My parents are kind of a big deal. It wasn’t until recently that I realized this.
They’re certainly not movie stars or household names, but they are actually really well known in certain circles—specifically around people interested in natural health and wellness.
Over the years, my parents have worked with various companies and products, including ones with LED light therapy, quantum biofeedback systems, blue-green algae, cactus juice, and most recently, purple rice – often building large businesses.
The first inkling of them being a big deal happened in 2013, when I began facilitating Access Consciousness classes, sometimes using my parent’s guest house. Almost every class I gave, someone would remark how they’d been to this house years ago for something my mom put on (often a meditation or a mandala class) or they would realize I was Kare’s daughter and then tell me a story about how they’ve known my mom, or known about her for a very long time.
After this happened a few times, I thought this was just a local thing, that they were known in the community around St Pete where I grew up. But then, it started happening when I was traveling.
I worked at the In Light Wellness Systems booth (LED Light Therapy) at two different quantum biofeedback conventions, one in Cancun, Mexico, and the other in Hollywood, CA.
Both places, I had people come find me because they were excited to see Kare and Charles’ little girl, they wanted me to say “hi” to my folks, or they wanted to tell me about how they remember when I was wee-high.
Most recently, I have been in awe watching my mom build a growing presence online. In thinking about what got them to where there are, I realized there are a few core beliefs that they have instilled in me.
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You have to be a product of the product
This sounds a bit like you are what you eat. And I suppose it’s kind of similar.
Have you ever seen someone go into businesses that they don’t fully believe in, where they don’t use whatever product they are selling?
And what usually happens? They don’t go far.
Anytime my parents have decided to start a business sharing a product, it is because that product has had a profound effect on them and their health.
For example, my dad has been diabetic as long as I’ve been alive. He had always controlled his blood sugar with food, but about a year and a half ago, his blood sugar was out of control and his doctor prescribed him insulin for the first time. He absolutely did not want to start taking it.
It was at that point that a good friend of my mom’s introduced them to the Micronized Purple Rice. (Honestly, she pretty much forced him to start eating it.)
It’s not just rice that you cook. It’s an ancient, heirloom strain of purple rice. They take out the heart of the rice that contains the nutrients needed to repair and regenerate the cells. It actually takes 60 pounds of purple rice to get one pound of the nutrients. Then they mill that down to the size of a micron–and because it’s so small, it can get into any cell, no matter how damaged.
Within 3 months, my dad’s morning blood sugar dropped from 200 to 110, making it the lowest it has ever been and in the normal range for pretty much the first time ever.
For my mom, who started eating it only because my dad did, she lowered her cholesterol 73 points within 1 month! She had been trying to naturally lower her cholesterol for 2 years, and nothing had worked, until this.
My parents were not looking for a business. They had pretty much retired. But when they saw the results they were getting, they decided that they really had to share it.
This is how they have gotten into most businesses—they become a product of the product and then want to share it with everyone they know.
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You have to be genuine.
When I was first starting to work with LED Light Therapy, one of the heavy hitters I was introduced to early on was a salesman through and through. He is amazing at hard sales.
I thought I had to do it just like he does if I wanted to be successful. But the idea of selling like him made me shrink up.
There is no way I could do it.
I am not a hard sales type of person.
I can share. I can tell stories, but I am not a sales person.
And then I looked at what my parents do, what they have done as long as I can remember. They share. They tell stories, they don’t do hard sales, and they have grown amazing businesses from that—from simply being who they genuinely are!
And it turns out…when I am simply me, when I share what I know and connect with people; I actually am a pretty good ‘salesperson.’
Recently, I have been watching my mom grow a large network through Facebook simply by being genuine on both her personal page and her fan page.
It’s funny because about 2 years ago, she was considering deactivating her page–but then she tapped into magic.
She began inviting prospects and customers to add her as a friend and like her fan page.
She posts positive, uplifting things, she responds to comments, she chats with people on messenger, she is constantly in our Facebook group, and rather quickly, her network is spreading.
And while she’s gaining lots of new Facebook friends, she’s also gaining lots of new actual friends. I posted a picture of her on the beach on Thanksgiving and tagged her in it. Within 2 days, my picture had 65 likes, all from people that I’m not friends with.
When she had to say good-bye to her golden-doodle Bentley, one of her customers and new friends chose to volunteer at an animal shelter in his name!
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You can’t fix stupid.
I know this doesn’t really sound like a core belief, and maybe it’s not, but my dad has been saying this for as long as I can remember…someone even had it made into a sign that sits on his desk.
While certainly not the most PC phrase, it basically means you don’t have to spend your time trying to help people that don’t want to be helped or trying to change people that don’t want change.
Here’s an example…I used to help my mom on the phone–educating people about the Micronized Purple Rice and taking orders. (Now, honestly the social media part takes up all of my time and my mom has taken on health coaches to help with this.)
The vast majority of people I talked to were lovely, kind, conscious people. (I mean, take the lady who volunteered in the name of my mom’s dog. That is amazing!)
But then there was this one lady…
She started screaming at me from go.
It took several minutes for me to figure out what the problem was because she wouldn’t stop yelling.
She hadn’t gotten her package that was supposed to come the day before and she was going out of town in a few days. I got off the phone to figure out what happened, and soon realized that it had actually been delivered two days ago by the USPS.
I called back to give her a tracking number and explain that she simply had to look around her mailbox and possibly call the postal service, but she decided instead to scream at me for several more minutes about what a terrible job I was doing and that she didn’t have time to do that.
Instead she wanted her money back immediately–you know, for the product that was, in fact, delivered on time. By the time the whole thing was over, I was in tears.
My dad pulled me into his office and said, “You’ve got to learn to start telling people off.”
I was flabbergasted. I couldn’t tell off a customer.
But then he explained more. “You can’t fix stupid. When someone is crazy like that, and hurtful to you and everyone else, we don’t need or want them as a customer.”
My dad proceeded to give me permission to speak up and stand up for myself—to customers, to him, or anyone else. That was huge for me and a lesson I am most definitely still working on.
So, there you have it. 3 lessons from my parents.
What about you? Is there a lesson you really connected with? Or lessons your parents passed on to you that you’d like to share?
Post it in the comments or share it with me in my Facebook Group HERE.
