When there is nothing left to do but juggle

As I re-enter the work force full time, I realize the difficulties associated with juggling work/family and business. I am a full time Legal Assistant by day…..a mom and business owner by night and I wouldn’t change anything about it! My son Connor is 16 months old going on 20 and my full time job is demanding and time consuming as can be expected.

Time management becomes the most important part of my day, my day planner is also my life saver, without this small black book I don’t know where I would be. Lists and schedules rule my life, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. I know with these lists and schedules that everything is being completed as it should be, when it should be and nothing is left to the way-side.

I sell Dove Chocolate Discoveries through in home tasting parties and love every minute of it. This provides me with the part time income to supplement my full time income, but still have the time and energy to take care of the rest of the things that add up on life. Running a business can be stressful and time consuming, and juggling this with the rest of your life can be a challenge, but I manage to handle things just fine.

The most important thing in maintaining your business is to always be networking. Have your catalogs, business cards and hostess information with you at all times, because you never know when you will meet your next hostess or team member. Talking to people about what you do is the only way to get word out of exactly what you do, and why it’s so fantastic.

I bring with me a catalog, a few order forms, business cards and a promotional flyer. I also have notecards or paper to get information, and I always have my calendar so that I can book whomever I am talking to right then there, and mail them an official hostess packet as soon as I get home. This is how I book many of my parties, and how I maintain my monthly sales goals.

Life has a way of sneaking up on you, there will be times when your business won’t be at the top of your list, however it always have to make the list in order for you to succeed and achieve your ultimate goal. My ultimate goal will be the ability of turning my part time Chocolate money, into Full time Chocolate money on a Part Time schedule. I know that time will come soon and I cannot wait!

Life Moves Forward

Life has it's way of changing and mine is not an exception to this rule. Choices are made everyday that can take your life in a completely new direction, and my life is going in a new and different direction as we speak, and I am ready and willing for this change.

I have graduated with my MBA as of September, and will be starting my Certificate Program in Paralegal as of Jan 3rd 2011. I am looking forward to this addition and hoping it will lead into a career for me that helps me become the woman that I am striving to be.

I have promoted to Team Leader with Dove Chocolate Discoveries and stay home during the day with my beautiful baby boy Connor. He is now almost 16 months old and walking, talking like I can't even believe! Everyday he is growing and becoming more of a lil man, and I just can't believe how fast it is all going and how quickly he changes.

Everyone tells you that things change as quickly as you get used to them, this never seemed true until I had Connor. This is the first time in my life that I truly love someone else more than I love myself. He is a happy and healthy young one now, and I am so happy and excited to have him a part of my life each and every day. Connor has only been sick once in his short little life, and that was last year during this cold rough winter season, hopefully without daycare in his life right now he won't get sick at all this year.

On a personal note, Ryan and I have separated and living separated. This is very difficult for both of us, but sometimes in life things happen that hurt...but are still a better option than the easy choice. I don't know where this road will end up, but right now working through this issues that we have is the only option. What it will end up to be, I don't know right now...I just now that things have to change for the better in order for us to move forward with our lives together. If things don't/can't change then we really need to move on with our lives in a separate direction.

Unexpected Change

There are a lot of things that are changing in my life right now. I was let go from my position with the Cap Agency. with that door closing, another door has opened. I will now be working my business with Dove Chocolate Discoveries! I am excited and looking forward to this adventure.

On another note, Connor is 8 months old today and growing each and every day. He is getting ready to crawl, and is absolutely enthralled with all of his fantastic toys! He is a good boy, very smiley and just a bundle of joy. I thank the lord everyday for giving me such a beautiful gift.

I am also growing and changing in my life, continually learning new things! I am ready to graduate with my MBA at the end of the summer, and hopefully good things to come after that. I can't believe how fast this time has gone!

With summer comes warm weather and fun activities! It's going to be a fun filled first time mom summer for me, and I am looking forward to every minute I get to spend with my lil man!

Infants and Travel! `

Life has it's way of sneaking up on you! I was given the opportunity to take an all expense paid trip to Florida last week, and I decided that I would take the offer, so the planning begun!

This was going to be the very first trip with my 7 month old son Connor! I was excited, and nervous at the same time! I didn't have a whole lot of time to plan, so I just quickly got things together the best I could, making sure of course everything was organized and ready for "security" at the airport!

We finally get to the airport, waking up at 2:30 AM and being at the airport at 4AM...poor little baby! He was AMAZINGLY good though. We get to security, and much to my surprise, my son has to be removed from his stroller, and the car seat that attaches to the stroller, and all of those things needs to go through the xray machine. WHAT A CHALLENGE...while I fold the stroller and put it on the belt...who is going to hold my son? The TSA is the far from helpful, but we still managed to get through with all of our belongings!

We finally get to the gate, only to be told by the agent that his carseat is not FAA approved and would have to be checked....so much for a peaceful travel for me! He was all together good on his first plane ride.....he cried a bit, but slept and played for most of it. I was very surprised how well he actually did on that flight.

We were Atlanta bound! When we reached our destination Connor was ready for a change in scenery! We got off the plane, and headed to our next gate! The agents in Atlanta were very nice and friendly, I had found on my carseat where it said it was aircraft safe and we were allowed to bring his seat on! he slept the entire way! Florida bound! Ready for sunshine and palm trees!

He was a fantastic baby the entire trip, and although there were bumps and hiccups with security, we were able to get to and from florida with only a delay in detroit! (the down side of flying non revenue!)

My friends with children! Be prepared for the unexpected, when you think you have everything organized and ready, that's not always the case. With children as we all know nothing is smooth sailing, but it will be as smooth as you make it, if you are ready for things to change!

Details Count

Whether your office consists of hanging files and a carboard table, whether you build your direct-selling business on a part-time basis, or whether you plan to rise to the highest level of management within your company, paying attention to the details of your professional image is vital to your success. Consider these facts:

• Opinions are formed and people are sized up in as soon as seven seconds in today's fast paced world, studies now show.
• 93% of a persons conclusion about you is influenced by your appearance, body language, tone of voice, and attitude. Only 7% is influenced by what you say.
• The moment you meet a person, she begins to subconsciously assess whether she wants to get to know you better.

With this in mind, can you see why it is vital that you give your professional image top priority?

Your professional image is all about how you project to the world and how you conduct yourself. It's the energy you bring into a room and the way you make others feel when they meet you. It's something I refer to as your personal power, and it has a huge impact on your success.

Information Breeds Confidence

Doubt is deadly! You will rarely succeed unless you really believe that your products and the opportunity can truly change the way a someone feels about themselves.

It is vital to your continued success that you invest the time and effort to learn everything there is to learn about our business. Lawyers are constantly learning about new laws, doctors about the latest medical developments, and computer programmers about every=changing technology. Information breeds confidence!

Life...in the Fast Lane

The only thing consistent in life is change. There are so many reasons why change is necessary for everyone, it's hard to pick just one and blog about it. I am going to discuss a little bit of what's going on in my life, and maybe just maybe it will make me feel a bit better and get some things off my chest.

Life constantly gives all of us challenges, the important part is how we deal with these challenges that makes us who we are. Recently both my furnace and my oven went out, which in the grand scheme of things are very small challenges that make a huge impact in your everyday life. It's amazing to me how difficult it was to adapt to having no heat and no oven. Luckily the heat part was only for a brief time. The oven was out for about a week, I got really good at stove top cooking and utlizing the microwave. No my friends, we didn't have microwave meals every night, I think I would die if that happened for an entire week!

This week my son is really sick, Connor has RSV and for those that don't know what that is,
it's Recpiratory Syncytial Virus. His isn't that bad, but it could get worse if we don't watch him. We are currently giving him Nebulizer treatments every 6 hours in hopes that his crud will loosen up and he will be ok. Luckily for us, Connor isn't wheezing, and most babies get this before the age of 2, so I am not too concerned. Just one more sad point in the life of a working mom that is forced to use DayCare.

This weekend should be yet another crazy one, I have a big assignment due Sunday night that I haven't even started yet, I also have a bunch of cleaning to catch up on, and want to organize my office. All of this on top of watching Connor! Good times! -