how my journey with young living started

i figured a good place to start on this blog would be to tell you how i became a young living independent distributor. that's the official term, but i like to go by many others. oil lady. plant juice addict. entrepreneur. wahm. the boss. voodoo magic specialist. the list goes on. i won't bore you will all the amazing job titles you could slap on me. in june 2013, i took my afternoon break and walked down to the pharmacy that was in our building with my co-worker. we each had a ton of things we needed to pick up. when we left, we had a large brown bag full of things. i laughed about it and said how the picture of the day prompt on an instagram challenge i was doing was 'on the table'. so, when we got back to the office, i dumped all my OTC (over the counter) drugs + prescriptions on the counter and snapped a picture. threw a caption on it and boom. that one post would end up being THE POST that changed my life. within five minutes, all of my online friends that i had met through blogging over the previous 10 years were commenting, 'there's an oil for everything in your pile' and 'you really need to give essential oils a whirl' ... and all kinds of similar things. up until that point, i must have been oblivious to their posts or discussions about oils because i had no idea what they were talking about. being the kind of person that jumps into most situations with both feet first + no prior research, i emailed a handful of them and simply told them, 'sell me on them. why do i need these in my life'? sold me they did. through a thread of 50+ emails, i not only ended up purchasing a kid, but they told me that i'd be great at the business side of things so why not jump in? oh heck ... sure! i'd love to. i didn't even realize it was a network marketing company. i just wanted a distraction. why did i want a distraction? well, i was having marriage issues. we were headed towards a divorce (that would become final in december of that year). i needed something to keep my mind busy. i also liked the idea of trying the plant juice in these cute little bottles to help me with everything from skin issues to boosting my immune system. i honestly knew nothing about them, but i was willing to learn. if there was any chance i could supplement my own income, i wanted to try it. my premium started kit arrived a week later (it didn't even come with a diffuser back then). i sold three kits the week it arrived. when i got my first check, i was excited. it was for a couple hundred dollars. the next month, they added the diffuser to the starter kits. that month, i sold fifteen kits! when i got paid for that month, i knew that i was going to do everything i had to in order to excel in this company. i was also falling in love with the products at the same time so it was basically the universe sending me mad love. i'm convinced. not to get into the details of my divorce, but we decided to split the kids expenses 50/50 and he left with the property we split and his retirement accounts. those which i thought would be our retirement someday. i didn't get any kind of support because i refused to allow people to say that i needed anyone else's money to survive. i was determined to be able to take care of myself and my boys. so, after losing approximately $100K per year of income, only bringing in my county salary of $34K per year ... i had to kick things into high gear. i had all the same bills with a lot less income. i worked my ass off. bottom line. i worked in the mornings, i worked on lunch break, i worked in the evenings after the boys went to bed. i stayed up late. i worked the entire time the kids were with their dad. i freaking worked my face off. i quickly rose up in the ranks of young living and it was amazing. i found success and passion in something i never seen coming. i earned amazing recognition and rewards. i earned retreats to amazing places. i earned free product. i earned trips across the globe. i earned monthly paychecks that put my previous jobs to shame. but the best thing i earned, was freedom. the freedom was something i didn't think about until i had it. once it was within grasp, it was something i would fight tooth + nail in order to keep. because i talked about money + freedom, i have to share this: http://bit.ly/legitincomepotential the past six and a half years, i have been working this amazing job. it's something i never want to quit + only want to achieve more in. it's hard work, but it's worth every second. i want to show my kids how following your heart, taking a risk + not caring what others think could end up being the best decision you ever make in your life. that's my story of how the universe opened up this opportunity for me. i sure hope everyone has this door open for them at some point in their life. i am forever grateful.