My First Show

Today is Emily’s first day of school. Next week is Michael’s first day of kindergarten. Emotions are a mixture of excitement and trepidations. Excitement to meet new friends and be reunited with old friends…trepidations about this year’s teacher and how tough the homework will be!

Our lives are filled with firsts and as I walked into work today thinking of my grandchildren’s first days of school, it reminded me of how many firsts I have had and thousands of others at Signature HomeStyles. We can all recall the excitement and trepidation of that very first Show. We were all excited about the launch of our new business, yet nervous to stand up and talk about our company, our products and our opportunity.

My first Show was with my friend Emmie. We met in college, stood up in each other’s weddings and had both started our families. I knew most of her friends and family and they were all there at her house for my first Show. I’m not sure if that made it easier or harder to do the Show! As my eyes scanned the room, I knew I had to avoid looking at her mother-in-law but settle on eye contact with her sister! To my surprise, during my presentation they were all smiling and nodding their heads as I gave them ideas on how to organize their homes with my baskets. The Show turned out to be a great Show and I continued to see all of them at many Shows after that…even her mother-in-law who turned out to be one of my best customers!

What I learned that night is that one of the best parts of doing a Show are the connections that happen. They had a great time looking at the baskets, handing them to each other, and telling each other what they should buy to organize their home! They started teasing each other about the messy spots in each others’ homes, joking and laughing together and truly enjoying being together. It felt so good to see all of them enjoying the evening and connecting with each other and I knew that my company was the vehicle that facilitated these wonderful connections.

And they all took me into their circle as well, considering me the expert in organization, giving them advice on which basket would work best. By the time I had done a few more Shows with them, I felt like a member of the family! Every Show was an update on who just had a baby, or who was getting married. I shared in their joys, and also their challenges. The connections were far more than just a business relationship…they were personal. And as my business grew, they grew with me, helping me to build my Team in those beginning years.

Now I look back at that first Show and have to think of where it led me and so many others. So often I’m asked if I ever dreamed that the business would become what it is today. Frankly, the day of that first Show I was so nervous that I knew I had to do my best just to make sure that I would get bookings to be able to keep my business going! The day after the Show, I knew that, if I worked really hard, this could be the best thing that ever happened for my family. I was launched…I was excited…and I became unstoppable!

I will be forever grateful for my first Show…how they connected with me and how I connected with them…how their jovial embrace of my company, my products and my opportunity gave me the confidence to begin a journey of a lifetime.

What We Can All Learn from the Olympics

“I’m just like Michael Phelps!” he hollered as he jumped into the pool. A few weeks ago at a pool in the backyard of one of my friends, I watched her son swim with great enthusiasm and pride, modeling himself after the swimmer who has taken the Olympics by storm. I’ve been watching the Olympics sometimes with my grandchildren and they were working with their swimming instructor with the same enthusiasm and pride. Joseph, who is only two, even got caught up in the excitement and jumped in with great enthusiasm. But, since he can’t swim, he quickly learned his lesson as we pulled him out of the pool with a mouthful of water!

I love the Olympics! To see all the great athletes who have worked all their lives come to one place to compete is so inspiring! The cameras catch them as they prepare and deal with the stress and mental anxieties. We see their faces up close as they work to do the best performance of their lives. And then we see some of them dealing with the agony of defeat and others beaming with pride and emotion as they bend their heads to receive their medals and stand poised to hear their countries’ national anthems played in China and around the world to millions of viewers. And my pride and emotion is right there with them, cheering them on, empathizing with their defeats, and celebrating their successes. When their eyes tear up on the podium, I’m grabbing for the Kleenex!

Overcoming Challenges and Dreaming Big
And I love the stories about the athletes…stories about the challenges they’ve had to overcome…stories about their dreams and visions of success…stories about the people who have inspired them…and stories about their sacrifices and the sacrifices of their families to pursue their passions and make their dreams come true. Each story touches every person in a different way and no matter what sport it is, we are all inspired by all of them.

Once in a while the cameras will catch the athletes in conversation with their coaches or fellow team members and you hear them saying things like, “We can do this,” “That was great,” “Great job!” or “I’m so proud of you.” They are interviewed and they talk about their commitment to their sports and they say things like, “You can never ever quit” or “Our goal was to get the medal as a team” or “I’ve been dreaming about this day since I was 6- years-old.”

Olympic-sized Lessons
We can learn such great lessons for success from the Olympic athletes about hard work, determination, commitment, passion and lofty goals and dreams. We see for ourselves how ordinary people can do extraordinary things. They did it by putting the word EXTRA in front of everything in their lives…extra hard work, extra determination, extra commitment, extra passion and extraordinary goals and dreams.

They won’t all go home with gold medals but they will all go home with great pride that they did their best and that they were part of a group of extraordinary athletes who competed in the Olympics. All of them have inspired a worldwide audience of future Olympians. None of us knows today who these future Olympians are…they could be jumping in pools, balancing on beams, or racing down streets all over the world. Some will not come back, some will move onto other things in their lives, but many of them will be back four years from now because they learned that you never ever give up on your dream!