Nothing To Hide

Right after Logan was born I felt the tug of motherhood pulling me away from teaching and home with my baby. There was one major obstacle in my way though: income. I provided a significant portion of our family's income and I knew it would be impossible to replace that kind of income without having to work long hours to do it.

Enter: Network Marketing. I scoffed, poo-pooed, and ridiculed my friend Shawnna for "selling lipstick" until she introduced me to people who were making 5-digit monthly incomes selling that lipstick.

I tried the products, shared them with friends and - long story short - replaced my teaching income within a year and had an absolute BLAST doing it. So, when I got pregnant with Ellis I was able to resign my postion at Kennewick High and stay home full time with my kids while I "sold lipstick" on the side. I got to partner with my friend Shawnna and really use my giftedness in building a strong team, teaching, and training. Selling is not my giftedness. Thus, the absolute necessity of having a superior product that sells itself.

Shortly after resigning from teaching, the wheels fell off of my life and my business didn't get the attention it needed. As a result, fizzled. I had to go back to working full time. However, even though I wasn't working the business, I had built up such a team that I was still collecting residual income checks for a couple of years.

Network marketing works if you work. The key is finding a company with consumable goods that you can really get behind. After a couple of years, the company I worked for changed the formulations in its products and I could no longer get behind them. I knew how much money could be made but had a really hard time opening my mouth about the products any more.

Enter: Apriori Beauty - thanks again to Shawnna. Shawnna contacted one of the leaders in the first company we worked for and she sent me a sample of this new skin care. It came in a really cool capsule and sat in my closet looking really cool for about 6 months. I had the best intentions to use it but kept finding excuses not to. Finally, Kristin called me and told me about an outrageous sale Apriori was having in August to honor their founder and CEO's birthday. I knew if I was going to get in on this I needed to act right away to take advantage of the incredible sale so I hurried up and tried the teaser in the capsule and absolutely fell in love.

I placed my first order and signed up as a consultant, not planning to sell it, but wanted to be locked in just in case. So I used the product through the fall and as clients from the old company would contact me for orders I would just mention that I had a new line that I thought they would like better. So I gave them one of the capsules I got when I signed up and of course they both loved it.

I still wasn't sure about selling it even though I was completely behind the product and the business model is solid. I had this fear of people saying, "Oh, NOW what are you selling?" "Oh now THIS is the best?" So I just laid low and let people know about it when they asked.

Enter: Nothing To Hide. In November , Apriori launched a new product line of make up. Just foundation, powder and bronzer. That's it. I drug my feet about trying it because I was still in love with my old foundation. However, the previous company had changed that formulation too and I was having a hard time even getting my favorite foundation. So, as my bottle of foundation was dwindling and I was scraping the sides, I knew it was time to pull the trigger and try the Apriori foundation. Oh. My.

Enter: my new source of income. Due to circumstances beyond my control, I am finding myself especially financially burdened as of late. This is one of the largest sources of stress for me. I really value financial security. Not even abundance... just safety. I'm afraid if I don't figure something out quick I am going to have pull my kids out of BLS - the thought of which makes my stomach sick.

So here I am. I am selling skin care again. There. I said it. I guess that makes it official. Here is what I will NOT be doing:

• I am not going to do presentations or home parties (although a girls night with a facial would be fun).


• I am not going to recruit people to do this with me or "under" me.


• I will not be the Apriori Stalker and will not be making phone calls begging for referrals.

I just want to allow people to purchase the really cool $5 teaser capsule and use it at their leisure. If they love it, great. If they don't (which I know will be few and far between) no sweat. It is what it is, it costs what it costs. Use it or don't. I'm not trying to make "gangsta money", just a couple hundred dollars a month to create a bit of a cushion in my budget.

SO! Since it's official, the offer is officially on the table. I have $5 teaser capsules with an extra sample of the amazing scrub available. I also have a website (got it free when I signed up) that you can access: http://www.useloveshare.com/IC/DeJong/. It's free to sign up as a client and you get access to the monthly specials.

That's all for now. I need to recover from this huge leap. I may have pulled a groin.