Good question. The first step for me was learning to not compare myself to others. It allowed me to finally take the plunge and start my business. I am a work in progress but it’s that desire to grow and stop comparing myself that allowed me to build the life that I have now.

I believe that my husband was chosen for me and he is the person I was supposed to be with. And so, in no way do I resent our life or all the places it has taken me. But, with that life came standards for our family and I felt that to maintain these standards it was best for me to stay at home, run the household and raise our children. I felt very limited and I knew that in some ways I placed those limitations on myself. I didn’t want an office job because when my husband is home from active service, I want to spend all of what little time he has with us together.

But, I started noticing all these women around me who seemed to have it all: they worked out, ran their business, looked so together, had the energy to see friends and still looked after their family—as soon as I stopped comparing myself to them I realized I didn’t want to be them, I wanted to join them.

Forcing myself to stop comparing myself to others, I realized that anyone who is successful is successful because they have worked hard and their success is a measure of their effort and past experiences.

There have been seasons as a military spouse that were more difficult than others, challenging me to stay committed to anything other than waiting for that time to pass, maybe even sleep until it was all over….but it was my passions that pulled me out.

The military and being a Christian, both are a large part of who I am. Those two aspects of my life forced me to find hope and focus on what is actually important. My husband was injured once and sent home early from his deployment. The stories he tells me of the horrible things he has seen…and knowing that he’s alive right now when it could be so much worse… It puts your life into stark relief and helps you realize that your time is so important and so you have to prioritize your time on what is actually going to make a difference.

I looked at my life and knew I wanted to still be a stay at home mom to take care of my kids, to still have time freedom to be with my husband when he is home from deployment and be able to earn enough money that we wouldn’t have any financial stress. No one joins the military for the money, and I didn’t want my husband to be worrying about our three kids and their college tuition when he has more important things to focus on. Isagenix (a health and wellness network marketing company) has allowed me to earn from home so my husband can relax.

Network marketing has given us control of our future.

Exactly, and I do think 2020 will improve the position of the profession and more people will utilize it as a company structure. The chaos of 2020 hasn’t impacted my sales, I still sell my products, my customers receive what they need on schedule and I have maintained the same steady income I had before the pandemic.

Network marketing found me though. After having my third child I decided I wanted to lose my baby weight. I studied Exercise Science and Kinesiology at university and so I decided to put my knowledge into practice and enter a bodybuilding competition.

They say set smart goals and I knew that if at the end of my goal I would have to get up on a stage then it would keep me accountable. It was also about proving to myself that I could do this, that a mum of three, running the household while her husband was out on active deployment was strong and capable. It was one of the first decisions I made in years that was 100% for me. 

It was a huge learning curve, learning what to do as much as learning what not to do. From my college degree, I knew that nutrition was a large part of the journey and so I was looking for some natural supplements that would support my training and lifestyle.

Yes, after trialling lots of different brands I finally found one that worked. I was introduced by a friend and I’ve been using them since 2014. At that time though, I was just a customer. I was ordering a lot of the products and really learning how best to combine them with my fitness regime.

Over the years I started recommending and selling my favourite products and built out my customer base. But it was in 2017 that I really embraced the financial opportunity network marketing provided and tripled my salary in that year alone.

I forced myself to be uncomfortable. Once I committed myself to the idea of starting my own business I knew that I wanted to create a team and start earning a full income from home. It ignited a fire in my belly that I had to put myself out there and actually do that.

It became about more than just the products, I wanted to empower women like me who wanted to transform their body, transform their lives and I wanted to help them to do that not just through the supplements but also through training programs and coaching.

There are lots of problems in life but I believe that most of them can be solved/are related to your health and then another chunk are connected to debt and financial security. So I also help women who want to increase their income and ease their financial pressures.

All through my life, even when I didn’t have that belief in myself I always believed in others and loved supporting them and rooting for them.

Myself as a leader. As a Christian, I think leaders have a responsibility to use their position to draw people to a greater purpose in life, not necessarily draw them to me or my business, but help them learn something meaningful or helpful.

Definitely, and that’s why I feel I have a duty now to use my platform to empower women because I do believe that with prosperous, empowered women the world is and will continue to be a better place.

This industry teaches us to find what is important to you—to grow and to share your passion. After all, network marketing is sharing something you love.

I am working on myself as a leader so that when I meet the women who want what I have—I can help them in whatever way I can to achieve their version of success. And I know that my way doesn’t work for everyone, but for those that it does, I want to do my best for them.

Write down those big scary dreams, think about where you want to be in five years, ten years, fifteen. And be specific. What exactly do you want? What type of marriage? Family? House? Vacations? College tuitions to pay?

Then from there, you can start to make a plan. It’s a lot harder to ignore your dream when you know exactly what it is you want.

Freedom is in the vocabulary of military families a lot. Financial freedom and time freedom are so important to me. When my husband is home I am going to give him all my time because I never know what the next deployment is going to bring. But as my business grew it started taking time away from what was most important.

Penny brought back my time freedom.

Because of Penny, I can do more but it doesn’t eat into my time. I am so passionate about people, my customers and my team—but I was starting to feel like a failure because I was struggling to serve them all well enough and consistently. If I forgot to add a customer to a list or reach out to them to check on their journey I felt so guilty.

Penny makes it easy for me to make my touches with my team and customers. She’s like my personal trainer for the business world! Instead of turning up to the gym not knowing what to do, debating whether you should do curls today or weights… Penny tells you! So now ten minutes of free time while I’m waiting for my kids’ soccer practice to finish become productive because Penny takes the guesswork out of it.

For me, I get the most satisfaction from my business when I see my customers and sales team start to believe in themselves.

I had so much to do when it came to creating the life I wanted so it’s amazing to help others who are going through the same experience I was and helping them write a new story.