REBLOG Babes and Bling: My Very First Babes and Bling Giveaway!

I love this giveaway -- PINK earrings!

babesandbling:

And Celia’s second birthday! In order to celebrate our little Celia turing a whopping 2 years old, I’ve decided to do a giveaway! And it’s a doozy! Being the jeweler and gemologist that I am, it better be! I purchased these stones a while back for myself (from a dealer in NYC that works almost...

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Planning a Ladies Night Out and Online Contest

Are you in the Central New Jersey area on May 31st? Do you have a local business and would like to provide a raffle item to promote your products or services with the guests and attendees of this event? Come on out and support the launch of the bamboopink jewelry line! Please e-mail bamboopinknj [at] hotmail.com for more information...

Also, if you are not able to make it to Princeton but place an online order or contact me to place an order of $50 or more by June 1st, you will be entered to win an additional $100 in bamboopink jewelry. To look at the items available, please go to http://www.bamboopink.net/newjersey, click on "SHOP" or "Our Catalog" and enter Consultant  Number 3313.

Why I am sticking with bamboopink

"If you have made mistakes, even serious ones, there is always another chance for you. What we call failure is not the falling down, but the staying down."

~ Mary Pickford

The launch of bamboopink has been a bumpy ride, as many consultants will attest. Announced dates have had to be pushed back due to technical issues. Problems with jewelry quality have made it difficult to promote initial sales. The Virtual Trunk Show system is not yet available. However, as long as the company resolves these issues, learns from its mistakes, and rebuilds its reputation -- it will be around for the long haul. These are some of the positive reasons I am sticking around with bamboopink:

1. The free preview period is still an attractive option for people looking to explore the option of selling bamboopink, and the fact that the kit and website fees are optional will allow people to earn some money without a large initial investment -- especially once the Virtual system is up and running.

2. The jewelry has a unique look to it and given that it is backed by the JudeFrances name, I am convinced they will fix the quality issues and be comparable to other affordable jewelry lines. As they have promised, they are sending out replacements without asking for any returns of the defective pieces that were initially produced. My hope is that bamboopink will consider the lifetime guarantee that other direct sales jewelry companies offer, and continue to stand by their product going forward.

3. The company leaders have worked hard to listen to our feedback, making changes to their policies and compensation plan in response to our comments -- all positive changes that benefit the consultants. Also, they have been quick and honest in their response to issues. Another positive aspect is that the company leaders have selected key organizations to give back, and have shown sensitivity to consultants in areas that were affected by the tornadoes. While not everything that has been promised has come out as promised YET, I think there will continue to be positive changes in the future. I am going to stick by a company that gives back to the community, is willing to be flexible and listens to what their consultants have to say, and openly acknowledges the mistakes they have made.

That said, here are some quotes on success and failure to help keep us all going:

“There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure.”

~ Colin Powell

"Failure is only the opportunity to begin again, only this time more wisely."

~ Henry Ford

"I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work."

~ Thomas Alva Edison

"All my successes have been built on my failures."

~ Benjamin Disraeli

"Success is the ability to go from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm."

~ Sir Winston Churchill

My Bamboopink Couture Box and Compression

Another contest to win an iPad!

Blogelina is giving away an iPad: http://www.blogelina.com/win-an-apple-ipad/!

This site also has great tips, articles on blogging, and connecting you with other bloggers. If you are considering starting your own blog, whether it's for personal or business reasons, I would highly recommend this site as a useful resource.

Setting Goals

I came across this comprehensive article on setting goals, which is something I'd recommend that everyone do in order to create a path for yourself:

Personal Goal Setting - Goal Setting Tools from MindTools.com



MindTools.com highlights some great categories to consider when setting your goals:

• Career - What level do you want to reach in your career, or what do you want to achieve?
• Financial - How much do you want to earn, by what stage? How is this related to your career goals?
• Education - Is there any knowledge you want to acquire in particular? What information and skills will you need to have in order to achieve other goals?
• Family - Do you want to be a parent? If so, how are you going to be a good parent? How do you want to be seen by a partner or by members of your extended family?
• Artistic - Do you want to achieve any artistic goals?
• Attitude - Is any part of your mindset holding you back? Is there any part of the way that you behave that upsets you? (If so, set a goal to improve your behavior or find a solution to the problem.)
• Physical - Are there any athletic goals that you want to achieve, or do you want good health deep into old age? What steps are you going to take to achieve this?
• Pleasure - How do you want to enjoy yourself? (You should ensure that some of your life is for you!)
• Public Service - Do you want to make the world a better place? If so, how?

Once you set your goals, you need to determine steps on how you're going to get there...

A personal touch...

In my last post, I started with a picture of a dollar bill... not very personal. And in most of my posts the pictures have been of the bamboopink jewelry products -- also inanimate representations of my business. However, thinking about what really motivates people and what makes us tick, it's really the human relationships and deeper connections we make that will keep us going and help us go the distance. And sometimes we forget this when we are trying to promote a business or sell a product. For example, one suggestion that has been made to bamboopink consultants is to replace our Facebook profile image with a picture of our new jewelry to promote the company. While I think this has been a great idea to get our friends to notice the new line (and a good way to identify which ones of my friends are bamboopink consultants) in terms of being a team leader and reaching out to potential customers, I think that having a personal image on Facebook will make a much stronger impact in the long run. (Take a look at this Guide to Building Your Personal Brand on Facebook)...

Having a "real" image of yourself is only the first step to giving your online presence more personal touch, and to begin building stronger relationships... Part of developing those relationships is understanding others and how you interact with them. For me, I think it's also about changing perceptions, and also working on developing a softer approach. As someone who is driven by work and motivated by getting results and being productive, I realize that sometimes I forget about what matters. People don't want to be "sold" to -- they want their problems solved. They don't want to be considered a statistic, they want to be recognized for their uniqueness. And in the end, while it might be nice to have a golden nest egg to pass along to your children and future generations -- it's the heartfelt memories, the laughter and tears, the whispered secrets and shared moments that keep the candle burning into eternity.

What motivates you? Would you work for $1 or $100?

So what really motivates people to do things? In a parenting course that I just started, I've learned that kids are taught to be motivated by external motivators (like money or "stickers") when we reward them for what they do. Since I think most of us were raised by being rewarded, I would think that most people work for such external reasons. However, when we encourage our children for doing things such as emphasizing their hard work and effort, or expressing pride in their accomplishments -- then we are positioning them to be influenced by internal motivators (like enjoying what they are doing or getting personal satisfaction). Internal motivators are much more powerful than external ones, and are the ones that truly make us happy and drive us forward.

However, we still do like to make an extra buck -- so this was my idea when my leaders came up with a promotion to see who could come up with the most creative (and effective) idea to post something on our blogs in order to increase our team size (and the winner would receive $200 to implement their promotion)... What if I were to offer the next 100 people who sign up to preview the bamboopink opportunity one dollar each (I'm currently at 116 on my team). If you go to http://www.bamboopink.net/newjersey, you can sign up for FREE. But you'd also get a dollar if I win this promotion. And then, I would also offer to EVERYONE on my team the opportunity to receive the other $100 -- based on whoever increases their own team size the most by the end of May. Would you sign up for the free preview? Would you work to try to invite others to preview the opportunity?

Part of what motivates you may also be the likelihood of you receiving the money. For example, if I said I would definitely give you $1 for signing up (and it only takes a minute), you may be more likely to spend that minute to sign up. But if there were 200 people who could earn the $100, you may think that you don't have a chance to get the $100 and therefore not put any time into trying to increase your team size. Just as bamboopink gives all consultants the opportunity for "unlimited income potential" -- but people who think they cannot really make a significant amount of money will not put in the effort to work the business. However, some people who think they may make only a decent amount of income may put in the effort if they are motivated by other factors: e.g., they're excited about being part of a new business started by a highly successful jewelry designer, or they want to earn a few extra hundred dollars a month so that they can make payments on a new car to go on family trips...

Promotion Winner

Thank you Kim! The promotion was a great idea to motivate people to invest in a Jewelry box, and I will be using the 20% to invest back into the business -- including rewards and promotions for my team members, hosts, and customers.

Enter to win an iPad from bamboopink!

Enter to win one of TWO iPads by entering your comment here:
http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=216018501745323&comments
(First, register to be a consultant -- Sign up for a FREE preview, no fees charged until after you decide whether you want to work the business)

Make sure to "Like" the official bamboopink Facebook page:

http://www.facebook.com/bamboopinkbyJudeFrances

Good luck!