I'll try to do better

It's been a long time since I've blogged. Seriously, I'll try to do better. It's just that most things that happen in my life are shared with facebook. I mean, who wants to read a super long story about how my kid got an A on her spelling test due to my genius parenting when I could just brag in a few words on facebook and be done? But here's the thing... you guys are finding my blog because you need help, or your curious and want more information and that's great. I just had another girl tell me this week "I read your blog! It helped me so much" and that's really what it's all about isn't it? So I'm going to try to give you guys something new every week!
I can't believe it's been 3 1/2 years since the blog that changed my life. Yes, a blog post changed my life. You see, I was just a normal stay at home mom with three small kids, some dogs, a cat, a husband who was probably the stinkiest of them all. I needed something, anything, to make my house not stink. I was happy with what I was using until my neighbor disrupted the force with something new. I didn't want to like it. I was loyal to my brand. But then I did like it. I liked it sooooo much better. It smelled better, and it wasn't made of stuff I would be ashamed to have in my home. I wanted more. I decided to book a party. But then, I researched some more and decided to join. Y'all, I wanted the kit and all the stuff in it I could smell anytime I wanted to. I knew i could make back some of the kit investment on my first party, and if it got high enough, I'd earn a quick start product credit. I had my party, I earned my hostess rewards, I made back my kit investment, earned the $75 product credit to get even more stuff and I was happy. I was ready to take my lifetime 25% discount and walk. But what I didn't account for is that my friends and family loved the stuff as much as I did. Y'all wanted more stuff. Y'all wanted to party. Some of y'all even wanted to join my team! Before I knew it, I was promoting for the first time, rocking top company sales, filling my calendar with parties and events. I've blinked twice and now it's 3 1/2 years later. I have made so many friends thanks to this business. Friends I will have for a lifetime. I have this amazing nationwide team, I'm a leader in the business. I've gotten to lead a regional consultant rally and train other consultants. I've gotten to create a workshop for one of our annual "family" reunions and teach other consultants and leaders on my strengths in the business! Me! How crazy is that? I was a big part of helping my neighbor and friend to become a leader as well recently. I've PCS'd to a new area where I get to introduce all new people to Pink Zebra and make more new friends in the process. and with another PCS on the horizon, I'm actually looking forward to spreading the love (and sprinkles) even farther! I am so thankful that someone chose to share this opportunity with me. And a sincere thank you to those of you who kept me going. Whether you knew it or not!
 Feel free to take a peek at our opportunity group on facebook if you're interested in more information! https://www.facebook.com/groups/1600680540157882/

fun at 4am

4am. I'm awoken by a high pitched beep. It's the smoke alarm. But it's not blaring to warn me of a fire somewhere in my house. No. Just a simple chirp. Ok back to sleep. ::beep:: that's kind of annoying. But I can ignore it. I am not getting out of bed at 4am. ::beep:: I am now angry. When we moved in last month they told us that all of the smoke alarms had brand new batteries and said we wouldn't need to change them until daylight savings next spring ::beep:: ok I guess it's not going to stop. Let's figure out where it's coming from. ::beep:: ok not in my room or ally's. Sounds like it's coming from the other direction. I am now standing in the dark at the top of the stairs. My dog is staring at me like I'm nuts because she knows I don't get out of bed in the middle of the night for anything. Probably not even the apocalypse. But this beeping is keeping me awake. ::beep:: "low battery" HOLY FUCK! Who said that???? Down the stairs I go. Time to start searching for a nine volt. I have no clue where one would be. I know where I kept them in the old house but I don't even remember unpacking them or where I would put them if I did. And so I search as my smoke alarm keeps talking to me. Every 45 seconds or so she reminds me that her battery is low. Taunting me with her voice that is way too chipper for 4am. I head back upstairs and accidentally wake up my husband looking in strange places for a battery. Then I start to wonder why they haven't made smoke alarms take more common batteries. Everyone has AA batteries handy. But who keeps a stash of 9 volts? I have one somewhere I know it. I'm not going to the store to get one at this hour (I've had to do this before. It was a Sunday morning at 7am when I couldn't find a replacement battery about 4 years ago. We lived in the middle of nowhere and I drove 25 minutes to a store that didn't open for another hour. The only open store didn't carry 9 volts so I napped in my car until the store opened). I'd rather beat the thing with a broom than do that again. Anyway I had the idea to check this smoke alarm to make sure it, indeed, needed a nine volt. Nope. 2 AA batteries. Woohoo! I changed the batteries and started heading back to bed ::beep:: "low battery"...... REALLY??? I guess I need to reset the thing. So I dragged the chair back over and climbed up and pressed the button. That's how you reset it right? Nope. ::BEEEEEEEEEP BEEEEEEEP:: "fire" crap. Every smoke alarm in the house is blaring. I hear kids coming out of their rooms and my husband shoots out of bed until he remembers I was just looking for a replacement battery so it must have been me. I yell "fire drill" up the stairs and snicker. They groan as I press the button again and it beeps differently and tells me "carbon monoxide detected" my snarky 9 year old yells down "is that a drill too?" So again I reach up and push the button and all is quiet. Not sure I'm ready to fall for that just yet so I wait. A full minute this time. No beeping. Yes! After about 45 minutes this fiasco is over! And now I'm wide awake 😭 my six year old slept through the whole thing. At least we learned something. 😴😴😴

Counting my blessings

sometimes we al just need to stop and think about how blessed we truly are. No matter how crazy life seems, each and every difficult experience is actually a blessing. Our most recent pcs was difficult on our kids. It was hard for them to leave their house, their friends, their school. We knew it would get harder as they got older, but we didn't realize the emotional attachment we had to their friends too. Many of them had become part of our family. For me, I had built a thriving pink zebra  business in Texas. I had an amazing team who had become some of my best friends, awesome customers, and a steady monthly income. I was worried about starting over! On top of that a good portion of our household goods came up missing, there was lots of damage to our furniture, and it took forever to get here! it was so stressful. But it's all helped me realize how blessed we are. We have had more time together as a family. The girls are bonding with one another because they don't have a friend's house to escape to. We've been hiking, playing outside, board games and Barbie dolls. They may not have realized it, but their best friends go with them anywhere they go. Sisters are best friends for life. As for me, my team is still awesome, I just don't see them everyday. They're still working their butts off and I'm so proud of them! I also get to build a team here! How awesome is that? My customers still love me and my business is still thriving. Plus, our new incentive trip was released today and I am definitely earning this all expenses paid trip to Costa Rica! These are things I've never dreamed of doing. My husband's job blesses us with the ability to live all over the country. I never thought I'd find my way out of New Jersey! But I've lived in the mountains of West Virginia. Spent a few years in Houston Texas and how I get to live in vegas! Yes! Vegas! And my job allows me the opportunity to make new friends anywhere we end up, the opportunity to travel for free! Plus they've given me some fabulous bling! I am truly blessed. Sprinkles. Who knew?

Coffee, a monkey and glue

Coffee, a monkey and glue. Those were my problems of the morning. Seemed everything was going wrong. It's not Monday, but it sure felt like one since the girls had off of school yesterday. I was dragging it pretty bad this morning and after shipping them off on the school bus, coffee sounded AMAZING. I popped a k-cup in the keurig and sniffed the air as the scent filled the kitchen. MMMMM. I mixed in some sugar and poured half and half in the cup, stirred, and that's when the problems started. What was that little white blob floating in my coffee? Another one. Another one. Those are friggin curdles. The date on the half and half is nearly 3 weeks away. :( Major sad face!!!! So I dumped the coffee and started my projects for the day. Project 1: diaper cake. I have never made a diaper cake. I don't even think I had one made for me when I had a baby shower years ago. Come to think of it, I don't even know if I've ever seen one in person and I am positive I never cared enough to look closely. But a dear friend of mine and I were chatting about her up coming baby shower and she mentioned that her loser friend who offered to make her one flaked out on her and probably wasn't even coming to the shower because it was her "Birthday weekend." She is about to have her third child and has never had a big all-out baby shower before. I'm not about to let her be disappointed. She touched on finding someone to make her one and paying for it herself. UM. NO. Since finances were kind of limited after back to school, 2 car registrations/inspections/repairs, and 2 baby showers this week, I had to do this on a budget so there was no ordering a ridiculously outrageously priced diaper cake option. So I Googled it. Easy enough. I had already bought her a pack of diapers so I opened them up and started rolling! I managed to make it almost look like an actual diaper cake. Woohoo. I set my goal low Somewhere between doesn't suck and at least it's not falling apart. Mission accomplished. Then my crafty brain took over and I busted out the craft box. After borrowing my hot glue gun back from the neighbors who borrowed it months and months ago (because I craft so often nowadays) I got to work glueing ribbon and bows and making it kind of pretty. Then came the monkey. Have you ever tried getting a monkey to stay in one place? Not easy right? Not even if he's stuffed. This stuffed monkey looked super cute at the top of that cake. But he kept falling over backwards. So I tied his legs to the cake with thread. That worked for all of 5 minutes. Then he started falling forward. So I tied some thread around his neck. I couldn't get it to tie properly around the ribbon or diapers without making him look like a crooked neck "walker" on the Walking Dead so I decided to glue the thread to the ribbon. Instead, however, I glued my finger to the ribbon. I'm pretty sure I screamed every curse word I could think of in that five seconds that my finger screamed with burning, searing pain. I pulled and I shook and I couldn't get the damn thing off my finger. I jumped up and ran, because apparently the glue was chasing me, and the entire diaper cake fell apart except for the ribbon that was still attached to my finger. Yep. I checked. No fingerprints left!!! Good news, the monkey was still attached to the top of the cake. I think I need a coffee :/

Pink Zebra vs. Scentsy 2: The business model

So it's been over a year since I posted my very first direct sales related blog comparing two similar direct sales companies and their products. I couldn't be happier with my decision to join Pink Zebra and my success with the company! My team has grown to 40 on 5 levels, I've enjoyed two promotions, made tons of new friends and I wasn't even sure I wanted to sell the stuff! What was I thinking? But recently a facebook friend invited me to join her Scentsy launch party. I have tremendous respect for that company. They have a great product line. But I've proven that Pink Zebra is soooo much better so why would she invite me to her launch party? Am I not posting enough? Am I failing at informing my own facebook friends? (If you're friends with me on facebook, you know that this is not the case, I can't shut up about this stuff, it's just so exciting!!!) So what was it? I mean, I see the appeal. A bunch of your friends use these products and really like them so you should sign up to sell it and make a few bucks, right? Wrong. You should show them this awesome "new" product that's taking over the market and give them something new and fun to be excited over and instead of selling them a few $5 bars from time to time, you can upgrade all of their warmers instead, therefore increasing your commission check. But I'm getting ahead of myself. I recently took a look at their compensation plan. In case you're in the process of deciding which of these companies to join, let me break down a few pros and cons and try to be as unbiased as possible.
# of consultants 
Scentsy: Approx 120,000 current consultants in the US alone. This does not include the many former consultants and those in other countries
Pink Zebra: Approx 15,000 consultants ever. This includes active and inactive consultants because you're never "terminated" for not making a sales quota.
Scentsy is definitely more saturated. It's likely that the person you're chatting with is a consultant, used to be a consultant, has a close friend or family member that is a consultant, or once had a party...or two.... for someone else.
Location
Scentsy: worldwide including  Canada, Europe, Mexico and Australia
Pink Zebra: US only. Expanding international in 2016
If you're outside of the US and looking for something to join today, Scentsy it is!
Length of time in business:
Scentsy: 11 years
Pink Zebra: Less than 3 years
Being around a long time you become a household name and you build brand recognition. But being a newer company YOU get to introduce people to your company. Plus, it's much easier to build your team. Where are those people that joined Scentsy in their first 3 years? At the top. Where can you be in 7 or 8 years if you join Pink Zebra in it's first 3 years? __ ___ ___ :)
Requirements to be considered Active
Scentsy: $150 in a single month every 3 months.
Pink Zebra: $150 cumulative in a 6 month period.
Compensation plan 
Scentsy: 20% for your first $1000 then 25% and additional bonuses when you promote into leadership.
Pink Zebra: 25% on your sales. If you reach $900 in a single month you receive 5% bonus If you sell $2000 in a single month you get another 5% bonus for a total of 35% of your sales plus additional bonuses when you promote to leadership.
Consultant discount
Scentsy: None. You must order at full price and wait for a check.
Pink Zebra: 25%. You may choose to keep your commission up front or wait for a monthly check
Method of Payment:
Scentsy: Paid to your Scentsy Credit Card
Pink Zebra: Keep your commission up front in cash, elect for direct deposit, or sent it to e-wallet.
New consultant Incentives:
Scentsy:
1: length of time: 70 days
requirement: $1250 in sales OR 3 active recruits
reward: $50 product credit, pin and certificate
2: length of time: 70 days
requirement: $2500 in sales or $1250 in sales AND 3 active recruits
reward: $125 product credit, pin and certificate
3:  length of time: 70 days
requirement: $5,000 in sales and 6 active recruits
reward: $200 product credit, pin, recognition in newsletter and at convention
Pink Zebra:
1: length of time: 30 days
requirement: $500 in sales
reward: $75 product credit
2: length of time: 30-60 days
requirement: $1000 in sales
reward: $125 in product credit
3:  length of time: 60-90 days
requirement: $1000 in sales
reward: $150 in product credit
4: length of time: 90 days
requirement: 1 qualified recruit
reward: $75 in product credit
5: length of time: 90 days
requirement: 2nd qualified recruit
reward: $75 in product credit
6:  length of time: 90 days
requirement: 3rd qualified recruit
reward: $75 in product credit
Total you can earn if you meet all 6: $575 in product credit
Additional Incentives:
Scentsy: (I'm sure the Scentsy consultants will provide this information for me to update. I know they do charm bracelets for promoting and an annual trip incentive but I don't know of all the details)
Pink Zebra:
Annual trip incentive (lesser prizes of an ipad or dell tablet for small point totals)
Annual awards for top performers in several categories
Random free product incentives
Executive Managers and up get to attend our annual family reunion for FREE. Executive Directors and up get an upgraded suite and pamperings as well :)
Jewelry: Managers receive Silver Necklace and charm. Executive Managers receive bracelet and charm. Directors receive custom fitted cowboy boots and a VIP trip to home office in Houston, dinner with founders, tiara, and other fabulous pamperings. Executive Directors receive exclusive trip, and a diamond bracelet. Presidential Directors receive (this level has not been achieved yet! It's a surprise!)
Career Plan: (This is where the big money can be made in this business)
Scentsy:

Pink Zebra:

The differences:
These plans are very different. Pink Zebra starts out at 10% (7% for every personal sponsor plus 3 % level one) for every person a consultant sponsors while Scentsy starts out at 2%. Pink Zebra also does not have an initial team volume requirement at the lower levels while Scentsy does. However Scentsy offers a 2% bonus on personal sales volume to consultants while PZ does not. Also, Scentsy will decrease your paycheck as your level one promotes. Their commission structure is based on your rank and the rank of the frontline consultant. Pink Zebra's commission structure stays the same as rank increases but opens up additional levels of pay deeper into your downline as you promote.
The bottom line:
If you are a new consultant and start building your team, Pink Zebra will reward you better with 10% of your recruit's sales with no minimum team volume ($400 PSV). Scentsy will only be paying you 2% on sales of that very same recruit and you have to hit $1000 team volume ( and $500 PSV). Scentsy rewards you for personal sales at the higher leadership levels, but at that point in leadership you should be more concerned about team training than personal sales, no?
So if you want a higher pay on your sales on day one, a higher pay on everyone you personally bring into the company, a ground floor opportunity with the potential to make it to the top, go with Pink Zebra.
If you would rather a bonus on your personal sales as you promote and are ok with a percentage cut as your team members promote, and are willing to work in a highly saturated market Scentsy might be a better choice.

Ultimately, the choice is yours and your house is going to smell AMAZING. As always, if you've decide to join Pink Zebra, my team is hiring! www.sprinkleaddicts.com plus, I'm on facebook so look me up if you have questions that need answering. www.facebook.com/sandiessprinkles I'm always available for my team! I'd love to help you reach those goals, whatever they may be!!!

The blog since the blog

It was over a year ago when I wrote my first blog post. My neighbor was trying to get me to try a new product when I already used something else. Who would have thought that one year later this is where I would be? I tried that product. I loved that product. I stood behind that product. And that product has given me so many amazing gifts in return. Friends. This has been the best gift of all. As a military wife who moves a lot, it's hard to make new friends. Especially since my husband is AGR and we don't usually live on or near a military base with other women going through the same thing. I've got a great new tool to make friends. The rest is just a bonus in my opinion. But I'm getting ahead of myself. This weekend was AMAZING. To think, I had almost decided not to go. But I wanted to lead by example so I packed my bags and headed to Nashville, Tennessee for our 3rd Annual Pink Zebra Family Reunion (yes, third, we are 3 years old, ground floor, and quickly making a name for ourselves in this industry, come back here in 5 years and we'll chat about how awesome this is).

Friday: I was scared out of my mind on Friday when I showed up to register for this part of the weekend. Leadership meeting. As a brand new manager I would be surrounded by the top leaders in this company. Yes, they've kind of got celebrity status with us consultants and I got to have lunch in the same room with them. It was delicious. Then we got a private leadership training by one of the greats in this industry. If you haven't heard of Belinda Ellsworth, you're probably not in direct sales (yet. want to join my team?). She was awesome and gave me some great tips on leading that I'm already starting to implement! A quick change of clothes and we were off to the Grand Ole Opry! We got to go back stage for drinks and snacks. We cleaned them out of coconut rum. We all had floor seats for the show (which included Brad Paisley). It was such an amazing experience and I couldn't have picked better people to share it with than the leaders who helped me to succeed. That was just the first day! 

Saturday: Saturday was so exciting! I walked in the room and it was FILLED with zebras! I'm so impressed that so many came out to reunion, see the fall line, and learn some tips to boost their business! The morning brought recognition and I got to walk across the stage as a Manager! I received a pink rose and, of course, my manager necklace!! It's so cute. I think everyone should have one! We took a group picture and were treated to lunch. Then, another great seminar by Belinda Ellsworth! Then, it was workshop time! I was soooo honored to be one of only 4 managers asked to host a workshop. Partnered with another manager, we were able to deliver information to other consultants on what was working for us so we could help them succeed. I was TERRIFIED! But I did it. And it was FUN! Honestly I don't remember much because I was so nervous and kind of blacked out, but I've gotten great feedback. :) After workshops I got to spend some time with my family that came with me to Nashville. We got to have dinner together, then it was back for the reveal!!! I was soooo excited to see the new fall and winter products and smell the new scents. I definitely have a favorite, but I won't tell!! Dessert and Drinks were yummy and we were given lots of goodies to take home. I bought some more catalogs (who wants one?). I was sooooo tired when I got back to my room but my head was spinning with penguins and snowmen I could barely sleep! 

Sunday morning I was sooooo tired, but not ready to stop! The excitement of the morning was enough to get me going! We were told we were able to offer $25 off the starter kit this month. Woot woot. But the big announcement was our next incentive trip. We're going to Jamaica!! For FREE! All expenses paid! I was so close last year. This year I'm GOING! Who is coming with me? It's so easy to do if you work at it steadily. I've already got my plan! We had one final seminar from Belinda (she's so awesome, I love everything she has to say) and more workshops from our peers. Our founder even sang for us :) I learned so much from everyone. I just had to soak it all in. Then I headed back to my room to shower and change for our dinner cruise on the General Jackson. Great food. Great people. Great night. I watched some of the top performers receive much deserved awards. I even made one of the top 100 lists myself (omg top 100 in the company??? That's soooo awesome!!!). We also found out that our next reunion is going to be a little closer to home. San Antonio, here I come!!! 

The loot:

As a leader I was given a beautiful leather bag and clutch. A pink and white zebra striped scarf. I also got a commemorative back stage pass and one of our gorgeous shades from our fall line. Plus a reunion planner to take notes! Don't forget the real backstage pass and ticket to the Grand Ole Opry, lunch, dinner and drinks! On Saturday, consultants were given our new fall Sprinkle testers, a single catalog, one of our beautiful new shades, and if they attended our last rally, they got a bonus red warmer! Plus 2 empty jars to fill with a single scent or recipe of their choice! Plus, in our rooms, we were given a 2-dish simmer pot and 2 jars of an exclusive scent! I also got my necklace for promoting to manager! How awesome is that? On top of all of the information I retained which was priceless! I love my "job."  Why are you not doing this with me??? www.sprinkleaddicts.com <---- Go there and get started so you can come hang with me in Jamaica and San Antonio!!!

generic sunscreen

For your benefit I will not post a picture. I am having MAJOR skin-feels-like-it's-on-fire problems today. Laying in bed last night I was belting out the Alicia Keys tune trying to make light of my situation. I recently bought some store-brand spray on sunscreen. I was going to go for the good stuff as usual, but the store brand stuff was on sale. And I had a coupon for 20% off of store-brand merchandise. So I went the cheap route. Anyway, a friend and I packed our 5 kids ranging from 2-9 into the car yesterday and took them to the beach. Upon our arrival, I broke out the sunscreen and started spraying kids down. One of mine hates the lotion and prefers the spray. One of my hates the spray and prefers the lotion. I usually keep some water babies lotion in the car for her but we weren't in my car. So I proceeded to spray my hands with the stuff and wipe it all over her. I handed over the can to my friend to spray her 2 year old because I'm pretty clumsy and not interested in being responsible for spraying a kid in the eyes. When she's done with it, she chucks it in the sand. Let me put this into perspective for you. My hands were COVERED in the stuff as I was wiping my daughter down. Therefore the sunscreen was all over the can. My friend chucked it into the sand and there is now sand all over the can. It's my turn to get sunscreened. so I pick up the sand covered can and spray myself all over. now my hands are covered in sand. Whatever, I sprayed myself. I'm good, right? wrong. After 2-3 hours at the beach we jammed these tired kids back in the car and by the time we made it to sonic for half priced slushies, I was feeling like my shoulders were frying on a pancake griddle. I look down and I have STRIPES ON MY SKIN. Apparently the places where I sprayed directly were very well protected and the rest of me were a nice shade of boiled lobster. I should also mention that this FRIEND I went to the beach with is getting married next week and guess who is the made of honor? She's going to have a zebra striped maid of honor in her wedding pictures alllll because I couldn't rub the sunscreen in with my sandy hands. OK it's not entirely her fault. But it's much more fun to blame her than have her mad at me for looking like a bottle of ketchup in her wedding pictures.