Total She Inc -

Total She Business Planning Strategies are under way!

We just finished a whirlwind busy time with Mother's Day at Total She! I hope all of you Mom's out there had a wonderful day! I would sure love to hear what kind of Total She product you received and what you thought, so please comment or drop us a line!

I was able to spend some relaxing & quality time with my own Mom on Saturday night with 2 of my daughters, & one of my daughters friends (pretty much my 4th daughter!) We all ordered some pizza and relaxed outside around a fire, the kids made S'mores and we had a really nice time and visit! On the ride home we stopped along the side of the road and were able to get pretty close to 4 Geese and their 12 yellow fluffy babies! They hopped into the pond and swam away, they were so sweet!

Mother's day Sunday started for me with Tea in bed, and pancakes! The rest of my day was spent getting my house cleaned and tackling our massive laundry pile lol! I think I actually might be caught up now for a day!

In the evening, our whole family went downtown to the Pantages Theatre, as Sara, my oldest was performing in a musical theatre group dance number at the Manitoba Dance Festival. The girls did a fantastic job and received Gold Honours for their performance which made my evening!

As far as my fit before 40, it is still incredibly on my mind! I have not done as well as I'd have liked so far into 2012 - and it is already MAY! YIKES - 5 months in! I did start a Boot Camp at Pole Fit Canada and that is going really well - it is 2 times per week from 6am - 7am! It's the first time in my life I have gotten up at 5:15am to go exercise , so I'm feeling pretty good about accomplishing that! The boot camp ends in the middle of June and I think I'm going to hook up with a personal trainer! I am very interested in learning about weight training and I'd really like to have someone teach me the ropes and get me on a program - so then I can go when I can and set my own schedule!

I have been plugging away behind the scenes planning out our next catalogue and looking for new exciting ideas of cool products we can bring in. I am very excited to say I am nearly done! This is the earliest I will have even been done with my pre-planning which is super exciting for me!

I am awaiting a few more samples to get delivered, and then I will be off to the races! I have so many ideas sometimes I think my head will explode!

Many of my ideas cannot take place until we grow, which is extremely frustrating to me, but we cannot grow until these ideas are implemented!

It is a very annoying catch 22!

Right now every single thing we do at home office is manual. It is extremely time consuming and very monotonous and time wasting! In this day and age of automation, and knowing that some very cool ideas exist for what we need to implement, actually already exist, it makes me crazy!

Being automated will allow our Sales Consultants to have their own personalized websites, ( just like all of the other home party plans ) their customers will be able to order on-line, and personalize their piece on-line too! Imagine how cool it will be to be able to design & see what your piece will look like before you even get it!

This software will track everything and help with inventory, and accounting which is HUGE for us! Of course a system like this is a massive financial investment, and until now I have not figured out a way to get the funds other than try and solicit a loan so we are able to start this exciting project!

I am working on something right now and I hope to be able to release it very soon! It will require all hands on deck to share with friends and families, but I think we have a pretty good shot at getting it done and I am so excited to share it all with you! I'll keep you posted!

 

Total She Update!

So...! Things are quite a bit busier that I had planned... we have had a few unexpected twists here at Total She - nothing that I can divulge at this time, but you will all know soon enough! 

We had a successful event here at the Winnipeg Wedding show - those poor brides - that event must be so overwhelming for them!!  We handed out nearly 800 catalogues though which was fantastic!

Rolling right along we started planning a huge undertaking into our business!  All I can, will, and am able to say is that something very exciting is coming!!  It is extremely exciting!  Exciting for me, exciting for our Sales Consultants, and extremely exciting for YOU!  We have been working around the clock to get things organized for all of this golden excitement to take place, and we are getting there slow but sure, and we will be ready to announce very soon!

On another scope - I have been a very busy girl interviewing potential software companies for software for Total She!  Wow what a chore this has been - and so extremely time consuming.  I will honestly say that PLANNING is just not my thing.. it is hard, like pulling teeth for me!  I much prefer to DO, just get down to it, jump in and get it done!  With a big deal like this though,  the planning must be done to make sure the software is what we need and what will be good for everyone!  This software is going to make a WORLD of difference to our every day life at Total She - it will change everything that we do each day to accept orders - process orders, pack orders, and make sure everything is tracked electronically!  I cannot even tell you HOW long I have wanted to get this implemented, but there is a time for everything, and I am a patient woman and know sometimes things just have to wait! A huge thank you goes out to Angela at the WECM - SHE is a rockstar!!

It will change our website, it will give our Sales Consultants their own replicated websites, it will change everything and I am so excited! 

I made myself a promise this year - my year of 39 - that this would be a very big year for me and for Total She, I wanted to make many fantastic changes, share my dreams and our opportunity with many more women and so far,  I really feel like everything is falling into place!  We have had quite a few new gals join us this month already and with all of the exciting changes to take place, we will be at that place ready for explosive growth!  Did I say I was excited yet?

Another change I wanted to make was in my health, I was on a great track last spring and summer, then I got so busy that it all sort of fell to the wayside, which is extremely disappointing because I was doing so well!, but fall off the horse, get back on...start again -  so 2 weeks ago I started a 90 day challenge!  Thankfully Michelle Lalonde from Tiber River called me up to tell me about it - and I never looked back!  I am super excited about this because now that I am going full steam ahead with it, I feel 100 times better about myself, and have already lost weight!  WOO HOO!  75 Days to go!  Watch my smoke!

Hey if you are around Winnipeg this weekend - we will be at the Baby and Kids show at the Winnipeg Convention Centre!  Come for a visit!  -  you can see all of of our exciting new season goodies! 

New Year, New Season, and New ME!

Well everybody, I'm sorry I have not been better at being consistent on our blog! I am really going to put in a better effort this year to be here more often!  I think by blogging nearly every day I set myself up to fail at this near impossible task for me!  I love writing, I love talking, so you'd think it would be simple, well quite frankly - even I run out of things to say! I really think I was not sure who I was talking "TO" on this blog... My family? My friends? Our Sales Consultants?, Our Customers?

I know it really is to all of you above! - just sometimes I was not sure what I should be saying to each of those groups...what I really should be doing is saying what "I" wanted to say to all of you, and not worrying about what I "should" be doing, as that is up to someone else's standards right! So that's what I am going to do - I will chat about everything that is happening in my crazy life. My ideas, my thoughts, my family, my husband, my children, my weight...mmm yep, it's all coming out, and how all of these things play out and fit in around Total She Inc!

I just turned 39 about 2 weeks ago on January 14th...I have thought long and hard about this, the fact that I am turning 40 very soon. Most of my friends are older than I am, and most at least by 10 years, heck even my husband is 10 years older than me... so I am known as the "babe" or the youngster, etc...I have not been feeling this way though! ...it started last spring, so I made a big change, I started back at the gym ( it has been probably 10 years - not kidding) I started biking nearly every day for at least 20 minutes, I was really starting to get back into shape and feeling fantastic! I was actually putting myself into my own life.. ! What a concept.

Then it happened... October hit, it got really busy, Total She busy that is...Kids back to school, no more free time in the summer, it was so busy that I had pulled my "routine" right out from under me! Now it is 4 months later, I have still not been to the gym, and I am back into my old crappy feeling self! SO: It is off to the races again, I am working on my Get FIT for 40 Plan.. again... and ready to giver! ... along with the million things I need to do in my business..lol. Stay tuned!

Now on a Total She note: We have a brand new catalogueout now,  and February Specials to see too so please take a peek!  Lots of exciting new products this season that I know you will LOVE!

December Has Arrived! So are our NEW HOLIDAY Specials!

The countdown is on for your Christmas gifts this year!  Are you feeling stressed out?  If so give your Total She Sales consultant a call with your order!  Don't have one yet?  Give us a call and we will get you all set up!   We will ship right to your door!  What a concept, not running around a crowded mall!  Think you are only the one feeling this way, we bet not!  Invite your friends over for a great shop and a fantastic visit, and you will earn FREE merchandise as a Total She hostess!

 

Would you like to meet the REAL Me?

So here is the deal... Today I am putting myself out there for all of you to see. I have been going through some changes within myself, and I want to share my experiences with you. I am not exactly sure what brought it all on, perhaps it is that I am turning 40 in a year and a half, I really don't know. It began a while ago when I started to see Deb. ( Caution - this will be long. )

I wanted to get more organized in my life and schedule things so I had a better balance. I started off really well but it was still not working the way that I thought it could work. I began getting stressed out.

Who was I any way? A wife? a mom? a friend? a business owner? or more so "President and Founder of Total She Inc " - Blech...

I wanted to come on this blog and be myself, but I have been so torn about just WHO I "should" be, and what I "should" be talking about. Was this a Total She blog? Should I talk about Total She? Should I talk about my kids? My family? My life? What exactly was I trying to get accross on this blog anyway? I had never really defined it for myself.

What did I want to talk about? I have decided that on this blog, I will talk about my life and business struggles and how I get through them, plus any other great info that is happening of course! Sometimes business, sometimes personal, and how about some behind the scenes of my not so "perfect" life that I figured I should have be broadcasting to everyone.

I want to be relatable to you all, not untouchable, this is how I was beginning to feel.... that is just not me, I am one of the most down to earth people that you will ever meet, no wonder why I was struggling with the blog. I am not a superficial President and Founder. That whole title makes me cringe! ( I need a new title by the way... who wants to help me brainstorm for a new title? The winner will receive a gift from me and their name in our next catalogue.)

With all of these mid life questions popping into my mind, the work load of my business, facing the unknown in my business, my family and children responsibilities and trying to work through it all, it was stressing me out so much and I began eating. I have always had pretty good control of myself in the food aspect but for the past 10 years or of child rearing or so I have let about 10-15 pounds creep on. Over the past month another 10 lbs crept on, I hopped on the scale on Saturday June 4th and I was at 160lbs. Uh Oh - I needed an intervention on myself! Someone put a lock on the fridge.

Now I am in no way trying to make a big deal about this, I know people might say Oh big woopie 15 lbs is nothing, but for me, I knew I was eating terribly and I drowned on myself in bad self talk, I was on a disasterous path. I had tried cleanses and diets and all types of different ideas before to drop the weight. They would temporarily work, I'd lose, then I'd go back to eating the JUNK. Boxes of cookies, crackers, chips, even chocolate chips when I was desperate. I was sure to be on a diabetes path, it was getting that bad. I would harp at my kids to not eat it, then I'd pig out on all the junk after they went to bed. It made me feel better while I was eating, but afterwards all the self talk would start all over again. With all of the diets I was not solving the problem at all... the inside of ME. I am now trying to work on loving myself again, and trying to figure out just who this person is that lives inside me.

On Monday June 6th I started a new program at U weightloss. One of the things that I knew about myself is that I was not accountable to myself. I was a huge procrastinator, but if someone was expecting something I would always make it happen.

Over the past couple weeks I have realized that I was not accountable to myself because I did not love myself. How incredibly sad is that. If I loved and cared for myself I would take "care" of myself and do the things that needed to do to keep myself healthy, fit and in shape. I would put myself into the equation of my time because I am worth it. I have realized that it really was not that I am not accountable to myself - it was that I did not love and respect myself enough to do these things for me. Again - how sad is that. With this realization, I feel like I can overcome most of the hurdles I am facing just by loving myself a little more each day.

I am proud to tell you that I have been putting myself into my own life and have lost 9 pounds so far. My goal is 135 pounds in the end, but my bigger goal is to get myself back into the shape that I was before I forgot about myself, eat healthier, and be able to have a treat once in a while and not need the junk to solve my inner issues. I want to deal with them on my own. Please feel free to comment at any time on the blog, I'd love to meet you and hear from you.

Why we are are having so much fun! Part #2

Bonus Blog for Thursday!  I have to finish my story!  Ok so where I left off yesterday regarding the picture that Shaughn ended up being "tagged" in on facebook.  This is a picture of her and I at our children's elementary school Halloween party.  Both of her children had dressed as Avatar for the party and Shaughn happened to slip the mask on, someone snapped the picture and voila - tagged on facebook - never to live it down!   

Shortly after I showed them this picture, I unveiled a beauty of my own.  I had shared this picture on this blog way back after I had volunteered myself for a hair show...  I cannot believe I am posting this here again, but here it is so you can enjoy the laughs.

 
As soon as Cherise had copies of these in her hands - we were getting all kinds of interesting mocked up photo's on our desks.  Some are not exactly appropriate to post here, but I will share the good ones!  The first few we do not have any more as they were printed and not saved... but here is the one from yesterday of poor Shaughn in the corner! 

 Somehow along the way Shaughn ended up getting named JEB GORVE, it was because of her typing an email to "JEN" and she wrote JEB, and then she was supposed to ship a pkg to GROVE, and shipped it to GORVE...yep, Cherise or "SHRI" as my daughter nicknamed her does not miss a beat!

A couple weeks ago, I was cooking hard-boiled eggs, and forgot about them on the stove, well the eggs completely burnt and smoked out my entire house.  The smell was so incredibly gross, that after I opened all the windows and returned to my desk, this is what I found:



As you can see it is nuts around here most days and we always have fun!  I will make sure to bring you more of our fun pics as we move forward!

Have a fabulous weekend!  See you next Wednesday!



All the fun we are having! Part #1

Hello all!  Hope everyone is doing great!  I know I am!  Laura and I just returned from a great trip to Ottawa!  It was a lot of work, but it was also really fun, I was able to unwind, relax, and get to know Laura better too!  We walked a ton when we were out there, good thing becausee we ate at a couple amazing restaurants, and I left stuffed!  The food was so fantastic, I was so impressed. 

The people in Ottawa were super friendly and nice, the ladies were all dressed really nice, and many had amazing shoes!  The downtown area was beautiful and unique and there were always so many people walking around.

We stayed at a Raddison hotel and enjoyed a few laughs about the sleep number beds we had.  Laura was pumping hers up to be as stiff as a board and I had min like a bean bag.

It was a great Women's Show and there were so many great ladies that we met.  There was a lot of positive response to our great merchandise and company at the show and we handed out over 1200 catalogues!  I hope some great ladies will sign up with us and share Total She in their area!  I'd love to go back there.

It has been super busy since we got back processing everything for Mother's Day.  With busy comes stress and with stress comes laughs...  today we laughed until we had tears coming down our faces.  Today Shaughn made a slight shipping error that needed to be quickly rectified and she felt so bad, and annouced to us she felt so dumb for making the mistake, and she should go and sit in the corner.  In the shop we have a wall of shame - well on this wall we have tons of comical pictures that Cherise makes up of us so I quitely mentioned to her to make Shaughn a dunce cap.  It was so funny, one of those had to be there things, but i'd like to back up to the start so you will find it as funny as we did...  hold tight - this is good!

Way back Cherise made a comment that she hated when people tagged pictures of her on facebook when it was a really bad picture.  She said once you are tagged it is really too late and everyone can see the picture.  I announced that I totally knew what she meant - and I know someone that had a really bad picture of them tagged, and I showed her a really great pic...  ( I totally intend to share this story because it is too funny not to, but I cannot locate the photo so tomorrow I will start with part 2 of this story!  Stay tuned! )

 

SHOUT OUT! New Ottawa Ontario Consultants NEEDED to start this Weekend!!!

So today is the following Tuesday, I KNOW!!  I missed my last Wednesday Blog!  I had a very crazy week.  My Grandma passed away and that threw me off of my schedule.  It was actually a blessing for my family as she was 91, and not doing so well anymore.  She will be missed by myself and my family that is for sure.  Tomorrow is her funeral and I will be doing a part of her Eulogy.  I will not be blogging tomorrow either, so thought I'd better get on here today.

On a happier note,  Laura and I are preparing to head to the Ottawa Womens show on Friday April 30th / May 1st and part of the prep was to pack up ALL of the stock and supplies that we need for the show.  Thanks to Cherise for once again packing up all of the stock!  What a job that was! 

 We had to get everything dropped off to Reimer Express last week, assemble the pallet on their dock - (Thank you Shaugn for helping me with that!) 

Typically Reimer will come to pick up the pallet and you can already have it assembled and ready for them... for a measley extra $300 for there and back service!  This is such an expensive venture for us as it is and I needed to save as much money as I could so we could afford to go! As it is right now Laura and I will be doing the show alone which is pretty disappointing, but we had checked with the few Ontario girls that we have and none were able to make it!  It is such an amazing opportunity for business building but the timing  just did not working out for the girls.  Everything happens for a reason, and I may have one more hopeful to join us.  I am waiting with bated breath that it is a yes! 

Mother's Day is just around the corner and we have some amazing parties coming in from our Sales Consultants!  Have you booked your party yet?  There is still plenty of time to assemble your own party and get your goodies for Mom's day, so call up your consultant and get er booked!

On another note - our friend at Eve Studios here in Winnipeg are offering a Mom's Day promo at their studio, and we are offering up a prize from Total She!  A FREE personalized Eternity  pendant and chain!  Everyone who comes through their studio for their Mother/Daughter event will have a chance to win a prize basket for them and their mother (or a friend).  Please see more about it here!

 

Have You heard of Eating Clean?

Hey all - here I am - Wednesday blog!  YAY me for sticking to my Wednesday blog day!!  ( Thanks to Cherise for reminding me today! )  

 I was ready to press publish to this post in the afternoon but for some darn reason - it will not upload any of my pictures...  It's still not, so I had to change my entire post!  ARGH!  Super annoying!  Oh well you will have to wait to have a laugh at my expense another day!  It was good too!

It is a busy time for us now with Mom's day only a month away.  Have you thought about what you could surprise your mom with this year?  I'm sure we could help you with plenty of ideas!  We have got her covered from her heat to her toes!

Things have been pretty busy in the life of SHE I have to say!  There is always a ton to do, a ton to think about, and a ton to plan, as I mentioned last week I am trying to get better at the planning part.  I got myself this cool new book to keep track of everything.  It basically is daytimer looseleaf!  Pefect for me and all of my "lists"  I have always been a list maker, and I have never had more lists in all of my life.  Oh well, we learn new things every day so away I go!

One new thing I have been training myself to do is to eat better and to eat breakfast!  I have never been much of a breakfast eater, and I KNOW I need to, so I have been really making an effort for the past couple weeks to change some of my ways, and I have been doing really well! 

I began to read a book called "Eating Clean" by Tosca Reno - it was recommended to me by a friend and also my cousin who is bascially one big muscle!  I am excited about this book and the eat clean lifestyle - it is not easy to change into, and it is a TON to learn, but I am making small changes a bit at a time.  Every day is not perfect, today was one of them, but I am not beating myself up about it.  I am getting better all of the time and choosing cleaner food to eat. I feel so much better about what is going into my body that is for sure.

I have been eating real cooked oatmeal with fresh strawberries or blueberries and wheatgerm, or shredded wheat for breakfast. The trick is to eat "clean" "live" foods all day long basically!  I have been choosing food to eat all day like a hard boiled egg, a piece of fruit, cut up veggies ( no dip! )  Whole wheat wraps with tuna... I could go on...  I am having a challenge figuring out what to eat, and planning my shopping slection to include a better variety, but am positive I am on the right track!  I will keep you posted as I progress!  Exciting times!!

It's really April!!!

Hi everyone!  It's been a while that is for sure!  Hard to believe but one of the things I love to do is to blog - I love writing about my day, my kids, my business.  It helps me to unwind, and de-stress! 

It's been a very busy couple months for us and the time certainly gets away.  One of things I am working on is a better time management plan for myself.  It has never been easy for me - and it is definitely a work in progress.  My jobs always get done, but I think there is room for improvement!

Since my last post - Deb had been on my mind so I gave her a call I have been working with Deb Dawson Dunn again on how I work best and how I like to work, and she insists that if I make too many guidelines and structure for myself I will hate it, I know she is right!  Regardless of how much I will hate it - we both know there ARE certain things that must to be scheduled, and by doing this it will make my life so much better. She has recommended that I delegate certain days for certain tasks.  Sounds simple I know - Like I said - this is all new for me. 

One of the things I thought when I started this blog was that I could handle blogging every day - and that I needed to... I am choosing Wednesday to be my new blog day, sometimes there may be more - but I am going to stick with Wednesdays - I think that will be much better for me!

If you are really needing quicker information from us - please find us on Face Book - we will be there nearly every day!

Well tomorrow I am a guest speaker at a Y Neighbours group in WhyteRidge - I'm pretty excited about it, I love moms!  I got some goodies packed up for them too!  I wonder which one is going to want to build a business, I can't wait to find out!

Do you ever feel like your heard is going to pop off?

Well I do!  This past week was my first week back to reality after my 2 week holiday in Florida.  It felt like I got nothing accomplished.  I know some things got done, but it was a big catch up week for me, and really unfocused. 

I really dislike that feeling!  I feel unorganized, uneasy,  and just not settled.  Part of this feeling was that my oldest daughter was writing her exams and I knew it was interrupting any flow of work I was trying to achieve..  We are a ways from the school so I drive her each day.  Her exam times were all over the map.  She missed some tests while we were away so she needed to go back and forth to do those too. 

At the beginning of this week, she woke up with an extremely sore throat, I gave her some advil for a couple days and she used cough drops to help.  Last night in the night she was in incredible pain.  I knew it was time for a doctor trip.. I agonized at the thought of waiting at a walk in clinic for 3 hours, so I quickly dismissed that thought, focused on making the call and getting in.  I called, and she asked me if I could be there in 20 minutes.  So we were.  She ended up having strep so it was a good thing we went!  Now what kind of job could I have that would afford me the luxury of time to do this?  Drive her each day and wish her good luck...  So I had 1 unfocused week, it actually gave me plenty of driving time to think. 

My daughter was not in the mood for chatting with a sore throat, so I drove and thought.  I came up with a lot of good ideas and many things I know I need to do to; PLAN my weeks better, and my time.  Scheduling has never been a strong point for me, and I know it is something I need to work on .. continually, and I plan to.  I can actually hear Deb Dawson Dunn in my head right now,

and she'd say.. "Are you crazy?  Look how much planning you do every day and all of thing s you run, and 3 kids, and 2 business' you have to be pretty organized to schedule and do all of that " 

She is right... I tell myself all of the time, but there is a flow that happens and it just works, and this week the flow was off.  it was just on... off... on... off...  I'm not really sure where this was going, but I think I know now what the point of it is.  Sometimes when things are not going as planned, or as you hoped, you just need to go with it and let it all go. Let go of the control for a bit... There is nothing you can do about it, but let it go and let life happen...once in a while.

Tomorrow all of my kids are off school - one more day of this crazy week and I am so grateful that I am recognizing to enjoy it!