Author: Lisa Pretto

I have been talking about trading my car in for a couple years. While being great on mileage, it was totally impractical for my daily life. First, I haul two of the cutest pups in the world to the dog park each day. And having them just hanging out in the back seat is not safe. Secondly, I spend some good time and money at the garden center all year long and hauling plants and pumpkins and bird baths in a little car just never worked. Third, I live in Wisconsin. That means we have a lot of snow days and I need a reliable vehicle so I’m not housebound for a whole winter. So I finally went car shopping I went looking for a compact SUV and had narrowed my search to one of 3 cars: Honda CRV, Jeep Pilot, and Lexus RX350. All used, all a great price   I drove the Lexus first. #holycow All the bells and whistles. It FELT so good. Cozy and a little indulgent. Then I drove the Honda and the Jeep. Both great cars…..but that Lexus… It was a little bit more expensive and that made me second guess my choice. In the end, I knew it was worth spending just a little bit more to get a car I knew I would LOVE. So what does this have to do...

Yes, I am writing this to you at 4:15 am! I got home late Sunday night from the Stampin’Up! Incentive Trip to Thailand and this jet lag is kicking my butt! The good news is that I have an 8 hour day in by noon 🙂   This week Stampin’Up! put out a reminder regarding the policy on “Ownership and Use of Team Lists, Company-Generated Customer Lists, and Other Confidential Information of the Company“. The basic idea is that you can’t use contact information compiled by Stampin’Up! in non-Stampin’Up! business. For example, you can’t email your entire team to ask for a donation for your charity bike ride or to solicit them to join you in a different business venture. The same holds true for any customer list/information found on the Stampin’Up! website. And this is why curating your own email list is critical. When you have an email list that people voluntarily sign up for, giving you their contact information so as to hear from you…..that is a completely different thing and YOU now own that list. SO BIG!! So if you decide to change companies, add a new venture, open an Etsy shop, offer flute lessons, start an online log rolling training…..you can absolutely use this list to market what you are offering. I love Stampin’Up! I have been a demonstrator for 17 1/2 years with zero...

You totally know that I am a word girl. I have always loved to read and in my teenage years (so very very very long ago) I would keep notebooks of quotations, phrases, bits of stories that resonated with me. Now, thank goodness, I can just save them to Pinterest #forthewin Recently I cam across a quotation from Jay Z that I absolutely love and cannot get out of my mind For those of you who have spend a little time around here you know that I have a few solid go tos when it comes to running your Stampin’Up! business: Do less, Do better WIN: What’s Important Now You Already Know Find your tribe, love them hard You are not Stampin’Up!, You are your own unique take on Stampin’Up!   and the one that a lot of folks struggle with, “YOU are your brand”……let’s be honest though, I know you don’t like hearing ” buy less” either 😉   Don’t get hung up on the use of the word “man”, it just works in this instance and still applies to all of us. You are not a businessman You are a business, man.   YOU ARE IT YOU are your business. Your people follow you because of who YOU are and what YOU provide. It is not about Stampin’Up! And once you embrace the reality, the power, the...