Book Review: The Four Year Career by Richard Bliss Brooke

3 out of 5 stars

This book was a 2017 Christmas gift from my Avon upline team leader.  This little book is a fast Read (65 pages with 24 pages of successfull direct marketers stories) and packed with a lot of information which would be greatly helpful to someone new to direct marketing, as well as a good review to someone who is not.

A lot of the points made and information given I have heard before.  Some of it was presented in a different way, which is always refreshing.  I found it quite funny that there were quite a few disclaimers reiterated every few pages throughout the book:

"Geometric progression of your sales team's growth is easy to show on paper as a hypothetical but takes leadership, motivation, and dedicated effort for years to accomplish.  Most people (an understatement) do not maintain their motivation to continue."

"These success stories are exceptional exceptions and are shared here to inspire you and show you people from different walks of life walks of life who have succeeded.  They are not what you should expect to accomplish.  They are 1 out of 10,000 or less.   And yet it is interesting to note where they came from and what they accomplished.  And maybe, just maybe, you could do the same."

I believe these quotes were repeated to make the reader aware that the likelihood of earning the kind of income represented in this book is not common and should not be expected.

The takeaway from this book is that most people who enter into a direct marketing company quit before their 'possible' big financial breakthrough happens.  It takes a high level of discipline, motivation and personally developing for the direct marketing entrepreneur to keep going.  There are no guarantees, just unknown possibilities.

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Posted at 8:23 PM  |  by Lisa Epler, AVON AMB & Gold Amb. Leader / 10 Star Ambassador

Book Review: How To Win Friends & Influence People by Dale Carnegie

3 out of 5 Stars

"One of the core ideas in his books is that it is possible to change other people's behavior by changing one's reaction to them."

As I read this book the main word that kept jumping out at me is 'manipulation.' 

By doing (or not doing) certain things, you are kind of manipulating the person into doing what you want. I am not a proponent of manipulation by any means. I do feel that helping the other person come to their own conclusions through some of these principles is helpful. 

I read a review on this book by a reader on GoodReads and she said that this book had a negative effect on her life. With any self-help books that you read, you must take things with a grain of salt. With "How To Win Friends And Influence People," I believe many of the insights are mainly geared to a person who is in business (salesperson.) That is not to say parts may not be applied to personal friendships/relationships. I think you have to remain true to your personality and not force something that is not natural. 

The negative reviewer said "The book basically tells you to be agreeable to everybody, find something to honestly like about them and compliment them on it, talk about their interests only and, practically, act like a people pleaser all the time. After being a smiley happy person with loads of friends for about a year, the unpleasant realization began to creep in, that by being so agreeable to everybody else, I rarely ever got my way. I also sustained friendships with people who were self-centered, so talking about their interests was all we got to do together, which drained me of my energy. The worst thing still, is that by trying to find something to like about every person, I completely disregarded their glaring faults. It didn't matter that those people did have redeeming

qualities - they weren't redeeming enough! I ended up with a bunch of friends I didn't really want and, because I was so preoccupied with "winning" those friendships I missed out on the chance to form relationships with good people."

I think what the reviewer did was to conform to the different principles and took them to heart a bit too much. There is definitely a time and place for everything and if you're using these principles all of the time, well that can seriously get tiring in my opinion. If you're thinking of reading this book because you are lonely & want friends, don't read it. 

I read this book on my Kindle and plan on going back to all of the notes I highlighted. A lot of what is presented in this book is common knowledge, it's just that it is presented in a way that really makes you think about how to use the principles. Having examples of each is also extremely helpful.

I think this book should be a requirement for college or anyone working in a business setting. I also believe it was completely written at the time aimed towards salesmen. Not all people have the natural ability to do the things presented in this book; some do. This book is obviously a best seller for a reason and I think the reason is the way the principles are presented.

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Posted at 9:55 PM  |  by Lisa Epler, AVON AMB & Gold Amb. Leader / 10 Star Ambassador

Book Review: Build It Big & More Build It Big

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Hello Everyone!

I'm back with a 2-in-1 book review because these two books are directly related. 

 I was very fortunate to be nominated and accepted into the Fall 2016 online course for the AVON Leadership Academy in partnership with 

the Direct Selling Women's Alliance (DSWA.)   

This was a 12-week online course and it was Ahhh-mazing!!!

I started as an AVON Representative in July 2015.  I'm quite new. 

I've never been a salesperson, never been in marketing or wanted to be a home-based business.  (I have always wanted to work from home, however.)  Becoming a representative for AVON was the right thing at the right time for me due to wanting to pay off the braces my daughter was about to have put on and the next goal was (is) to pay off my car loan (still working on this and getting closer!)

Direct sales was not something I knew much about.  

Yes, I had known people who invited me to home parties (not really my thing) and a few people who had been representatives, but I never really asked about how they worked.  Now here I was a part of the mother of all home-based businesses, AVON!!!!   (131 years old in 2017!!!!)

Now before I go any further, I know what you're thinking.....home-based business?  You just show some brochures and put some orders together!!!!

Yes, that's what a lot of people think it is, and what some people do, but it can be made into so much more.  There are personal shoppers, hobbyists, part-timers, full-timers and sales leaders.  There are many avenues you can follow in this business and you can do it all from home!  

I was kind of in awe at the opportunity of being able to build a business all from home for such a reasonable price.

(If you'd like to find out more, please visit this link.)

When I was presented with the chance to take the AL Academy courses, 

I was excited and a bit hesitant.  I hadn't attended a class in quite a long time and now I had to fit this in with my kids schedules, home-duties and my AVON  business.  It really wasn't that difficult to squeeze in, and there were replays I could listen to if I could not attend the webinars live. 

The training was broken down into six parts: 

                                                  1-Visionary Planning

                                                  2-Creating Community

                                                  3-Team Building

                                                  4-Training

                                                  5-Coaching

                                                  6-Business Management

One week would cover a topic, the following week would be a review and a coaching session with two chosen participants and plenty of time to ask questions and learn from the session.  Then the following week the next topic would be covered, followed by a coaching session for that topic and so on.

Some topics I felt like I had already mastered, but many others I knew I could use a lot more training in.  

I was given a  digital printable workbook and the two Build It Big Books for my Kindle as part of the course.  A few weeks into the course I decided it was worth buying both of the hard copies of these books because I could easily flip to a section and find information I may need to help a team member or myself.  In my opinion, these books are close to being Bibles for the direct sales industry.

I will go over the general sections covered in each of these books and I hope you will consider purchasing them through the links provided if you are a part of a direct selling company.  Many, many, many thanks to the DSWA for creating this program and tailoring it to AVON Representative Leaders!  And to all of the contributors in these books (including my own sister, Pam Heller, which I didn't even know until I got to her chapter!) thank you for sharing your expertise and honest opinions, solutions and outlooks on what can happen in a home-based direct sales business if you have the right tools to aide you in your success!

Published in 2005

• Starting Your Direct Selling Business
• Booking And Coaching Your Hostess
• The Art Of Selling
• Sponsoring And Building Your Team
• Coaching Your Team
• Developing Leadership Skills
• Managing Business Finances
• Integrating Home And Business
• Building Through Technology
• Strategies For Success

Published in 2006

• Direct-Selling Excellence
• Sensational Shows
• Networking And Prospecting
• The Art Of Sponsoring
• Principle-Centered Coaching
• Managing Your Money
• Home Business Excellence
• Enlightened Leadership
• Success Strategies

 Purchase the Build It Big books through the below links to help Elle raise  money for her vision of making this blog bigger and better in the future.                             Thank You!

    
I received a leadership pin, certificate and I can proudly display the below seal for completing the AVON Advanced Leadership Academy training.

The training has been invaluable to me and I know I will continue to come back to these two books as resources whether to help myself or my team members.

Contact me @ colorsofavon@gmail.com if you'd like to learn more about joining my AVON team and adding some extra income to your life!

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Posted at 9:54 PM  |  by Lisa Epler, AVON AMB & Gold Amb. Leader / 10 Star Ambassador