Sharing this speech that I wrote for a leadership conference I spoke at in July of 2018 with all of you in hopes that my story may help you in even of the smallest of ways.
Can I get real personal with y’all, like uber deep to share a bit of where my heart is???
Some of my earliest memories always included some sort of dreaming. Dreaming to get through whatever rough patch I was going through has been a default mechanism for me to overcome it. Focus on something good, something bigger than myself, something that I would work towards. Like watching the Wizard of Oz over and over as a three year old, getting lost in the story of a beautifully colored dream and the storyline of having everything you need right there within your own backyard. Or by coping through my parents divorce by dreaming up all of the amazing places I’d go, the life I would build as an adult and people I’d connect with when I got older, was how I taught myself to deal with hard times. Learning from my childhood that thoughts are powerful, dreams are a necessity, and you are in control of how you look at situations. Gave me the wisdom to know that no matter the circumstances we face that we all have the ability to do whatever we set our minds to. Dreaming big dreams like wanting to travel the world, starting a foundation to bless others, having my own store, adopting kids, giving my kids the best life I could truly propelled my life towards experiences bigger than myself and has driven my life to where it is today.
Can I get vulnerable with you and share a little background of my story that has made me into the person I am today?
Sometimes we unfairly face consequences from things we didn’t have any control over and how you respond to it-shapes the person you become going forward. Like for me my Mom came out of the closet when I was 10. It was the 90’s and being true to yourself wasn’t something that was wildly accepted like it is today, quite honestly it was dangerous at that time. I was tormented in school, lost all of my lifelong friendships and eventually we moved to a new town. A town where no one knew me and instead of being honest with my home situation, we lied. Shelly was just my Mom’s roommate, but in reality was filling in a role as raising me into the woman I was today. This experience totally propelled me into the genuine and compassionate person I am today because it was such a confusing time.
All from a decision that wasn’t mine, it had nothing to do with me but I certainly felt the consequences bearing down on me and it was extremely heavy to carry. I learned when facing something heavy like this you get 2 choices: 1 to let it destroy you, using it as an excuse of why you’re bitter or angry or 2 to move forward seeking all of the good you can find, even it seems small at the time. Thank the Lord for guiding me to move forward, I learned to overcome by finding Joy in the dark times by dreaming of the life I would make as an adult and it truly shaped me into a stronger human. Realizing by always searching for the good you can easily tap into the power of dreaming big and choosing to keep a positive outlook no matter what.
Many of you may not have something similar in your story but we all have had to deal with living through issues that you did not cause, I know this because we are humans who are connected to other humans. Humans are messy and imperfect. It doesn’t matter what the mountain or obstacle was that you had to overcome, the choice in how you react is all yours. Think back on those times, would you agree that the outlook that you chose either hindered or helped you to get through it? Finding the good then focusing on my dreams truly helped me get beyond the situation in front of me. Learning to do this as a kiddo truly shaped my life going forward.
Overcoming obstacles by dreaming big and working hard has been a running theme in my life, the same goes for the last 5 years. Lots of growth, frustration, joy and tears, building a business is certainly hard yet rewarding work. Honestly I’m just now coming out of one of the darkest times for my posh story because life threw so many curveballs all at once, I found myself questioning everything. Let me share with you a few pivotal moments that helped me find the light again, that helped me find myself again.
On the plane the other day I sat next to a man in a business suit, we exchanged routine small chat and he shared that he was a HR Executive for a Fortune 500 company. Neat. Then he asked. “So what do you do?” I felt like time stood still and 719 answers ran through my head. Do I say stay at mom of 4? Direct Sales Consultant? Posh Blessings Inc owner? My mouth opened and “I’m in Sales and I manage a multimillion dollar per year sales team.” I’ve NEVER said that OUT LOUD before, he looked shocked and began asking tons of questions. I shared with him the details of what I do and mentioned how I felt I needed a degree to go with my experience, (isn’t it weird how easily something that’s been tugging at you comes out of your mouth with a stranger who doesn’t even know you?) He quickly interrupted me “Wait a minute so you are a work at home mom of 4, Army wife and volunteer, attend church, manage a multimillion dollar sales team, clean your own house, and travel. How? How do you all of that? Where do you find the time? I’d hire you right now based on your experience. I can’t see where you’d fit time to get in a degree and to me that wouldn’t matter.” WHAT in the world?? This guy had no clue that I’d been really struggling with where I was supposed to be and yet he snapped me out of the self doubt fog that I’d been carrying in that single moment. That is when I started to realize what a God given conversation I was having, what a blessing.
See 2017 was hard for me and no not all Posh related, actually Posh wise it was great my amazing team hit Platinum, I went to Greece and Hawaii, we moved into my dream home, relationships were strengthened-that’s what happens when a family faces something hard together, right?
2017 was hard because it began with me unable to walk for almost 6 months from a botched knee surgery, this was so tough for me as a self efficient and independent person. Letting others help me was one of the hardest lessons I’ve learned as an adult and it shook me to my core.
Also my bonus mom passed away suddenly from a quick illness at the beginning of January. As a woman who had grown up in a two mom household and had an amazing bonus mom, I know that I was blessed in that department but Eve was my uber maternal mom. Even though she never physically had children of her own, she adopted a special needs son when she was single and rocked being the the best bonus(I dislike the word step as you can tell) mom ever. She taught me that you truly can overcome anything thrown at you and I wasn’t ready at all to live life without her daily influence.
My whole world shaken in just a few short weeks and add to that Posh life, Mom life, Army wife life, LIFE—man, 2017 was rough and I didn’t handle it well. I managed my feelings and pain with alcohol which is never a good decision. I could feel all of the work I did of finding who I truly was meant to be slowly slipping away. So I chose to rise in 2018 no matter how hard it would be, I realized how shaken my business was even though I had always worked so hard, it was like a perfect storm happened, it clouded my thoughts with a bunch of negativity which made me doubt that I was where I as supposed to be. Do I get a job outside of the home? Do I leave Posh? Do I go to school? For a couple months these thoughts kept rushing through my head, they say the devil attacks the most when there is something incredible on the other side of it and I truly believe that was the case. I felt this deep tug that I should be doing more, more with Posh, sharing more of my story, being more.
One day a wave of peace came over me as I was driving my Mom Taxi and thinking about this tug of more, it was the Lord reminding me that I was where he put me, to never dig up in doubt what was planted in faith. He pointed me back to the reason I started with posh and working from home, flooding my focus to when I first started going after my dreams.
He reminded me of the time in 2010 when I started to feel myself being lost in the hustle and bustle that was my army wife life. Choosing to stay at home with the kids was important to our military family to give them stability which meant I was always striving to learn how to be a better parent, plan exciting adventures, create fun crafts, I was a pinterest mom before Pinterest was a thing. As my kiddos got older I started dreaming up ways to provide for my family without disrupting the life we sacrificed for. I felt this calling on my life to connect to something bigger but wasn’t sure what that looked like.
Using my creativity and skills that my Grandma Shreve taught me when I was 7, I started up my own crochet business that really took off and within a month I had a full waiting list for custom hats. I learned on the fly about business-customer service and all that jazz, it was really so much fun but I knew physically, I couldn’t keep up with it all. So I starting looking for the next step and dreaming bigger, I was introduced to a group of old school direct sales ladies, I joined their company soaking up all of the knowledge I could. I did really well but then moved to Texas and it fizzled, the lessons were invaluable and I still use many of the concepts I learned from them in my business today, especially with my team. Seeing this type of business through their eyes actually sparked me to dream about what direct sales would do for my family and for others out there like me.
Sept 2012 I was given Perfectly Posh samples which I kindly took but left them in my purse for 3 months. Honestly though because I started out as a teen mom I never even realized the need for self care because I was always so busy doing for others. Until that moment when I tried a hand creme, noticing the scent lifted my mood and made me smile. Then using a chunk bar in my quick mom showers made my skin feel great. These moments gave me a boost that I never felt before and when the kiddos spilled juice all over the floor, instead of freaking out, I was able to breathe and quickly clean it up. This was a lightbulb moment for me, if just a little relaxing moment was able to give me this renewed mom spirit then what could it do for others? Not only did I realize the power in pampering, the products were fun and I couldn’t stop thinking about the impact that this company could make.
When I purchased the kit, I did it so I could get a discount on my orders. As a military family with 4 kiddos our budget was WAY tight, so I used my yearly “splurge” from our taxes to pay for it. I had no idea what was about to happen as I fell in love with this company, reconnected with the woman I was meant to be, started dreaming bigger again and realized that growing a business with Perfectly Posh had huge potential. I was the only person on my entire friends list that even had heard of Posh, but my husband was about to deploy for a year so was I actually able to do something with this bigger vision that I seen? I knew that I wanted to work from home, was this my chance to work towards my dreams?
Sharing the products made me realize that I’d be able to touch people’s lives with a product that made them feel good, the blessings from just this alone were huge. Travis left his deployment and I was managing all of the craziness that happens when your soldier leaves with 4 kids and 2 dogs in a new area, but somehow starting up this posh business fit in so naturally. The kiddos immediately jumped in to help out with any task they could and the joy that posh brought to our family during that time was exactly what we needed. When Travis called the convo would always turn to Posh, it was our distraction from the unknown and crazy of this deployment. He challenged me to achieve the rank of Premier before he came home, I realized that this may be the chance that I get to bring my dreams to life.
Even though my plate was full and I was nervous to fail again, I wrote out a plan, set my motto as “Build it and they will come” focusing on filling party slots, recruit packs and sample sets and got to work, every single day-no matter what-whether the kids were sick, dogs ran away, our house was broken into, having to be on crutches, selling a house states away, kiddos emotions were high, moving, helping out spouses in need—yes all of this and more happened during this year. When times got tough and things went comically wrong, I’d imagine all of my dreams and chose to find the good. As the year was closing in, Team Posh Blessings earned the title of Premier in Feb 2014, just in time, Travis would arrive back from his deployment 2 weeks. Even after feeling like the devil was throwing everything at us to distract me from this path, we did it. Thinking about this first year and everything we overcame, how blessed each moment was and the dreams that came true, still gives me goosebumps.
Having the Lord remind me of all of the dreams he planted, passion, hard work and joy of this first year of posh truly centered me and further solidified that I’m exactly where I am supposed to be. Having the Lord remind me of all of the dreams he planted, passion, hard work and joy of this first year of posh truly centered me and further solidified that I’m exactly where I am supposed to be. Dreaming big crazy things to impact this world, working from home, sharing a product line that makes me smile, helping others grow life changing businesses, being creative, and putting my story out there to inspire others.
When I think about our potential going forward the joy I feel is overwhelming, the impact we can have on our selves, our families, our community and on this world by tapping into the power that is already within us, is exactly what I’ve been dreaming of since I was a little girl. Each of us can be more by choosing to see the good that surrounds us and spreading joy like fairy dust. Dreams are so important, if you don’t have something to work towards then how are you going to grow? Staying the same should never be an option, why not dream of a storefront you’ll open, places you’ll travel to, foundations you’ll open then get to work because the dreams excite you into actions. Remembering that those dreams are far bigger than any storm we will face. May you realize the power in dreaming and tap into the potential that is within each of you.
Blessings,
Nicole
