Welcome to week 5! Are you having fun yet?
I think we’ve got enough back story to move on to how I found doTERRA, or, as happens to most people, how it found me.
As I mentioned, I was using essential oils in my cleaning spray, but I had no idea what specific jobs they did. Life was too busy though to look deeper into it, but I still did a few online oil searches every now & then. It was not a priority, I had established that it worked, so that’s the main thing. But there was still a nagging dissatisfaction popping up every now and then.
Then, I saw a post on facebook one day that my sister had ordered a kit, from doTERRA. I’ll be honest, I had to google it. Then I got a bit excited, and asked her if she was going to be a doTERRA lady! My knowledge of network marketing did not extend much further than Avon or Tupperware. But parties sounded fun 🙂 . She hadn’t decided yet if she was going to be a “doTERRA Lady” (turns out the actual term is “Wellness Advocate”, or “Independent Product Consultant”), but at last I had someone to fire my questions at.
The first thing I wanted to know, was what other oils could I use for cleaning? I hated the smell of the one I was using, but I wanted to make sure whatever oil I chose killed the baddies. She did a bit of research, and came up with either “on guard” or “purify” blends. OR… doTERRA actually made their own cleaning range! Awesome! I had also started to do my own little bit of research. doTERRA was looking interesting to me, not only as as source of oils and education, but maybe, possibly, I could be an oil lady too? I had to look into this company a bit more. I spent a few months looking into every aspect I could, going down rabbit holes & trying to get through opinions and down to facts. It must have been a frustrating and annoying few months for my poor sister, who had to respond to my questions that may not have even made sense to her at the time. (She was new to this all too). I had still not even bought a single oil. In fact, when I saw a price list, my eyes watered a little when compared to the cheap bottles I could find online. Why would I want to pay more? I don’t think it counts as spoilers to tell you I did end up buying a kit, and ultimately becoming an “oil lady”. But I think I should tell you why.
You may think I’ve told you way more about myself than you wanted to know (but hey, it’s my blog), but there’s a bit more about me that is relevant here. In my past life, I was a planner/buyer. For nearly a decade, I worked at a manufacturing company, starting out in a 2 person purchasing department, and growing with it (personally & professionally). When I left, my small department had split into 2 departments (Purchasing & Planning) and had gone from 2 people to 6 people. I studied after work for 4 years to earn my Level 6 Graduate Diploma in Purchasing & Supply Chain Management (Scroll of Cleverness +1 according to my geeky husband). Logistics, sourcing, supply chains & all that stuff became a part of me. It’s in my blood now. I don’t think of it often, but when good sourcing comes up, I get excited. I loved the thrill of seeing how pieces of the puzzle fit together. I chose planning over purchasing because I love building those day to day relationships with suppliers. I knew where the different pieces came from, and who I needed to talk to when I needed it. I had the choice, and I rejected the status, extra money & “world travel” that would come with purchasing, because I did not want to be the person whose only point of contact with a supplier was when something went wrong, or while discussing pricing. I can do contract negotiation. I can be good at it. But why would you want confrontational relationships when you can have day to day good working relationships? I loved most of my suppliers. And I know a few of them loved me back. Most of that comes from working together. I’ll also tell you that smaller companies are much nicer to work with than large distribution centres. It’s far easier to have a conversation when people not only know their own product, but also your product, and how they work together.
Oh dear – that was much longer than anticipated. What’s it got to do with doTERRA?
I think if this is going to get posted on anything close to the regular day, that may have to wait until Part 2.
Netflix bingeing has ruined the days of cliffhangers, so I’m here to bring a bit of that back 🙂
Nicky Goes Natural 