Leap of Faith

A Leap Of Faith

Well here it goes.  My leap of faith.

It started innocently enough - I wanted to help a friend who needed people to host an online party for one of her consultant lines.  All I had to do was send out an invite to my friends, and if no one showed up and no sales were made no big deal because only Cathy would know and she already knows I'm a closet dork so I had nothing to lose.  Two days after my invite was sent out on FB - and no sales on my party yet either - I became a consultant.  For Thirty-One.  EXACTLY WHAT I SAID PEOPLE! - "What is Thirty One?"  I've never heard of them.  Except for through my Triplet Mom uber secret FB groups where we bash all you singleton mom's and laugh about how hard you think we have it while we eat bonbons and watch GH.  And every time I saw a post about a "party" I became a little twitchy.  I told myself it was because I would NEVER do something like that.  It was so, um, well, I don't know what, but it was SOMETHING and I wanted nothing to do with it.  I wasn't going to tarnish my pristine reputation as "not one of those people".

Really, it was because I had absolutely no confidence in myself, my selling ability and I had no freaking local friends I felt connected well enough with to actually invite them to a party and have them actually show up without a lot of guilt, begging, pleading, bribing and then sitting around my living room while the three of us awkwardly look at the lovely merchandise waiting for more people to arrive.

But the weird thing was, as the saying goes, the timing was perfect.  First of all, I am a total bag whore. Designer, knock-off (only because I can't afford the real thing but want people to think I can!), color, cuteness factor - but most importantly, functionality as in What Am I Doing Today?  Do I need a tote? unstructured? cross body? small? big? clutch? Whatever the day may bring, I probably have a bag for it or am on the look out for one! (and of course, it must coordinate nicely with my outfit and my shoes.)

But really it wasn't until I became a mom to a small village that bags really took on a whole new meaning for me.  What was the best way for me to carry everything I need to provide what these little creatures depending on me for life are expecting me to carry every single solitary place we go?  In the beginning I was too damn tired to care.  By the time I cared, we were too damn broke to look.  Then I started getting creative.  Who says just because I'm going to McDonald's for a rainy day get out of the house lunch I can't carry the Burberry tote my parents gave me B.T.? If I'm carrying broken Target toys that occupy my kids well with their second hand sippy cups, at least I'm going to do it in style.  Of course, in my previous neighborhood Burberry was not nearly as recognizable as it is here in my new 'hood, but then again, everyone in my new 'hood knows it's 10 years old.  (OOOH almost vintage!!!)

And all of a sudden I had all these ideas on how to market the bags.  Starting, of course, with "WOW.  If I buy a bunch and carry them around they'll sell themselves!!!!"  Of course, you-know-who wouldn't let that go too long and I knew I really had to use my noggin to expand my creative financing and holy shit - a week later it's exploded.

I don't know if I'll sell a damn thing.  And if I do sell, I don't know if it will be enough to cover the deficit I've created buying all the supplies, incentives, prizes, etc to entice people to buy.  And it may not be quite enough to fund my personal shopping habit - because those of you who know me well know that my habit is really never about that one item, it's just about MORE.  And MORE.  And MORE.  And I will justify and rationalize just about ANY purchase over $20.  $20 is just a steal.  And everyone must know about it!  The kids may still need to bust their asses in sports and school to get scholarships so they can actually go to college, but heck, they will have some GREAT STORAGE and UTILITY accessories for the dorm!

Now, you're probably asking how this all is tying into a blog.  Who wants to follow a blog about Michelle selling Thirty One?  No one.  Not even me!  Fortunately, that isn't what this blog is about!  It will be a tool to promote my parties and weekly and monthly specials, yes - come on, I'm not STUPID. But really, after a few years of hearing other mom's share their tips, tricks, favorites, worst evers, and having other mom's say to me after hearing about one of my escapades, "I don't know how you do it" I decided to finally have a response - "Check out my blog.  That's how I do it."  And it's not all flowers and roses and sunshine and rainbows.  I'm going to tell you the truth - the good, the bad, the ugly and the really, super, OMG, no she DIDN'T truth.

And hopefully once in a while someone will buy something too.