'It Works'.... Worked!

IT WORKS….WORKED!

By 2011 I was still juggling with debt and trying desperately trying to keep the Curves business going. It was without doubt the most stressful time in my life apart from Tony’s illness.

I was feeling as if I had a constant weight on my shoulders.

Tony, although always supportive of my decisions, couldn’t really contribute any longer to our financial decisions. He had changed a lot from his former business self, the haemorrhage he had suffered, along with the invasive surgery, had left some cognitive damage.

The doctors had been right when they said he would not be able to take on new information and process it. 

This was not a problem for him as it didn’t, and still doesn’t, make him frustrated in any way, but it was hard for me to make decisions without his input. So, I decided I would have to continue to go with my gut feelings and just make what I considered to be the right decisions.

One day I received a call from a Curves owner who had become a friend, asking if I would come over and see her, as her sister had just returned from Florida with a new product. I was reluctant to go as I didn’t want to disappoint her by rejecting it, I had no intentions of getting involved in yet another business, and I also had no money to invest.

 I decided to go but told her I would just look and listen but not join!

So I guess you have all worked out what I did….I joined, of course!

 The business that my friend was trying to promote in the UK was a Multi-Level Marketing business, sometimes called ‘Network Marketing’.

The company was called ‘It Works’ and was relatively new, they had a unique ‘state of the art’ cloth body wrap which could help the wearer lose inches, and tighten tone & firm areas of their body in 45 mins.

My friend’s sister Pat had been living in Florida and had to return back to the UK for family reasons, she had been approached just before she left with the body wrap by an American friend Beth who was a distributor.

So here I was in the kitchen of my friend’s house embarking on yet another business. The products had never been sold in the UK or Europe and we were the first to promote them. I immediately called another Curves owner friend and signed her up as a distributor in that kitchen.

At this point I would like to give you an insight into this business model. Many of you will have heard of Network Marketing but you may also have been told its ‘Pyramid’ selling. My first challenge was to explain to people that it was not ‘Pyramid ‘selling, this form of selling was illegal and did not involve selling products, only money. 

Unfortunately, when people had got involved and lost money with Pyramid schemes it left a stigma which was wrongly connected to Network Marketing.

 I was determined to learn as much as I could about the business model, and also research and carry out due diligence on the ‘It Works’ company. I spent hours on my computer studying. I read many books on Network Marketing and taught myself how to be a distributor which would eventually help me to build a residual income, thus allowing me to work from home without the exorbitant overheads I was paying for my Curves premises.

The story of 'It Works'.....

 ‘It Works’ was opened in Michigan in the USA in 2001 by Mark Pentecost and Pam Sowder.

Both lovely simple people with big families, they had invented this body wrap and they were determined to make it a success. They invested every penny they had in the idea as they totally believed in their product and were determined to make it successful.

After 5 years in Michigan, the business was doing so well they decided to relocate to Sarasota Florida near to where Rob & Dom were now living!

I have, to this day, the upmost respect for this couple, they would not give up and were determined to continue with their invention, even though at one point Pam explained to me that they were advised to give up on their efforts as the money was running out. Pam told me she was walking on a beach around this time and had an epiphany, she saw thousands of people walking toward her, and she knew she would have to continue even if it meant she lost everything.

Mark Pentecost was a football coach who had worked in the Network Marketing industry selling phones until the mobile phone was invented, he then had to find some other way of making a living, so when Pam Sowder approached him with the body wrap he threw himself into building an empire.

I wanted to tell you about this couple because today 17yrs later ‘It Works Global is a billion-dollar company, open in over 24 countries all over the world!

I am so proud to still be part of this company, I, along with my friend Pat opened the UK for ‘It Works’ in 2011. We worked consistently to promote their body wrap by exhibiting and holding wrap parties. ‘It Works’ had no website in those days, they were very unfamiliar with the way business was run in the UK, so we helped find them delivery companies and advised them on our sales tax system etc. we were a large part of their entry into the UK and Europe.

Before long they started to introduce new products into the company, and we were building teams by signing distributors to sell the products, this would eventually give us thousands of both distributors, and customers. I was earning commission on all of this and before long I had that residual income to help me get through the recession, and which I still have to this day.

Unfortunately, in the UK success is envied, but in the USA it is applauded, as an entrepreneur you will have seen from my blogs I always am attracted to ideas from the USA. To see a small family business grow into an empire is for me, the most amazing achievement and it teaches us all that we should NEVER give up!

In 2016 when ‘It Works’ had reached almost a billion dollars in turnover, Mark Pentecost bought himself an ‘Island’ in Florida, he always gave back to others and contributed towards a lot of needy charities.

Unfortunately, around this time he was diagnosed with bone cancer, we were all devastated to hear this and he underwent intensive treatment to try and control the condition.

Life is often cruel as we all know, Mark Pentecost had worked like mad to build his business, he freely gave away a lot of his money to needy charities and he motivated his team members constantly, yet he was dealt this terrible blow.

Notwithstanding all of this Mark Pentecost survived gruelling treatment to recover and go into remission. Never throughout this time did any of his distributors see him succumb to his illness, he is a true inspiration and I felt he deserved this chapter in my blog. It teaches us a lesson to never give up!

Once I had done all my studying, which at 61yrs old was not an easy task, especially as most of it was learning to work with a computer and training to understand how to sign up new distributors, I threw myself into building my network marketing business.

I was able to still run my Curves club, and with the help of loyal staff I was also able to work hard at building my ‘It Works’ teams and within 9 months I had reached Diamond level, which meant I was earning more from this business than I was from Curves!

I loved the concept of the business, I was around people constantly, and selling the wraps was easy because they really did work! I was also lucky enough to be able to recruit a lot of my Curves friends into the business, I would visit their clubs and help them to run ‘wrap parties’ with their members. I travelled around the country and to Scotland Ireland and Wales, where I opened new accounts and made new fellow entrepreneur friends. I finally had found my vocation and I was loving it! 

I wouldn't be an entrepreneur if I didn't suggest you check out  my website...ha ha! 

http://jackiecommissar.itworkseu.com

It was 2012 when I got the call from my sister to say that my 93yr old mother had been reaching under her bed for one of her slippers and had felt excruciating pain in her hip. She wasn’t able to get up from the floor and had to wait for an ambulance to come and help her. My sister who was living over 30 mins away from my mother and had just taken her husband to a local hospital after he had suffered pains which needed to be checked out, was torn between who she could help & I was over 3,000 miles away! I remembered what I had felt with my dear dad, I knew I had to fly over and be with my sister and my mother, so I arranged a flight as quickly as I could to Florida.

My mother was in good spirits when I arrived at the hospital after a long and emotional flight. She had been diagnosed with a fractured hip and the doctors wanted to perform surgery to insert a metal rod in her spine. They assured us that this would fix the fracture in her hip, but they needed to stabilise her oxygen levels before they could perform the operation.

My sister & I spent 2 traumatic days watching the doctors administering high levels of oxygen into our poor mum to prepare her for surgery. This caused her considerable stress as she had been surviving on lower than average oxygen levels for some time after she had been diagnosed with emphysema. My sister & I were unaware of this but had wondered why at 85yrs old she had given up smoking her 5 cigarettes a day!

Finally, the stress caused heart failure and she eventually passed away. 

Instead of grieving for her passing I was grateful that she had lived to 93yrs old without the love of her life by her side. My mother had survived for almost 20yrs without my dad, she was an incredibly strong woman and to this day I admire her strength.

I was bereft and had to leave my poor sister to continue without our mum whist I returned to the UK to my family and my commitments.

My sis &I were now grieving for both our dear parents.

Reluctantly I returned to my life back in the UK and because I had committed to a previously planned exhibition with my distributors and I could not let them down. I worked alongside all my lovely friends and distributors and we achieved amazing success with the ‘It Works’ wraps. I was exhausted and very emotional, but I fulfilled my commitment and I know this is what my mother would have wanted me to do.

It was the second time in my life that I had to deal with the grief of losing a parent alone. I of course, had the support of my children and my husband, but I was not  living close to my only living family member to grieve, my sister. I felt alone even though I was surrounded by so many wonderful friends and close family, somehow this didn’t make up for the fact that I could not reminisce about my parents with a sibling.

I dealt with my grief by throwing myself into my work. Having such a wonderful team of like-minded business colleagues helped me tremendously. I buried my emotions, as I had done when I had lost my dad, and I plastered a smile on my face and just carried on!

Within 18 months of joining ‘It Works’ I reached ‘Triple Diamond’ which meant I was earning a fantastic salary. I had a very successful team in Denmark and a very strong team in the UK. I had met new friends from all over the world and I had forged a strong partnership with Beth my US upline, and the lovely Pat who was the sister of my Curves friend. We called ourselves the ‘3 Musketeers’ and we supported and helped each other constantly.

By 2013 ‘It Works’ were starting to expand all over Europe. They had created a user-friendly website and social media was taking over. The distributors were a lot younger than I and they were all building their businesses through Facebook, Instagram and other social media platforms.

I was established by now and realised that everything we had been promised was actually coming true. I was making a great residual income without having to work hard at promoting the business, my teams were doing it for me! WOW! I liked this, it was the first time in my business life that I was making a living without having to do much! Everything I had read up on was true, you really could make a living working from home and not full time!

Because of my success with ‘It Works’ I found myself in a position where I could help my children financially. Rob was separated and awaiting his divorce, and Katie’s marriage had broken down as well. It was a sad time for us all, both our children had broken marriages and we had to deal with the fact that they both had to support themselves financially.

It was 2013 and finally the 10yr lease and franchise was expiring, we knew we had to vacate the premises as quickly as possible or we would be saddled with repair costs etc. We finally signed the end of our lease in May 2014 and released ourselves from the franchise agreement with Curves….we were FREE!!

May 26th is a very special date in our family, it is Tony’s birthday and he shares it with his little granddaughter Sky. So in 2013 when Rob & Dom had just left for their new life in Florida, we had arranged for them to return to celebrate Tony’s 70th birthday. I had planned a fabulous party for him and little did we realise this would be the last time that we would all be together with our son-in-law and daughter-in-law for a family celebration.

Looking back on this difficult time I remember wishing I could wipe away the tears of my children and make everything right for them. They had both become single parents and were learning to live with the bitterness that surrounds divorce. We helped as much as we could financially and emotionally, as parents we were prepared to do anything necessary to help our children deal with their distress.

 I cannot emphasise how much I admire the strength of my children whilst they dealt with all the stress of a marriage breakdown. Rob dealt with his situation without telling us for the best part of a year, he didn’t want to upset us so he suppressed his emotions and managed to keep us from knowing what was happening until we needed to know. He was living in a strange country and had very few friends he could rely on. Thank goodness for the support of my nephew who advised him and ultimately found him the right help to get through his divorce.

 Katie was also learning how to deal with supporting 2 children whilst working as much as possible to ensure they were financially secure. Working as a nail technician was the ideal job for her as she was, and still is, able to work from home when necessary, ensuring she is available for her children when necessary.

Tony & I were at a crossroads. We no longer wanted to live in the UK, we were disillusioned with the way of life, we had worked hard for so many years and realised that the negativity and the miserable weather was no longer something we could tolerate. We had been spending more and more time at our beautiful beachfront apartment in Spain, and we loved waking up to glorious sunshine every day.

 I was earning a very good living with ‘It Works’ and was able to run the business working from home so it meant I could carry out my career anywhere in the world. It was time to pack up and move to the sun in Spain…but this meant leaving our daughter and grandchildren behind in the UK, could we do this??

See you next blog!