Surprised? I also sold Pampered Chef, I made more money with Pampered Chef, but I got bored with it. I"m not going to try to recruit you, oh no, I was just thinking about the speeches I listened to years ago about "What Was In MY Mary Kay Starter Kit" and it started me thinking about what I finally decided was in my starter kit: I had 2 toddlers and was a stay at home mom when I started selling Mary Kay in 2000 not so much for anything other than something to do and to be around adult women. My director was a woman out of Richmond Texas so I was 'adopted' by a local director who inadvertently made me feel like I was less than desireable because I was a stay at home mom living in a trailer with no life so I decided to sell Mary Kay. While that was true, she should have never appraoched my situation like that. She would use me as an example to shame her 'unit' into recruiting because 'there poor Melissa was in that trailer with 2 kids and we didnt' find her, someone from Texas did..." They weren't looking for me, I was looking for them. Somewhere to fit in. Somewhere to belong. Obviously it wasn't in her 'adopted' unit.
It wasn't long before I was blessedly adopted by another director and started going places, not with finances, but actually out of the house and travelling with my new adopted Mary Kay unit. That may have been the best thing to ever have happened to me. I went to my first Mary Kay Career Conference with Le Ann Moses, and became fast best buddies, shopping partners, and out and out partners in crime as our husbands began calling us. This career conference is also where I first set eyes on Mary Kay Ash herself, in a taped interview, but hey it was Mary Kay speaking and she was quite the public speaker, but I began to feel I really was called to do something better with my life, but I also knew it wouldn't be in the Mary Kay company.
As I sat out with outher consultants during lunch break I noted how many of them were dowdy dumpy frumpy overly made up overweight women. They were some of the nicest, friendliest, kindest women you would ever meet, but...they, like me, were overweight. And it made me wonder if they were looking for that same something I was looking for? Acceptance maybe?
I heard one of the top directors at Career Conference say "I can't promise you what is inside that Mary Kay starter kit, it might be a vacation, it might be your children's college education, or it might even be a pink cadillac. What is in there is what you decide."
I remember sighing as I watched my very last MK order delivered just knowing that I was one of those fat dumpy frumpy overweight Mary Kay failures, except, my Senior director told me something I never forgot. "Melissa I feel a leader in you. You have a presence about you that just draws people to you. You're going to be great." It may have been a canned, rehearsed speech. It may have been something she told everyone in her unit, but I took it to heart because no one else ever said that to me, ever.
My husband has always said I should have been a teacher. So, in reading your comments, and putting those two random comments together I wonder if I've found my leadership potential that my senior director commented on, or my inner teacher has found her way out? Who knows?
Just last week one of my friends from church said I had inspired her to get out of her house and walk because she had seen me out walking and running in the dead heat of the afternoon.
Maybe what was in that pink boxed starter kit wasn't a pink cadillac, but my self confidence, and a couple of lifelong friends, and who can put a price on those?
I dont' feel like a leader. Most of the time I feel like a massive failure who has been tossed out in the fore front because I was brave enough to put my weight problems in a blog?
If I can do it, you can too, regardless of how overweight you are, no matter your age, no matter your health problems, you can do it. One step at a time, then two. You don't have to do what I do because I'm not a doctor, or a weight loss expert, or a trainer. I'm just me. If you need to, build on what I have in this blog, tweak it to make it your own. Only you know yourself better than anyone else. You know your limits. You know your drive. You know your motivation.
Feel free to tell me about it or not, your choice.
Right now, I'm going to surf the net. I've already been out on a one mile walk, I'll be doing some toning exercises later this afternoon and some sun bathing while grilling chicken for supper. My kids have some school work to do and I have a house to clean. I'm off from Kmart tonight. That's how I spend my days, and I blog a little on the side.
Mel
Hi I am Flor Dobbyn, a Mary Kay Independent Consultant from the Philippines. I am more than inspired to read your article. Really very inspiring.
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