By: Brad Carlson

Ever since my wife, Kris Carlson, started as a Norwex consultant, I’ve been interested by her business. So when I decided to leave my 22+ year career in corporate America to come and work with her, I was full of anticipation and excitement for this new chapter in my career. I couldn’t wait to get started and make a positive impact on Kris’ already successful direct sales business as one of the top 5 Sales Leaders for Norwex in the US. I was ready to learn more about direct sales and Norwex as well as begin to Life is Better When You Challenge Yourselfofficially work with and learn from my wife. What I was not fully aware of was how much personal growth there would be. Here’s what I’ve learned so far:

  1. Be a more genuine version of myself. Part of my new role is to give presentations to small groups of people and share with them the healthy living benefits of Norwex and helping them reduce the amount of chemicals they have in their home. I also present to Kris’ large team from time-to-time. These presentations are very different from the ones I gave as a corporate employee. In corporate, I was trained to be very poised and polished when speaking. Kris has taught me that I can be more myself and not so formal in how I present. I actually prefer this style because it’s much more authentic and people are more receptive to the message when I’m being myself. It’s still a work in-progress, but our business is really booming, so I’m getting lots of practice.
  2. Don’t be afraid to fail… a lot. In my previous career, this phrase was a foreign concept. I was afraid to fail. Why? Well, if something didn’t work, blame needed to be assigned to somebody or some group. When you’re working for someone else, you also don’t have the authority to change something that isn’t working, or if you do, you’ll need to run it by several people before change can be implemented. It’s really hard to grow and become the best you can possibly be when you’re scared to fail and are unable to change quickly. In direct sales, I’m running my own business. I have all the authority I need to adapt and change so that I can deliver exactly what our customers need. To be successful, I can’t be afraid to try anything. If I fail, I have the ability to immediately correct it and try something else. This concept delivers the highest level of customer service and is something I enjoy working to get better at.
  3. Assumptions will kill my business. I’m running my own business, and while this is exciting and empowering for me, the reality is, it’s a big change from what I was doing before. I have made many mistakes over the last couple of months. Many of them because I was making assumptions. My party schedule fell apart because I assumed I’d get several more bookings at the parties I had the following week. I’ve assumed that my party hosts knew that they should be sending their party invites via text, email and Facebook. When they didn’t, attendance at their party was low and so were sales and bookings. I’ve had to learn quickly that I can’t assume anything.

I love discovery! Anything I can do to learn and grow is so much fun for me, and this new opportunity in my life is filling me up. The lessons I’ve learned these past couple of months have at times been painful, but that’s how you grow as a person. I can’t wait for what’s next!!