Why Work From Home? To OWN my LIFE!!!

I feel so blessed to OWN my life!  What does that mean?  Well, to me it means that I make the decisions about what I do and how I do it and have taken control so that a boss or company isn't controlling it for me!  I am working so hard, yet having fun, building a home-based business so that I call the shots.  No more worries about when I can take time off to hang out with my family.  I'm able work while the girls are sleeping because that's best for me!  The economy is so hard right now for so many people.  My eyes have been opened to network marketing...the good and the ugly!  Most importantly what I've learned is that it does work if you work at it and have a system to show you how!  If you are tired of working for someone else controlling your life and want to own your life, you can too!!

Thankfully I found Mentoring for Free early on...wish it had been about 8 months sooner, but better late than never!  And now I'm not only learning how to do it right, I've found a great 5 Pillar Company, a great team of mentors and the ability to help others...hopefully finding more people who are just getting started before being burned the way so many are in this industry.  But for those who have been burned, I can't wait to help them!  It's a GREAT industry, you just have to find that 5 Pillar Company and not one where the heavy hitters are taking advantage of you.  What is a 5 Pillar Company?  Check out http://mnicholson.5pillarstosuccess.com/ for more details and it will probably change your life the way it did mine!  I'm now moving forward with my business and feel great sharing it with others, instead of feeling stagnant and frustrated!

The past three weeks have been pretty crazy between different friends and family being in town, bar-b-ques with friends, entertaining kids for the summer, etc.  However, as busy as it's been, it's made me appreciate it all SO much more!  I love my life...I am blessed with the most amazing husband, daughters, parents and in-laws, family and friends both here in Vegas and those who live away.   I love the fact that I do work for myself now and especially now that I've found a group of mentors and a system that is there for ME...not for the top 2% to make all of the money while the rest of us are so frustrated.  Getting to spend this kind of time with family and friends reminds me of how important it is to me to work from home!

Now it's back to a week of working out and working on my business before the girls and I drive with my mom the 9 hours back to Aztec, NM.  Looking forward to hanging out with my brother and sister and their families and the girls getting to play with all of their cousins!  Then we are off to camp in Silverton, CO for the 4th of July...can't wait!  Hopefully Scott will be able to join us during his days off?!  But then we fly to Connecticut at the end of the month to visit his family, some well deserved time off for him!!

I have an amazing life, this blog is just to put it all down in writing!  My husband is so amazing, always so supportive of me and our girls...always working hard to provide the best for us.  I can't wait until I can help him in providing more income to take some of the stress off of him...and I will!!!  Our parents are always there for us and our kids, loving and supporting everything we do.  Wish we lived closer to them, but at least we get a lot of quality time with them throughout the year, and I'm SO thankful for every minute of it!  I am so thankful for all I have been blessed with.  Never take it for granted!

It wasn't My Fault! I found the MLM Secrets!!

For those who have been following my Blog, you have seen me go through many different transitions...and I didn't start this Blog very long ago:) But this is the reason I started this Blog. I am making alterations in my life physically, mentally and even spiritually and the journey has been amazing! Definitely a lot of ups and downs...from my excitement in running my first half marathon being smashed by a knee injury; my first network marketing experience making me feel like a HUGE failure; difficulties in weight loss and seeing how great it is when you don't give up!

Well, have I got a story for you:) As I mentioned in my last Blog, I met this amazing woman named Vikki through Facebook. This is why I LOVE Facebook...I truly have met some wonderful and inspiring people. Vikki is not only inspiring, she has given me hope and the system to make my "Why" (also shared in the previous Blog) become a reality! Now, because I feel SO strongly about my "why", I wasn't going to give up and definitely won't be giving up now!

I read this free eBook that changed my life! I felt like I was a failure in my first network marketing company, but was searching for the right group of people to help me turn that around. I did! If you have tried network marketing or thought about it, but have been afraid of failure...you MUST read this! If you have been told by your upline, like I have many times, "Make a list of your friends and family. Call them up. Get 'em into the business. You need to hear 100 'No's for every 'Yes'." Guess what, they are LYING!! There are other ways that work better!

Want to know how? Read this http://mnicholson.bigmlmsecrets.com/?mad=47999 Remember...it's FREE! I really didn't believe it at first, nothing seems to be free in network marketing...but here is something amazing! Not just a great eBook that gives you MANY "aha" moments...but a wonderful group of mentors who are there to mentor you for FREE. Doesn't matter what company you are with, they don't want to know, they just want to help you find the success in your business!

Unbelievable huh? Well, it's true and I really hope if you are feeling uneasy or like a failure or getting that bad feeling in your gut that the company you are working in just doesn't feel right to you or seem to be working to make you that residual income you want so badly, that you will read http://mnicholson.bigmlmsecrets.com/?mad=47999

I can't wait to hear what you think:) Comments are ALWAYS welcome!! Hope you all have a wonderful week!

Why Start My Own Home-Based Business?

This is such a huge question and one I need to always keep in front of me! Success definitely comes from within yourself. Well, not always, I mean...I couldn't be a successful professional football player no matter how much I may want to be (I don't really, but only example I could come up with at this time of night). Size for one is definitely not on my side, and the fact that I'm a 35 year old female doesn't help either! However, if you really want to accomplish something in life for yourself and be successful, YOU MUST KNOW YOUR WHY! I've heard this before, but then was sent this awesome ebook ("Success in 10 Steps Where You Learn How to Think Not What to Think by Michael Dlouhy) and started reading it tonight and it reminded me how important this really is! So thank you Vikki Lawson for sharing the ebook with me!

You really need a strong "WHY" and need it to be written down somewhere you will often see it, in order to stick to your goals. This way you keep going no matter how tough times may get. So for this blog, I wanted to share my "WHY's"!

Why I want to be successful in my home-based business:
My #1 "WHY" is definitely my family. The reason I was drawn to network marketing was to have more time with my family. I want to be able to be there for my girls, they grow up so fast! They are only 2 and 4 years old right now, I don't want to miss a thing. I also want to have a lot of time with my husband, alone and with the girls!

My #2 reason is to be able to take some of the pressure off of my husband as he has been our only income since I quit my last sales job last August. He does well enough that I am fortunate enough to not work. But I've always worked, before kids I was a work-a-holic! Always sales, but I got burned out on sales. I wanted something that would give me more flexibility to be with my family, but still give me a way to help bring in extra income and in a way that I could feel good about doing it.

My #3 reason is to help other people be successful for themselves. I would love to learn to be a great Mentor to others and the heavy hitters "sales" approach I have worked with before never felt like the right fit for me. I like the idea of a coach MUCH better! In fact, as one of my earlier blogs told, after finding myself lost in the last network marketing company because I felt their way of doing it didn't fit me and I was not successful because of it, I looked into becoming a personal trainer. I LOVE working out and learning about health and wellness. I thought that might be a great way to help others feel better and be successful...however, I realized in order to be successful I would have to work a lot of hours, therefore going against my #1 Why!

So, writing down my top 3 reasons "WHY" brings me back to network marketing. However, it's with a different company who has a different approach...Servant Leadership as they call it! The leaders and company are there to mentor you to your success to reach your "WHY". They have created a comp plan and system to help part-timers make money too, not just the top 2% leaders! Therefore, part-timers also see success. That's where I fit in for right now...long-term, I want to make a lot more money. But for now, I'm a part-timer looking to make extra money each month for my family, spend more time with my family, and build some awesome relationships with the team in my company and those who join me!

So there's my "WHY's". I've definitely put them in writing and put them out there, you can see how passionate I am about them! I'd love to hear, what's your why? Email me at mnicholsonww@yahoo.com

My Next Move!!

Ok, so in my last post I updated on how I've really been working hard on working out and watching what I eat and seeing some great results! That's just part of the transformation I've been taking in the last 4-5 months. I went through a little phase of being down about my home-based business with Zrii. I am ready to write about it, what I learned and where I'm going!

Zrii was my first try at a home-based business, I was SO excited about it and love what I learned from the people and opportunity. I am one who believes you have to try new things, sometimes they don't work out the way you'd like, but as long as you learn and grow from it...then it's TOTALLY worth it!! HMG is an amazing group of people and I did learn a great deal from them. Zrii is a great company, still love their products and what the company is all about. However, I found myself getting very frustrated in trying to grow my business. When I started, the Binary Comp plan sounded fantastic...as I got into it, it just seemed to be frustrating to me and a lot more work than I was looking for (I'll be honest, not looking to work 40+ hours a week right now...maybe in a few years).

Just a little update on my background and what brought me to home-based business...I have always been more of a work-a-holic. Then I had two beautiful baby girls who fill my life with so much joy and who made me realize time goes WAY TOO FAST! Especially seeing them grow up. I am so blessed to have a husband who has a great job and makes enough that I could take the opportunity to quit my sales job that was more stressful than enoyable at the time and have more time with my girls. I made this decision because I had got into the opportunity with the Hager Marketing Group. I thought I had found my answer! I worked really hard for the first few months, too hard...started to get away from my reason for quitting my job. I was fighting with my husband and spending way too much family time on phone calls and meetings. I had to make a decision...it was easy...my family comes first now, not work or any money that comes with it! I didn't quit Zrii, but I stopped doing the training calls and stopped talking about it as much on Facebook or to anyone and still collect paychecks, which is cool. I started to put my energy into my workouts and my family...just one thing still missing...I do want something to bring in some extra money and a little job. But it has to be from home, on my own time...not my families time...and I have to be passionate about what I'm doing!

There's an awesome video I'd also like to share. It is by Tim Sales, talking about "do most people fail in network marketing?" You can watch it at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0--zrVzemw. I highly recommend checking it out if you have tried network marketing, are currently in it, or have just considered it!

This video really hit home with me, I didn't fail, I chose to quit the one I was doing because it wasn't feeling right for me...but I didn't quit, I kept looking for one that fit me better. I have met some amazing people in the network marketing industry who are so inspiring and who do make a great living for their families working from home and yet have more time with their families. I don't want to give up on that as something I want to do.

I have found an amazing company that I am so excited to be part of. I chose this company for a handful of reasons. One, it's a new company, only 3 months old...so great timing to get in now! Two, amazing people backing the company who are forward-thinking people and who want to make a company for the average Joe. As my mentor Travis Flaherty stated, "Revolucion was created under the premise that the average person, working part time from home can still succeed at building a future for their family. That is EXACTLY what we are seeing. More meaningful checks being paid out amongst the entire organization is what it's all about." This is for me! They have the amazing training calls everyday, mentor calls on Monday nights, product training calls on Wednesday nights. I still can't do those with the schedule my husband and I have with his job and the kids...but do you know what this company does, they record every one so you can go listen when the time is good for you to work (like after kiddos are in bed)!!! It's amazing:) Oh, and I didn't even mention that they now have Health Insurance available for their distributors (even with pre-existing conditions) and this week launched an AWESOME marketing tool like no other out there for Revolucion distributors! I'm getting trained on it this afternoon, so you will be hearing more on that!!! Still haven't said anything about their awesome products!

So as you can see from my little bit of rambling...I'm excited! I feel great from working out and keeping that a priority, I'm getting a lot of quality time with my husband and kids, and I'm excited about this opportunity I have been fortunate enough to find where I can build a home-based business that works for me! That's all for now, I'll get more info out as I continue to learn, learn, learn!!!

If you are interested in learning more about Revolucion, check out my website at www.melissanicholson.revolucionww.com for now...I'll have another one with a great video to watch after the training webinar this afternoon!!!

Watching Calories Does Work!

So it's been WAY too long since I last blogged on here...but I've had some very positive changes. I ended up finding this great app on my iPhone called Tap & Track. LOVE It! It has a lot of food already in it so you can quickly add calories and very easy to use if you want to add your own, but it not only tracks your calories, it also tracks your Excercise. So throughout the day you enter your food for calories and select your excercise, which can even be grocery shopping or vaccumming, all those things you do in your regular day that does burn calories. For the excercise you select the level from low to moderate to high. When you enter your excercise it ups the calories you can have for the day, but still lose the weight you are shooting for. I think I set mine up to lose 1 1/2 pounds per week (only can go up to 2 per week, which is good).

After doing this for a few weeks, I lost 5 pounds! I was still excercising a lot too...at least 5 days, sometimes 6 a week. But what I've learned is you really want to mix it up! I'm seeing great results from doing this and having so much fun with it! I recently started adding Spin classes to my weekly workouts, and like everyone told me, it's addicting! I think more because of how I feel after it's over...sweat A LOT, you know your burning a ton of calories, and really works your legs, butt and core! LOVE IT! So right now my weekly workout has changed to Pump Class (new release 73 is SO hard) two days a week followed by 1.5 to 2 mile run; spin 2 days followed by Piyo those 2 days for stretching; 1 day Cardio Core (let's just say torture by Mandy...but it's great for shocking your body!); and if I feel up to it for a 6th day I do the Combat class!

I am now down to 147, was at 154 on my last blog on March 1st. In between I've definitely had some bad weeks...family in town a number of times, birthday parties and Easter! But I've still managed to take the weight off and am so excited that you now can see some definition in my arms when I'm lifting...I think they call that muscle:)

I'm really happy with what's happening to my body. Of course I'd LOVE for it to come off faster and be in a size 8, but it's coming off and because of they way I'm taking off, it should stay off! 7 pounds in 9 weeks!

I've still been using the NutriiVeda shakes for breakfast and sometimes after my workouts. Still love them! But I've been changing it up some too to get other protein.

I've also made some other changes...but I'll get to that in my next blog! Stay tuned:) Life is GREAT, I have a great husband, two beautiful and funny children, wonderful and supportive family, and time to spend with them!

Working Out is not enough...Diet Time?

Ok, so it's been a long time since I posted. I am still VERY interested and excited about the possibility of becoming a personal trainer. There's just been a little set back...but for a good reason! I really want to become a personal trainer to help others learn to eat healthy and excercise, but not just for a few months and then get back to bad old habits! I want to be able to motivate and teach people to change their lifestyle. I think it's a waste of my time, their time and their money if I only help them for a few months. Now, I know from PLENTY of experience that it's difficult to always stay on track. But, if I can teach them and motivate them enough so that even when they do get off track (like I have MANY times)they will always go back to that "healthier" lifestyle...make that lifestyle the comfort zone they always go back to! Excercise and diet are both so important to the wellbeing of EVERYONE! However, how many are out there eating poorly and rarely exercising, if ever?! TOO MANY! I love the fact that personal training is growing like crazy...yes, that means a lot of competition. But I don't think we can have enough, and there will be no competition if I'm good at it and help my clients be successful in their healthy lifestyle transformation!! So, in a way, that's my Mission Statement once I get this new career kicked off.

There's a lot to do before that can happen. Right now I'm working on Step 1 - ME! I have come a long way with my workouts in the last couple of months. I'm having so much fun meeting new friends (other stay-at-home moms)at the gym 5-6 days a week. These workouts are fantastic! Monday and Wednesday we do a Body Pump class to do weight training and then I do 20-30 minutes of cardio...still running and loving it! Tuesday and Friday is Piyo, LOVE this class, it's a mixture of Pilates and Yoga and I sweat in this class almost as much as when I run 3 miles! Thursday and Saturday is Body Combat, sort of like kickboxing...also a lot of fun, but tough! So, as you can see, I've got a great workout schedule. I'm mixing it up, getting cardio, weight training and stretching and balance every week.

The Problem - not losing weight or inches! WHAT? I really thought once I put my workouts into high gear and mixed it up and still watched what I ate pretty well I'd see the weight falling off. Not the case and VERY frustrating, as you can imagine, I'm sure! I started watching my calories, looked up on a few sites to see how many calories I should eat each day to get to my goal weight of 135 and it said 1600. Still nothing watching that. I've also felt very tired and unmotivated. I have Thyroid disease in my family, sister and grandmother both have underactive thyroids, so I thought maybe that was it. I went to my doctor last week to have lab work done. Found out today it doesn't look like it's abnormal (still waiting for my doctor to look over the results, but probably normal). I was a little bummed, I don't want to take medication for thyroid, but did hope that was why I'm not losing weight. Good news...I'm very healthy:) Another good thing is after meeting my doctor I started taking a multi-vitamin for women because I realized I'm definitely not getting enough calcium (and probably other things too). I have noticed a change in my energy, not super, but SO much better than before.

The Next Plan - try doing only 1200 calories per day. I want to do it for a few weeks and see what happens...all I can think is it must be my diet. So I'll be doing 2 NutriiVeda shakes each day (they taste great, are high protein, low calorie and have great minerals and vitamins), so I'll have one for breakfast and one after my workouts. I have some great healthy recipes that I've been cooking for dinner, so we'll stick with those and have healthy snacks in between. I always say, I don't believe in dieting...I don't like telling myself I "can't" have something because then it's all I can think of. So this is not a diet, it's watching what I eat a little more closely...and on date night days, I may just go over that 1200 a little...call it my "free day". Learned that by doing Body for Life and I think it's important to be successful!

Once I get myself looking and feeling even better, I will be ready to move on to the preparation of getting certified to be a personal trainer. I think I'm learning so much throughout my own experience, that I'll feel even better when I start training others! I'm really excited to see what I can do with this...and to sharing it with those who read this! I'm going to try and post updates more frequently and share my thoughts and how I'm feeling.

Working Out, Loving It...Make a Career of it?

I'm so excited to be back in Vegas and getting back into a routine after our great trip back to New Mexico. I've really been enjoying the gym, a friend and I started going to different classes they offer at our Gold's Gym...so much fun and such GREAT workouts! We have been doing Piyo (mixture of pilates and yoga), Body Pump (all weights) and Body Combat (kickboxing). I also started running some again to test my knee, ran a mile twice after Body Pump and yesterday ran 3 miles. Knee is doing well, hopefully it stays that way. I think the classes should help, really working on building muscles that will help so I shouldn't damage or injure my knee as long as I don't push too hard or too fast.

I have had a passion for working out and eating healthy pretty much since college. Not that I've stayed focused on it all the time, but done pretty well since then. It started when I was in college, had a little too much fun eating and drinking and boy did it catch up with me! I always had a class from Freshman year on that was either aquasize or aerobics, but finally my sophmore year I started walking some and joined the local gym to step it up. I vividly remember the summer before my junior year I lived in Georgia as a nanny for my aunt and uncle and felt aweful...I was wearing a size 14. I'll never forget, one day I drove about 30 minutes to a Jenny Craig...got on the scale and it said 161 lbs. I about died, I'm only 5'5" and definitely should not be that heavy! I signed up, but on the drive home started crying and then just got pissed at myself and decided I needed to turn around and un-sign because if I couldn't do this on my own, then I would stay that size (I also really couldn't afford it as a college student and was going to have to drive that 30miles once a week:) So I did just that, turned around and told them I didn't want to do it after all. I had to keep the food, which was stupid considering I hadn't even taken it out of the bag...but whatever, I used a lot of it. I started watching my calories and really just eating healtier and walking everyday. When I got back to college in Colorado, I kept the walking going and started going to the gym for classes and workout before school. My walking slowly turned into jogging and running and loving it! I worked at the local ski resort and instead of using my 2 hour lunch break to ski once Spring hit, I ran...doesn't get any better than that, running in the beautiful Colorado mountains!

The weight came off, not right away, but it was better that way because I had completely changed my lifestyle. Now, I was still a college student, had 2 more years to go. So I was still enjoying the parties and eating Taco Bell...just not everyday and I was working out to help when I did take in too many calories. That has stuck with me ever since. There has only been two other times I got close to that size on the scale and that was when I was pregnant with each of my girls (definitely worth it). I made a lifestyle change...I tried diets, they never worked for me. If I say I can't have something, that's all I can think about eating and when I finally do I have WAY more than I should! I could definitely still do better with my eating habits, but would say overall I eat very healthy and keep the calories under control. However, if I want chocolate, I have some...if there's a dessert on the menu that looks good, I order it...to share!

I've been more of a stay-at-home mom since August. First time I'm not doing a full-time job. I really do love having so much more time with my girls, my husband and for myself. However, I am starting to get the itch to do a little more. I am now looking into getting certified as a Personal Trainer. I've had some awesome conversations with people in the industry. A really good friend of mine who has done it for a long time gave me some great ideas, so I'm really excited to really look more into it! I want to provide personal training to people who may not feel comfortable going to a gym and working out, teach them how to work out at home, or at a park with friends, etc. And teach them how to eat healthier and get results...CHANGE THEIR LIFESTYLE, not deprive themselves! It's something I can start part-time, and then when my girls are older, hopefully take it more full-time.

My opportunity with Zrii has also been part of me coming to find this possible new opportunity. I love all of the Ayurvedic principles I'm learning, it's really about mind, body and soul to live a healthy, happy and successful life. I want to also continue learning more about this and be able to incorporate that in my training. I have A LOT to learn, but want to take this passion to the next level.

A great quote: "If you are working on something exciting that you really care about, you don't have to be pushed. The vision pulls you." ~ Steve Jobs

If any of you have advice or comments, I'd love to hear from you!!