Tag Archives: 2010

Amway Sales Grow 9.5% to 9.2 Billion

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Great news on the growth of Amway despite what some critics may be saying out there.  I just read over on www.thetruthaboutamway.com that even with these FACTS on the sales figures Amway critics still claim Amway isn’t growing or that it’s falling backwards.  I mean how messed in the head do you have to be to not comprehend a link like this. http://blogs.amway.com/amwayinsider/2011/02/17/another-record-year-2/ or http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/amway-parent-grows-to-92-billion-in-2010-116396994.html

Or a chart like this:

 

Alticor-Sales-10Y_FINAL

Come on now, that’s pretty impressive when a company can continually grow during a global economic recession and slow down that is still going on. Don’t kid yourself we are still in it.  People are looking for an opportunity to further their wealth, even if that’s a few hundred dollars a month extra.  People are buying the products (as indicated here) so to those who think we are priced wrong, give your head a shake.  All companies have products priced 1/3 lower than competitors, 1/3 the same give or take, and 1/3 more expensive than their competition.  Every company does that. 

This is great news and I’m even more excited about the 5% growth in North America that Steve Lieberman was quoted saying.  That means it’s not only China, India or Korea making the increases.  I’m excited to hit 1 Billion just in Canada!  Oh yes it will happen.

Check out the facts, check out the links they don’t lie.  Have a question about them? Call Amway and ask then, don’t go check some guys blog (including mine, I’m not perfect or the answer man) and take it as gospel.  Do your own credible research.

Here is to even more growth in 2011!

2010 Year in Review

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UnisexBabyI figure after a full calendar year it’s time to do a year review of what we’ve accomplished and what we’ve knocked down personally.  I think the biggest news as most already know is that Lindsay is pregnant and as we move into our second trimester we are getting more and more excited about that.  Later in January we will start to get the baby room in order by painting and decorating in some unisex colours as we are not finding out what sex the baby is until it’s born.  That’s our decision because we feel it’s honestly the last natural surprise left in this world and we want to be surprised.  We’ve had a few names for over a year now if it’s either a boy or a girl so we are covered there.  If it looks like none of those names then we are screwed! lol.  I guess that’s a good problem to have.

The second biggest accomplishment this year has to be getting our personal finances in order.  Having the shackles of debt almost removed feels damn good.  The best thing about what we did with our debt is we took care of it 100% with our own changes and getting some additional perspective, it had nothing to do with any money earned from Amway.  That in it’s self is pretty darn awesome because if we can have 90K in consumer debt along with a mortgage we probably should have never had and pay that down to only $7K by the end of this year, then anyone can do it.  Additionally because we have been on budget and have been paying down debt we were able to have a cash Christmas this year.  So as January and February hit we don’t have to worry about the credit card bills that so many people worry about in these months.  We’ve decided to live WITHIN our means and instead of buying those fancy gifts for friends and family we cannot afford we set our self up a budget for Christmas and stuck with it.  Try it next year, you won’t be sorry.  So what did we pay off in 2010?

  • $30,000 Home Equity Line of Credit Debt
  • $15,000 Car Loan, our 2006 Mazda 3
  • $3,000 Line of Credit ($7,000 Left)
  • $265,000 Mortgage by selling our Condo before the housing market tanked. 1 month after we sold our condo it went down by $20,000.

So we still have a bit of debt left in the original $10,000 line of credit we had when we started paying it off.  It has the lowest interest rate which is why it’s the last to be paid off.  We have $7,000 left to pay off starting in 2011 and plan to have that taken care of right away.  Once we are 100% debt free early in 2011 we plan to start saving up to buy a CUV for the new baby as we need something a bit safer than our Mazda 3.  Lastly as we will be debt free once we start coming into larger bonus cheques or into extra money, we will be able to bless the people we love in many different ways.  The biggest reason why we cannot bless the people we love right now is because we have debt, any extra money we come into we will always look to ourselves and pay that down first.  Without debt we can take our eyes off ourselves and for that I’m VERY excited for.

The third thing which really could have come in second place was us being able to give Lindsay the freedom from her job.  I will go back and change my original statement that’s she’s retired because really she’s not, but what she has been given is the freedom to choose if she wants to work or not. She chooses not to obviously because now she can take care of herself, sleep in as much as she needs to, and do whatever she wants during the day.  Trust me, she’s busy during the day and is not just sitting at home watching Maury.  I fully believe that because she’s been home since the end of August it made it a lot easier for us to get pregnant in October when we started trying in September.  When you have no stress by work, and are relaxed and enjoying life then getting pregnant is much easier.  Sure some people could have other issues, but I’m pretty sure stress is one of the worst things for you.

FreedomFromJob

Lastly our business has really taken off this year with the dedication, hard work, and drive to have something more in our lives than just average.  As I’ve become more successful in my primary daytime job I’ve noticed something that most people who are successful in the traditional job are, and that’s working more.  Since I was promoted to a manager in the fall I’ve been working longer hours and if I look at other people in similar positions they work longer hours as well.  So where does that leave me in the traditional sense?  Sure I’ll get a promotion, maybe paid more money yet when the heck do I have the time to actually do anything with my family?  Spend more time with my family?  The opposite is true, I am actually spending LESS time with my family the more successful I become at my traditional job.  Don’t believe me? Check out your boss, or your boss’s boss and see how much they work, in more cases than none they work much longer hours then you do.  That was a bit of a tangent yet relevant.

We continue building our business with our amazing team and as we start working with the team of amazing people they are bringing on it honestly fulfills us in so many ways.  We’ve seen relationships come close together, we’ve seen engagements and we’ve seen people knock down their own debt all by our example.  I love how we get to impact people in ways a traditional business can never do and that is just one of the many serendipities we get from this business.  Our eyes are never ever on ourselves as we continually help people through this amazing business model that Amway has. We also continually get closer and closer to World Wide Dreambuilders and the traditional values they uphold year in and year out and understand it better and better.  It’s an organization unlike any others that honestly cares about the people it works with, that’s why it’s been around over 30 years.

We’ve maintained the utmost integrity while building our business and I believe that is one of the main reasons why we’ve become as successful as we have.  Yes we work with people and sometimes that is the hardest thing to work with but at the same time it’s also the most rewarding experience.  We will continue to build our business with honesty and integrity and that will set us apart from all the other type of opportunities that are out there. 

2010 has been a great year and is just the first of many amazing years for us and our family.  Once 2011 hits I’ll do another blog entry on what we are looking forward to in 2011.  I wish all you and your families much success and prosperity in 2011, make it the best year ever.

goodbye-2010-hello-2011

Christmas and Family

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2011ChristmasTreeWell it’s a week before Christmas well less than that and we finally got our Christmas Tree up and all decorated.  We always get a real tree because that’s tradition and the smell is amazing.  Before any of you say well your cutting down trees blah blah and it’s not good for the environment, these tree’s are farmed especially for Christmas Tree’s so its not like we are cutting down forest trees.  Afterwards the City of Edmonton takes the tree’s and mulches them down and uses them for plant bedding around town. 

Anyway I love this time of year because people tend to be more friendly, something I think people could be year round.  However the biggest reason why I love this time of year is spending it with family.  I talk a lot about family on this blog and its for a good reason.  Family is the heart of everything to be honest and I cannot think of anything more important in someone’s life.  As we bring on a new member to our family next year I guess I’ll really understand that to it’s full extent. 

We are so excited to bring another Guthrie into the world and have him/her enjoy the spirit of Christmas and we start our own traditions and carry on some of our families existing Christmas traditions.  However what I’m most excited about in the future is having all the family over just like Christmas Vacation which happens to be one of my favourite Christmas movies.  That is what fires me up and keeps me doing what we do part time in our business.  Family is probably the number one reason why we do what we do. 

christmas_vacation_clark ChristmasVacation

Anyway I hope you all enjoy your Christmas and or Holidays however you celebrate.  I’ll be signing off until after the Christmas holidays and may write something before the new year.

Merry Christmas to All!

Reflections of Dream Night

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How does one describe a huge room of over 1100 smart, sharp, positive people who are pumped up about reaching their goals and dreams through an amazing business opportunity?  YOU CAN’T!  Honestly what I’ll describe or type here will not even compare to being there live.  How do you describe a room full of positive people?  How can you describe that energy?  Like I said you can’t.  You just feel it when you walk into the room.  For those who couldn’t make it or said they didn’t want to really missed out and when I say that I’m not saying that with disrespect, I honestly believe you missed out.  You don’t need to be building this business or interested in this business to get something out of Dream Night.  Dream Night is just about that, dreams and goals and do you have a vision of those in your life.  Have you written them down and have you written a plan of action on how to achieve those goals. 

We had the opportunity to have a few guests come down with us to Dream Night who totally got it the minute they stepped into the room.  They said to us later that evening they were amazed by how many people were there and the energy of the room.  They just get it.  We didn’t have to explain anything to them they just experienced it for themselves and that’s what it’s all about.  Will they benefit and move forward in their lives, absolutely!

Terry Felber did an amazing Dream Building exercise that everyone in the room was able to participate in.  The questions all stemmed from if you had unlimited money, so here are the questions:

1a. How many week long vacations would you take in a year?
1b. What first three countries would you visit?
2. Who would you give money to?
3. What causes or organizations would you support?
4a. Where would you live if you could live anywhere?
4b. How large would the land you want be?
4c. How many square feet would your house be?
4d. What type of house and what would it have in it?
5a. What type of car would you drive?
5b. What kind of boat would you want?
5c. What kind of airplane would you want?

Now a lot of those are materialistic, and there is nothing wrong with having those types of dreams and goals.  North Americans have always been reserved in that dreaming about materialistic things are bad.  They are not.  That’s what broke people tell us.  There is nothing wrong with having materialistic things.  Is that what we are all about?  Heck No.  We want to impact people and organizations and help build stronger better marriages and families.  That is what is important to us.  We do however want to live comfortably while we do that.  The whole exercise was really about writing down those goals and dreams and putting them on paper.  “A dream without a plan is a hallucination”. So MAKE A PLAN, otherwise stop dreaming cause what is the point.

Next year Edmonton will get it’s own World Wide Dreambuilders Dream Night however people are motivated enough to make the drive to listen and associate with amazing people.  Edmonton has grown from around 8 people three years ago in this business to well over 1100 people +.  I don’t know the number.  But in three years look at the growth.  This year that will double because people are willing to do what it takes to obtain those goals and dreams.  Dream Night is just the start of 2010 and boy you better look out.  There are some amazing things that are in store for this area and for Lindsay and Shaun!

Some Pictures of the event:

DreamNight1 DreamNight2
An amazing room full of positive people, the energy in here was INSANE! Over 1100 people in Attendance at the Calgary TELUS Convention Centre
ShaunMikeDreamNight DreamNightNightOwl
My Brother and I Christine Shewchuk doing a Night Owl and giving us her outlook for 2010