Who is Jewl – Alternative Solutions

Are you in the right business?

I went to a great seminar on Home Based Business a few weeks ago.  Even though being in the business for many years attending seminars or reading is a great way to learn, and network.  I would encourage you no matter what your age to keep learning.  It’s a great way to stretch ourselves.

A couple of things I’d like to share with you.  One, as you explore starting your own business make a list of things that interest you.  For instance, with our daughter Epileptic and our son being a preemie out of necessity we became very interested in alternative ways to help our children besides conventional medicines.  Medicine does have its place, but knowledge of what other alternatives are out there can make a big difference in your health.  As was the case with our kids, It changed their lives.  And ours too for that matter.  We have never been so healthy.  We feel better, look better, it has saved us a ton of money that we were spending at the doctors, plus it’s made us money, and we see how what we offer can help others.  So as you can see, nutritional supplements are of great interest to us.  It is one of our passions!   So I would encourage you to make a list of some things that interest you and weed out what might be one of your passions.  When you like what you do it makes a big difference in how you do it and your commitment level.

Once you have your list, talk with others who are already doing what you would like to do.  See how it’s going for them.  You can learn a lot this way just by asking some simple questions. 

Then decide what you’re going to do.  Commit to it – true commitment is not trying something for a month or two and saying “this doesn’t work”, even 6 months is not enough time to make a logical conclusion.  When the guru’s say commit they are talking commit to it for 2-5 years.  That’s commitment!  In other words, be like a stamp and stick too it!

If you’re doing an online business, get your sponsor and/or upline to help you write up a business plan.

To Your Success!

In all of life what you do matters!  Every choice we make has an outcome, some for the good and some not so good.

I humbly ask you to be aware of your choices and how they impact you, your family, and the world around you. 

I just got an email today from Project AWARE.  It is sad to see such senseless nonsense when this seals death could have been prevented.

Take care of Gods creation and it will take care of you.

For More information on how you can help go to projectaware.org

Amazing Grace has been a long time favorite song of mine. If you think about the words they are so powerful and freeing. It brings tears to my eyes when I deeply ponder how much God loves us by sending his son – Amazing. Before our daughter was born we would sing this song to her and to this day, almost 11 years later, it still has a calming effect on her.

Little did we know, that at age 2 1/2 she would be diagnosed Epileptic. Any of you familiar with Epilepsy know how trying it can be, needless to say we’ve had many occasions to sing Amazing Grace.

As I have been listening to the news, reflecting on the struggles most of us are having with the economy the way it is, and being inspired by a 12 year old boy who put others above himself by paving a way for handicap children to ride a train I wanted to share this song of great hope with you.

Here is a video of Chris Tomlin singing his version of Amazing Grace. And yes, for those who believe we have been set free.

I pray this song brings you a peace and opens up a world of amazing opportunities for you.

That’s right, I hate to admit it but I’ve been scammed.  I don’t know about you, but when someone is talking to me I try to be discerning in what they’re saying.  But I’m sure this time the person was thinking “gotch ya”.

We were at one of our favorite restaurants eating a late lunch.  We had the 2 kiddos with us.  We were ordering from our menus and the kids where ordering from the kids menu.  When the waitress took our order she asked “do they want lids”?  She was referring to the kids drinks.  For our 10 year old we said no, but the 8 year old we said yes.  (ok, our 8 year old is a boy – need I say more as to why he gets a lid (smile), and I mean that in the sweetest way.

When our waitress brought out our drinks I thought it odd that she brought our daughter such a huge glass of milk.  But we were talking and I didn’t give it much thought except for the initial shock. 

We had a great meal.  Got the check, double checked the bill, and long and behold, for my daughters drink we were charged a full adult price instead of the child’s price.  I thought wow, that was smooth.  Normally, you’re asked would you like a small or lager – if you say large you know you’re going to be charged more.  Never in a million years would I have thought by “do they want lids” that I was being upsized.  What a sneaky approach, we had been scammed.  Needless to say I was not happy – I don’t like it when people try to pull a fast one on me (or anyone else for that matter).

Yes, it was only $2.29 instead of $.99, but it’s the principle of it.  Deception is one thing I have a very low tolerance for.  It just goes to show us that in all of life we need to be aware of what’s going on.

As Ike prepares to hit the gulf coast we lift up our fellow Texans and all who may be impacted by this hurricane.

Austin caught a break on this one, we’re just expecting some wind and of course rain. 

Our prayers are with those who had to evalucate, who are caught in the path of Ike, and for all the first responders. 

Be Safe!

I still remember as if it were yesterday just turning on the TV hearing what had happened and then bam here came the 2nd plane.  I’m sure a lot of you can remember what you were doing as well.  Our prayers go out to the families who lost loved ones.  We honor those who lost their lives helping others, those who lost their lives serving our country, and those who defend her still today.  We want you to know – we have not forgotten!

I hope we all can use this day as a day to remind us on how the whole country came together.  May this day spur us to help our fellow man.  See someone in need – lend a hand. 

United We Stand!

Hello,

I hope you take this in the spirit it is given – and that is, our true desire to help people.

As part of working at home, one of our goals was to be debt free.  When I say debt free I mean all we own is paid for in full.  That means no credit card debt, no car payments, no mortgage payments – no debt period.  Today we are debt free.  It was not easy.  Just to give you a brief history our daughter is Epileptic and our son was 2 months early, with not the best insurance our medical bill added up.  We were very much in debt and there was a time we didn’t know where our next meal was coming from.  So, we know for a fact what I am going to share with you works.

One of our long term goals is to help all our team members achieve the same thing – to be debt free.  One mark of a good leader is wanting the best for their team and helping pave a way for them to achieve total success.  Part of being a total success is being debt free.  Is your team leader debt free?

It all starts with a budget.  When new team members join our team, we ask them what is their marketing budget?  We get a lot of resistance when we ask people to write things down.  This is just our human nature.  We are too busy to write things down, we try to keep it all in our head.  I don’t know about you, but I can’t keep it all in my head – more power to those who can.  Sixteen years ago when we started our first home business, we didn’t’ write things down either and we were knee deep in debt too.   

But when it comes to wanting to be debt free, if you truly want to be debt free and be free from the bondage of owing people money you have to have a budget.  And to do a budget you must first start by writing things down.  The point is if you refuse to do a budget than chances are you really don’t want to be debt free, you’re just doing lip service.  Some of you may not like that, but it’s the truth.  That is one principle I hold very dear and that is honesty.

Most of us don’t even know where all our money goes.  We were no different.  When we first started this journey years ago, we fought tooth and nail from doing a budget.  We had a general idea of where our money went, but once we started writing things down we had a few surprises.  When we first started, we didn’t see the real power in writing things down – We do know!

Before you can have a budget you need to know where your money is going.  Start tracking every penny you spend – and YES I mean every penny.  When you do a budget it’s best to do a zero budget.  So if you spend 65 cents on a pack of gum write it down.  Do this for a month, really see every aspect of where every cent goes. Carry a little notebook around or keep it in the car to capture your spending.  Once you do this, you are in a better position to have a budget that actually works.

So, the first challenge is if your true desire is to be debt free, start tracking where you spend every cent for a month.

This is not easy.  It takes a determined mindset.  You have to commit to your goal.  (sound familiar, this is a key principle in building a successful home business)

To Your Success!

Julia

I read a story today I wanted to share with you. It has some great application that we can all apply.  

The goal – to make a coffee table as a Christmas gift.  Thru this one little activity this guy learned he could achieve any goal he set for himself with confidence.  After you read this you as well can take the lessons learned and apply them to any goal you want to achieve.

A Vision –

He had a vision.  He had a picture in his mind of exactly how it would look and got it down on paper, so he could continually check to see what he was currently doing against his vision.

A Plan –

Before he cut his first piece of wood, he drew up a detailed blueprint.

A Timeline and Deadline –

He planned what he was going to do each day, the steps he would take to accomplish his daily goal and had an end date of completion.

Action Plan –

Each day he only focused on that day’s activities and didn’t worry about the rest.  He knew that if he followed his plan he would meet his ultimate goal.

Motivation –

His motivation was that he was making a gift for his wife.  He knew what it would mean to her.  It kept him moving forward. 

Help –

He had lots of help.  His dad helped him put a plan together.  When he got stuck his friend helped him out.  It was a team effort.

Good Resources –

He had the right tools.

Persistence – (oh, so key)

If something didn’t pan out like he thought it would he adapted and moved around it.  He didn’t let a few steps backwards stop him from moving forward.

Learning Curve –

He knew in the beginning he had no idea what he was doing.  He did know that if he took it one step at a time and relied on the things he had in place – his vision, plan, help, resources, etc that he would learn as he went and grew more confident with each day that his vision would become a reality.

These are valuable tips we can all use and apply to any goal we want to achieve and watch our vision become our reality!

This past weekend I heard a great story that really brings home a key point we can all benefit from.  Have you heard of BUDs Training?  It’s Basic Underwater Demolition seal training.  As you know, our Seals go thru some very intensive training.  Well, in this case a seal had gotten injured and could no longer continue in training.  He became a postmaster on a Navy ship.  As the ship was about to leave port the mail was delivered in 2 huge bags about 4-5 feet tall, 2-3 feet around – so as you can imagine these bags were extremely heavy being stuffed full of mail.  This ex-seal, who was a very skinny guy, was observed carrying both these heavy mail bags at the same time.  He first slung one over his shoulder and then the other, upstairs, downstairs until he finally reached the mail room.  He was later asked, “Why did you put yourself thru all that, why not just do one bag at a time?”  He responded with, “Accomplish the Mission!”  His mission was to get the heavy bags of mail to the mailroom and that’s exactly what he did.  Nothing distracted him, there was no winning or complaining on how hard it was, he focused on his mission and got it done.

This is the same laser type focus we should have in “accomplishing our mission”.  The first step is to identify your mission.  Some of us have a few different missions.  For example, as one who home schools my kids, one of my missions is to give them the very best education.  I need to harness my energy, focus on the task at hand, and let nothing get in the way of me accomplishing that mission. 

Another mission of ours is to help people have successful home businesses so that they can have more time to do what’s important to them.  We are very focused on this Mission.  Our goal is to help people, and we can think of no better way then to help people live a better life, which involves lots of things. 

I would like to encourage you on your mission.  Ask yourself…

            1.  What is my Mission?

            2.  What steps do I need to take to accomplish my mission?

            3.  Then take out all massive action. (I’ll write on this more later)

Just think of where you would be if you had that same passion, drive, commitment, and focus as the sailor did on I must “Accomplish the Mission”.  Wow, close your eyes and see where that can take you!

As Gustav approaches and is on the minds of all most everyone, we too wanted to wish those still left on the coast and those who remain to protect and help the very best.  Our prayers are with you.

We are also mindful of those who have already evacuated.  It was great to hear that 90-95% of the people have already made it to a safe shelter to wait out the storm.  Here in Austin, we have already received a couple hundred people from the coast to wait out the storm.  Our prayers are with you as you wait in such uncertainty.

It seems the governement is on top of things this time.  President Bush has arrived here in Austin to first hand see how things are being handled.  I was glad to here the Mayor of New Orleans (and all local bodies of gov.) step up to the plate.  Our local governing bodies are our first responders and need to be proactive and on top of things so they can best help their citizens.

Again, my hats off to all those who stay in harms way just to protect the empty cities and aid those who need assistance – these are real life heros who put their life on the line for the common man – Thank You!  May God grant you a hedge of protection as you serve in the path of destruction.

As we go thru today, may we be ever so mindful of those in need.  I would encourage all of us to put out our helping hand to someone in need.