Usborne Books & More

Well this blog post is a long time coming!  I started this draft OVER A YEAR AGO!  Holy cow.  So yeah.. in case you didn't know, I am an Usborne Books & More Independent Consultant.  Even more - I am a Senior Executive Team Leader with Usborne Books & More!  Only one promotion away from the highest level!  Boy, I did not see that coming.

I had never heard of Usborne before, until I was invited to a party in July of 2015, when Jake was just 2 months old.  I went, really, just to support my friend who was hosting.  But . . I fell in love with the books.  

I really wanted to host a party to earn a bunch of books for free, but it was way out of my comfort zone.  I thought and thought about it and decided to do it, and in the days leading up to the actual party, that consultant asked if I wanted to sign up and do it too!  Again, I thought and thought . . and decided to take the plunge.  I thought I'd just kind of do it until it fizzled out, but... that didn't happen.

My Team Leader convinced me to promote to Team Leader "Express Success" which means promoting during your first 12 weeks.  When you promote Express Success, you get $300 in books of your choice, plus $200 in cash, in addition to the $100 cash bonus for promoting.. so that pretty much sold me.  

I promoted to Team Leader in December 2015.  I was off to a fast & fiery start!  Looking back at these photos that have been sitting in this draft for over a year reminded me how freaking awesome I am!  Ha!  ;)  Did I mention that one of the best things Usborne has given me is more confidence in myself??

Every year there is a trip incentive.  The trip earning contest runs June 1 - January 31, and I didn't sign up until August 6th!  But, even losing 2 months of the earning period I totally earned that trip!  For not only one person, but for 2!

The trip was a Caribbean Cruise, but it was the week that we moved to Minnesota so I opted for the cash option with which I bought myself a brand new MacBook Air.

I also earned myself a spot in the President's Club, which is some super elite recognition.  (It's been discontinued now, in lieu of other forms of recognition for our ever-growing company.)

Here you can see when I earned my first spot on the cruise, and also that I was a member of the President's Club.

There were a few technical difficulties with earning my second spot on the cruise.. I was $0.33 short, but the deadline was published incorrectly in one spot, so they allowed exceptions for sales made in the 12 hour difference between published deadlines.  Here's the email confirming I got that second spot!

When I first signed up, and for several months thereafter, I had no idea there was even a trip contest or such a thing as the President's Club, but here I am!  Totally at the top!  The beginning of this journey was SO THRILLING!  Not that it isn't now, but man, I was killing it!

In February of 2016, my team was in the top for Central Group sales!  That's a big deal!  This was before I started promoting out a bunch of amazing leaders and while they were still in my Central Group.. but I'm building up again and plan to see myself on this leader board again soon.

In April of 2016, I promoted to the level of Senior Team Leader and continued to grow my personal business and my team.  

In July of 2016, I used my income, and my income only to buy a car!  Now that is something I never thought I'd do in my lifetime!  It's a 2014 Mazda CX-5 and I adore her!!

Over the summer of 2016, my director Jill Cox, whom I adore, suggested that I branch off from the large team I had been a part of to lead my team on my own and grow my business BIG!  This was a terribly intimidating thought, but it also expressed A TON of confidence in me and that made me soar.  I thought and thought and thought about it, and on August 1st my team, The Bookettes, branched off on their own!

In October 2016, I promoted to the level of Executive Team Leader!  At this level and above, you earn a tiara at National Convention... which sounded so dumb to me at the beginning, but now, HELLO!!  I GET A TIARA!!  So that's kind of awesome.

The next month, in November of 2016, I promoted to Senior Executive Team Leader!  Next step = Director!  The highest level!

In January, I got to attend ELC - Executive Leadership Conference - in Dallas, TX.  This was for Executive level leaders & up - out of about 24,000 active consultants, only 236 were eligible to attend!  Wowza!  I had the best time - totally going out of my comfort zone to even attend - and I learned SO much, got to hang out with my Director Jill Cox, and meet so many amazing leaders in the company!!

This is Randall White, the CEO of Usborne Books & More!  He is awesome. 

This is Jill Cox, my director.  She is AMAZING.  I adore her and look up to her is so many ways.

I wasn't able to attend Convention last year because it was the same weekend Ben graduated from business school, so it was my first time meeting Randall.  I was pretty excited about it and he was pretty tickled that I was excited about it, so we took a lot of pictures.

This is Monica and she is AWESOME.  I'm so glad I got to meet her!

These were my roommates, none of which I knew beforehand, and they are all amazing!  The fire alarms went off ALL NIGHT LONG the last night we were there.  I think this picture was taken around 3 am.  

So now, in March 2017.. I'm plugging along and working hard to BUILD IT BIG!  My team, The Bookettes, is now filled with over 200 amazing ladies!  I have 9 team leaders under me and we work together to plan for and lead our team.  In addition, I continue to work my personal business!

I can't say that I am on fire quite as much as I was when I first joined.. there are a lot of growing pains in stepping out to lead a large team on my own!  I'm learning how to manage my time between my personal business/hostesses/parties/sales, my personally sponsored recruits, the new recruits in my central group, the ladies in my downline who are working to promote, and in planning challenges and trainings for my large team!  I have learned and continue to learn and grow SO MUCH - as a leader and as a person.  

I did, though, earn this past year's incentive trip - a full week in Walt Disney World!  I only earned one spot, but we're planning to buy in spots for Ben & Jake and fly to Florida this summer and we can't wait!

Usborne has been an amazing journey thus far..  far better than I or Ben could have ever imagined.  I love & value the many strong friendships I've made and continue to make.  I'm so, so grateful for the income I'm earning that allows me to pay my car payment each month, contribute to paying off our student loans each month, and to pay for lots of extras for our family - Jake's gymnastics & preschool classes, clothing, etc..  The confidence in myself and my ability to set & reach goals that I've gained since I started with Usborne is probably one of the best and most far-reaching blessings!  Not to mention the hundreds of amazing books that fill the shelves in every room of our home!  Jake has had books all his life and loves to read.. it's really the only time he'll sit still, and if we're reading he'll sit for a loooonnnngg time.  My Usborne adventure has been thrilling so far and I'm excited to continue building it big and exploring what's on the horizon!