I'm a Pooh, How About You? - Convention Team Meeting & Studio J Challenge

Greetings!  I hope you all had a wonderful Memorial Day weekend!  My message this week is a bit tongue-in-cheek, I guess I'm thinking ahead towards the Convention in Disney Land!  I hope it will make you smile like I did :o)

 I'm a Pooh, How About You?

                                            by Annette Yen

I'm a Pooh - how 'bout you?

When my girls were growing up we absolutely loved reading the Winnie the Pooh books together. In fact, now that they are 16 and 17, we actually still enjoy the original series (not the Disney remake books) and often will just pick them up for fun and read a chapter or two.

There is benefit, however, to reading Pooh as a direct seller too. Hang with me here, I'm very serious. Pooh and his friends from the Hundred Acre Wood provide a metaphor for the people in our lives in general and more specifically to our direct sales teams.

So let's have some fun and explore a bit more about Winnie the Pooh and his friends and see if you have someone on your team or a potential recruit that looks like:

Pooh himself: Pooh is pretty much the eternal optimist. He looks at every opportunity of life as a chance to get more honey and won't be shy about asking for honey when he sees it nearby and if his tummy is a little rumbly. He cares about his friends, sings while he's walking and basically is fun to be around. Though not always the brightest bulb in the lamp, what Pooh lacks in street smarts he makes up in caring and optimism.

Direct Sales Poohs - Poohs make great team members because they are pretty teachable. It might take a little bit longer for a Pooh to catch on to the system, but overall they're so fun to work with because of their cheerfulness and their willingness to try, that you enjoy the interaction and long for more. Poohs will usually see problem issues as bumps in the road and rarely make much of a fuss beyond "oh bother!" :-)

Piglet: Nervous little piggy Piglet thinks he's smaller than he really is. He has his moments of being brave, but for the most part, prefers to have Pooh hold his hand and lead the way. Though faithful to the core, anything new makes him nervous and he'll make a point of letting everyone know that he's a "very small animal."

Direct Sales Piglets: You can't miss the Piglets in our business because they're very needy. Even though they know the answer they don't trust themselves enough to go with it so they'll call, email or IM you every time a situation comes up when they're working the business. Some direct sales Piglets will be too tentative to ever really give the business enough of a chance and will quit, but others could turn out to be your shining stars. They'll be the ones whose life will be so amazingly altered because of their involvement in direct sales that they'll be featured in company publications.

Rabbit: Mr. Type A personality through and through, Rabbit is organized and can get things done. Though slightly lacking in the warm and fuzzy department, he's the go to guy when they need to come up with a plan and actually implement it. Rabbit's strong personality sometimes scares the other hundred acre wood animals, but they depend on him nonetheless.

Direct Sales Rabbits: Though teeming with potential, direct sales Rabbits sometimes are so focused on being organized, planning and vision that they don't ever really get their business going, because once they've finished organizing their desk or their schedule, there's not enough time to actually sell the product or the opportunity. Once you can help a Rabbit focus, however, they could well be your powerhouse sellers and recruiters.

Owl: Wise old owl has an answer and a story for everything. He can talk his way out of any situation - either by confusing or boring them to death. Unfortunately many of Owl's stories are a bit exaggerated - or completely made up. Owl thinks it's important to look smarter and act like he knows more than he really does.

Direct Sales Owls: The Owls on your team want to be superstars so much that they'll actually craft stories or embellish what happens in their business appear like the person they hope to be in the future. Owls, too, can turn into superstars if you capture the enthusiasm that drives them to be storytellers and help them to use that skill to share the business with others in an honest and straightforward way.

Eeyore: If Pooh is the eternal optimist, Eeyore is the eternal pessimist. To him, everything that can go wrong will go wrong. And so, unfortunately, Eeyore rarely will even try to do anything at all because there is no hope of it succeeding. If something does happen to go right for him, he'll somehow dwell on the fact that it'll probably go wrong somewhere else down the road.

Direct Sales Eeyores: If you've made it this far in this article you've probably got several names in mind that qualify for Eeyore. Every time this team member calls you it's to complain about something that probably doesn't even affect her because she's not even had a party or placed an order yet and is determined not to until your company makes the situations better. The problem is this person will then have found another problem to complain about. Direct Sales Eeyores are pretty tough to turn around and can often drain your energy. Don't let them. Encourage them in their positive steps, coach them to action and if nothing helps, be strong and walk away.

This was all in fun, but just like other "personality type" tests and assessments, the Winnie the Pooh list can be helpful in realizing your own Direct Sales style as well as the personality types of your team. Once you can identify certain characteristics of team members you'll know how to coach and encourage them to success.

Annette Yen loves direct sales. With 22 years experience under her belt she's met many a Pooh, Eeyore, Rabbit and more. 

SHOUT- OUTS:

Wowzer!  You have done an AMAZING job growing your teams!!!  We have added over 350 new Connected Hearts  1-5th Downline as of 9:00 PM Pacific Time - the notifications are still coming in as I type.  I'd like to recognize my first downline recruiters who have collectively recruited 57   

Adina Godin, Angela Noya, Beda Stoner, Carol Thompson, Chris Green, Christina Eisenhour,

Connie Wine, Darinda Fitzgerald, Emma Hernandez, Gina Zucker, Ginni Candelaria, Jill Annis

Kathy Markloff, Linda Sturdivant, Lisa Combs, Lisa Sargent, Michele Rowley, Sue Ashman, Tina Lovell, and Tracey Raczkowski

A VERY special CONGRATULATIONS to Chris Green who recruited 11 new team members and earned her promotion back to DIRECTOR!!!!

If any of you need assistance with your new recruits, please let me know, I'm happy to assist!

TEAM NEWS:

            CTMH National Convention Anaheim, CA July 13-16 (Leadership Day is the 13^th)

I will be doing my team gathering along with my upline, Karen Morris - leader of The Dream Team

Our color group is Jasmine – Purple – Backup color since Jasmine is full is Ariel - Green

There WILL BE team meeting fun and celebrations at Convention!! Here's the basic outline: Magic Kingdom Ballroom 1 & 4 are reserved for us from 7:00 to 9:50 on Wednesday, July 13, 2011.

7:00 - 7:30 KAREN MORRIS - MY UPLINE, MEETS WITH HER FIRST DOWNLINE
7:35 - 8:55 DREAM TEAM "MEET & GREET" this includes all of Karen’s 1-5^th Downline – All of Naomi’s Connected Hearts team - I will have a gift for each of you too! All Team Members are invited and encouraged to attend during this period.... There will be photo ops, a gift to all team members, and lots of fun NOT TO BE MISSED.
9:00 - 9:30 INDIVIDUAL TEAM MEETINGS for Karen’s first line Leaders Teams (Directors): specifically, Naomi Smith, Julie Reynolds, Kimberly Williams Wiltse)
Bring your cameras and business cards! More details to come in the weeks ahead watch your email as well as my blog

The first day of convention – let’s all show our team spirit by wearing our team color group color – PURPLE!

Team Challenge: 

At Studio J Bootcamp, we asked for even more features to be added such as photo cards, rub-on type embellishments, 6x6 or other size prints etc.  Brian Holman told us in order for CTMH to be able to allocate more capital to do these types of enhancements, we need to have at least 15-20% of our sales coming from Studio J.  He told us that consultants need to embrace it so they can grow it.  We need to use Studio J and share with everyone via our Facebook pages, Blogs and Twitter.  SO for my part, I'm issuing a personal challenge for my 1st Downline.

Create and submit 4 Studio J Layouts during each of the next 4 months June-September (total of 16 layouts).  With a Studio J 12 month membership, you will have free shipping and page protectors along with the rest of the membership benefits.  For each 8 people who complete the challenge, I will draw for 1  Studio J 5 pack.   Drawing will take place and announced on my October 4th blog post.

Don't forget to let everyone know about the  Studio J^® Free-for-All!

June 2011 Constant Campaign

During our Studio J^® Free-for-All in June, we're giving everyone a FREE Studio J^® JPG file—no purchase required! Simply log on to Studio J, create a layout, then order one JPG file of your layout during the checkout process. It's as easy as that! We're offering one free JPG file per customer account during June, so customers who already have a Studio J or a MyCTMH^® account are ready to log on and start creating. If a customer doesn't have an account, no worries—they can log on and create an account and then order their free JPG file with no strings attached. Make June the month you introduce all of your customers to Studio J with our FREE JPG promotion. They'll love it and return for more!

Dates: Offer valid June 1, 12:01 am (MDT) – June 30, 11:59 pm (MDT)

CREATIVE CORNER:

 More swaps from the team meeting featuring Kraft Borders

By Carol Thompson

Tissue cover By Cindy Newell and tiny tote (holds 3 chocolate squares) by Naomi Smith

By Mary Thomas (left) and By Cindy Kleinfelter (right)

Whew - a long post today!  Thanks for staying with me!

QUOTE OF THE WEEK:

You get the best out of others when you give the best of yourself."

                                                                                                               Harvey S. Firestone

Use Your Own Birthday To Build Your Direct Sales Business

Since May is my birthday month, I thought this article was very timely!

Use Your Own Birthday To Build Your Direct Sales Business

Have you ever attended a store sale and the store has advertised that the sale is in honor of their birthday or their anniversary?

You can do that exact same thing to celebrate your own birthday. If the month of your birthday has 4 weeks, offer a different sales special each of the four weeks.

You might offer a bundle package at a reduced rate one week. You might offer a gift certificate for qualified purchases one week. You might offer a discount on a specific product one week. And finally you might offer a free product with purchase one week. These are all ways to get increased sales each week of your birthday month.

You might consider sign up specials the month of your birthday also. You might offer a free product with kit purchase one week. You might offer a small discount on the kit one week (I’d do this the first week, so that those who signed up earlier in the month aren’t upset). You can offer each of these for a two week period.

Publicize that it’s your birthday. It’s a way to open the door for communications. I have my birthday listed in all of my online profiles. I also talk about what I’ll be doing that week or even that month.

Consider offering a contest in honor of your birthday. State right on the contest web page that in honor of your birthday you are giving away ______ and then let the contest run the entire month of your birthday.

Run a fundraiser the month of your birthday. Let customers know that in honor of your birthday you’ll be donating 10% of all sales to ________. Let them know which organization you’re making the donation to and what the money might be used for.

Your birthday comes around once a year. Take full advantage of those 30 days to promote your business.

Shout Outs:

We have added another 100 team members from May 11-today!

Here are the top recruiters for the past 2 weeks

4th downline Kerri Wint - 6 new team members

2nd downline Noreen Petty - 5 new team members

1st downline Christina Eisenhour- 4

3rd downline Christine David - 4

4th downline Katey Johnson - 4

4th downline Lauri Newton 4

CONGRATULATIONS!

Welcome to my newest team member, Angie Arms!  Angie is an amazing photogapher,  new mom, friend and my first personal trainer!  Check out her photography!  www.angiearmsphotography,com   Studio J is an amazing new product she will be offering her clients.

Team Meeting Update:
We had a great turn out for the meeting last Saturday!  It was a pack room and agenda with the focus on Studio J.  Lisa Combs, Christine David and Amy Ulen assisted in sharing the highlights from Bootcamp.  If you'd like copies of the handouts, email me and I'd be happy to send them to you. 

Carla Lantz, Cassie Smith and I, led the hands on Create and Takes.  Here is my project.  It is a 4x4 card tote.  I am teaching this in my card classes next month in conjunction with the Stamp of the Month, Jubilation.  The cards were stamplifted and inspired by Tracy Lunceford.  Email me for the tote instructions.  I will be teaching the tote and 3 of the cards.

1st Place winner in the swap contest. made by Christine David.  Box closed

Box open - the swap theme was Kraft Borders.

These cards created by Lisa Combs

Carla Lantz taught the origami butterfly featured on this card.

Quote of the Week:

"There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure."

Colin Powell

Taking The Day Off.....

Sometimes you gotta be spontaneous.  Spent the day-before-my-birthday with my husband.  Be back tomrrow.

How to Declutter Your Home (or Craft Room) in Ten Days

Wow!  What a whirlwind the past week has been!  I have been from one side of the country to the other and in-between.  I think I've finally caught up with myself and what time zone I'm in....

Spring has been slow to arrive here in the Pacific NW.  After our long winter and being away to 5 events since November, my office is showing it with a need of some serious de-cluttering.  I found this article that has been helpful to me.  I started today by cleaning out 6 drawers in my office.  If you find these tips helpful to you, share your progress by leaving a comment.  I'll keep you posted on my progress too :o)

How to Declutter Your Home (or Craft Room) in Ten Days

Spring has long come, bringing along the aromas of wild flowers, freshly cut grass and morning sun. With sunlight streaming through the windows and the change of season our houses suddenly start to feel stuffier and more cluttered than ever.

Our closets are filled with warm clothes, winter shoes and skiing gear. Our drawers are overflowing with stacks of notes, papers, paid bills and old concert tickets that we have not felt like throwing away. Our kitchen shelves are stuffed with spices, soup jars, plastic food containers (many of them without matching lids) and a whole bunch of cook books. And for the sake of our order-loving parents all the clutter that has accumulated in our basement and garage is better left unmentioned.
So how do we claim back our living space that has been taken over by the clutter? How can we bring freshness and lightness into our home? How do we make it look like one of those sun filled and airy homes that we often see on magazine covers?
I have been asking these question myself lately and I am happy to tell you that I have a plan! I did extensive research on all the possible clutter-free tips and have selected the ones I, myself, am going to use to declutter my own rather spacious 3 bedroom apartment.
I urge you to start this clutter-free challenge with me and share your own tips, observations and your progress in the comment section below this post.

Tip #1: Start with one room, area, drawer or space at a time.

It took years for all the clutter in your house to pile up, and it will take more than a day to liberate your house from it. Do not get overwhelmed or discouraged by the amount of work that needs to be done. Instead concentrate on one room at a time. Start with your bathroom or kitchen or single drawer and slowly work your way to the rest of your space. View it as meditation, as a process of letting go of the unneeded baggage of past years.

Tip #2: Think of space functionality.

Every space in our house has a specific purpose: the kitchen is a food preparation area, the bathroom is a relaxing place where we should take our long showers, the living room is a place where all the family gets together, the bedroom is our sacred space where we rest, have long pillow talks with our partner, read books and meditate. It is safe to say that none of these spaces was designed as a storage space for the stuff we do not need at the moment. Use your shed, walk-in closet, garage and attic for anything that you will not need for a long time (like winter sports equipment, tents, home appliances and so on.)

Tip #3: Adopt minimalism thinking.

Leo Babauta, a minimalist guru, once asked his readers to name their most valuable belongings that would fit in their car trunk. I urge you to think about it too and I bet you would not take the 3 sets of china you inherited from your grandmother or a digital photo frame that has been collecting dust on your shelf. Now the real question is, if you would not take those things with you, what are they still doing in your house?

Tip #4: Eliminate mercilessly.

How about weeding out the plastic bag that is filled with other bags in your kitchen? Or donating clothes that you have not worn for the past 3 years, because they are either too small or too outdated? Everything unnecessary, unneeded or unused for a long time has to go without worry or regret, liberating the space for new, beautiful and more useful things.

Tip #5. Do not turn your home into museum.

Glass figure collections, items that you picked up during your world trips, interesting or particular pieces that you have purchased in yard sales – in limited quantities add character to your house and even serve as a focal point of a room. But if you are not careful these collections and souvenirs will quickly take over your house, making it look like a cluttered and mismatched museum.

Tip #6: Conquer mail invasion.

Do you know all those flyers, and promotional magazines and catalogues that we receive daily and do not always have time to read? When dealing with mail adopt the same process that you use to sort out your emails. Touch any piece of paper only once. If it is not a bill, personal correspondence or subscription magazine – put it in the trash. Sort the rest of the papers out.

Tip #7: Forget about ‘Someday’.

We can not bring ourselves to part with stuff, because we think that a day will come when we might need the thing we are about to throw away. Well, let’s be honest with ourselves – “Someday” might never come, but the clutter is guaranteed to be there every time you open the closet or look under the bed.

Tip #8: Stay focused on the task.

Tip #9: Be careful not to lose yourself in nostalgia.

When you are sorting out old photos or going through the clothes you wore decades ago, it is very easy to get carried away by memories and lose track of time. Approach each task with a business like attitude. You can always go back and dig through old photo albums when everything is done.

Tip #10: Review your sentimental ‘attachments’.

Very often we feel bound to keep certain things, because they belonged to old relatives or because they are associated with important events of our past. For example, you might keep a shirt that you wore on the first date with your soon-to-be spouse. To you this shirt tells a story, but for everyone else it is just an outdated, faded piece of clothing that has seen better times. Try to see objects that you are emotionally attached to for what they are. If they serve no purpose, do not be afraid to part with them. Carry your dearest memories in your heart. It is the best place for them.  Or better yet, take a photo and scrapbook your memories.  A much better way to create a legacy than hanging on to objects!

Shout-Outs:
Congratulations to all of you awesome recruiters!  During the first 10 days of May we have added 90 new members to our team!

So far the top recruiters are:

3rd downline Briana Bostick with an AMAZING 12 new recruits!

2nd downline Noreen Petty - 7

3rd downline Phil Wilhelm - 5

4th downline Peggy Risley - 5

This is the first time in 20 years that I can recall the kit being such a bargain!  What a great opportunity for anyone wanting to start their own scrapping and stamping business and become part of our CTMH family!

Creative Corner:

Studio J Boot Camp was just that, boot camp. It was fun, exhausting, full of learning and Ah,Ha moments. I hope you have had the chance to view the "Love My Layouts" video. It will give you a taste of what we learned at boot camp. If you haven't made your first Studio J Layout, DO IT NOW! You will LOVE IT and become addicted to online scrapbooking with Studio J! My two favorite tools are being able to hit the shift key and select multiple elements to copy, paste or move and the "nudge" tool using the arrow keys to move elements bit by bit until they are exactly where you want them! It's the sum of all of the tools that make Studio J so user friendly. It was amazing to see how different each of our layouts were, given the same kit and layout. The ability to really personalize each layout to fit our photos was awesome. I chose to use my daughters wedding photos for all 10 layouts. It was fun to change up the colors of the B&T's to fit the Red, Black and Gold color theme of the wedding.   I was so excited that one of my layouts won a prize for "Most Creative Titling"   Truth be told, it wasn't that creative, but the photo of my daughters "something blue" is priceless!  Here is that layout along with a couple of others:

We learned how to layer the My Stickease to create a cluster and make something totally new by combining elements.  I changed a journaling well into a photo well to be able to have 4 photos on my layout.

In this layout, we cropped a My Stickease frame and re sized, copied and pasted it to create a border.  Again, I changed a journaling box into a photo well.  This one is meant to be a "hybrid"  I will add Sparkles and mesh flowers to finish it.

This layout was quite the color challenge!  We started with the Boo kit and I totally changed up the colors.  We were instructed to keep the Autumn Terracotta as part of the color scheme since we used the My Stickease Letters which are AT.  I was able to "make it work".  We also used multiple text boxes to create out own B&T.

Quote of the Week:

"You must have long term goals to keep you from being frustrated by short term failures."

Charles C. Noble

An Intentional Schedule: Take Control of your Time!

I am away at Studio J Bootcamp this week!  I am so excited to learn more tips and techniques as well as how to market this wonderful new product!  Here is something I did as a team meeting activity.  I'm still on the time management kick, can ya tell!  I also did this as a presentation at Kathy Markloff's Leadershare.  Speaking of Leadershare.....it was AWESOME!!!!!

Kathy did a fantastic job!  She had the last of the 5 in the pilot program.  The program has evolved as each one built on the successes of the last. The swap/contest and the auction donations were the best I've seen in the 3 I attended.   The Operation Smile silent auction turned into a LIVE auction once again due to the brainchild of Ex. Director Wendy Vineis.  At the close of the silent auction, the totals were far below Kathy's goal of $1600.00 so the decision was made to take it LIVE and start the bidding with the last amount on the bidding sheet with yours truly as the auctioneer!  After watching my upline, Karen Morris do it with extra items, I figured I could do it too.  In the end, due the to amazing generosity of the East Coast ladies, we raised.........$3000.00 for Operation Smile!!!!

An Intentional Schedule: Take Control of your Time!

By Naomi Smith

10-17-09

Here is a great exercise to do if time management is an issue for you.  I use this as a first assignment when I coach someone.  First step is to get yourself a calendare, get one of the ones that has each day hour by hour if you have a difficult time day to day.

This exercise helps you to really visualize how you spend your time and how much you really have to dedicate to your CTMH business.   

For at least 3 months (if you have school aged children then do this for the remainder of the school year)

1. Enter and mark out all the important dates and times for your family and personal activities that are non-negotiable, like birthdays, anniversaries, school functions, church functions, doctors appointments,  if you have a traditional job, mark out your work and commuting time, kids activities: soccer games, etc.  (you may even want to color code these with a highlighter, one for each member of your family or for each type of activity)  

2. Put in your business meetings - team meetings, Convention and other CTMH functions. 

3. Add in your already scheduled gatherings, workshops and clubs (highlight these in green, the color of money $$)

4. Now mark out time for YOU, this can be time for exercise, a date with your husband, lunch with a friend (non-CTMH) , personal scrapbooking time etc. 

5. Next, block out the time you need to run your home, grocery shop and other errands, house cleaning, cooking, helping kids with homework, reading bedtime stories etc.

6. Take a yellow highlighter and mark out the times you have left that you can schedule CTMH work activities, more gatherings, team training, customer and DL care calls etc.  (Change the highlight color to green when you schedule a money making activity!) 

Now you have a visual of your schedule so at glance you can see what times you have open.  This can be an eye-opening exercise!

If you have already scheduled  regular office hours that's great, it will make the scheduling easier, if not you, should mark out some regular hours for work   If your office space needs cleaning and organizing, work on that as well. 

Take a hard look at the time you REALLY have for your CTMH business, do your goals fit within this time frame?   Are they realistic?

Shout Outs:  Congratulations to all the winners for sales and recruiting as well as the Art Swap contest at Kathy's Leadershare and for the entire group for raising record donations!  You ROCK!!!!

Creative Corner:  This week I am featuring some of the wonderful artwork seen at Kathy Markloff's Leadershare.  Enjoy!

Swap contest enrty

Silent Auction -
Altered Clipboard

Silent Auction - donated by the CTMH Art Department
Card Box and matching cards featuring Bliss

Donated by CTMH Art Department.  Altered Lunchbox with cards

 

These breathtaking handstitched cards were created and donated by Nancy Brown.
It sold at our live auction for an incredible $215.00!  They are each a peice of artwork worthy of framing.
The photo doesn't do them justice.

Quote of the Week:
 "Slow down and enjoy life. It's not only the scenery you miss by going too fast - you also miss the sense of where you are going and why. "

Eddie Cantor