Lesia Keffer has changed her career path from full-time nurse to successful sales person — the Mustang was earned by selling products — who now works at the hospital just two days a week.from daily mail
by Monica Orosz
A chance meeting in the Atlanta airport led to a life-changing experience and a new career direction for Lesia Keffer. Lesia Keffer has changed her career path from full-time nurse to successful sales person — the Mustang was earned by selling products — who now works at the hospital just two days a week. .. It was February 2005 and the registered nurse was headed back home to South Charleston after attending a wound care seminar.
She recalls she wasn't particularly happy in her career and on a flight from Tampa, Fla., to Atlanta, she made a list of pros and cons about her job and said a little prayer something like this, "God, please give me a sign of what to do." In the Atlanta airport, she saw from a distance as a woman carrying bags tripped and tumbled down a flight of stairs and bloodied her knee. When she encountered the woman as they prepared to board the same flight to Charleston, Keffer said to the woman, "Are you OK? I'm a nurse. Is there anything I can do to help?"
The woman, whose name was Rita Morris, handed Keffer a business card and said, "You can help me by scheduling a party for my business." "Little did I know it, but my prayer was answered right there," Keffer said. Morris, of Teays Valley, sold BeautiControl makeup, lotions and a new line of spa care products and the Dallas-based direct sales company had just started promoting the spa line through spa parties. Keffer agreed to schedule a party in her home, inviting her girlfriends over for an evening of pedicures, manicures and facials, led by Morris using BeautiControl products.
"We had a great time," Keffer said, and she ended up buying products, opting for a package deal that gave her 20 products for $250. Afterward, Keffer helped Morris carry her supplies back to Morris' car - a red Mustang convertible. "And I'm like, 'Where did you get that?' " Keffer recalled asking Morris. And Morris told her she earned it by selling BeautiControl. "That planted the seed," Keffer said.
She decided it might be fun to schedule a few spa parties and sell BeautiControl to get discounts on her own stuff and maybe make a little money. Two things happened.
Keffer found she really liked the BeautiControl line, which she describes as high-end products including everything from facial cremes and cosmetics to soothing treatments for dry feet and undereye circles. Friends started noticing her skin looked good.
And Keffer realized she loved selling - and was good at it, especially within the structure of BeautiControl, which allowed her to work as much or as little as she wanted and offered numerous opportunities for training. Since 2001, the company has been a subsidiary of Tupperware, the direct sales giant that has been around for decades.
"I'm not pushy, but if my mouth is open, my business is open," she said. "A 'no' doesn't hurt me." In January 2006, Keffer attended a meeting in Charlotte, N.C., for other BeautiControl representatives. "I was amazed," she said. "There were women there who had their GEDs and women who had MBAs. Some of them were making six figures selling BeautiControl. "That's when I had my 'aha' moment."
By August of 2006, Keffer had eight women on her sales team, mostly girlfriends and family members. She began earning some extra money and saw an opportunity to make more. A chance meeting in the Atlanta airport led to a life-changing experience and a new career direction for Lesia Keffer. It was February 2005 and the registered nurse was headed back home to South Charleston after attending a wound care seminar. She recalls she wasn't particularly happy in her career and on a flight from Tampa, Fla., to Atlanta, she made a list of pros and cons about her job and said a little prayer something like this, "God, please give me a sign of what to do."
In the Atlanta airport, she saw from a distance as a woman carrying bags tripped and tumbled down a flight of stairs and bloodied her knee. When she encountered the woman as they prepared to board the same flight to Charleston, Keffer said to the woman, "Are you OK? I'm a nurse. Is there anything I can do to help?"
The woman, whose name was Rita Morris, handed Keffer a business card and said, "You can help me by scheduling a party for my business." "Little did I know it, but my prayer was answered right there," Keffer said. Morris, of Teays Valley, sold BeautiControl makeup, lotions and a new line of spa care products and the Dallas-based direct sales company had just started promoting the spa line through spa parties. Keffer agreed to schedule a party in her home, inviting her girlfriends over for an evening of pedicures, manicures and facials, led by Morris using BeautiControl products.
"We had a great time," Keffer said, and she ended up buying products, opting for a package deal that gave her 20 products for $250. Afterward, Keffer helped Morris carry her supplies back to Morris' car - a red Mustang convertible. "And I'm like, 'Where did you get that?' " Keffer recalled asking Morris. And Morris told her she earned it by selling BeautiControl. "That planted the seed," Keffer said. She decided it might be fun to schedule a few spa parties and sell BeautiControl to get discounts on her own stuff and maybe make a little money. Two things happened.
Keffer found she really liked the BeautiControl line, which she describes as high-end products including everything from facial cremes and cosmetics to soothing treatments for dry feet and undereye circles. Friends started noticing her skin looked good.
And Keffer realized she loved selling - and was good at it, especially within the structure of BeautiControl, which allowed her to work as much or as little as she wanted and offered numerous opportunities for training. Since 2001, the company has been a subsidiary of Tupperware, the direct sales giant that has been around for decades.
"I'm not pushy, but if my mouth is open, my business is open," she said. "A 'no' doesn't hurt me." In January 2006, Keffer attended a meeting in Charlotte, N.C., for other BeautiControl representatives. "I was amazed," she said. "There were women there who had their GEDs and women who had MBAs. Some of them were making six figures selling BeautiControl.
"That's when I had my 'aha' moment." By August of 2006, Keffer had eight women on her sales team, mostly girlfriends and family members. She began earning some extra money and saw an opportunity to make more. She recalls telling her husband, Frank, "I'm going to win us a trip to Hawaii and I'm going to get a Mustang."
Her family, including two children - a daughter who now is a senior at George Washington High and a son who is a sophomore at West Virginia University - humored her. By October 2006, Keffer was earning enough selling BeautiControl that she cut her hours at Charleston Area Medical Center, where she currently is a nurse analyst in the patient accounts department at General Hospital, to two days a week. "I could leave the hospital altogether right now," she said, but added she enjoys what she does part time.
A year later, she had won her BeautiControl Mustang and the trip to Hawaii, which she enjoyed with her husband for their 25th wedding anniversary. "As we sat on the beach in Hawaii, my husband said, 'I will never say another thing about your selling BeautiControl,' " she said. For Keffer, 46, there are many appealing things about her midlife career change. Though she logs 18 to 20 hours a week between spa parties, coaching her sales partners, sitting in on conference calls and making and fulfilling product orders, Keffer said it doesn't feel like work. "I love my girlfriend time, and a lot of women can't afford or won't go to a spa," she said. "This is all about girlfriend time."
The parties are fun, with various stations set up so groups of women can chitchat while having lotion rubbed into their feet or relaxing with a facial. "I pamper women, and I do it with a servant's heart," she said. "That's what nurses do. I talk to them about stress and relaxing. I put heated neck wraps on them and do arm and hand massages." Keffer also loves that BeautiControl offers training to women from all walks of life, helping them to set goals - whether to make a little extra money or make their living selling products. "It's a hands-on company. When I went to the headquarters in Texas, I sat in the director's office. They empower women," Keffer said. "It's the fastest-growing direct sales company in the United States."
As she has risen to the top 10 percent of the company's sales force, Keffer also has come to appreciate the company's charitable component, including a foundation called WHO, or Women Helping Others, that recently gave a $21,000 grant to Charleston's Health Right clinic, money which director Pat White said will go toward a cervical cancer screening program.
"I'm honored that some of the foundation's money went to a good cause right here," Keffer said. Just this month, the company began an initiative to provide books to children in New Orleans, donating a portion of sales toward the effort. "If you would have told me three years ago that I'd be selling skincare and makeup for a living, I would have laughed," Keffer said. "But it is so much more than makeup." Keffer has earned the title of director and national recruiter for the company.
by Monica Orosz
A chance meeting in the Atlanta airport led to a life-changing experience and a new career direction for Lesia Keffer. Lesia Keffer has changed her career path from full-time nurse to successful sales person — the Mustang was earned by selling products — who now works at the hospital just two days a week. .. It was February 2005 and the registered nurse was headed back home to South Charleston after attending a wound care seminar.
She recalls she wasn't particularly happy in her career and on a flight from Tampa, Fla., to Atlanta, she made a list of pros and cons about her job and said a little prayer something like this, "God, please give me a sign of what to do." In the Atlanta airport, she saw from a distance as a woman carrying bags tripped and tumbled down a flight of stairs and bloodied her knee. When she encountered the woman as they prepared to board the same flight to Charleston, Keffer said to the woman, "Are you OK? I'm a nurse. Is there anything I can do to help?"
The woman, whose name was Rita Morris, handed Keffer a business card and said, "You can help me by scheduling a party for my business." "Little did I know it, but my prayer was answered right there," Keffer said. Morris, of Teays Valley, sold BeautiControl makeup, lotions and a new line of spa care products and the Dallas-based direct sales company had just started promoting the spa line through spa parties. Keffer agreed to schedule a party in her home, inviting her girlfriends over for an evening of pedicures, manicures and facials, led by Morris using BeautiControl products.
"We had a great time," Keffer said, and she ended up buying products, opting for a package deal that gave her 20 products for $250. Afterward, Keffer helped Morris carry her supplies back to Morris' car - a red Mustang convertible. "And I'm like, 'Where did you get that?' " Keffer recalled asking Morris. And Morris told her she earned it by selling BeautiControl. "That planted the seed," Keffer said.
She decided it might be fun to schedule a few spa parties and sell BeautiControl to get discounts on her own stuff and maybe make a little money. Two things happened.
Keffer found she really liked the BeautiControl line, which she describes as high-end products including everything from facial cremes and cosmetics to soothing treatments for dry feet and undereye circles. Friends started noticing her skin looked good.
And Keffer realized she loved selling - and was good at it, especially within the structure of BeautiControl, which allowed her to work as much or as little as she wanted and offered numerous opportunities for training. Since 2001, the company has been a subsidiary of Tupperware, the direct sales giant that has been around for decades.
"I'm not pushy, but if my mouth is open, my business is open," she said. "A 'no' doesn't hurt me." In January 2006, Keffer attended a meeting in Charlotte, N.C., for other BeautiControl representatives. "I was amazed," she said. "There were women there who had their GEDs and women who had MBAs. Some of them were making six figures selling BeautiControl. "That's when I had my 'aha' moment."
By August of 2006, Keffer had eight women on her sales team, mostly girlfriends and family members. She began earning some extra money and saw an opportunity to make more. A chance meeting in the Atlanta airport led to a life-changing experience and a new career direction for Lesia Keffer. It was February 2005 and the registered nurse was headed back home to South Charleston after attending a wound care seminar. She recalls she wasn't particularly happy in her career and on a flight from Tampa, Fla., to Atlanta, she made a list of pros and cons about her job and said a little prayer something like this, "God, please give me a sign of what to do."
In the Atlanta airport, she saw from a distance as a woman carrying bags tripped and tumbled down a flight of stairs and bloodied her knee. When she encountered the woman as they prepared to board the same flight to Charleston, Keffer said to the woman, "Are you OK? I'm a nurse. Is there anything I can do to help?"
The woman, whose name was Rita Morris, handed Keffer a business card and said, "You can help me by scheduling a party for my business." "Little did I know it, but my prayer was answered right there," Keffer said. Morris, of Teays Valley, sold BeautiControl makeup, lotions and a new line of spa care products and the Dallas-based direct sales company had just started promoting the spa line through spa parties. Keffer agreed to schedule a party in her home, inviting her girlfriends over for an evening of pedicures, manicures and facials, led by Morris using BeautiControl products.
"We had a great time," Keffer said, and she ended up buying products, opting for a package deal that gave her 20 products for $250. Afterward, Keffer helped Morris carry her supplies back to Morris' car - a red Mustang convertible. "And I'm like, 'Where did you get that?' " Keffer recalled asking Morris. And Morris told her she earned it by selling BeautiControl. "That planted the seed," Keffer said. She decided it might be fun to schedule a few spa parties and sell BeautiControl to get discounts on her own stuff and maybe make a little money. Two things happened.
Keffer found she really liked the BeautiControl line, which she describes as high-end products including everything from facial cremes and cosmetics to soothing treatments for dry feet and undereye circles. Friends started noticing her skin looked good.
And Keffer realized she loved selling - and was good at it, especially within the structure of BeautiControl, which allowed her to work as much or as little as she wanted and offered numerous opportunities for training. Since 2001, the company has been a subsidiary of Tupperware, the direct sales giant that has been around for decades.
"I'm not pushy, but if my mouth is open, my business is open," she said. "A 'no' doesn't hurt me." In January 2006, Keffer attended a meeting in Charlotte, N.C., for other BeautiControl representatives. "I was amazed," she said. "There were women there who had their GEDs and women who had MBAs. Some of them were making six figures selling BeautiControl.
"That's when I had my 'aha' moment." By August of 2006, Keffer had eight women on her sales team, mostly girlfriends and family members. She began earning some extra money and saw an opportunity to make more. She recalls telling her husband, Frank, "I'm going to win us a trip to Hawaii and I'm going to get a Mustang."
Her family, including two children - a daughter who now is a senior at George Washington High and a son who is a sophomore at West Virginia University - humored her. By October 2006, Keffer was earning enough selling BeautiControl that she cut her hours at Charleston Area Medical Center, where she currently is a nurse analyst in the patient accounts department at General Hospital, to two days a week. "I could leave the hospital altogether right now," she said, but added she enjoys what she does part time.
A year later, she had won her BeautiControl Mustang and the trip to Hawaii, which she enjoyed with her husband for their 25th wedding anniversary. "As we sat on the beach in Hawaii, my husband said, 'I will never say another thing about your selling BeautiControl,' " she said. For Keffer, 46, there are many appealing things about her midlife career change. Though she logs 18 to 20 hours a week between spa parties, coaching her sales partners, sitting in on conference calls and making and fulfilling product orders, Keffer said it doesn't feel like work. "I love my girlfriend time, and a lot of women can't afford or won't go to a spa," she said. "This is all about girlfriend time."
The parties are fun, with various stations set up so groups of women can chitchat while having lotion rubbed into their feet or relaxing with a facial. "I pamper women, and I do it with a servant's heart," she said. "That's what nurses do. I talk to them about stress and relaxing. I put heated neck wraps on them and do arm and hand massages." Keffer also loves that BeautiControl offers training to women from all walks of life, helping them to set goals - whether to make a little extra money or make their living selling products. "It's a hands-on company. When I went to the headquarters in Texas, I sat in the director's office. They empower women," Keffer said. "It's the fastest-growing direct sales company in the United States."
As she has risen to the top 10 percent of the company's sales force, Keffer also has come to appreciate the company's charitable component, including a foundation called WHO, or Women Helping Others, that recently gave a $21,000 grant to Charleston's Health Right clinic, money which director Pat White said will go toward a cervical cancer screening program.
"I'm honored that some of the foundation's money went to a good cause right here," Keffer said. Just this month, the company began an initiative to provide books to children in New Orleans, donating a portion of sales toward the effort. "If you would have told me three years ago that I'd be selling skincare and makeup for a living, I would have laughed," Keffer said. "But it is so much more than makeup." Keffer has earned the title of director and national recruiter for the company.
0 comments:
Post a Comment