Thursday, September 17, 2009

Happy Birthday to Jim Rohn

Wishing a happy birthday to Jim Rohn. A man who gave so much. He opened doors with his ideas and methods of sharing and growing people. Thank you to someone who gave us a gift.

Some of my favorite quotes by Jim:

"Give whatever you are doing and whoever your are doing with the gift or your attention."

"The greatest gift you can give somebody is your own personal development. I used to say, 'If you will take care of me, I will take care of you.' Now I say, 'I will take care of me for you, if you will take care of you for me.' "

"A good objective of leadership is to help those who are doing poorly to do well and to help those who are doing well to do even better."

"Character isn't something you were born with and can't change, like your fingerprints. It's something you weren't born with and must take responsibility for forming."

"Formal education will make you a living; self-education will make you a fortune."

Thanks again Jim for all your insight and the gifts you left us with.

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Great Quotes

What are some of your favorite quotes?

Here's one of mine:

"The most important single ingredient in the formula of success is knowing how to get along with people" ~ Roosevelt

Friday, September 11, 2009

Remembering 9/11/2001

Thinking back on this day....wow! I can't believe it was eight years ago. I was a flight attendant for American Airlines. I had just moved to Dallas from Chicago that August. I was working reserve the month of September, which means I was on call. Any flight they call you for, you take. It was Tuesday morning, and my phone rang, it was my dad. I could hear in his voice something was up. He said go to the TV and turn on the news. At that time only one plane had hit the towers. As I turned on the news, I remember thinking, that must have been a big plane, and then the next plane hit. I said to my dad...."That was a United Plane."

As they started to release small details I learned the first plane was AA. I told him I need to get off the phone. I started looking up all AA flights trying to track down names of the crewmembers flying.

As I watched...with the rest of the nation I started making calls. Quickly AA took down all access to the computers. This is done so that people can be contacted correctly. However I had already seen the name of the first crew to go down.

I receive tons of calls that day, family, friends, co-workers. It was a hard day, and it got worse. I lost a friend in the first plane, and I felt blessed to not be flying. The night before I had flown home from a double NY layover, I had just been there.

I feel very blessed to not have been on a flight that day. I had friends that were on planes sitting on runways with passengers for 72 hours. ATC wouldn't let any plane take of after getting everyone down. They all had to stay put.

I lived in an apartment in the landing path of DFW airport. At anytime you could see 5-10 planes in the sky either taking off or getting ready to land. Not that night. There were no planes in the sky. Wednesday would be the same....nothing. Like a bad movie coming to life.

I received a call on Thursday from AA asking if I would be willing to take a flight. I jumped at the chance. I wanted to help, needed to help. I took a flight into Pennsylvania. This was to take investigators in and to help get AA crew members out. We did have some passengers as well that had been cleared from the FBI. I was one of six flights that day.

As I arrived to take my flight, the airport was like a ghost town. I walked two terminals and didn't see a single person. I rounded the corner to head to my gate and I could see a small group of people. As I approached they stood to their feet and started clapping. It took AA seven hours to find a crew of five to take a flight, and I was one of them.

It was overwhelming the feeling I got walking to the gate. One lady ran to me and gave me a hug saying "thank you for being so brave". I was tearing up, trying to hold it together when the captain of our flight grabbed my bag and said "if you can't do this I understand." I told him I was happy and proud to take the flight.

I had called my family to let them know I was going. My parents were great, but I could tell my mom was ready for me to quit my job.....she even told me I could and move back home.

The flight went great. We landed around 11pm. I was the number #1 that flight. It was my one request when I took the call from AA. I wanted to be the last chance prior to someone breaking through the cockpit. I don't know why, but I felt like I was ready to give a little hurt back if I needed to.

As we landed I made the announcement that you all hear when you fly, but this time it was a little different.

As I summed up with announcement I add "Thank you to everyone for being so understanding during this time. We thank you for flying with American. God bless you and keep you, and God bless America!"

As I said those words the entire plane broke with cheering. Passengers were clapping and standing to their feet, people got up and started hugging complete strangers. As we parked at the gate and the cockpit door opened. Passengers one by one came off the plane. Tears streaming down their face looking to find the words to thank the crew. Two passengers had on their military hats and gave a solute to the pilots. They gave me hugs and wished me well. The woman who had hugged me at the gate came close to me and said "Thank you." gave me a hug and walked away.

I'm so blessed I was able to witness this, there would never be another flight like that in my career. I was able to be there and do something.

So, to all my fellow Americans, remember those who went to work and gave their all that day. We pray for those left behind and that God's grace be poured down on you, on us, and on the world.

Remembering 9/11/2001

Saturday, August 29, 2009

Failing Forward

Failing!!!! Why is she writing about Failing?!? This next book review is on one of my favorite authors, John Maxwell. Maxwell has published over 60 books. He has some of the top books on Leaders in the world. This first book talks about something that most people want to hide from others.....FAILURE!

I'm all too familiar with this topic, and proud to say that failing has helped me move forward in life and business. We sometimes forget that our moms would tell us to "try, try again" or when we fall you have to "get right back up on that horse". This doesn't change as we get older, we just don't look at it the same as we did as kids and someone cheering us on to get back up.


"We overestimate the event and underestimate the process. Every fulfilled dream occurred because of dedication to a process". This is just one of the many points in this book that I too sometimes forget to take into consideration.

If we took all the times we missed a question on a test and never took another one, who would have won? Well, considering you would not have graduated first grade, I'm thinking reading this would be a little hard to do. Or what about trying out for track and entering that first race? Did you win straight out the gate without practice and dedication? I'm thinking, not.

As we grow up and become adults we don't stop this process. There is still a learning curve to everything, and when you think you have it mastered, there is always another angle.

So, failing is a must, but there is a second part to the title of this book.....forward.

When it talks about failing it also talks about moving forward. You can fail and stay "stuck in a rut" as they say. But again this book talks about using what you learn to move forward.

This is one of my favorite quotes: Michael Jordan, June 21, 1991, Wins First NBA Championship:
"I've missed more then 9,000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six times, I've been trusted to take the game winning shot - and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed."

Whether it's losing a race, missing that shot, or changing directions, you just have to keep moving forward and learning from your challenges.

Maybe we need to replace the word failure with learning. That's what it is!

It's an opportunity to learn from what happened and move forward.

This book is worth getting. If everyone could go back to when they were in their teens and read this book, how would it have helped? I can tell you that it has changed my life. It has taught me to view things in a different, yet better light, and who can't use that?

I can't wait to hear your comments.~

The Mary Kay Way

Every month I will be blogging about a new book. I would love to hear your comments or what you have gotten out of my blog.


Well.the first book I wanted to talk about is The Mary Kay Way! This is a wonderful book. If you have read this book, I would love to hear your comments. It's one of those books that you go back to time and time again and find something new that sticks out. I keep this great book on my night stand and thumb through it often. When I first heard the story of MK, I thought she was in her early twenties with a toddler, trying to make ends meet...well, that was not the case.

MK was already retired, son grown and looking to put together a company that would hold her values, yet promote women. Hence Mary-Kay was born. It didn't happen over night, but she just kept plugging away at it, implementing rules and guidelines that help run the company today.

When MK passed away her son and granddaughter filled her shoes.

I wish I would have had the opportunity to meet MK. She has helped me in my business more then she will ever know. From the people who did meet her, they say she was in a class of her own. She always had a smile and a kind word. She practiced the "Golden Rule" that she instilled in the MK legacy. If you run into one of her consultants, you can ask them about this rule, and they will be happy to tell you what it means.

Mary Kay has helped more women thrive around the world in business as well as helping many charities. I truly urge you to pick up this book, read it, and apply what you can to enrich your life.

Monday, May 11, 2009

Monday, March 30, 2009

Catalog Woes

You look at catalogs out there and always think....that would be fun to publish....NOT!

I wanted to share our catalog trials with you all, as I'm sure you'll get a great laugh out of them!

I'm very hands-on. I like to be involved in all projects. I know that at times it's best to sit back and let the professionals handle things, but I still like to watch from the side-lines. As we started moving forward and finding products to debut in the first catalog putting together the "look and feel" of the company, let's say the first try was not so great!

As we did the photo shoot and wrapped up, we started working on wording. If you can't tell, this area is not my strong side. With tons of help from family and friends we finished the first ever Let's Do Tea Catalog! Excited for the launch, nothing could stop us. We had a web site, catalog and a plan, who needed more.

Well the launch of the company was January 1, 2004 and by January 15th over 80% of my blessed catalog was discontinued! Yep, you got it! Not even available if I did have customers. This was a huge learning experience.

We printed 10,000 catalogs and threw away about 9,800 of them. Our catalog has truly evolved since then. Still we make mistakes or get products that tend to have a short life, but it's not an easy job! We have put together a wonderful team that always does our catalog, but like I said in the beginning, I'm very hands-on.

I still pick all our products, handle the photo shoots, and do all the layout and wording. However, there is a team of proof readers (they still miss things), photo touch up (sometimes the pictures still look funny), and more. But we all do our best and put our heart and soul into this time consuming project. We all love this task and look forward to making it better every chance we get.

So check out our newest catalog at www.letsdotea.com

Enjoy the labor!

Saturday, March 21, 2009

Starting Point

Believe it or not, but I was never into direct sales prior to LDT. It was one of those "ah ha" moments in my mom's kitchen that lead us to where we are now.

I knew after years of looking for that "something better job" that it was me that was the "something." People ask me all the time: "Were you scared to fail?"...Uummm yes, aren't we all, but I think it was also that fear that helped me to keep pressing on. It's easy to dream, but never put any thought into action: "too busy, cost too much money, who has the time, too many too's.."

But once I started talking about tea, it was all I could think about. After days of looking online and reading about tea, soon it became all I could do not scream at the top of my lungs....THIS IS IT!!! Needless to say, everyone else took some convincing. As this idea started to grow, I never thought, I'm going to be a home party plan! Nope, the first idea was to be a "trendy hang out" with only difference from Starbucks and me was the product line.

So I began to put my plan into place. Searching for a building, products, you name it. I found out, building aren't cheap, who knew?!? I had just moved from Chicago to Dallas, had a boyfriend, job, no debt, why in the world would I want to rent a building for five years? So I went home to Mom for some much needed advice. As Mom and I sat in the kitchen on a beautiful April day, I said, "maybe I can go around to my friends and sell until I have enough money saved to open a store". My Mom then said: "oh, like party lite?!?" and like a light it hit us both...HOME PARTY PLAN!

Well, this sums up how we came to being a Home Party Plan Company, but to say the least, this was just the beginning. Since that April day we have grown not only as a company, but in the DSA as well.



I look forward to more "ah ha" moments, and would love to hear yours!



Meredith
Our Story!
Let’s Do Tea was conceived by Meredith Tieszen in November, 2002 while flying for a major airline. After talking the idea over with her mom and partner, Jerry Moore, they decided this was where God was leading them.

Let’s Do Tea helps open doors for hospitality and sharing health facts while enjoying a cup of tea.
The past few years have been blessed with on going growth and friendships that would not have been possible without God’s touch. He has brought us more then we could have hoped for and continues to bless us every day.

We feel fortunate to work with such wonderful people and hear their stories.
Thank you Lord, for your amazing gift and grace!