Tag Archives: Christmas

Christmas in November

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20111125_200419While we don’t do that many marketing events, the one marketing event I look forward to each year is the Christmas in November.  Its a great way to expose a lot of the products that we have and educate all the current and future customers.  There is a very large focus on the Ribbon collection and I have to say I’m quite impressed with that collection this year.  They’ve really stepped it up with some great well known brands and quality products.

This year I was voluntold by my wife that I’d be Santa.  This is the first time I’ve ever dressed up as Santa and well it’s pretty uncomfortable filling in the big guy’s shoes.  However when some of the kids came up and wanted a candy cane and really thought I was Santa, that made the fears go away and I got into it.  To see the kids eyes light up was an amazing feeling.

I have to say a huge thank you to our sponsors who put on the event and our team that worked with the other teams to man their station of edibles.  The edibles were a huge success as people love the various bars we have.  There were facial stations, hand and arm massage stations, make over stations, health stations and so much more.  A huge success with the amount of guests that showed up and comments made.  It was a first class event.

Showing Family and Friends

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December is a great month to visit with family and friends as the holiday season is usually packed with catching up, coffee’s and visits to various family and friend Chrsitmas parties.  It’s also been one of the best times to show those family and friends who know we are building our own business in partnership with Amway and World Wide Dreambuilders.  I know quite a few friends and family read my blog and they’ve been able to gain some insight into what it is we do however they really don’t know what is we actually do.

What I love about showing the plan is that in a one on one setting its never perfect and it allows for more interaction than say in a larger presentation style where we might plug people into a larger room where either I’m speaking or our coaches are speaking.  This month we’ve done a few one on one plans with friends and family that love and trust us to honestly just show them what it is we do.  There are no expectations of “signing up” or anything like that.  Its really just giving those friends and family that know we do “something” some context.  As we do with anyone we take through a more formal qualification and interview process, we give full disclosure of all the details and really don’t hide anything contrary to what others may or may not say. 

One thing that has bothered me over the last year and a bit of building this business is how some friends and family may be apprehensive around us because we are “In Amway” (stay tuned for a blog entry on that some day) and they think we are going to “recruit” them or try and get them “in our thing”.  That couldn’t be further from the truth, we don’t just “sign” anyone up and that’s where a lot of miscommunication comes from and why this month we’ve shown some of our friends and family what we do.  It’s quite amazing how I’d say the majority of people we show how their perception of what it is we actually do changes.  Still not everyone may agree and that’s just fine.  At least they know what we do and that’s that. I’m just tired of being that elephant in the room where people watch what they say around us and or say things behind out back, not saying they do but who knows. 

Again the whole point of a lot of the friends and family one on one’s is to give people a glimpse into what our vision is, why we do it, and maybe clear the air on a few things.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

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!

Christmas in BC

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I love December and this time of year, it’s the time of year where Christmas really kicks it into high gear and where most decorations if they’ve not already come out are in full swing.  It’s also the start of trying to juggle the family Christmas events.

I have a lot of family and my parents have been split up since I was 7 so Christmas has always been a busy time of year for us.  Now that we have grown up (well only in appearance, haha) we have the battle of who’s turn is it this year.  I think we’ve been bouncing back and forth between the mothers.  This year is my wife’s parents turn and next year it will be my mom’s side again where we will spend Christmas day with.  My father usually gets either Christmas Eve of Boxing day depending on his wife’s work schedule as she’s a nurse. 

This weekend was really the only weekend that work out perfect to see my mom and step father here in Kamloops for our Christmas day.  It was a long drive up yesterday but the time is always worth it no matter how long we are here for.  Tomorrow we head back after a good breakfast with our aunt and uncle and cousin. 

As i’ve mentioned many times before having the freedom or the time to be able to spend with family or have family spend time with our soon to be kids is one of the major reasons why we are building what we are.  As we continue to move on in this business we are seeing that the fruits of our labour are rewarding and will soon allow myself to step away from my job so that we can start and continue to spend that quality time with our families.  While there may still be that battle for our time spreading it with the families there will be no stress on having to answer to a job or someone else telling us when we have to be back at work.  I know for some it may seem far fetched but I have examples who are directly coaching and mentoring us that have done this and in succession so we know its possible and will come true.

I hope however you spend your Christmas season this year it’s an awesome one.  Enjoy the quality time you do have with others and make the most of it. 

Happy Holidays

Enjoying Time

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We’ve come across a few people who have said that all we do is this business and that we have no time or we are wasting time building something that will never come true.  Well I won’t speak to the latter but I will speak about having time.  We have a lot of time and just tonight we had a great visit with some good friends who we value a lot and love spending time with.  I posted a blog entry awhile ago about how much time we really have and give or take a few hours here or there its pretty much true.  Post: Time, People Have Plenty

When we say we build this business part time we really mean that, however for us and what we want to achieve we put a little bit more time in because we’ve seen first hand the value of the little extra effort.  Extra effort that has allowed us to have a free wife to raise a child without having the stress of a job. 

Time is a funny thing, people always have different concepts of time and different values of what they feel is the best use of their time.  That’s the beauty of it, everyone can do what they want with their time and we feel we can split our time between our business, our regular job, and the relationships we want to keep close to us. 

As Christmas approaches cherish the relationships you have, and enjoy the time you have with them.  Christmas time is always good for re-connecting with friends and loved ones, I wish it was Christmas time all the time!