are those people born in the 20's or 30's and grew up during the Great Depression. They are the ones who still wear lipstick every day and dress nice when they are going to go out in public. They are the reason I didn't want to wear lipstick because I felt like it was an old lady thing. But this is what I know about them. They think about honor, dignity, and respect. The Great Generation will dress up nice to go anywhere because they believe it is how they show respect to themselves. Now, think about that for a moment. Showing respect to ourselves. How would the world look if we all did this instead of walking around in our PJ's in stores and school and where ever else we go? Did you know that people feel better when they get ready? Did you know that it boosts their confidence level to wear makeup and nice clothes? If you disagree with me just try it! Why wouldn't we want to feel good about ourselves?
I know for a fact that as soon as I started looking nice I became a nicer person. As soon as I learned how to do my makeup I really loved it because I thought higher of myself. It's not always about being vain. It's about respecting ourselves and our gender. Women are POWERFUL! We can do so many things and do it well. Why not feel powerful all the time? I do now. My perception of myself has been altered greatly since I started putting on my makeup every day and dressing nicer. I am a completely different person than I was 2 years ago. So why in the heck would I take a little bit longer in the bathroom to get ready? So I can feel good about myself. And oddly enough people are sometimes intimidated by me; but how awesome is it to be intimidated by someone and that person be kind to you? It raises their esteem higher. I do it now because I honestly feel that I am a woman to enrich other people's lives. And I should look good and feel good about myself so that I can help others do the same. 

Now, I'm not a great writer or anything, but I do hope that I'm being understood. It is the norm to not care, but it is so much better to care about yourself and your image. Image is an amazing thing. If you want to be someone who influences others in any way, it helps so much to have the image to go with it.

"Even a barn looks better when it's painted" - David O. McKay

Powerful women - thanks Lia Carta for letting me steal this picture without you knowing ;)

Dreams and Logistics

Have you ever seen the movie "Safe Haven?" And if you have, did you ever think that would be such a fun lifestyle? Such a cute fantasy with small towns, beaches, bike riding, and canoeing. I saw it and seriously thought.. that's the life right there!
It came on TV at my parents house the other day when we were over doing laundry. Yeah... we don't have a washer and dryer at the moment. :) My thoughts reverted back to what they had been the first time I watched it. But as I was watching the movie I was thinking about my own life and what I really like about it. Honestly, sometimes other people's lives appear to be so amazing and simple. But they didn't talk about any financial troubles anyone was having or the economy going down. They did show some family troubles, but it all works out in the end right?
I started thinking about my life. I have a job that I LOVE! I am earning my 2nd FREE car. I have a great husband who would do pretty much anything for me. We are moving to a place I've never been (I love doing that by the way), and he's going to be a doctor. We have two beautiful dogs that I love to go on walks with. My life is GREAT!!
I will often times let myself ponder on what could be if I was in a different situation, but you know what I realized? I will never be content having a simple slow lovely life. I was meant to do more in this world. I was meant to make a difference. And as much as a simple, beautiful life appeals to me - I know I would get bored. I would always search for more because that's who I am.
I do believe I may always envy people who can sit on their porch all day with an "ice cold cherry coke," playing guitar, saying hi to their neighbors and that is their biggest worry in life... who to talk to today. :) But I know it could never be mine. I love the thought of it, but my love for making a huge impact in this world and inspiring women to do the same is way bigger than that.
Don't get me wrong though! I enjoy my days when I'm not doing anything. I love being outdoors and being in the mountains. I can do all those things because I create my life exactly the way I want it.. and I get paid good money to do it.
Work Hard Play Hard!!!!