An Ode to Soap

Most people think of soap when they hear "Amway." And they are right, sort of. Almost 50 years ago the very first Amway product was a soap, Liquid Organic Cleaner. Amway was “green” before the term even existed.

However, I’m not very passionate about soap. Don’t get me wrong. Now that I have children and actually clean my home, I am very appreciative of the cleaners.

What I am passionate about is great health. People want to feel good, they want to have energy and vitality. And I believe that physical ailments, which prevent people from feeling good and energized, are directly related to what they put in their bodies.

That’s why the two product categories I use and promote the most are Health and Beauty.

When I say “beauty” I’m actually concerned about the health of one’s skin. So what you put on your skin —including skin care products and cosmetics—affects the health of your largest organ.

Nutrilite and Artistry are the two brands that the corporation is promoting in their national ad campaign. This makes good business sense, since both are at the top of their industries and generate more than 60% of Amway’s almost $7 billion annual revenues.

Here's the one-minute commercial:



A couple of weeks ago I attended the National Spotlight for Amway Global/Quixtar at McCormick Place in Chicago. The expo was 40,000 square feet. (To put that in perspective, a football field is about 48,000 square feet.)

Artistry and Nutrlite dominated the area, with XS Energy Drink having a sizable booth in the Nutrlite area.

And tucked in a corner, like crazy but lovable Uncle Charlie in the basement, not measuring more than 10' x 15' was the “Soap” section, aka Home Care. Not sexy. Not hip. But reliable green cleaners.

The guys in lab coats were demonstrating the L.O.C. Kitchen Cleaner, which kicked the crud out of 409. And they also had the SA8 Laundry Detergent on display next to Tide.



What’s in Tide to create all that cloudiness?



Notice the serving size of Tide.




And all the lovely residue left on the Tide clothes.

Hey, come to think of it...most of the time we are wearing clothing...and clothing sits right next to our bodies, our skin. So maybe SA8 should be in the Health category since skin is our largest organ, and what we put on it has an effect on health.

Hmmm...Someone call Marketing!

Ada and The Impromptu Meeting--Part Four

The final stop on our journey was with Char. At the last minute before leaving for camp, I emailed Alison, who is the Director of Training and Education, to let her know of our visit. I had met Alison about six months ago at the Center for Optimal Health.

It was a very brief interaction in which I introduced myself, and she introduced herself. I realized who she was and she realized who I was--"Blogger Bridgett". I then apologized for being a bit harsh in one of my blog comments over at Opportunity Zone regarding the distracting acting abilities of an actress on one of the Quixtar University videos. Alison was more than gracious to me. :)

So I had emailed Alison, guessing her email address. Not all that challenging to do, but I digress. I guessed accurately and she said she'd be on vacation but that Char would love to speak with me.

Okay, so Char, Matt, the kids, and I enter a conference room. I scope out the place like only a mother of almost five-year-old twins can, and wonder how much time we have to talk before my kids slowly rip the place to shreds.

Char brilliantly sets them up with Sharpies and large pieces of presentation paper at the conference table, while she, Matt, and I sit in the cozy chairs set up like a living room.

To my recollection, Char has a background in academia in the classroom, and so her command of the English language and ability to communicate and gather (dig) for information is impressive. She's also good with numbers. A pretty powerful combination of skills to have when you're attempting to help IBOs with their selling skills.

She and Matt were in Words-and-Numbers Heaven as they bantered back and forth with great ease.

I hope the spur-of-the-moment meeting was helpful, though I really can't recall if I said anything intelligent or relevant. I look at it as an all-too-brief introduction to future conversations. :)

Our time was up and Char guided us out through the maze back to where we started.

We checked out the cafeteria, bowed down to the XS Energy Drink Vending Machine and also discovered that all employees get complimentary Double X, the premium supplement in the world.

We got back in the van, headed back to Chicago, the kids drifted off to sleep, we drove through a downpour of rain, and Matt and I tried to make sense of the three-hour whirlwind that had just occurred.

Gilligan's Island Theme Song Fade In: Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale, a tale of a fateful trip...for a three-hour tour. A three-hour tour.

Ada a.k.a. Land of Gazillion Products--Part Three

Our next stop was meeting some neat ladies--Brand Managers for Ribbon and Personal Accents.
Laura and Kim showed me the newest addition to the Ribbon Gift Albums/Cards available in September called "Celebrate!" Veeery sharp.

Ribbon is the way to go for gift-giving, for so many reasons (perhaps more on that in a later post).

Amy told me that the photography for the new Personal Accents Jewerly catalog has improved. Not that the photography in the past was bad. It wasn't. It's just that the jewerly looks even more amazing live and in person.

Amy flipped through a mock-up of some Personal Accents literature with me being quoted as a "Personal Accents Consultant".

There it was in black and white: a quote, my name, and the title "Personal Accents Consultant".

Two things came to mind in that moment:

1) Being quoted in print. Matt's been in journalism for almost 25 years (he started young) and crafted thousands of stories, containing words that people have uttered. Now being one of those people was a bit unnerving. I would never make it in the public eye!

2) My title. Am I Personal Accents Consultant? Sure.
That would then also mean that I'm:

*a Nutrlite Consultant
*an Artistry Consultant
*an XS Energy Drink Consultant
*a Ribbon Consultant
*an eSpring Consultant
* an iCook
*an Atmosphere Consultant
*a Perfect Water Consultant
*an SA8/L.O.C./Pursue/Dish Drops Consultant
*a Body Series/Glister/Satinique Consultant

and, the most attractive one to me is Gihugic Business Opportunity Consultant.

Try to fit all that on a business card!

To be continued in the fourth and final installment...

Land of Ada--Part Two

So we chatted with Anna way more briefly than I would have liked, and then Susan kept the train moving. We were on our way to a different department, when I passed by an office with a nameplate I recognized.

I said, "Hi Randy! I met you in January out in California!" If there were two people who had polar opposite personalities, it would probably be us.

Randy was cordial, stepped out from behind his desk and greeted us in the hallway.

It was mentioned, maybe I explained how I knew Susan, of my online presence. And the mere mention of the conversation occurring online about this business was met with...quiet reserve.

He let me know that he never goes online to check out the conversation. I was a bit caught off-guard. Was he being dismissive?

Given the nature of his work, overseeing those who work with the IBO Plats, wouldn't be helpful to know what "the field" experiences in regards to online reputation and how it affects their ability to grow their businesses?

I had questions to seek clarity but time was ticking and we were moving down the hallway.

(Update 7/11: I got some clarification. He's very on top of the conversation. Just not directly spending the time online. Smart guy. This conversation takes a heap more time that I ever would have imagined! My apologies for any mischaracterization.)

To be continued...

Our Too-Brief Visit to Ada--Part One

It’s not every day we are in Michigan, and only a stone’s throw away from Quixtar/Amway Global. So on our way back from camp, I thought we’d drop on by for a couple of hours.

I arranged our visit with Susan, a lovely woman and one of the most responsive employees at the Corp. I “met” Susan through her blog and she’s someone, who, regardless of our Q/AG connection, I’d befriend.

We arrived in "Mecca" and we had no idea which building, exactly, we were to visit. The place is a small city, about a square mile. No joke.

So first we came upon a gate with this sign.

1.9 or 19 miles an hour? Either way, very specific these Q/AG folk are.

Wrong building. Make a call. Within three minutes, we get to the correct building.

Susan brought us upstairs to meet some folks. The place was rather quiet, with many people on vacation, including Beth. Beth’s assistant Teresa kindly gave the kids and my husband lollipops, as well as other food items that they raided from Beth’s office.

First we found Robin in his palatial office, and I took a quick pic. The only pic I took of the gang, since I didn’t want people to feel awkward with "Blogger Bridgett" in the building.

Robin, whom I also met through his blog, and later met in person in Prague, used us as an excuse to get off the phone with someone who, apparently, talked an awful lot.

We then met Anna, who’s known of me through my comments on the Corporate Blogs. And this is when I knew that a couple of hours was just not enough time for a visit.

To Be Continued...

XS Energy Drink--Heaven on Earth

Okay not really, but those were the words Matt, my husband, uttered yesterday when we discovered an XS Energy Drink vending machine in the Quixtar/Amway Global cafeteria.

We had been away from home and away from XS for about four days. We stopped over at the Corp and met some lovely people (more on that later) on our way back to Chicagoland.

As we are leaving, Matt was craving an XS. I mean, here we are at the Corp that has exclusive rights to the stuff, and there isn't any to be found.

We are about to leave, and I notice a cafeteria off the lobby. So we venture in and notice a few things (more on that later). Matt's ready to go and starts to head out with the kids to the van.

I then notice, way in the back, the very last vending machine is selling XS for a dollar!

I run, yes run, back to the lobby and as I see my family exiting the building, I yell, "Matt! There's XS for a dollar! In a vending machine!"

The receptionist probably thought we were nuts as Matt hurried the kids back inside as we made a mad dash to the back of the cafeteria.



Needless to say, after we figured out how to use the vending machine (as this video shows) we bought seven cans, all different flavors, and drank four of them (two each) on our three-hour drive back home.

Oh the simple pleasures in life...some have their Starbucks, we have our XS Energy Drink. :)

Am I A Blogger?

It was one year and nine days ago that I posted my first comment on a blog. It was a corporation's blog, so I didn't feel as cheesy.

My plan was to say (rant) what I had to say and then move on with my life. Well, that was the plan. The reality is that I got sucked in to the blog world.

So much so, that last March, I was flown to Prague by that corporation to be part of a panel discussion on blogging and how it affects the reputation of a company.

They actually thought I had something worth contributing to their sixty or so P.R. people from around the world.

Is that crazy, or what?


Anyway, that was over three months ago. And at that time, I made it clear that I had absolutely no desire to have my own blog, like some of the other panelists had. That I would stick to commenting on other people's blogs.

I mean, why? Why blog? What's the point?

How much (or how little) do I share of my life when I know the whole universe can access my little world here?

Bi-zarre if you ask me.

Well, let's see where this all takes me...