Youngevity

Okay, I’ve calmed down a little bit now and I’m breathing normally again, LOL. Yeah, a tad bit excited yesterday when I posted HERE and a couple other places about my new position. Oh my gosh, you guys, this post ended up being soooooo looooonnnnngggg. You know me, Miss Verbose! But it’s the weekend so I hope you have time to grab a Diet Coke and take a read :)

So my great news is that I’ve joined up as a direct seller under the Youngevity brand as of 03-25-15; my official title is Independent Marketing Director. I want to tell you how it all came about and what it means for me and for this blog. I also want to offer you the opportunity to join me, if you’re so inclined :)

THE HISTORY

As I said HERE, there’s been a lot going on behind the scenes. I’m going to write a post about that this weekend, too. I won’t be giving away any secrets yet but will talk about the “why” of it all.

In the midst of all this – actually ever since Memory Works closed in 2013 – I’ve been missing selling scrapbook supplies, interacting with customers, and making some extra money to fund my scrapbook shopping addiction … erm, habit. However, of the few scrapbook-related direct sales companies remaining that I looked into, none of them blew my dress up, so to speak.

I also looked into having my own online shop, either adding it onto this site or starting an Etsy shop. Which still may happen in some form, some day in the future.

Then out of the blue, I was contacted by a fellow scrapbooker named Kim who asked some questions about Scrapbook Obsession Blog. We got to chatting and she told me that it was still hush-hush but she’d been chosen to be on Lisa Bearnson’s direct selling team for a new venture Lisa was starting with Youngevity/Heritage Makers. This was because Kim had been very successful with Leaving Prints in the past.

Well, you know me, I’ve been a Lisa Bearnson fan since Day One. I read her Creating Keepsakes magazine cover to cover every single month it was published. I took vacation days from work to watch Lisa and David on QVC Scrapbooking, and now I watch her on HSN Scrapbooking. I even had the pleasure of spending a week with her on a scrapbooking cruise in the Mediterranean years ago. The interactions I, my mom, and my friend had with her that week made me an even more loyal fan and admirer. Not only was she extremely kind and caring but a great teacher and patient organizer.

In 2007, I started my own transcribing and virtual assistant business around the same time I started with Memory Works. Becoming a business owner and a consultant only increased my admiration for women like Lisa Bearnson. There are so many moving parts, lots of missed sleep and deadlines and financial worry. She makes it look so easy – which is what I need in a mentor, right? But above all her business success, I’ve always seen that family and faith are her priorities. They’re what inspire her scrapbooking and it’s just another thing I love about Lisa because those are my life priorities, too.

So, all that to say, once my new friend Kim said that Lisa Bearnson was involved in this venture, I said, “I’m in!” even before I knew if I was ALLOWED in, LOL. And when she invited me to be a part of her team – I thought about it, looked into it, talked to DH about it, prayed on it – and said YES PLEASE!

HOW I DECIDED

As I found out, there are 2 options to join. For $10, you can be a Consultant with discounted purchasing for yourself and the ability to sell to others. I would consider it to be the so-called “hobbyist” option. And for only $10 (lifetime!), I can’t see any reason why we ALL wouldn’t join. I love me a no-brainer :) You could easily save $10 on your first order, I’m sure.

The other option is awesome but MUCH harder to decide on because it costs $500 to join at the CEO level. You get $500 in publishing points to spend on custom Heritage Maker products, traditional scrapbooking products, or other Youngevity products – your choice. (Mineral make-up, K-cups, essential oils … ruh roh, I may be in twuble here …). Or you can hold onto those points until late summer 2015 and use them to buy Lisa Bearnson’s “Anthology” products – which is what I’ll probably do.

So $500 a LOT of money to me and, I’m sure, to most people. I actually had that amount set aside from our tax return for something else. But, like I said, I thought and prayed and talked it over with my husband. I didn’t really need much convincing about the huge opportunity here. In the end, I couldn’t NOT sign up. Lisa Bearnson is not only creating new products that I know I and many others will want to buy; I want those for 30% off and I believe they’ll even be available on an auto-ship. Lisa says, “It will be a collection of fresh, fashion-forward designs founded on the principle that quality scrapbooking and memory keeping does not have to be difficult.”

This is all NEW but my understanding is that Lisa will be referring scrapbookers who express interest on her website down to us CEOs and Consultants. Hello?!? That’s amazing! I was curious just HOW popular her website is so I went to Alexa.com. For an example, Scrapbook Obsession Blog shows 951,266 rank in the US. LisaBearnson.com shows rank 365,074. Her bounce rate is 43% whereas mine is 86%. This means that most people come to my site and leave quickly (“the Pinterest effect”, lol) while at hers they stay and read. In other words, Lisa has an engaged audience and that is SO important! It’s what I strive for.

You may hear from Lisa haters once in a while but there are many, many more scrappers who respect her and are interested in what she offers and sells. So I have ZERO doubt that being a downline from her will lead to success. I have a goal to make back my $500 investment by the end of 2015 and I’m confident I’ll do that. (Although technically, it’s not even an investment since I get business supplies AND $500 to spend on products).

WHAT THIS MEANS FOR SCRAPBOOK OBSESSION BLOG

Now, don’t let all this scare you away. This is an MLM (multi-level marketing) business and Lordy do I know that some people become MLM’ers and become highly annoying – constantly barraging their family, friends, and acquaintances on Facebook and in person with their latest “amazing offer!” and “great deal!” and “you MUST try this!”.

Don’t worry, this blog won’t become a constant blast of Youngevity / Heritage Makers / Anthology posts. I expect the number of posts to be about the same amount as I did with Memory Works which I don’t think was too bothersome, was it? I always always always try to start blog post titles with the TOPIC so if it’s not your bag, you can keep on movin’, sister! I’ll continue doing that so you can just ignore the posts if they bug you. I’m also planning to start a mailing list specifically for people on my team who join Youngevity under me and those interested but not sure – to share information – but JUST to those who’ve expressed interest. Sound good?

MORE ABOUT THE NEW ADVENTURE

I signed up as a Youngevity CEO just a few days ago and there’s still much to learn. They’re a HUGE company with lots of arms, just 2 of which are scrapbook-related. Here is the structure, as I’ve figured it out so far:

“Youngevity” which is an MLM “mall” or umbrella representing several brands and growing rapidly
“Heritage Makers” (digital scrapbook, home, and business products) and “Our Memories for Life” (paper scrapbook products)
“Anthology” by Lisa Bearnson under the Heritage Makers brand

Here’s the structure of people:
Youngevity – the Wallach family
Co-creator of Heritage Makers and Lisa’s Team Trainer – Wendy McGee
Creator of Anthology and Heritage Makers Brand Ambassador – Lisa Bearnson (eeee! she already has Anthology and Team Lisa links on her site!)

Under Lisa/Wendy, there are 2 downlines and then me :) If you’d like to join in – and I’d absolutely LOVE to have you – you’d be my downline. Just make sure to contact me and to sign up through my website so I get credit and you’re assigned to my team.

Even though I had a little heads up about Lisa Bearnson’s new venture, I had to keep quiet about it online until it was officially announced at the Youngevity conference in California this week. Then it was official and we could jabber about it, as of yesterday! There are 2 private Facebook groups to get up-to-the-minute information, including a new one for Team Lisa Bearnson. If you join up, we’ll get you added to those groups if you’d like.

Here’s the video they showed at the conference along with some photos:

Tip: Have a tissue handy. Sniffle.

That’s Wendy McGee on the left, Lisa Bearnson, and Jana Eubank on the right. Now there’s another name you might recognize from the scrapbooking industry! Check out her amazing resume HERE.

Lisa speaking at the conference

Did you know Rhonda Anderson, co-founder of Creative Memories, is also part of Heritage Makers? Which reminds me – I haven’t even told you much about the products yet! Tons of fun digital stuff that I need to learn about like photo books, business cards, gift items, etc. The current selection of paper scrapbooking products isn’t huge but it has a Creative Memories feel to it including their great albums, page refills, and tools – like my favorite, the Multi-Purpose Tool. I frantically searched for and bought one of these from out of state when CM went out of business because the tip of my original one from 2001 (!) broke – when it was used by someone who shall remain nameless (husband!) to unscrew something. I was afraid to be without one forever. Only $6 with Heritage Makers, whoo hoo!

Logos for Anthology consultants to use; you’ll be seeing these on my blog and social media soon :) They’re so cute. And now the recent redesign of Lisa’s blog makes TOTAL sense! Ohhhhh …..

Well, clearly I should’ve broken this up into about 20 entries because it’s so ding-dang long! Oh well. I want all the information in one place so there ya’ go, ha!

IN SUMMARY (Jeez, finally!)

If you want to join my team (Lisa’s team), the best thing to do is e-mail me. I’ll put you on my mailing list and send you information and links so you can learn more. I want you to feel totally comfortable, whether you’re spending $10 or $500. You can get off the mailing list at any time; just let me know. I’m happy to answer questions 24/7. You can call me, too :) Just leave a voice mail and I’ll call you back.

E-mail: scrapbookobsession(at)gmail(dot)com
805-400-3261

If you want to check out all the fabu products Youngevity offers – including Heritage Makers & Our Memories for Life – here are some links:

My Youngevity Website

My HeritageMakers site

** Oops! Correction to the signup instructions (03-29-15) **

If you’re ready to sign up, please follow these instructions:

Go to my Youngevity website: https://erikafriday.youngevity.com
Click on “Join” in the upper right-hand corner.
Then click on “Distributor.”
Next, you will see a selection of kits that you can choose from.

To sign up as an Independent Marketing Director (CEO): You may choose from any of the CEO kits. I chose the Heritage Makers CEO kit and received some business materials. I’m saving my points for now.

To sign up as a Preferred Customer: Scroll all the way to the bottom and choose the “New Associate Adventure Pack.” You can upgrade at any time to CEO.

Sorry again for the super duper long post – but you know how I am ;) Hope to hear from you soon!