Helping Shorty Through the Roof

I went to Church on Sunday. I love my pastor, Father Jerry DiSpigno, at Mary Immaculate Church in Bellport, NY. He isn't "preachy" when he does his Homily. He doesn't lecture, the way a lot of priests do. He speaks to people on their level. He relates to his congregation. He is very motivating, which is one of the reasons I love him so much. (And I don't mean I love him the way I love chocolate. I truly love him as a human being, and a part of me would be missing if I wasn't able to speak with him or at least see him in church.) I truly admire him.

Anyway, this Sunday's Gospel was about Jesus and the paralytic. Now, those of you that know me know that I'm not a "Bible Thumper" or anything to that effect. I don't read the Bible on a daily basis, but I can certainly quote it. I'm an Italian Catholic. I pray before bed and say grace before dinner. God has a place in my life. I'm not one of those people that pushes religion on anyone, but you better believe my kids are going to Catholic school. (FYI - 99% of students that graduate Catholic school go on to graduate college.) I don't usually talk about my religion or my spirituality because, frankly, I feel that it is private.

But, I really related to the Gospel over the weekend.  I will copy and paste the Gospel (Mark 2:1-12) after this blog entry so that you can see what I'm talking about.

Basically, in this Gospel four friends take their fifth friend - a paralyzed dude - to see Jesus in Capernaum. They had faith that Jesus could help their friend walk again. Well, when they got there, people mobbed where Jesus was and the five friends couldn't get in. So, they climbed the building (remember, one of them was paralyzed, so this was a feat), broke a hole in the roof right over Jesus and lowered their paralyzed friend down in front of Jesus on his mat.

Jesus forgave the paralyzed man of his sins. The scribes around him thought Jesus was blasphemous, saying that only God could forgive sins. Jesus told them that man can forgive, too. With that, he told Shorty the paralytic to get his mat and leave. Shorty stood up, took his mat and left with his friends.

Now, this blog is all about me working from home and building a business. "What," you may ask, "does this have to do with working from home?"

My dear reader, it has everything to do with working from home.

I was talking with Dionne tonight, and I told her about the Gospel I heard in Church. Dionne has been feeling down lately (as have I). and I thought that this would cheer her up some. I'm not trying to be funny or blasphemous in what I am about to write, but here goes...

The four friends that believed so much in Jesus believed that they could make their friend walk again. Even if Shorty didn't believe that he could be healed, his friends believed Him. They believe in Him so much that they carried Shorty to Capernaum, scaled a building with him, busted through a roof, and lowered their friend down to that Jesus could heal him. They believed. It didn't matter if anyone else believed. They believed.

With my business, a lot of people have said some nasty things to me and behind my back. Even my own husband thought it was a scam in the very beginning. He had some negative things to say, but he believes now. I believe in this business. I see how it works, albeit on a very small scale (so far). I have seen what it does for other people that work the business. So does Dionne. So does Sam. So do a lot of other people on my team. The point is, however, it doesn't matter to me if they believe in it or not; I believe in it.

The four friends wanted to help their paralytic friend walk again. They wanted him to have a better quality of life. So, they brought Shorty to the man that could help him get that quality of life. They carried their friends a far distance, up a building and down a roof.  With my business, people cannot do it on their own. I guess they could, but it would be outrageously hard to succeed. Could you imagine how hard it would be for one man to carry another man several towns away, scale a building with him on his back, break a hole into a roof, and then lower said friend and his mat through a roof? It would have been impossible. But it wasn't just one man doing it-- It was four friends working as a team to help their friend get a better quality of life. That's a metaphor for what we do on my team... We help people achieve a better quality of life. We do it because it affects us on a personal and spiritual level. Do you know what it is like to be thanked by someone because they are able to pay for their son's new bed because you showed them how to work from home? It's an amazing feeling. Truly, truly amazing. And then they, of course, want to help others. That's what my business is about. That's what my team is about. 

Finally, the story is about forgiveness. I've helped a lot of people through the roof, and they've spat on my, ridiculed me, taken me for granted, whatever. My feelings have been hurt so many times in this business (and outside of it, when I think about things). I have a bad habit of harboring resentment. I don't necessarily hold a grudge, but I don't forget things. I have a hard time forgiving the people that hurt me, too... I want to prove them wrong. Honestly, I should just forgive these people and let go. Let them take their mat and leave. Jesus says that man can forgive, and I think that sometimes we all forget that. I'm going to focus on remembering that a little bit more, and I think I'll be able to get centered better on the things that really matter to me.

Jesus Forgives and Heals a Paralyzed Man

¹ A few days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard that he had come home. ² They gathered in such large numbers that there was no room left, not even outside the door, and he preached the word to them. ³ Some men came, bringing to him a paralyzed man, carried by four of them. ⁴ Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus by digging through it and then lowered the mat the man was lying on. ⁵ When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”
⁶ Now some teachers of the law were sitting there, thinking to themselves, ⁷ “Why does this fellow talk like that? He’s blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?”
⁸ Immediately Jesus knew in his spirit that this was what they were thinking in their hearts, and he said to them, “Why are you thinking these things? ⁹ Which is easier: to say to this paralyzed man, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, take your mat and walk’? ¹⁰ But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” So he said to the man, ¹¹ “I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.” ¹² He got up, took his mat and walked out in full view of them all. This amazed everyone and they praised God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this!”

The Proof Is In The Pudding

To all of the people that have said nasty things to me and people on my team, calling this business a scam or a hoax, saying that we would never make any money, I have a few things to show you:

Barbie's Check for January

My Check for January

Sam's Checks for January

Between the three of us, we earned $1947.65. That's just three of us on a team of 158 people.

Take that, nay-sayers.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to buy myself a new pair of shoes.

ARMCHAIR MILLIONAIRE TALLY

Total Earned: $4,161.53

Remaining to $1Million: $995,838.47

What Would $1000 Do for YOU This Month?

Me "walking on water" for the budget "miracles" I pull off.

I learned something important yesterday: People really do read this blog. Many of the people that read it are folks that I went to school with in the South Country School District (I graduated BHS in 1994). They read for a while, then they send me a message. Even if they don't want to join my work from home team, they send me a message. My friend, Rebecca, reads my blog and sent me such an encouraging and uplifting message a few months ago, it really kept me going and got me through a very rough time. (So, thanks for that Becky! I won't forget it-- You don't know what your words meant to me.) Two friends from school messaged me yesterday because of my blog entry, and it was really encouraging to me. Not because it means that I'll probably have another two team members by the end of the day, but because it means that I'm not talking to the wall. I put a LOT of writing out there - whether my blog or on Yahoo! Voices -- and I never really know if it means anything to anyone. The fact that people have reached out to me makes me realize that my words are not going unread. It's an awesome feeling.

I can't tell you what a great feeling it is to be able to help my old friends - even if I haven't spoken with them in years - change their financial lives just by working from home. They can work part-time or full-time, and make a real dent in their debt. Knowing that I had a hand in helping them do so is so gratifying, I can't even put it into words. Making a difference in the lives of strangers is awesome, too. Knowing that I can help people has given me a sense of purpose that I never knew that I could have.

That being said, how would $1000 change things for you this month? I've gotta tell you, this is the first month that I haven't stressed about money. Would an extra $1000 change anything in your life right now? If it would, please send me an email. I would love to help you. The $1000 is guaranteed-- You just have to follow instructions. If you're coachable and can follow directions, I can help you get that grand.

My "Why"

People get involved in work from home businesses for different reasons. I figured I would take this space to write about my reasons for choosing a work from home business, and my reasons for still going with it.

Let's start at the very beginning... It's a very good place to start. (Please tell me that there are some musical theatre buffs out there that get the reference...) Back in 2001, I moved out to Los Angeles to follow my dreams of becoming a professional actress. I wasn't up for being famous or anything like that, but I certainly wanted to act and that's it. Well, my dreams came true and I was a working actress. I did a lot of television shows and movies. I was able to survive on acting alone. I loved acting, because it was a new project every week. I didn't have the same boss, didn't work with the same people, and remained interested because things kept changing. If I didn't like working with someone, I wouldn't worry about it because I'd end on a new show a few weeks later. Believe it or not, I enjoyed the instability. I enjoyed the change. I enjoyed being a paramedic one week and a crazy neighbor the next.

When I moved from LA back to New York, I was still acting. I did theatre and a few movies. I married my husband in 2005, and had my first miscarriage in 2006. Between January 2006 and April 2007, I had five miscarriages. My husband asked me to stop acting, so I focused on a travel company that I started before we got married so that I was able to get discounts on travel. I also tried a throng of at-home businesses that i did not succeed with: Mary Kay, MonaVie, PartyLite, Pampered Chef, Aloette, Avon... The list goes on and on. Long story short, my twins were born on March 14, 2008 and I did not have a full-time job. I worked freelance writing and planning travel every now and again.

In 2009, I started focusing my travel business on destination weddings. It was so successful, that my company and I became the subject of a reality show (which is still in development), Wedding Lane with Candy Cain. At that same time, Dionne - my best friend of 20 years - started with this work from home company and tried to get me involved. Since I signed a contract with the production company that I would not endorse any companies or products, I used that for my excuse to not join Dionne. I've written about this several times throughout this blog, so I'll spare you the details.

In August 2011, I decided to get involved with the company to help Dionne with her business. She didn't have anyone on her team that was doing much of anything, so I decided to help her. That was my "why" back in August: To help my friend. When I got that first check of $839, my "why" changed.

In September, I had some things going on in my personal life. I had just finished my last wedding of the year-- 24 weddings in 2011-- and I needed a break. I started traveling back and forth to Mexico and once to Los Angeles to teach a destination wedding course that I designed for the Association of Wedding Professionals International. It was lucrative, but I was traveling a lot. I kept up the at-home business and made another check just under $800. I decided that I would focus more on doing my seminars around the world, and summplement it with the at-home business. I kept it that way for a few months.

Right around Christmas, I had a very bad experience with one of my destination wedding clients. I'm not going to give any details, except to say that it was unbelievably stressful and I was on the phone with my good friend, Christine, crying about how much I can't stand doing these weddings anymore. Something that I loved and built my business around was making me miserable. I decided that I would focus my efforts on my at-home business and do destination weddings less. Oh, I'll still do the destination weddings, but take a less directorieal role. I have a few people that work for my travel company that would love the extra income. I just need a break.

Plus, I really like this at-home business. I get to work with people that I like, and help them change their lives financially. It's a lot of fun helping people succeed and seeing the absolute joy in their eyes and hearing it in their voices when they get a nice check. The company isn't a scam, and my husband has even volunteered to talk with the people that do think it's a scam. He's a police sergeant, and he thought is was a scam in the beginning. Now, he's completely into it.

So, my "why" has changed again. I am now doing this for my children. When I reach Director VI with the company, I promised my son that I will take them to Strasburg to see the steam trains. When I reach Director VII, I promised my daughter that I would take them to Disney World. They hold me accountable and ask me about my business every single day.

I love this company and the life-changing opportunities that come with it. I'm in this one for the long haul. If you want to join my team and change your life, too, send me an email. You can earn $1000 this month - guaranteed. Let me help you change your life the way that I've changed mine.

Just to Clarify

For some reason, people have been messaging me to join my team, thinking that it is for Candy Cain Travel. This is NOT the case. I started a side business as a favor to a friend. Now I want that side business to become my primary source of income. The travel industry is SO sporadic. The income comes in waves. It's completely unstable. you don't get paid until 4 - 6 weeks AFTER people travel. Plus, why in the world would I hire people to work from home that have never been involved in the travel industry before??? It just doesn't make sense.

People have this romanticized view of the travel industry... They get to travel around the world for free, they get to plan trips for amaaaazing clients, there is no stress.... None of which is true! Yes, I travel around the world, but I WORK extremely hard. I teach people how to do destination weddings. I teach hotels how to make a profit working with American clients. I bust my butt, and I have been doing it for a long time. Ask anyone that has seen me work the travel business, and they will tell you how hard I work. So, no, I'm not hiring for Candy Cain Travel.

The side business I have is something that ANYONE can do. If you are over the age of 18 and live in the USA, Canada, UK, Ireland, Netherlands, Australia or New Zealand, you can join my team. I'm looking for people full-time or part-time to start immediately. I will HELP you achieve your goals. I've earned a little over $3400 in four months, very part time... I am now focusing on this full-time, and I expect a check for at least $1500 next month.

I hope to hear from you. Thanks for reading my blog!

My Story.

You may have read my story in bits and pieces throughout this blog before, but bear with my. I'm going to take this entry to write a bit about myself and my journey with working from home. I want you to understand who I am, where I come from, what I do and why I do the things I do. I'm not a complex person, really. I'm pretty much right in your face, letting you know exactly what I think. Yes, I can be loud and - dare I say it? - obnoxious at times, but only when I get annoyed. Aside from what I am when I get upset, I really am a very generous person that wants to help others. A lot of times people think that there is some sort of "catch" with me helping them, but there's not. I'm the person that will help an old lady load groceries into her car or fly across country to help a friend in distress... I bend over backwards to help people, and I often find myself getting burned. Such is the case for the successful travel and event planning business that I built from the ground up, Candy Cain Travel. I don't charge service fees, and I do whatever I can to get my cleints the best deals. Even then, they think that I am scamming them somehow, and sometimes end up booking their own trips online or something. It is outrageously frustrating. To quote Popeye, "I am whats I am and that's all that I am." (Or something like that.)

For two years, my best friend Dionne tried to get me to enroll in the work-from-home company that she was working for. In 2009, I had a reality show in development (Wedding Lane with Candy Cain) and was contractually bound not to endorse any companies or products, so I used that as my excuse. Frankly, I had enough of these work-from-home companies. I had done a throng of them and never made significant money: Aloette, Pampered Chef, MonaVie, PartyLite, Avon, Mary Kay... I tried it all and never really succeeded with them. I still have inventory and kits left over from ALL of them in my basement, which will one day find itself on eBay.  But, I digress. I didn't want to do it. 2009 wasn't the right time for me. 2010 wasn't the right for me. In July of 2011, Dionne called me and asked me if I could go to Convention with her because her mom had to cancel at the last minute for work. Since I'm a travel agent, I was able to get a ridiculously cheap ticket to Minneapolis and went. I hadn't seen my best friend in about three years, and it was our 20th anniversary. How could I have not gone?

Photo by Cassandra Mooney

So, I went. I met Dionne in Minneapolis, and I was a stick in the mud. I had a destination wedding in Mexico the week before and was still exhausted from all of the running around that I did. Plus, I just wasn't interested in the business. I was there with Dionne, who was totally gung-ho about her business, and I didn't support her the way that I should have. (Again, I'm sorry, Dionne!) I skipped out on the workshops and tooled around on my computer in the hallways, chatted with a few of the presenters, even headed back to the hotel every now and again. I did go to a few workshops, though, including one with this Corporate Director II with the company, and I liked what he had to say. Going in, I thought that this was just another Mary Kay or, even worse, Amway... Coming out, I realized that building a business didn't have to do with sales, but had everything to do with marketing. Hell, I wrote a book on marketing! I could do this business. An hour before the banquet, I enrolled.

I remember sitting around the banquet table with a bunch of strangers. They were all talking about how they had been with the company for YEARS and how the products were do fabulous... And I realized that was why they were all the way in the back of the banquet hall, not all the way up in the front. As I watched two new Corporate Directors open checks on-stage for over $160,000 each, I decided tight then that I was going to take this business to heart and FINALLY - after two stinkin' years - team up with my best friend. I advanced to Director after nine days. After eight more days (17 days total), I advanced to Director II, which catapulted Dionne to Director III. This was a major achievement, as Dionne has been sitting at Director II for over a year. My first check was $839.26, and I had spent $68.13. That was a profit of $771.13. My husband, a police sergeant, took one look at my check and said, "You'll never do that again." I was determined to prove him wrong.

The next month, my check was a little over $781, and I had spent $238 on the Value Pack plut tax and shipping. My profit was about $543. My husband saw my check and said, "You're going to jail. I don't know what you're doing, but you're going to jail.

My third month's check was $712 and change. My husband saw the check, shrugged and gave it back to me.

My fourth month's check was over $750 again. My husband looked at the check and asked, "Is there a meeting or something that I can go to with you?" He went to the Director Celebration Dinner with me as well as the January Launch. Now, he understands the business, and is helping me achieve my goals. He gets it. Some of my friends are starting to get it, too, and have begun enrolling on my team. I currently have 116 people below me, 38 of whom I have personally enrolled. Almost everyone is getting a check - more than 70% - and that really makes me feel good. People understand it. They see the business. They grow. I grow. We all win.

To come full-circle, that is what attracted me to the business: I get rewarded for helping people, which is something that I go out of my way to do, anyway. My business grows when I help others build their businesses. A perfect fit, don't you think?

I have had my fill of demanding clients that want something for nothing and just don't appreciate the hard work and effort I put into every single trip, group and wedding that I do. Not all of my clients are like that, mind you. I have a FABULOUS wedding coming up in March that I am really looking forward to. But, I have had it with being treated like some second class citizen - or worse, a thief - when I try to deal with unreasonable people that want a week-long luxury vacation for less than a weekend at a moderate hotel, then blame me for price gouging. I love, love, love the travel business, but I need a break. So, for the next three months, I am going to put everything I can into my work-from-home business and bring it to a point where I can pass on the reservation requests I receive to the travel agents that work for me, and be a bit more selective on the people that I choose to personally work with. I need the break from travel and events for a month or two, or I am going to completely self-destruct. I know myself well enough to know that I need to take a break. I can't NOT do anything for work, so I'm going to focus on working from home, and helping others to build their own businesses.

My Amazing Team

I love working from home. I do. The thought of having to go into an office and report to a boss and earn money for someone else's company without being rewarded my true worth makes me cringe.  I have a problem with authority, which I fully admit. I'm coachable, but I do not like being told what to do. I prefer suggestions and constructive criticism. That's why I never had a "real" job for longer than 6 months. I hated corporate America (and I still do), so I would leave.

When my best friend Dionne started working from home, she asked me to join her team. Not only did I want no part of it, I couldn't endorse any companies or products because I was under contract with a production company that was creating a reality show on my destination wedding business. (The show is still in development.) It took me two years to join Dionne and start building our work from home team.

Candice & Dionne at Convention

Dionne asked me to go with her to Convention-- This is a story that I've told so many times. Long story short, I liked what I saw, so I enrolled right before the awards gala. We were sitting at a table with a bunch of Canadians who pretty much didn't believe us when we told them that I literally enrolled an hour before the banquet. That was in August. Dionne was a Director II at Banquet, and I was just labeled "customer." In a month, Dionne jumped to Director III and I was Director II. Three months later, Dionne became a Director IV and I had already achieved Director III.

We would not have been able to build our business without our amazing team. There are 95 active people on my team. The majority of them are moms that want to stay at home with their kids, and this company offers a way to do so without investing any "new" money, except for a one-time enrollment fee-- Which, by the way, is usually just $29, but now it is $1 until 1/18. Our team is spread all over the USA and Canada, and I have the ability to enroll people in Austraila, New Zealand, The Netherlands, The United Kingdom and Ireland.

Thanks to the internet, we are all able to keep in touch and keep each other motivated. It is so, so easy to fall into the trap of saying you're going to do something and not doing it because no one holds you accountable. Dionne and I have established a FaceBook group where everyone can post and chat, not to mention a Chatzy chatroom where we hold each other accountable. We want to build our business and help the people on our team build THEIR businesses, too. When people on our team succeed, WE succeed.

Sam & Candice, the night Sam decided to join.

What is cool about my team (if I do say so myself) is that EVERYONE helps everyone else. For example, Barbie is enrolled under Samantha. Barbie couldn't get in touch with Sam to enroll Christen. I saw her post in the FaceBook group, so I called her and conferenced in Christen. I explained everything to Christen and she ended up enrolling under Barbie. (By the way, I didn't enroll Sam... Dionne did and placed her on my team because I did the presentation for her.) People are scattered absolutely everywhere, and we wouldn't have it any other way. Team members can meet each other at the different Melaleuca-sponsored events, which is awesome. I just recently started adding people to my team that live locally. It doesn't matter if they are next door or in Austraila, everyone is connected and willing to offer help to others on the team.

I am very proud to be a part of this team, which we have dubbed "Armchair Millionaires." I am very excited to work with others that, like me, want to establish a lucrative business working from home. Finally, I am more than happy to welcome anyone else on our team that wants to join. If you would like to join our team, just shoot me an email to CandyCain(at)wedeliverwellness.com.

Anyone can do it. Everyone can succeed. It is your choice or not whether you want to open the door to the opportunity that is knocking.