Last Tuesday I had this little thought to change my cell phone voicemail greeting…
It wasn’t really that big of a deal, but honestly, I’ve never given my voicemail greeting a second thought, besides adding my name to the generic greeting so that people calling at least know they got they right #.
Having failed to recruit any sign-ups up to that point to my new business even with this free, no obligation, sign-up promotion this month, I had come to terms with the fact that at least for now, this would be a one-(wo)man show, which was totally okay.
Perhaps not as fun and exciting, but honestly didn’t really hurt me in any way, and would keep this new business venture nice and simple (in the same way that it had made my cleaning nice and simple)…making room to focus more on other possible ventures in my life already going on or potentially coming up.
One little breakthrough last Saturday, however, encouraged me to not see this re-defining as a failure or a reason to be disappointed with myself as an aspiring business-on-the-side woman…
Head office sent me a notice earlier last week asking me to contact someone who was looking for a local sales consultant (apparently her “search” on the corporate website didn’t show any consultants in her immediate area). I figured, cool, why not? It was a likely “good” lead because she went through the trouble of contacting head office. So I took the initiative and contacted the lady…and then waited a few days (calmly, but just a bit anxiously, I must admit, checking my email throughout the day for a response).
Happily, she did get in touch with me, and I happened to have what she was looking for on hand, and it was Tuesday that she would actually be passing by on her way to work, so she could personally come and pick up her order. All so fast, simple and smooth, and it was exciting and fun for me to get to interact with a customer who doesn’t come from my own circle of friends.
After that “successful” encounter, I had a thought that perhaps I should modify my cell phone message to reflect the fact that I was a Norwex Independent Sales Consultant…
Not that I felt very established or official in my role…but it would be a fairly simple change–that could easily be un-changed–and it might come in handy in case I somehow happened to get more people who don’t know me contacting me in the future for my business. Even if just one more person… I’d feel better knowing that they knew they were contacting someone that at least appeared/sounded (based on her voice message) like an “official” independent sales consultant.
I felt like God saying to me that this would be like a small step of faith too, declaring to the world (via my voicemail) that at least for now, this was something I was committing to…something I was willing to identify myself with.
That Tuesday evening, one of my good friends came over for our weekly hang-out, and shared with me that a friend of hers was interested in signing up for the free sign-up option this month, but that her friend really preferred to sign up under her, since she knows her (which made sense to me because that’s what I would’ve wanted too). And so my friend let me show her what the free starter kit included and involved (really just paying the shipping and signing up, and no further obligations), and decided right then and there to just go ahead and sign up. She also then encouraged me, now that she was well aware of what the terms were, to try sharing this offer with people again, because she’s sure people would be interested at the very least in the opportunity to try the products out for themselves…. I explained to her that I had tried…but sure, why not, I could always just try one more time. Maybe focus on sharing what made it an easy decision for herself. I figured I had nothing to lose, except for the time it took for me to try and craft an email and send it off…oh, and post on the facebook page I had created but was too shy to share, and then actually “share” it with my facebook friends… Since I had gone through the trouble that morning of changing my Voicemail message, this seemed like the logical next one step to take in the same direction. There was more risk involved to me, however–that possibility of being perceived as a nuisance or bother, or annoying, etc. etc. I realized though that there is that risk really anytime we try to reach out and put ourselves out there, because we risk being misunderstood and sometimes we simply may be an annoyance to certain people because we are not offering something they actually want. But I reminded myself that the reason I signed up in the first place was because I really really like these cloths and really really really want others to try them too because I’m almost 100% certain it will make their cleaning lives easier and better (and more fun and entertaining?) too… and ANY chance of sharing it with others only exists if I actually take that risk and share. Wish I could say everything then exploded right away and now I’m an instant multi-millionaire–but no, while that isn’t what happened, what did happen is that people actually started showing interest. (Not everyone of course, cuz that generally won’t ever be the case with everything–but enough for me to be super grateful that with my friend’s encouragement I didn’t give up without one more attempt to get the word out there.) Honestly, I wanted to share all this not to promote my particular business….although I/m thinking I will put links at the end cuz it doesn’t hurt right? =) But more just my reflection on how I find God leading me now, and how it seems like He has always seemed to lead me through life in this way: one little step at a time. Sometimes those little steps that we may disregard as too little or too insignificant — sometimes taking those little steps of faith and obedience can really make a difference, with the biggest difference at least being that of being stretch-able and honoring the Voice we hear in our hearts.- My Norwex Website (Where you can sign-up, browse, order, etc.)
- September 2014’s Free Yourself Starter Kit (Over $80 in free products + business supplies with no sales obligations, total cost to you is $7.99+tax shipping and handling — Click on “JOIN FOR FREE!”)
