Career Conference Experience: 2008
- May 2nd, 2008
- View Comments (11)
I know it’s been a very long time since I’ve written anything. April was a crazy busy month for me outside of my business. I traveled a bit last month. First, I was at Career Conference and then I went on a Caribbean Cruise. Yes, I know, such is the life! Now that all the fun has passed, it’s time to get back to business! I have much to share!
April 4 & 5, 2008, I attended the Career Conference in Cincinnati, OH. I was impressed! This was the fifth conference I’ve been to — never missing one since signing my agreement! The last two years were somewhat mediocre to me. In 2006 we went to Toledo, OH, and in 2007 we were in Cleveland, OH. Maybe it was the locations that brought me down. I love Cincinnati! This was one of my favorites thus far in my career. There was a lot of energy and the speakers were very inspiring.
There was one recurring theme that impressed me the most and that was the focus on relationships. This business, after all, is all about building relationships. If we don’t have a good relationship with our customers and team members, we are not going to be successful in direct sales. Period. There seemed to be a constant reminder that this business isn’t about “getting people to buy from us.” It’s about finding people who want our quality products and catering to their needs. That is how to build a lasting business with loyal customers.
After the event Friday night, my national area had the opportunity to meet with our NSD! She has a lot of energy and is always inspiring. It was a relatively small group at the conference so we were a group of maybe 50 women. My NSD continued the emphasis on relationships in this business. She told us a moving story about a woman she talked to at the car dealership when they picked up her daughter’s Vue. In a nutshell, she simply started a light conversation and invited her to her home as a guest. She described how this guest and another guest hit it off and became fast friends and how she now sees her on a regular basis as a customer and friend. Hearing about these types of encounters has me asking myself, “what am I so afraid of?”
Our mini-meeting ended around 11:00 p.m. The night was not over yet! Oh no! I was starving. A group of us from my unit and our senior unit decided to head to the hotel restaurant for a late late snack. The group consisted of my director, a few consultants and my director’s senior. This was a lot of fun. My director’s senior is an Executive Senior Sales Director. She answered questions and gave some pointers as we waited (and waited…and waited…) for our food to arrive. These are the things that make these overnight getaways all the more worthwhile. We were able to ask questions and get real answers (not that we don’t get real answers any other time, but we could ask questions that aren’t always appropriate for meeting). One new consultant wanted to know how to deal with the possibility of team members not staying in the business. This is an inevitability, of course. It was explained to her that instead of thinking about it and trying to prevent it; the thing to do is to work through it and constantly build. 
I got back to my room around 1:30 and I don’t think I fell asleep until after 2:00! How I got up by 6:30 is beyond me, but I did it. Day two was more inspiration and training. To be honest, I’m not going to reiterate that here. It might get incorporated in future posts, but what I get from things like Career Conference is often the stuff that doesn’t happen on the podium. That makes it all worthwhile for me. What makes it worthwhile for you?
Tags: Beauty Consultant Advice, Career Conference, Consultant Stories
Linda J
MJ
Jessica
beautyinpink
elaine
Stumble It!
You are so right Shades! It is the “stuff” away from the podium that is so much the reason for conferences … I had a great experience sharing product knowledge with one of my unit members and an adoptee in our room after Friday night~~probably the best part of the whole experience!
Of course, the training was fabulous also, but I was able to work one-on-one with each of these gals and I don’t often get that opportunity;)
While I loved the conference this year, the speakers were incredible and the energy was contagious..I am with you..It is the stuff of friendships new and old that are formed in the room afterward and/or the breaking bread together.
It is during this time that we share and get to what I like to call ‘the heart of the matter’.
Hi Shades! Glad to see you’re back around! Unfortunately I wasn’t able to go to conference this year…my grandfather passed away a few days before we were supposed to leave, so I had to cancel.
I will be attending Seminar (fingers crossed), so hopefully that will be as great as your conference was!!
I always get motivated going to these events, but I seem to forget about that enthusiasm as time goes by. The past year has been dismal in my business in that I haven’t given my customers the attention they need…let alone GROW my business. I haven’t given up hope though, I just need to be more disciplined (perhaps that explains why I haven’t been able to control my eating and exercise habits either!! hehe.)
By the way, I love the new blog look…I WILL be getting back into action so I’ll be coming back plenty!!
Sabrina, I am so very sorry to hear of your loss.
Seminar is like Career Conference, but on a much larger scale. I went in 2004. Like CC, the best parts of Seminar for me did not occur in the Dallas Convention Center. Instead, they were the banquet dinners for our national area and future national area at the hotel. My business has been slow as well. Keeping my blog helps me stay accountable. I want to go to Seminar this year. It will depend on how successful I am at turning my business around. I have some bad habits I need to break.
In any case, I’m happy you found the new site and I look forward to seeing you here in the future!
Great to see you back, Shades. Love the site, and I love how you ‘tweek-ed’ it! I agree with you all as well; the camaraderie after the events, the girlfriend time spent in the rooms, I get sometimes more out of that than the speeches and classes. The other is great too, tho.
I want to attend Seminar again this year, but I too have some SERIOUS bad habits, and a lot of fear to work thru, in order to turn my business around this year and into the success I know it is destined to be, but I am committed to doing so! Thanks for your commitment to this site. You touch so many lives, I bet you don’t even know the half of it!
Aw…thank you, Donna! I’m glad you found the new site!
Shades Im glad you liked Career Conference I think its better than Seminar. There is so much to learn and you never get bored.
Colleen, I couldn’t agree with you more!
I have a question about your recent move from wordpress.com to a selfhosted blog and wanted to know if you transferred your feed with the blog. Darla sent me over to you. Could you email me, please and let me know if/how you did it?
Thanks!
Heather
PS. I love your blog. I’m in desperate need of makeup advice
Hey Shades I have a question for you. At Career Conference this year did they talk about how MK is doing in US sales this year?
Hey Colleen! I think it was mentioned, but I honestly don’t remember what was said. I will check my notes in the morning, but I doubt I wrote anything down about it. I focus more on how people overcome their fears and other obstacles.
Those are the issues I have. 