Guess what I did the other day?!
Me – the one who used to panic even at the thought of talking to more than 10 people at once, me - the one who used to feel like passing out just holding a microphone…I went LIVE in a Facebook group that had 11.500 people in it!!
It was AWESOME!! I had waited for this opportunity for months, and I knew that doing it was important for me and for my business. Last Monday I put make up on for the first time in weeks and had a consultative meeting (that streamed live on facebook) with a business strategist.
The centre of my universe are my boys – I love kids, and for a decade my last two businesses were centred around teaching children (first, infant sign language, and then STEM using LEGO® bricks). Yet still, I couldn’t see how my love of kids aligned with my love of essential oils, and my new passion of toxin-free living.
Sometimes the answer to something that puzzles you is so close, that you just can’t see it! After chatting to this lady for a few short minutes I began to see everything falling, slightly chaotically, into place!! I suddenly saw, with great conviction, how much I could offer ‘my people’. I began to finally see the wood for the trees!
Here are those people that I think I can help…
💜Those that want to lead a healthier lifestyle, but don’t know where to start.
💜Those that might be on a budget and want advice on making simple changes that are affordable.
💜Those that want an easy button to embrace a cleaner life style while keeping kids included, invested and interested?
💜Those with babies and toddlers that are sleep deprived and frustrated – I would love to begin sharing about infant sign language again!
💜And also those parents with slightly older kids that want to empower them to make healthy choices and smart decisions for themselves, like I have done with my boys.
I want to help you take the puzzle out of achieving family wellness, and I want to make it fun and playful too!
Having the kiddos home, and still needing to do all the things that used to get done in their absence, means that at times we need to get creative with our time.
One of the things that you may have gathered is that I am now a firm believer in removing as many toxins as we can from our homes. There are so many frightening chemicals in the majority of household cleaners and the effects they have on our bodies (and our mental health) are even more terrifying!
So, seeing as I don’t use the stinky blue stuff in my toilets anymore, I have started making my own toilet bombs. They are like bath bombs, but for cleaning the loo – they even fizz and bubble! It is so satisfying to watch.
This time I decided that I would get the children to help me – it counted for family time, outside time, and it ticked a chore off my massive ‘to do’ list. Win, win, win!
They are so simple and fun to make as well. The boys, though reluctant at first, had a great time and they even let me take pictures of them! Oh, and they completed the whole activity without bickering too!!
Here is the recipe we used (one that came directly from Young Living):
Toilet Bowl Cleaner
YIELD: approximately 20 tablets
- 1 cup baking soda
- 1/2 cup citric acid
- 1/2 cup corn starch
- 4 teaspoons water
- 2 teaspoons Thieves, Lemon, Citrus Fresh or Tea Tree (about 40 drops)
- 3 teaspoons of V-6 vegetable oil complex
- Ice cube tray or candy mold
Directions
In a large bowl, combine all dry ingredients and mix evenly.
In a separate small bowl, combine water, essential oils and V-6 vegetable oil complex.
Pour liquids into the large bowl and whisk together until combined.
Use mixture to fill ice cube tray or candy mold about three fourths full. If mixture expands, gently repack into the mold.
Let sit overnight to dry. When dry, pop tablets out and store in a glass jar.
When needed, put a tablet in the toilet bowl to help clean and deodorize. Let tablet sit in bowl for 20-30 minutes to fizz and dissolve. Once dissolved, flush.
NOTE: This recipe is not recommended for toilet tanks.
When I was very young and I was asked what I wanted to be when I grew up, I was certain I wanted to be a marine biologist, mostly because I wanted to 'play' with Shamu and work at SeaWorld (like most of the other little girls I knew). I always loved animals and nature, and preferred playing outside, building forts, to dressing up Barbie dolls, (although I did a lot of that too).
When I was older, and I dropped that fantasy, I decided that being an ophthalmologist would be awesome - but, that was never going to pan out for me because I chose not to study physics at G.C.S.E. level (in the U.K. kids start specializing by selecting and narrowing down subjects from the age of 14).
This left me trying to figure out what I wanted to do as a career - I knew I still loved biology, but I also knew I needed to narrow it down a bit. So, I picked microbiology and got my BSc (hons) degree from the University of Bristol.. I was then chosen as a graduate recruit by what was then Zeneca Pharmaceuticals (now AstraZeneca).
I worked as an Environmental Control Officer of a sterile manufacturing facility making one of the world's leading anti-cancer drugs, Zoladex. How ironic is it that this drug is for prostrate cancer? I absolutely loved that job!! It was always so interesting - our office was in a room surrounded by sophisticated monitoring devices - we monitored the temperature, the humidity, air pressure, air flow, and of course, the clean room practices of the employees.
Our greatest challenges occurred when one of the machines would break down and the engineers approached us with a filthy looking tool to tell us that this was needed in the sterile area... a massive problem for a microbiologist to ensure that the sterility of the facility was not compromised. Also a headache when assessing which, if any, batches of drug were affected. This might sound like a nightmare to some, but I loved the challenge, and I loved it that my colleague ended up being one of my very best friends.
When I was 23, however, I decided that I needed to be absolutely sure that working in pharmaceutical manufacturing and living in Macclesfield, Cheshire was the right career path for me. I resigned, and never once looked back, as I ended up embarking on some of the most incredible adventures that many could only dream of.
First stop was one of the most remote, populated islands in the Falklands archipelago - New Island. The first season I went the generator only ran for a few short hours a day - there was no refrigerator, only a corner room that was kept closed and darkened.
I went as a volunteer and was pretty much a true Girl Friday; I learnt to drive tractors, I did roofing and cladding, I helped fix generators and waterlines, I dismantled old fencing, I baked bread from scratch in an old aga stove (this was contingent on the wind's direction), I assisted scientists with their research (I counted a lot of penguins) and helped National Geographic film crews, I even got to meet Prince Charles... it was amazing!!
So much fun, in fact - that I went back for 3 consecutive austral summers, spending the rest of my time temping at Citibank in London. The largest population on New Island, which was 12 of us, was during Xmas 2000, often there were only 5 or 6 of us on the 8 mile long, ruggedly beautiful island. I loved the simplicity of living on an island with limited electricity and internet; I loved picking my own mussels for dinner, being so isolated made it all the more special when a plane could actually make a landing (often our supplies could not be delivered if the pilot deemed the wind condition to be too dicey).
It was on New Island that I was introduced to expedition cruising (and my husband) - and what was to become my next amazing adventure...
For 6 years I worked as a naturalist and zodiac driver on the world famous little red ship - the M/S Explorer. We traveled all over the globe; mostly the polar regions, but also up and down the Amazon River, through the Panama Canal, around the British Isles, we circumnavigated Iceland, searched for polar bears in Svalbard, and visited many of the most remote and inaccessible islands in the Atlantic Ocean. Working on the ship was not going to be a full-time, forever job - so, once again it was time to start thinking about what would happen next. I was fast approaching 30 and I always knew I wanted kids - 2, to be precise. And THAT was a job I KNEW I always wanted. On the day that my then boyfriend proposed, I told him in no uncertain terms that if we were lucky enough to have children, that I would want to take care of them myself - I wanted to be a stay-at-home, work-from-home Mum.
We did end up having kids; Jack was born in December of 2007 and despite desperately wanting to look after him myself, our finances would not allow it. It was so incredibly hard for me to go back to work (even though I was so lucky to have been able to go back to a part-time schedule), so when he turned 3 months old, I started entrusting his care to other people. It was like I was dropping off a piece of my heart at day care every morning. I just wanted to be with my baby!
22 months later, Henry was born – and then the maths became easier. I was going to be going to work just to pay for childcare. Was a health plan worth leaving both my boys with other people? Nope! It was incredibly hard to reduce our finances further just so that I could stay at home, but we made it work. I started looking for ways that I could make money from home, without having to leave the boys with someone else. I decided to start my own business...
Since then, I have started 3 businesses and I loved each of them passionately. My first business was teaching infant sign language, something that I was doing with both the boys anyway. I think I loved setting up my business almost as much as running it!! I truly enjoyed learning about how to use social media, how to find venues, write newsletters, make alterations to the website, find customers, create marketing materials, and write lesson plans, I spent time crafting and creating a studio in the basement of our house – and I met a bunch of wonderful babies and their parents.Fast forward a few years and my kids were older and beginning their LEGO® obsession. It was time for another change. I had been looking into franchises since the year Jack was born – and in 2013 I found the perfect one! And, the perfect person to do the business with!
My friend and I bought a Bricks 4 Kidz franchise and we enjoyed massive success. We taught after-school S.T.E.M. classes using LEGO® bricks at many of the Charlottesville area schools and we ran summer camps in conjunction with a local college and a prominent wellness company. It was a very, very busy few years!
Despite loving the job, me more than her, the growth and demand of our programme actually made it too expensive and logistically challenging to run. Both of us had young kids and we began to feel like we were spending more time on the business than with the little people that we were essentially doing this for. It was a heartbreaking decision, but we decided to sell the franchise.
Once again, here I was – desperate to stay at home and be available for my kids and no real plan! It was only a few months after selling B4K that we got the terrible cancer diagnosis. Now it was time to panic! How on earth was I going to be able to contribute to the finances, to be available to go with my husband to his treatments, and to be home for the boys when they got back from school?
I knew that there was no ‘real’ job out there that would facilitate all this. Everyone kept telling me I should be a teacher because I am so good with kids – but how? Going back to school to get a teaching degree would take too long, and cost too much; working at a pre-school would never pay enough, and even if I were to get a teaching license that doesn’t mean that I could be home for my kids after school.
An office job? Also not likely to pay enough for what I was going to need in the future, and I would have to pay childcare, I wouldn’t have the flexibility to accompany him to the hospital, nor would I be home for the boys, and never would I have enough vacation days to go back to England to see my family. AND – not forgetting that my dream was to be a stay at home Mum!! This was becoming a true nightmare! Then, one day I learnt about Young Living. I was already sold on essential oils, I had been using them for over 15 years; but I had no idea that you could have a Young Living business and make both passive and residual income and also leave a legacy for your kids!! The more I learnt about Network Marketing, the more hopeful I began to feel about my future. I wrote a blog post specifically talking about Young Living as an income opportunity.
Young Living has a lot going for it as a company; first of all, it doesn't just produce oils. They manufacture supplements, cleaning supplies, pet supplies, personal care products, make-up, cereal, chocolate, Ningxia Red, and also CBD. The majority of these are consumables, which means that people need to reorder - this is a life-style company. And healthier living is becoming a much more attractive market now that we are seeing so many chronic diseases; people are beginning to pay more attention to what they are putting in and on their bodies and we know that Young Living produces plant-based, toxin-free alternatives to many of the things we find ourselves buying from Target!
My future went from pretty worrying to pretty exciting because I love my work!!
Did you know that the vast majority of essential oils on the market today are only suitable for cosmetics and perfumes? The reason Young Living’s oils are so different is the company’s commitment to producing a pure, unadulterated oil. Young Living’s devotion to creating a highly therapeutic product means that the company has invested in their own farms, cares for and nurtures its own plants, trees, and shrubs, before distilling, testing and bottling the oils that arrive on your doorstep. No other essential oil producer owns farms or distilleries.
If at any point in the production process something doesn’t meet its standards, they discard it and start again. Because of this, our favourite oils sometimes run out.
Here is an example of how important it is to know the right time of day to harvest the plant, and how long to distil the oil in order to produce the exact chemical compounds that are therapeutic to our bodies.
CYPRESS ESSENTIAL OIL has 280 known chemical constituents.
- If it is distilled for 20 hours you only get 20 of the 280 properties.
- If distilled for 26 hours you get none of the properties.
- Most cypress on the market is distilled for 3.5 hours.
- The correct length of time for distilling cypress is 24 hours to get the full 280 properties.
If the oil is to be of any benefit it must have all 280 constituents, no more and no less.
This process is called Young Living’s Seed to Seal® and it is unmatched. Every step from planting to bottling is detailed and controlled. No additives or synthetics are added.
Young Living (YL) products are more expensive, but ‘you get what you pay for’ has never been truer. Many of the oils found in supermarkets, or on the internet, are cheap imitations, purchased wholesale in large quantities, diluted with synthetic additives, and rebottled before being sold on.
Some companies may claim that their oils are organic. Unfortunately, the term ‘organic’ is not regulated by the FDA in regards to essential oils. They do not certify or grade essential oils, so any oil claiming to be organic cannot be so.
By applying our Seed to Seal® standards on its corporate owned farms, partner farms and suppliers, Y L ensures that no one has more potent or purer oils. Managing its own crops enables YL to carefully measure plant metabolism as harvest time approaches. YL does this by regularly sampling and measuring the BRIX (sugar levels) values of the plant. Plants are then harvested at the peak of their metabolic processes, thus ensuring that they are producing the most, and best oil, of their life cycle.
This cannot be done without access to the plants and ownership of the farms they are grown on.
This is some of the testing Y L does for every oil:
-Viscometry Measurement Testing
-Light Based Measurement Testing, including refractometry & polarimetry.
-Inductively Coupled Plasma Instrumentation.
-Gas Chromatography
-High Performance Liquid Chromatography
-Automated Micro-numeration Systems
-Microbiology testing
-Disintegration Testing
-PH Analysis
-Flashpoint testing
-Microscopy Testing
Y L runs a minimum of 15 to 20 different tests during the initial testing phase and repeats them three times to make sure results are consistent.
All these tests are done in the Quality Control laboratory. If any of the tests fails, the oils are shipped to the Research and Development lab to be tested by different scientists on different instruments. If R&D fails it, the product is disposed of.
Y L also uses half a dozen external expert labs to corroborate the quality of the oil. So next time you see a grocery store product essential oil, please remember…… you get what you pay for!
If you have ever looked into Young Living and thought that the only way to join as a wholesale member was by getting one of the Premium Starter Kits, that didn't necessarily appeal to you, then read on!!
You don't need to buy an Essential Oils Starter Kit, or a Ningxia Red Starter Kit, a Thieves Starter Kit or a Savvy Minerals Starter Kit.
You can spend just $35 dollars on the Basic Starter Kit and then add the exact products that you want to your order and you will qualify as a wholesale member and enjoy 24% off all future purchases. Think of it like a COSTCO membership, except that you actually get some pretty cool 'stuff' for your $35 spend!
If you are not sure what products you may want to add to your order you can get in touch with me and I would be more than happy to talk to you about what products could best suit your needs.
Young Living has over 600 products ranging from essential oils, supplements, home care products, personal care products, products for babies, children, pets, cooking supplies... and even chocolate. Once they start manufacturing 'good for you wine' I may never have to shop anywhere else!! :)
I have put together a questionnaire that you can fill out too, that will help guide you towards figuring out what conditions and issues Young Living can support you with. You can always contact me and know it would make my day to help you customize your membership package!! I am here to support you every.single.step.of.the.way!! :)
See below for the 3 questions that you could answer that may change your life for the better :) !!:
Once you have answered the questions CLICK HERE for your Basic Starter Kit or CLICK HERE for other options to join and get started on your path to better health. I can't wait to have you join us!! Yay!! xox
