May already??  Wow. 

Well, it was quite a week.  And how could we not recap a week without a big nod to the Royal Wedding – ?  C’mon, even the most anti out there saw a few clips of it or at least the pictures?  And maybe even cracked a smile?  It was breathtaking.  Not so breathtaking for me to feel like getting up at 3am to watch it live, but I do know of a few ladies who did get up early and have a pajama party – with their best HATS on.  Love it!  And pass the tea and scones, please, darling.

So, changes.  Changes are good – good to refresh, re-analyze and re-group.  My work assignment is getting a brief extension at least into the summer – possibly into the fall – but that still has not hashed out.  Good Lord have I been back at work nearly a year?  Yes indeed.  All of that stress and anguish I went through prior to landing this gig won’t soon be forgotten.  So nice to have it far in the rear view mirror.  But with a few scars…and that’s OK.

Two of my closest co-workers wrapped up their assignments this week and are moving on.  One won’t be going too far it turns out, as she’ll be joining kind of a ‘cousin’ team of ours, but I’ll miss her ‘partner in crime’ that she’s been this past year.  Another is required to take about 3 months off – that’s the rules with some kinds of contingent workers – and she is hoping to return and pick up where she left off.

I’m happy for them both but admittedly a little sad.  But moreso I have a shitload of hilarious memories.  Things that may have sucked before but are now funny. 

I capped off the workweek with a wonderful dinner with my dear friend L at Brix, a wine bar a short drive from my house.  She’s a part of that circle of friends I get together with a few times a year – we’re all about the same age and went to elementary school together.  Unwinding over a nice pinot gris and to die for risotto was heavenly.  L and I can just smile at eachother and ‘know’ what we’re each thinking.  Oodles of memories over some 35 years.  

And the silver, silver, silver flows and flows.  I’m taking a few extra steps in my Silpada business by doing a sort of correspondence course with a coach at the corporate offices.  She sends me ‘homework’ each week for 4 weeks and I send it back at the end of the week.  She sends me feedback, the next week’s ‘homework,’ and we also chat on the phone during the week too.

Ugh.  I know myself pretty well and am realizing where I’m doing well in promoting my business and where I suck monkey butt.  I have a party next weekend that I’m SUPER excited about.  And one night I met up with a good friend I hadn’t seen in quite awhile for dinner and half priced bottles of wine.  She asked about the jewelry I was wearing, I let her road test a few pieces during dinner, and voila – that evening I had a very nice order from her!  So I feel comfortable when people approach me with questions or compliments.  I’ve been complimented on my jewelry from random strangers in the grocery store to the cashier in one of our work cafeterias.  You can bet I never go anywhere without my jewelry on and a handful of business cards.  Yes, I’m learning the nuts and bolts of direct selling.  It’s all about connections, people!  The woman who is hosting my party next week noticed my jewelry at work and it just flowed from there.  You never know!

But I hate picking up the damn phone.  It’s no problem for me when I’m doing follow up calls to make sure people are happy with their jewelry and to answer any other questions, but just making outbound calls to people I know to talk about what I’m doing and to ask if they’d like to host parties.  Well, ew.  I am so not a sales person, and frankly, when I get home from work I am tired and the last thing I feel like doing is picking up the phone.  I feel like I’m intruding on people’s dinner time or other quality time with family.  And you know I don’t mean to be whiney in here because I DO love what I’m doing as a side business, but that’s the area I need to really work on.

And it suddenly dawned on me why.

Email!  Texting!  Facebook!  So much of my immediate circle communication is through non-phone, social media methods!  Aha!  Is that something unique to me?  Or to this part of the country?  I have beautiful snail mail postcards in my supplies which are used to send out reminders about parties.  I don’t know about any of you, but around here we stick with Evite.  Is it because it’s ‘green’?  Or technological?  It’s SO much easier to set up parties and have reminders sent automatically via email.  

So these are some fun self-discovery things…part of the reason I chose to start this business was to get out of my comfort zone and do something I’d never done before.  Same as my plunge into hockey back in 2003.

I’ll be speaking during part of our monthly team meeting this week and I’m really honored to be asked. It’s very informal – just sharing the tips I’ve learned from this 4-week course I’m doing on my own – but I really appreciate the chance to participate more in our meetings.  ‘Cause they’re super fun!!

And now it’s time to head to the bank and run other fun errands.  Got a shiny new Silpada license plate frame on my car – let’s see what happens!