Women Celebrating Entrepreneurship Conference

Mary Ellen’s 35-year direct sales career included building two multi-million dollar sales teams. She uses her experience to help women/men build and lead their own Million Dollar sales teams – while putting God first, family second, and business third.

I recently wrote my story. Actually, it surprised me. I am sharing it to encourage you to take the time to write yours. YOU MATTER. It takes guts for me to share this but my word for today is “courage”, so I can’t chicken out. Perhaps you can mentor younger women with something you find here.

A Lifetime of Personal Growth
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It seems like I have always had a hunger for learning useful things. I have attended more personal growth seminars and read more self-help books than anyone I know. I never had to force myself to grow as a person. I was drawn to it by following my heart.

In my teens, I was told by a trusted leader in my youth group that my best quality was my personality. Back then, I didn’t appreciate that. I would have preferred to hear that I was beautiful and that all the boys were attracted to me! But God knows best because I probably wasn’t mature enough to handle what I wanted at that time.

I always dreamed of having a great marriage (maybe because my parents had such a stormy marriage). Nobody can have a vibrant marriage without working on it. We were willing to do that work and much of what we learned is included in a book we wrote called “Happy as 2 Pigs in a Blanket: Lessons Learned From 50 Years of Marriage”.

As a young mom, I attended a seminar for women at a local church. The nun who taught the class said we are all capable of becoming more. She said we are called to pray and ask God how He wants us to grow in the future. As a result of that experience, I have spent my life pursuing personal growth. I want to become all I can be. I have come a long way and I have a long way to go. It is my greatest joy to have others on this lifetime journey with me.

Since I am thorough by nature, I looked into how my background could best be used when looking at career possibilities. My only sales experience at the time was selling Girl Scout cookies. BUT, I sold TONS of cookies – enough to earn a week at Girl Scout camp for free two years in a row. So there was a CLUE that I might be suited for sales.

My ability to positively influence others showed itself when we were able to successfully encourage about 20 couples to go to a marriage enrichment weekend like the ones we attended through our church. I also discovered we had leadership ability when we led small groups for couples in our home.

So when I decided it was time to look for a career, this is what I had to work with: Personality, sales ability, organizational skills, as well as a strong and growing marriage.

I went into sales through the direct selling industry in the late 70’s because I wanted to work from home and continue as a stay-at-home mom. NOBODY can be successful in sales without going out of their comfort zone OVER and OVER. And did I ever grow during my 38 years in direct sales!

I went from a girl who could hardly get through doing an oral book report in high school to years of using my gifts to lead others and actually giving a Key Note address at a national convention. We went from a family with just enough financial resources to get by to having more than enough to vacation often, become debt free, have reserves for college and retire in Florida.

So today, this walking miracle is retired from working directly with any direct sales company but I am far from retired at working to encourage others to grow and become their best.

I am right here today because I know my life has not been in vain. I have asked God to show me how I can continue to be a mentor to others as a way of giving back and passing on the wisdom He has entrusted to me.

I am and will continue to pray for every person in this community. I want nothing more than to see you become all you are capable of becoming.