Hi, this is Tasha with Emerge Sales Training, and today I have an interview with three network marketers that have gone through some really hard life challenges and managed to move their businesses forward in the process. Early on in this interview, I asked the ladies to share some of their struggles and how they overcame them. At Emerge we want to highlight the best in network marketing, as well as those that are at Steps 2, 3, 4, and 5 in their business.
Here are some highlights/paraphrased thoughts from the interview. Please check out the entire conversation at the link below.
Dr. Angie started us off about two minutes in:
Tasha: Where was your business before? Where is your business now? And what was your life challenge did you run into?
Dr. Angie: Well, I’m a Stage 4 Cancer survivor, but when you’re in the Cancer Club you’re never really “Done.” In fact in the last couple of months, my cancer markers have started to say “Hello” again. So I have to do the healthy things, I have to practice what I preach. I have a chiropractic practice, and a doTERRA business that was just humming along, sitting back, learning, enjoying Emerge’s training. Then this past year I have been going through the process of getting a divorce. That’s been a big, “WHAT?!?” It’s been hard but…You just keep showing up, you just keep doing the hard stuff and it gives you the grit to kick some more butt.
T: What do you think are the keys to your ability to grow through these horrible circumstances?
Dr. A: Just doing one thing. When the overwhelm comes, just pause and take a break. Some days are just “Oh my gosh” when dealing with appointments and meetings that are emotionally hard. I give myself grace, and I wake up the next day, and it’s a new day. Just do one thing at a time. “Just keep moving and just keep moving,” has been what I tell myself. Once I get in my office, I am 100% focused on my patients. When I am doing my doTERRA business, I focus on that. I’m not thinking about the other stuff that I have going on. I just want to put the covers over my head sometimes, but it doesn’t last 3 months. It lasts a couple hours, a day, but that’s it.
T: It seems you became more present and dove in whereas most people hide and do less.
Dr. A: I have become more bold. I ain’t got time; I ain’t got time to waste! I need to boost up in rank, and I need to do it now! My motivation to work has been my life raft to help me counteract the hard stuff, the frustrating stuff, and the pain in life.
T: Some of the keys you mentioned are time mapping, planning your time, and asking for help. What?! What’s that? 🙂
Dr. A: With cancer, I’ve had to ask for help. And with my chiropractic business, I’ve had help with the administrative stuff. Emerge has been helpful and been a path of clarity for me. Emerge courses have been helpful to help me get there, because failure is not an option. And having help gives that feeling that someone is along your side with you.
~10:30
Dr. Janet: My dad, who has been my rock and my anchor and am extremely close, was diagnosed with Stage 4 lung cancer and no treatment options. So I took two weeks off to go up and take care of him. He ended up passing away shortly after that. Then from that I had to convince my mom, who has lymphoma but has been in remission and has been cared for by my dad, to move from her home. Through this I had to put a pause on my veterinary practice, which means I wasn’t working.
But out of this was my network marketing business, which we know is flexible and we can do anywhere. My take home income doubled, my team’s volume doubled as well, and I actually had my highest enrollment month the same month that my dad passed away.
T: I’m just going to awkwardly transition to the next question, because you know I can’t deal with emotion. 🙂
What did you do during your life challenge to ensure that your business grew?
Dr. J: As you can tell I’m an open book, so I didn’t hide the fact that I was a hot mess. Life is too short, so you have to focus on the good in your life. It happened to be during November and Thanksgiving, so I would post on Facebook every day something that I was thankful for, simple things. I was raw, authentic, unapologetic, and it was really therapeutic. A lot of people expressed thankfulness for sharing what I was going through. Also, I didn’t focus on myself at all: I talked with my leaders a lot, who knew what I was going through and offered to reschedule calls, but I insisted on keeping the appointments because it helped me keep the focus on them and their goals. I focused on helping others: leaders, my team, or customers. There were weeks I couldn’t call anyone, or there were days I could only do one thing.
~21
T: Shannon tell us about your challenges and what happened in your business?
Shannon: I left my six-figure, corporate job because it was sucking my soul, and I wanted to do something different. Generally, things come easy to me, and I’ve seen success, if I’m focused on it. And I’ve also had good luck. I was thriving, then went on a business trip and I got Lyme disease. At the time I didn’t know it, but my health rapidly started declining. It took awhile before I was diagnosed, in that year time it was a lot of work. I was spending hundreds and hundreds of dollars on my health, and going from where I was to where I ended up was a very hard adjustment. I didn’t get depressed, because I am a very focused, energized person, so I didn’t sit with that feeling-that didn’t come until later. But it was hard-there were people in my life that thought I was going to die. But through all of that I was working on my doTERRA business. I had a responsibility to my team and my customers. I just had to do it in a different way. It meant I couldn’t do 20 things. It meant I could only do one or two of the most important things.
Even then I didn’t even learn the lesson that I learned now, which is asking for help. I didn’t even know that was a concept, but that was a lesson that I learned. But I needed to learn that. My business had a decent foundation, so my business maintained but the growth of my business suffered. So I decided to do a corporate-sponsored travel program and felt I could do anything I want with this great team around me.
Then at the same time my husband told me about this great job that would mean a move from Denver to San Diego, and I said, “Sure, why not?” So the same day I left to travel the country and support my team with the idea that it would help my business get back to where it was, I sent my kids to grandma’s, and my husband left to start a new job in San Diego. I left thinking if I went to support my team it would be easier for me later, but that wasn’t really the case. It put a lot of pressure on my team that I wasn’t prepared for and, unfortunately, I hadn’t gone through sales training before this. So I wasn’t prepared and neither was my team. I travel and get to San Diego and don’t have a local team at all.
The two keys that I came away with out of these challenges were: 1. Failure wasn’t an option for me even though there were days I didn’t want to get out of bed and would have been easy to do so; 2. A lot of grace, a lot of grace, when running your own business, but especially when going through a major challenge.
It taught me to be flexible and make adjustments, and that’s where Emerge came in: it taught me there are much more efficient ways of running my business that are much more sustainable.
This challenge also taught me that I am not going to be the same person that I was before I got sick, and I may not want to be that way. But I need to give myself a lot of grace that sometimes are income-producing activities that will be better in the long run, but that is all I can do that day. Sometimes the most important thing you can do for your team and your business that day is that one thing that you can do.
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T: What advice would you give, now that you are on the other side of your hard challenge, to a leader who is leading someone who is going through a hard life circumstance?
Shannon: Grace! I have some young moms on my team that are having their first babies and want to take maternity leave.
T: A theme I heard as you all told your stories was that you all love your business even though you had this horrible life circumstance going on. And working in your business gave you joy during this time.
Dr. A: We’re in the business, as leaders, we are in the business of people, and this is life. It is create relationships with our leaders, our people and walk them through it. It doesn’t mean they are gone, it just means they might need to pause and ask them, “What do you need right now?” Taking time to have coffee dates and meeting with my team during the hard times are what kept me moving forward. The business will come, but the connectedness with your team is what makes you successful.
T: Something that Shannon said that stuck out was giving your team grace to do the one or two things they could do, not to pull back and come back when it is all over.
As we wrap up, what’s the one thing you would want to say to our audience if they are going through a tough life thing?
Dr. A: You have a choice: Let this circumstance or this season to take you out, or a choice to rise above it.
Dr. J: Just be authentic and vulnerable and true to yourself. People know what you’re facing, and it is good to just be yourself and get through it. Just keep on keepin’ on.
Shannon: Find the meaning in your work, because if your work is meaningful it gives you energy. It will get you through a lot of those challenges.
Thanks for checking out the post this week!
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