Three Things I Learned from Direct Sales

For about three years I sold jewelry for a direct sales company. I absolutely loved it and the product. I have been out of it for about two years and yesterday I was in a reflective mode and realized that I learned a plethora of lessons from my experience with direct sales.

The first thing that was on my mind is the saying that was repeated every month at our training. "Those who train, remain and those who don't, wont!" That is a nugget of truth that you can find in all aspects of your life. Obviously, in training for a race you will not do well if you just get out there and run without having trained. Spiritually, if you do not discipline yourself each day to read the Word, pray and spend time with other positive believers you will not remain grounded in the Truth. So, say to yourself "Those who train, remain and those who don't, won't" and believe it is because it is so true.

Secondly, I was reminiscing about what ticked me off the most about direct sales. You relied on other people's word that they were going to have a show. I would plan and schedule the time out of my own life when I would get a call the day before the show that no one was coming and they did not want to go to the trouble of having a show if there was only one or two people coming. Obviously, I understood the fact that sometimes people would get sick and they would need to reschedule. . .just the excuses would make me crazy. So, my motto is. . . (came from a trustworthy source :)) "Let your yes be yes and your no be no." Can I get an amen!!!

Finally, and really I could go on and on from the lessons I learned from being in the business, was that women need each other. We need each other to say "you look great!" I had a mirror with me at my shows that on the back said "Tell me how great I look in this jewelry." When one of the girls were modeling a piece of jewelry the girls on the couch would ooh and aah over the gal with the new jewels. It was always funny to have them ooh and aah over the jewelry, but it was fun to see how sincerely encouraging they were to each other. They did not ooh and aah just to get their friends to buy a trendy new accessory (well sometimes they did if they were hosting the show and getting some perks), but to really move them outside of their comfort zone in something bigger and flashier and see how great they felt about themself.

It was truly a fun and rewarding experience.