Lost It All but Hey, That May Not Stop Me!

[pampered1224]

For those of you who have had a rough go of it, I am in my 11th year as a PC Consultant. And I had no parties in June or July. Just could not get it together enough what with the new job and weird, ever changing schedule. It has NOT been the same days or times each week so I could not schedule anything because I would not find out what I was working until just before the week coming up. It was solely based on the doctors appointments of a cancer patient and my having to fill in for her. For example, I am working on a 12 day stretch that started a week ago Sunday. I was supposed to be off today but she has a chemo treatment to make up for the one she could not do last week. So I lost my career sales. What by the way does this mean? As I was Inactive in June and July, but was able to register for launch this coming Saturday, they won't have me drive all the way to Schaumburg then tell me to go home right? I have to assume there will be no change over kit right? I do know I go back to 20% commission. You know what though, I am not worried about it. I am going to keep going. Hopefully this next few weeks of a regular schedule will allow me to get back on track. If not, well, I no longer have anything to loose!

 

[aried]

Love your attitude! Hope to see you on Saturday! Thanks for being there for your coworker. I know she feels better knowing you are there for her, chemo sucks .

 

[gailz2]

John, couldn't you have filed for one of those leaves from PC? It may have covered you and let you miss a couple of months without a show. That being said, congrats on being such a great person to not complain when your coworker needed your flexibility most. As far as the change over kit--I would guess they are already in the mail, and it is slow to change over mailing lists.Good luck as you start over--set a goal how fast you can make it back to $15,000.

 

[NooraK]

BTDT, know how you feel.

I lost my career sales last February. It was actually like a weight was lifted off my shoulders. I had five and a half years in, about $40K in sales, and I had driven myself crazy until the end of the year trying to keep my business running. What I was in fact doing was neglecting myself and my family. I feel so much better now that I've decided to take my business as it comes, because that's what I can do. I have a full time job that pays the bills, a traveling husband whose income was cut almost in half a year ago, and two kids.

Losing your career sales just means you lose your 2%, and you probably won't get a CN in the mail until you're active again. They won't turn you back from Launch because you're still a consultant. You won't get a C/O kit or be able to order samples until you're active again. Hmmm... I think that's at least the biggest things.

See if you can get some past hosts to run a catalog show for you. I've seen lots of people promoting Facebook Parties recently. I should probably take that advice, too, and do it myself.

 

[carlajanes]

I understand what you are going through John!!! With the 3 surgeries on my jaws in less than a year, my business suffered greatly! I was able to hold enough catalog shows to keep it going.
You have the right attitude!! Praying for you and your co worker!

 

[BethCooks4U]

We all have to make decisions in what we do. Your PC income helped you through unemployment and now you are focusing on the other job and, by being available to take your co-worker's shifts, on helping her and taking some stress from her. When, if, you decide to ramp up your PC business again karma will be on your side. In the meantime, get some of your faithful hosts to help with catalog shows. Even one every few months will keep you going through this. I have several consultants who work full time and submit a show every 5-6 months. I recommend they time it to get the change over. If you submit one in August you will get the change over kit, then you would be "good" until say February. Wishing you the best.

 

[chezshelly]

John, sometimes if you do it by the 21st or so of the following month home office will give you a waiver. Also, I'm not sizer of this launch, but I did hear of people being turned away from the last one for not being registered. Hope everything turns around for you!!

 

[cookscorner]

You have an amazing attitude and your graciousness will not be overlooked.

 

[esavvymom]

I know what you mean John. I was at that point this month. "Is it worth it?" But I ended up getting almost all I needed for sales to be active, so I was saved yet again. I agree. It's not worth getting upset and stressed over. You just dust off and keep plugging away!

 

[chefsteph07]

John, couldn't you have filed for one of those leaves from PC? It may have covered you and let you miss a couple of months without a show. That being said, congrats on being such a great person to not complain when your coworker needed your flexibility most. As far as the change over kit--I would guess they are already in the mail, and it is slow to change over mailing lists.

Good luck as you start over--set a goal how fast you can make it back to $15,000.

I don't think they give you that option to take a leave anymore...

 

[pampchefrhondab]

I lost mine about 2 years ago. I agree, it takes a weight off your back. I really don't care anymore. It's just a hobby for me now.

 

[CookinWithLynda]

I'm in the same boat - no activity in May or June, so lost all accrued sales. I was lucky enough to be able to be active in July, so I'll get the change over kit. You have to be active in the month before it's released to get it. It's tough enough sometimes to keep working and selling PC, let alone anything additional. You've been a great 'team player' helping to cover your co-worker's schedule so she can focus on her health - your good deed will come back to you. Good Luck!

 

[esavvymom]

You can get the changeover kit in the same month it comes out- once you submit your sales (I know...did that last time! completely forgot).

 

[NooraK]

You can get the changeover kit in the same month it comes out- once you submit your sales (I know...did that last time! completely forgot).

This is my saving grace!

 

[pampered1224]

That may be mine as well. I have a couple of orders that equal about $80 so... I do however need some stuff myself so I may just do it if I have enough money. I hate being out of things like the salt, pepper, I miss my cinnamon the most and Smokey BBQ Rub. And I really wanted the Pizza Pan! I can not do pizza crust on my grill without one. I can not get enough oil on the grates to make it not stick. So... I am also going to ask around else where not sure where but I have too. No one ever replies anymore to my calls or e-mails, in fact I have about 35 people ask to be removed from my e-mail lists in about the last three or 4 months, so I think I have dried up all my past hosts and guests even! So I am reading the lemon aide lady's materials as to where to find customers when you run out of family and friends. Even my mom is like, nope and she showed me the storage area under her bed. OMG! She could open a retail PC store! I never knew. Now I do so I am not going to bug her for quite a while.
So tomorrow I will be at launch. I am registered in fact I am positive as there was an issue with the card I used. We changed it and I gave them the wrong card expiration date! So I even have the bank statement showing they do have the registration money. I feel better knowing that I am helping someone so my putting off PC is not for nothing. I think too I need a big reorganization myself. Priorities change and well, my focus has changed. A lot is different now. Oh by the way, any one who saw me last year, at spring or fall launch, I have lost a total of 95 pounds at this point! I hope you all see a difference!

 

[Gina M]

Awesome job on your weight loss John! That's great!

 

[pampered1224]

Well I got the official from HO. I can attend tomorrow without fear of being turned away. You do not get booted from these events if you signed up and paid. I am so glad I stopped at the bank for toll money! 4 tolls by the way between here and there. Each is $2.90 at the WI - IL border each way and $1.90 getting on and off at Lake Cook Road! $9.60! Yikes.
Thank Gina! I have worked hard not to gain back anything while living on inexpensive food like Mac and Cheese! Now my only problem is that my clothes are a little loose now and I can not afford new right now! Such a bad problem to have right? LOVE IT!!!

 

[pampered1224]

So as I have not addressed the comments about being cool about this I will now. I was POd big time the morning of August 1 when I realized what had happened. Not at HO but rather at me. I could have found a way to get the parties and such. I should a would a could a. No I could not. I was learning a new job. I was working weird hours and because of those hours I was tired. A LOT! I realized that with every ounce of me being put into to my work schedule, such as it is, that would not have worked. A sign? By the time I got to work that day, I knew there was a reason and was OK with that. What it is, not sure yet. It may be simply because I need to concentrate on this job so Mary can do what she needs to do without worry. It could be because there is a major change in my own life coming and PC may not be a part of that. I just do not know yet. Fall launch is something I need to do and maybe attending will tell me what I need to know. This is the first year in maybe 10 that I have not done the booth at our state fair. Why? I can't schedule the time! A sign? I have not been able to purchase catalogs, or products, or order forms or even ink for my printer for fliers for over two years. A sign? Every fiber of my being tells me something is coming. Something big and I need to be ready for it. Good or bad, I just need to do what I am doing, stop and quietly listen to the softly spoken words that I hear in my heart and go. That is what has been guiding me for several months now. Actually I think it is closer to several years. But the out come has not yet been reveled to me. I do know this. It will be soon like a couple of months. Before the holidays I think. I see very few leaves on the trees and me standing in my front yard with a huge grin on my face. So I hope it is a happy smile and not an ironic one. Also, I look to be this age so... But it could be further into the future. I just know that this is preparing me for something and I need to walk the walk. Anyway, I better get moving. I gotta make dinner and go to the store and put gas in my car for tomorrow! If you are there tomorrow, say "HEY!" and have fun!

 

[BethCooks4U]

Well I got the official from HO. I can attend tomorrow without fear of being turned away. You do not get booted from these events if you signed up and paid. I am so glad I stopped at the bank for toll money! 4 tolls by the way between here and there. Each is $2.90 at the WI - IL border each way and $1.90 getting on and off at Lake Cook Road! $9.60! Yikes.
Thank Gina! I have worked hard not to gain back anything while living on inexpensive food like Mac and Cheese! Now my only problem is that my clothes are a little loose now and I can not afford new right now! Such a bad problem to have right? LOVE IT!!!

Your launch is in Chicago area? Take 41. We no longer pay any tolls in IL or ID when we go through there.

 

[pampered1224]

Great advice Beth. After I wrote the last couple of posts, I talked to my dad. He told me that he and mom go that way all the time. My aunt lives in Rolling Meadows. The only thing is that it takes an extra 45 minutes to go that route. So I am sort of torn. This means a difference of 5:30 a.m. out the door or 6:30 out the door. So... We will see. It will depend on how fast the coffee kicks in I guess!

 

[katem51]

Well, I've lost my career sales twice now!! I just don't work as hard at PC as I should; no one to blame but myself. I had no sales for May or June and today on 08/03 I managed to submit a July catalog show of $160. I have decided not to sweat it. I started doing this to supplement my income from my full time job. I don't make very much but when I do it allows me a trip to the casino for an evening. I've never done very good in the summer. I usually do a booth at a large county fair in late August and those leads will keep me going for a few months.
That's the great thing about being your own boss when you do PC. I can beat myself up or just keep plodding along. Good luck to you John. You're not going to miss that 2%.

 

[chefliz]

That may be mine as well. I have a couple of orders that equal about $80 so... I do however need some stuff myself so I may just do it if I have enough money. I hate being out of things like the salt, pepper, I miss my cinnamon the most and Smokey BBQ Rub. And I really wanted the Pizza Pan! I can not do pizza crust on my grill without one. I can not get enough oil on the grates to make it not stick. So... I am also going to ask around else where not sure where but I have too. No one ever replies anymore to my calls or e-mails, in fact I have about 35 people ask to be removed from my e-mail lists in about the last three or 4 months, so I think I have dried up all my past hosts and guests even! So I am reading the lemon aide lady's materials as to where to find customers when you run out of family and friends. Even my mom is like, nope and she showed me the storage area under her bed. OMG! She could open a retail PC store! I never knew. Now I do so I am not going to bug her for quite a while.
So tomorrow I will be at launch. I am registered in fact I am positive as there was an issue with the card I used. We changed it and I gave them the wrong card expiration date! So I even have the bank statement showing they do have the registration money. I feel better knowing that I am helping someone so my putting off PC is not for nothing. I think too I need a big reorganization myself. Priorities change and well, my focus has changed. A lot is different now. Oh by the way, any one who saw me last year, at spring or fall launch, I have lost a total of 95 pounds at this point! I hope you all see a difference!

Keep us posted!

 

[Cookingal]

So if you become inactive for several months you can still place an order in a few months without signing up again?.... I thought once you were inactive the 2 months you were just done...can someone clarify for me. Thanks!!

 

[NooraK]

So if you become inactive for several months you can still place an order in a few months without signing up again?.... I thought once you were inactive the 2 months you were just done...can someone clarify for me. Thanks!!

You have to be inactive for six months to be done. Two months you just lose your career sales, and won't be able to place a personal order or use PC dollars until you submit $150 in commissionable sales again.

 

[pampered1224]

Hey! Guess what I found on my door step today? I found a change over box. That really surprised me completely. This is a good thing of course because now I do have some materials to try to get going again. Now to just get a few more orders to make the $70 to add to the $80! I sent out the going, going gone flier someone graciously posted and nothing yet. My mom does however want to get her hands on some of the Ginger Wasabi sauce before it is gone. So we will see!
Oh and to add insult to injury, Mary's, the lady with cancer, brother passed away Monday so she is taking off for a week. Which means I am on double facility duty from Saturday to Friday! YIKES! But on the good news side, she was able to, after a two week postponement to get her white cell count up, she was able to do her chemo treatment on Monday. That's actually where she was when she got the call from her mom about her brother. Geez this woman needs a break!

 

[AJPratt]

Hi, John... I swear our lives mirror each other. I lost my career sales over $20. I was not paying attention and was short the remaining $20 I needed to stay active. I lost about $60K. Which, I was pretty mad at first because I had been sick, was losing my cafe business, was losing my house, my daughter had stopped speaking, learned my husband was having an affair and thought I had leukemia. It was a terrible point in my life. It truly was the darkest hour before the dawn. I tried to file a waiver and was denied. I was on the phone with HO in tears and sent emails. Nothing worked. SO, I looked at other direct sales options and still found PC to be the best for me so, I stayed on. There is something to be said about hitting rock bottom and going up. I realized it was just dollars, and not anything major in the grand scheme of things. There were a few people in my cluster disappointed in how PC handled my situation, but I was disappointed in myself. I was a little disappointed that my Director missed it as well. I know she had her own things going on and she felt terrible. I always counted on the second set of eyes to help me. It was just the perfect storm. But, somehow it was meant to happen. After some hard work, I just hit the mark again and it felt great. I know you will do it again!

 

[cookingwithdawn]

Wow Anne, from your bubbly personality at the meetings I've attended with you one would never know you had that many issues in your life

Glad things are looking up for you!

Dawn

 

[pampered1224]

Yeah Anne is definitely a strong one that is for sure! I think Anne and I have the same philosophy of life, "Yeah and?" We always seem to look beyond the obvious. We all know that the one way to look at life is on the bigger scheme of things but we concentrate more on the daily little stuff that needs to be done now. Anne took on some major crap and stepped back to re-evaluate and plan. She dropped everything including PC because at the time, it blurred the thinking process. Even if she did not know that at the time it simply just added more issues that were very unimportant to getting to where she needed to be. If you don't look beyond the obvious, your are essentially well, screwed! I am not saying looking to the future here. There are always bigger things to worry about, bigger battles to fight and bigger things to come. Just take them on a little piece at a time. Simply too, throw out the trash! (Her hubby was some of that if I may be so blunt!) I learned a couple of things along time ago that simply make it easier to cope. "If you have one foot in yesterday and one foot in tomorrow, you pissing all over today" and "Let go and let God". The first simply tells me to live in the moment as crappy as that can be, if you start looking at the past, you WILL go backwards and will repeat the stupid crap that you did then. You only want to learn from past mistakes not repeat them. If you pay to much attention to tomorrow, you can change something that should not be changed just by simply becoming unfocused on things to do today. If you concentrate on what today has to offer, you can be much more focused, much more productive and actually have a lot less stress so you can accomplish what needs to be done now. This means taking the bigger stuff and working it piece by piece rather than ALL AT ONE TIME. This is also known as over thinking. All that gets you is an ulcer and major headaches. It is simply way too hard to conquer it all at one time. In WWI, they took on the fronts one at a time. Not all together or the war would have been lost because the resources would have been spread to thin. They also knew when to ask for help. Thus allies. We all have allies here. That is one reason we all feel the need to discuss our burdens here. We all have the natural instinct to ask for help. We know the philosophy. Some of us just forget how to do it. Being to spread out and not concentrating on today will do that! So with that said, I still have not decided what I will be doing tomorrow or a week from now. Something is still missing. Not sure what though. I have been listening but at this point nothing has been said. I also know I am off today and tomorrow so... This may help focus. Or maybe it is simply not time yet. My plan for today is to contact a few people to see if I can add that $70 to make party. At least that is one thing off my mind. It also makes sure that I can come back if I want to. So... off I go to work on today! Take care!

 

[AJPratt]

Thank you, Dawn! That is very kind of you to say that!

John, you nailed everything right on the head.

 

[pampered1224]

See, I keep telling everyone that blonds are not dumb! Now, where the heck is my Nice 'N Easy?

 

[AJPratt]

LOL! No Nice and Easy here!

 

[imloopner]

Pampered 1224, thank you for writing this. You have given me home nad to never give up. Thank you!

 

[pampered1224]

Anne, Anne, Anne. Under all this gray is blond! I used to dye my hair but not because I wanted to be blond. I just did not want to be gray AT ALL and I have had gray hair in my blond since I was about 25. It was not bad but after I got sick the first time in 1996, the infection took such a toll that I was almost completely gray in a matter of about 3 months. Turns out some of the drugs can do that. So, yes I started using Nice 'N Easy. Then when I got sick in 2005, I simply stopped dying my hair. There is still blond in there but, well, it is so hard to tell! But Yes, I am a true blond. Just one with old hair!
And I am so happy putting this out there helped some realize that there are always new beginnings. Plain and simple. Look how many others have done it! Timing is everything and when I realized that I needed to do something else at the moment and that it was far more important to do that, I forgave myself and well, I was not dead! It did not and will not kill me. And if my passion is still there, I will continue to feed it. Now there is the true meaning. Will I or won't I?
We will see. I am attending our monthly meeting next week but I am also working alone all this week and part of next week as Mary's brother passed away. So she and her family need to do some legal stuff and that fun stuff. It will take time. Plus she has a chemo treatment next week and an MRI tomorrow to see what the lung cancer is doing. All that and the visitation is tomorrow and the funeral is Tuesday.
And I am also getting ready to take my insurance agents exam. WHOA! But anyway, I will figure it out.