Exciting Giveaway-enter today!

Our new summer line is launching in a couple of weeks and I am gearing up to do a giveaway!  I have also partnered with some bloggers and will be announcing that soon!

The new summer collection will be premiering in a little over two weeks!! Who wants to be my premiere hostess and earn tons of free jewelry and more?? The new line is full of exciting new items! HANDBAGS are the most anticipated items that will be available the beginning of April.

Sneak-peek:

Image

If you haven’t joined my eNEWS, please do so, as that’s where I will announce my GIVEAWAY & Sample Sale!!

Image

Let’s Sparkle & Shine!

elise

FIND ME ON FACEBOOK

SHOP ON MY eBOUTIQUE

SUBSCRIBE to my YouTube

SUBSCRIBE TO eNEWS

contactme_logo_c_1200

5 Simple Steps to Set Yourself Up for 2013 SUCCESS

LIKE THIS ARTICLE? Don’t forget to share it with your friends! smiley

Are YOU in it to Win it? How do you go after success? Do you quit when the going gets too tough or do you get up bruised and battered and go at it again? (via the fabulous KAREN PHELPS-read her blog here: www.karenphelps.net)

As a child I never really learned how to succeed, in fact the truth is, I was a quitter! I hated to embarrass myself in front of others so rather than try again, I would usually just sit and sulk on the sidelines (go figure, the motivator needed motivation.) LOL, I think the first thing I really went after and didn’t give up on was getting my man and I’m pleased to say, I’m glad I didn’t quit as we’ve been married over 40 years!

Anyway, I really think too many people quit while they are down (or down in the dumps) and they don’t even realize that success could be right around the corner! I thought I’d share a few of the simple steps I take to get myself back in the game and on track for the success I want in my life and my business!

1. Set clear, precise goals with strict deadlines. What exactly do you want? When do you want it by? How are you going to get it? What are the steps you need to take in order to make it happen? Brian Tracy says, “Take your goal and work backwards, figuring out each step that you need to take in order to make it happen.” If you have a Sales goal of $50,000 for the year divide it by 12 months or better yet break it down by weeks. You will need $4,166.67 per month or $961.54 per week.

Tip: Give yourself a break and set your weekly goal a little higher, so you will have completed your goals with 2-4 weeks to spare. If you sell $1,000 per week you will have accomplished your goal in 50 weeks (you can take the holidays off!)  If you sell $1,100 per week you will have accomplished your goal in 46 weeks. Whatever your goal, I always suggest you give yourself a little breathing room, so you’re not stressed at the end of the month/contest period/sales year.

2. Know and Understand the Facts. It’s much easier for us to jump to conclusions when we’re not on target to reach our goals, than it is to analyze what’s really happening in our business & our life. You should be TRACKING everything you can track so you know where you can improve! It’s crazy to set a goal to improve in a certain area when you don’t have a starting point. Let’s say you want to weigh 20 pounds less by December 31′st. You have to have a starting point in order to know if you have reached your goal. In business many people say they want to improve but they don’t know by how much. To be successful in any endeavor it’s important to become a facts and figures person. Always be in a constant state of re-evaluation. I re-evaluated and adjusted what I needed to do to reach my goals at the end of every week for some short term contests and at the end of every month for long term contests.

If you have a couple bad weeks or a bad month it’s easier to get back on track right away when you have re-adjusted the amount that needs to be done. Let’s use the $50,000 yearly sales example again and say you had a less than stellar January and February and your total sales for the 2 months was $3000 which means you are $5,333.34 shy of the pace you need for the year. You have to take the balance you need $47,000 and divide it by the remaining 10 months and you now need $4,700 each month!

Repeat after me, “To achieve my goals I need to track and re-adjust every month.”

3. Realize that most situations are temporary. Often a slump is self-induced (most of mine are) and they are brought on when we quit doing the RIGHT things that worked in the past. It’s very easy to get the “shiny object syndrome” and start trying lots of new stuff which distracts us and takes us away from a previously successful system! YIKES, I know it’s hard to blame ourselves and much easier to blame the lousy economy or other outside factors but the truth is more often than not it’s US! It is what it is, “put your Big Girl Panties On” (or Big Boy Boxers” and deal with it and then move on!

Always keep working on your goal! Don’t stop or you’ll get sucked in just like the millions of others who had good intentions but poor work ethics! It’s easier to gain momentum if you don’t quit moving. Making sales and customer service calls, sending thank you notes, asking for referrals are just a couple of the things you can do to keep the momentum going. You never know when your next boost will come but I guarantee it will come alot faster when you are heading in a upward direction instead of a downward spiral!  “ONWARD & UPWARD!”

4. Reward Yourself and Stay Motivated. The hardest part of reaching any worthwhile goal is maintaining the same action steps you used in the beginning through the entire time you’re working on reaching your goal. We get bored, we get antsy, we get frustrated and we often lack the motivation to keep at anything for a long period of time and so we quit! It’s hard to keep making phone calls when you get voice mail after voice mail, or you hear no again and again. It’s hard to stay motivated when you lose 4 pounds your first week and week 5 you only lose a half a pound.

You MUST STAY MOTIVATED! You can listen to motivational material over and over again. You can say mantras out loud each and every day. You can also make sure you reward yourself when you reach milestones along the way. Let’s say the $50,000 yearly sales goal is what you need to earn a free trip. Have built in rewards for  yourself each time you hit a $10,000 increment. Your first $10,000 might be a new piece of luggage, the second thousand might be a new outfit to wear on the trip, you get the point. The rewards you give yourself motivate YOU to keep going to the next mile-marker! It’s important you reward yourself immediately and don’t save them up and do it all at one time. Motivation is key when you want to stay on track for success but the rewards don’t have to come from  an outside source, they can just as easily come from you!

5. Reach One Goal and Set Another. I’ve watched so many people go up and down in their business and their life because goal setting doesn’t become a HABIT with them! Many people reach a goal and then hit the skids, just the same as putting on the brakes in a car. The reason is simple, they failed to plan for their next accomplishment. The time to begin planning your next goal is BEFORE you complete the one you are currently working on. Failure to plan in advance will cause you to wander aimlessly in pursuit of nothing. You won’t know what to do because you won’t have a clear and precise picture of what you want to accomplish. (via the fabulous KAREN PHELPS-read her blog here: www.karenphelps.net)

That’s it, I’m stopping right now to write down a few goals of my own! HERE ARE MY 2013 GOALS:

To continue to offer our amazing opportunity to women.  This will be our best year yet!

To promote 6 new leaders on my first line.

To promote 25 new leaders on my sales organization.

To earn the trip to Puerta Vallarta for my family!  (we are going to Bahamas, next month, with stella & dot!

To take my husband to Germany & train my team and tour his homeland!!!

Let’s Sparkle & Shine!

elise

FIND ME ON FACEBOOK

SHOP ON MY eBOUTIQUE

SUBSCRIBE to my YouTube

SUBSCRIBE TO eNEWS

contactme_logo_c_1200

Introducing my new Leadership Store!

Introducing my new Leadership Store!

I am asked every day on what books to read?  Which is the best technology? Should I get an iPhone?  iPad?  Mini?  Kindle Fire?  Which printer to use? I have decided I better open an Amazon Store so I can easily share the link!  So, check back often as I will update the list every week or so!!

See above for a link to my store or go there NOW!!!

Screen Shot 2013-01-03 at 1.42.02 PM

Let’s Sparkle & Shine!

elise

FIND ME ON FACEBOOK

SHOP ON MY eBOUTIQUE

SUBSCRIBE to my YouTube

SUBSCRIBE TO eNEWS

contactme_logo_c_1200

Frustrated with your Business?

Frustrated with your Business?

sales-statistics
We all feel that way at some point!  It is sales, after all.  You must be disciplined and work your business, this is surely the biggest challenge in working from home!  You choose when to work, how to work & the quality of your work!  It is sort of like eating well & exercising-YOU must Do It!!  No one will do it for you.  Now after reading those statistics, what kind of business owner do you want to be??  I certainly don’t want to warm people up only to leave them hanging, and prepped and ready for the next person to walk in and get the sale.  ;-)  And sales can be effected by cyclical cycles, ie holidays, summer vacation, storms, etc…  And you might be wondering how to maintain and even grow your business during these challenges.  Today, I will share some Tips on what I have learned over the years, in this industry.

If you like my videos, you can SUBSCRIBE to my YouTube Channel and receive them as I upload them!

1-Remember that these are Challenges, roadblocks, bumps along the way.

2-Positive Mindset is essential!!  (try not reading/watching the news for a week or two.  Tap into motivational speakers-subscribe to their Free E-news!

3-Plan for your Success!  Set your goals, make a plan, take daily action!

4-Read The Compound Effect.  LOVE this book!

Compound

SHOP HERE!

Let’s Sparkle & Shine!

elise

FIND ME ON FACEBOOK

SHOP ON MY eBOUTIQUE

SUBSCRIBE to my YouTube

SUBSCRIBE TO eNEWS

contactme_logo_c_1200

2012 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for my blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

600 people reached the top of Mt. Everest in 2012. This blog got about 5,900 views in 2012. If every person who reached the top of Mt. Everest viewed this blog, it would have taken 10 years to get that many views.

Click here to see the complete report.

SHOP HERE!

Let’s Sparkle & Shine!

cropped-elise-zahara1.jpg

elise

FIND ME ON FACEBOOK

SHOP ON MY eBOUTIQUE

SUBSCRIBE to my YouTube

SUBSCRIBE TO eNEWS

contactme_logo_c_1200

I know 6

I know 6

I am not really a major cryer. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I cry–when it’s appropriate to do so. Funerals. The occasional wedding if it’s particularly beautiful or meaningful. Schindler’s List. Things that normal people cry at. I am definitely not an over-cryer. I don’t cry at commercials or cheesy Hallmark movies or at the drop of a hat. And, when I do cry, there’s usually a beginning and an end. I cry. I get it out. I stop. Normal crying.

However, since I first started to understand the magnitude of what happened at Sandy Hook Elementary School on Friday morning, I have cried a lot. I cried when I heard the terrible news. I cried when I went to pick my son up early from school. I cried when I told my husband what had happened. I cried when I talked to my girlfriends about it. I cried at church when we prayed for each victim by name. Off and on for going on three days now, I have cried. And this is despite going out of my way to not watch anything about it on TV or read too much about it online. I’m actively trying to avoid it, but I still find myself crying more than usual.

I mentioned this to a friend last night and she said that she couldn’t seem to stop crying either. When I asked her why she thought that was, her answer was, for me, a revelation. She said, “I think it’s because we know what six looks like. We see it every day . . . in all its glory.” And she was right. Because, you see, this friend and I both have a six year old child. I, a six year old son. She, a six year old daughter. Both are in first grade. Both, I imagine, so heart-breakingly similar to those twenty kids who were so brutally and senselessly killed on Friday morning. And we do, indeed, know what six looks like. We do see it every day. In all its glory. We see the good, the bad, and the ugly. The beautiful and the infuriating. It’s in our face. We live it and breathe it.

We know what six looks like. We know what it smells like. How it can go from the fresh scent of shampoo and soap to the musky aroma of “dirty child” in what seems like minutes. How it resists getting in the bathtub . . . and then resists getting out half an hour later. How sweet its hair and skin and clean jammies smell when it sits on your lap and asks you to read it a bedtime story. We know the unmistakeable fragrance of the occasional accident in the middle of the night caused by too much milk and no last-thing-before-bed visit to the toilet.

We know what six looks like. We know what it sounds like. How it cries and whines. How it sings and laughs. How clever it is and how much more clever it grows every day. How it sounds out words on signs as we drive past in the car and how happy it is when it gets them right. How annoying it sounds when it teases its little sister and how kind it sounds when it soothes her when she falls down and hurts herself. We know how lovely the words “Mommy” and “Daddy” and “I Love You” sound in its six-year-old voice.

We know what six looks like. We know how it tastes. How picky it is. How it thinks chicken nuggets or macaroni and cheese are gourmet foods. How much it loves candy and cookies. How it tolerates broccoli and carrots. How it absolutely abhors brussels sprouts. How it thinks french fries are a vegetable. How it thinks chocolate milk was created by God himself. How it thinks pizza is its own food group. We know that six is happy when it finds “I love you!” written on a napkin in its lunch box at school.

We know what six looks like. We know how it feels. How big it’s getting. How fast it outgrows its clothes and how it’s no longer a baby, but not quite yet a big kid. We know the weight of six in our arms. How we can barely carry it anymore, but try anyway because we can’t quite bring ourselves to accept the truth. We know how easily six gets its feelings hurt if someone says just the wrong thing or if this friend or that one doesn’t want to play with it or it gets in trouble at school. We know the velvety softness of six’s skin. We know the still-silkiness of its hair.

Yes, we know what six looks like. We know six’s gap-toothed smile and its gangly arms and legs. We see how it jumps and dances. How it twirls and runs. We know how funny six is. How absolutely charming it can be. We know six’s terrible jokes. We know how obsessed it is with “Minecraft.” We know its crooked “S” and its backwards “3.” We see how it teeters on the cusp of the world of books and all the joys of reading, but how it’s not quite ready to fall in yet. We see how six can’t decide if it wants us to stand beside it or not. We watch it take two steps towards independence and one step back towards us every day. We know how sturdy and strong six is . . . and yet how frail and fragile.

We know what six looks like. How beautiful it is. How precious. How brightly it shines with promise. How much it looks towards the future . . . toward seven, eight, nine, . . . How much it looks like forever.

We know what six looks like and can only in our worst nightmares imagine how devastating its loss in this senseless and evil way would be. We can only barely imagine the wreckage and the despair and the utter hopelessness that would be left if six were brutally and suddenly taken from us. We know we couldn’t bear life without it.

Yes, we know what six looks like. And we know that, to us–like it must be for those other mothers and fathers in Connecticut–six is the whole world.

I copied this from a facebook friend… and I think it explains why my heart is so heavy every morning this week when I drop off my daughter at school…..

I think that this explanation is spot on.

I have found that the #26acts have really helped me to see the love in life again.  Yesterday, we did a fundraiser for a little baby-girl that died of SIDS.  We shared stories of her and her family.  And we connected on a level that you don’t get to do, everyday.  Healing was happening.  We are all effected by loss of our community members and we feel it in a way that is difficult to communicate.  This is waht I have come to value above all else from my stella & dot business: the community/family that has grown from this endeavor is intangible!  Thank you for being a part of my family!  Whether I know you in real-life, or in virtual-life I LOVE YOU!Screen Shot 2012-12-20 at 11.25.09 AM

Screen Shot 2012-12-20 at 12.31.44 PM

Screen Shot 2012-12-18 at 7.27.34 PM

Screen Shot 2012-12-18 at 7.38.07 PM   Screen Shot 2012-12-18 at 7.39.14 PM

Continue to Sparkle & Shine!

Screen Shot 2012-12-08 at 11.56.05 AM

elise

FIND ME ON FACEBOOK

SHOP ON MY eBOUTIQUE

SUBSCRIBE to my YouTube

SUBSCRIBE TO eNEWS

My Trunk Show Marathon-Day 1

My Trunk Show Marathon-Day 1

Each day in December I will make a vlog (video-blog) about my trunk shows.  I can’t wait to see what happens this month!  Last month was a record breaker in so many ways!!  We had our highest team volume, I had my highest sales & my BIGGEST $$$ paycheck!!!!!!  It was mind-blowing!  So I am a little late with starting this vlog marathon.  I have already had 3 trunk shows and am at $2700 in sales…and still have 8 to go!  This is sure to be my biggest month to date!

Today’s look is CAbi & the Olivia Bib.

BONUS:

Jessica Herrin quote

stella & dot was featured on CBS This Morning with our founder/ceo Jessica Herrin!  She has such a BIG VISION!!  It’s amazing to see her vision come to fruition and more importantly isn’t she just so inspiring?!  CLICK FOR CBS CLIP.

Sparkle & Shine!

elise

FIND ME ON FACEBOOK

SHOP ON MY eBOUTIQUE

SUBSCRIBE to my YouTube

SUBSCRIBE TO eNEWS

Oh! It’s Burn-out!

Oh! It’s Burn-out!

burn-out.

This has been something I have always had to deal with.  I have a go-go-GOOO personality.  I am not Type-A, organized, procedural, or adept at time-management.  And I think that may contribute to burn-out.  If someone thinks of a way to do the mundane processes of life (ie-my husband thought of labeling the boys’ laundry baskets, rather than just mixing their clothes, or labeling their drawers-they share a room) I am all for it.  BUT I don’t think of those things on my own.  I have found that I can think of a million new ways to grow my stella & dot biz.  And have created many different campaigns for our stylist community at large.  I love social media/networking and the connections it provides.  The drawback to all this, is that I don’t take the time to rest and relax.  I have discovered a few things that work really for me:

spa dates

working out daily

10 minute mind breaks

protein shakes (I find I eat less when super-busy)

bed by 9

And this article from Oprah magazine has helped tremendously!!  The author has hit the bull’s eye!  And when you distill all we do in life, what’s the point, ultimately??  Happiness, Joy, Love!!  Click HERE to read more on burn-out!

Did you know our founder, Jessica Herrin, was featured on Oprah when she founded her original company, THE WEDDING CHANNEL.com?  What works FOR YOU!!??  What fills you up?

Sparkle & Shine!

elise

FIND ME ON FACEBOOK

SHOP ON MY eBOUTIQUE

SUBSCRIBE to my YouTube

SUBSCRIBE TO eNEWS

stella & dot invites under $4

stella & dot invites under $4

((PRINTED Invites under $4!!))

Redstamp App on your iphone/ipad

RS1

Go to Collections

rs2

Make the invite for hostess, share with her to send to friends

rs3

rs4rs5

Save as a pic, you might have to email the pic to yourself, to upload to Snapfish

Screen Shot 2012-12-06 at 12.57.51 PM

Go to snapfish

Upload the pic

Send to Hostess or pick up at local store if you are delivering them

Check out with Promo Code!!

USE EBATES FOR ONLINE ORDERING!! CASH BACK!!

http://www.ebates.com/rf.do?referrerid=CwMQg4cR2SONGjoIl4OBDg%3D%3D

Sparkle & Shine!

elise

FIND ME ON FACEBOOK

SHOP ON MY eBOUTIQUE

SUBSCRIBE to my YouTube

SUBSCRIBE TO eNEWS