Sometimes, all you need to take your business to the next level is a change in attitude.

 

Courtney Bates shares her ongoing journey as a direct sales distributor for the skincare brand Neora. Courtney has had her share of funny looks thrown at her for being involved in direct sales, especially considering her career as a speech pathologist. However, what started out as a fondness for Neora’s products turned into a passion for empowering families with business ownership.

 

Listen in as Courtney discusses how to nurture an attitude of gratitude. Such a seemingly simple shift in the way you think, in her experience, has led to a life-changing opportunity to leave an impact on countless lives.

 

Major Topics in the Conversation

• The biggest and best opportunities tend to be the most unassuming at first glance.
• The importance of having a system in place around which to scale your business
• Finding the right business for you is also about finding the best way you can make a positive impact on those around you.
• How a gratitude journal can serve as your shield against negativity
• Setting goals for your business
• Reframing negative thoughts
• Tips for new direct sales distributors
• How to promote your product/s without being pushy

 

Special Moments in the Episode

[3:51] How a seemingly insignificant decision can turn into a business that touches many lives

 

[7:57] Staying positive as you work towards your business goals

 

[9:39] How to write a gratitude journal

 

[12:09] Strategic goal-setting tips

 

[17:07] Advice for those new to direct sales

 

[22:00] How consistent, ethical promotion of your product pays off in the long-term

 

[23:34] How your attitude toward your business affects every aspect of your life

 

Links:

Email: [email protected]

Facebook: Courtney Bates

Instagram: courtneybates11

 

Transcript below

 

Intro: Welcome to Rich in Differences with your host Brooke, where we discover what works for you in life health and business. We are not Legos and one size does not fit all. So, grab a good drink and come listen to different perspectives as we see what sticks for you.

 

Brooke: Alright welcome to Rich in Differences, and today, we will be talking with the beautiful Courtney Bates from Neora. Did I say that right?

 

Courtney: You did.

 

Brooke: Excellent. On topic of setting business goals and staying positive in your business. So, a little bit about Courtney. Courtney has always enjoyed helping other people succeed. She has worked as a speech-language pathologist for 16 years, helping people return to and enjoy their lives. Now, she is focused on her true passion, which is helping other women start their own businesses so they can make the gains they want in their lives. She's a wife and a mother of 4 children and 2 pugs, she enjoys traveling with her family. You can catch her on her morning run at 5:00 AM or in the afternoon on her new peloton. Alright, Courtney you have to tell us what you think about the peloton now.

 

Courtney: Oh my goodness, I love it so much. I have never been a workout at home kind of person, but I am loving it.

 

Brooke: Awesome, awesome. And how long have you been doing it?

Courtney: Well, just like a week now, I just… it just came in the mail sparkly and new, but I am it. I've been using the app a little bit before I ordered the bike to use… see how I like the coaching with my runs and that kind of thing, and really like that and noticed it was pushing me harder than I pushed myself. And that's what I'm seeing on the bike and that saving me the time of like the drive time of driving to the gym and that kind of thing, so it’s saving me an hour a day, so I'm loving it.

 

Brooke: Good, because I was seeing about anyone too, so I've been asking people.

 

Courtney: Well, I can pass a code along to you if you decide you want one.

 

Brooke: Awesome. Alright, Courtney, so we just heard a little bit about yourself, but how about you tell us a little bit about your business and what started you or your journey.

 

Courtney: Okay. Probably about 5 years, ago a friend had given me a bottle to try and I basically just tried it, you know, to be nice and, you know, I was like, “Okay,” and used it for a week and really kind of liked it. You know, I feel like I always tried to have good skin, you know, since my first pimple, my mom was, you know, buying me good skincare., but I really never liked my skin until I tried this and noticed it was really addressing all of the things that I didn't like about my skin, you know, that I was still fighting adult acne and starting to get… I was at the time 35, so I started to get signs of aging, that kind of thing, and it was addressing all of those. So, ended up, you know, going ahead and buying the bottle and loving it and then kept using more and more of the products, and everything I tried, I loved. And then it got to the point where I was like, “Wow, I'm spending a lot of money on this.” So, I think, as most people in this business do, I started just to get my products for free. I saw a way to, you know, save myself a little bit of money and thought, “Okay, well, I'll get my products for free and share it with a few friends. And if I make, you know, an extra 100 bucks a month, that's awesome.” At the time, I was a single mom and so, you know, $100 sounded like, you know, a good deal for me, and plus, you know, saving on my skincare.

 

So, when I first started, I kind of did it underground almost, you're in the closet. Like, I… you know, my day job is I'm a speech therapist, and I was like, “Well, what will people think if I'm, you know… you know peddling skincare and that kind of thing?” So, you know, I would share it with a few people, but I wasn't super open about it. And went on like that for a while, you know, did just enough to get my products free and that kind of thing. And then I would say about a year ago, I really started plugging into the system, because I was kind of drawn to the other women in the group. You know, they're all… they all have a lot of good energy, they're all very positive, uplifting people, and plus, I was kind of noticing that this business is kind of fun.

 

So, last year… I would say last summer, I really started plugging in and doing the things they were telling me to do. I finally like kind of came out of the closet and started sharing with people the business aspect of it. You know, I never intended to build a team or anything like that. So, as I started doing those things, my paycheck started to grow and I, you know, obviously really liked that. But the thing that I liked really even better than that was that, so all these friends are kind of joining me on my team and I'm seeing them start to succeed with their goals, you know? I'm seeing people that maybe kind of had negative attitudes before turn into more positive vibrant versions of themselves, and I'm seeing friends that were maybe not able to afford, you know, soccer lessons or dance lessons or, you know, a special night out with their husband, you know, now have extra money in their pocket to do those things.

 

So, even though I started this business because I really loved the products and just wanted a deal, it's turned into a whole nother thing for me. You know, it's kind of become my passion to like watch and help these other women and these other friends build something of their own, you know, that's going to contribute to their families and, you know, help them meet the goals they set for themselves and help them dream bigger and, you know, make bigger goals and think about what bigger goals they can have for themselves other than, you know, just the day-to-day thing.

 

Brooke: Excellent. I love it because I feel like your story is very common. Like, we all kind of start… because I've been direct sales before, and usually started with a friend trying to get me to try something, because we all start with our first people that we know.

 

Courtney: Right.

 

Brooke: And then I went, “Oh, I love this too,” and then like spending… spending the extra money and then being like, “Okay, there’s got to be a better like a cheaper way to do this.”

 

Courtney: Right, right.

 

Brooke: You know, and then starting like a business part. And I have watched many of my friends go on to do like amazing things with their business and afford… be able to afford more and more, like you said like, you know, the date nights or paying off debt.

 

Courtney: Right.

Brooke: I had like one good friend who paid off a lot of debt with it, I mean, it's a beautiful way to make money, it's a business.

Courtney: Right, right. And I think that's part of kind of when things starts switching in my head. Like, initially, it was just kind of this thing I did to get my free product, but then once it kind of switched in my head that, “Oh, this is… this is a business, this is a real thing. You know, this isn't just, you know, Courtney's little fun thing she does, you know, this is a business and it's bringing in income to my family and it's helping me meet these awesome women and helping me grow my circle,” and it's a real thing that deserves merit and doesn't need to be hid in a closet, you know?

 

Brooke: Exactly, I completely agree. And I'm so glad you come on here to talk to us about it.

 

Courtney: Yes, yeah.

 

Brooke: (unclear) [07:55] feeling that stereotyped. So, I know you wanted to come on here today and talk about the importance of setting business goals and staying positive and moving towards them. So, let's hear them truth bonds, Courtney.

Courtney: Alright. So, like I mentioned, I think around last year, this time last year, I really started seeing my business grow. And that was just kind of plugging into the system that Neora has set out. And then at the beginning of this year, you know, I was kind of stagnant, it had grown, but was kind of at where it seemed like it was going to be. So, I really kind of started taking a bigger look at my business and what… at that same time, I started taking a bigger look at myself. Looking at my business in my life, one thing I noticed was, you know, I've got this amazing business the has the ability to go, you know, the sky's the limit. And I have this amazing life, you know, I've been remarried for a couple years, my family life fantastic, you know, everything is good and great, but yet I was waking up each day like just not feeling it. Like, I feel was like, “My life is wonderful, why don't I feel joyful every day?”

 

And when I started taking this good hard look at things, one thing I realized was that I was waking up each day looking for the negative and then what was going to go wrong and, you know, planning out my head that all the contingency plans for when something went wrong, what we were going to do to fix it. I had solutions for problems that didn't even exist and, you know, that's what I was spending my day looking for it was what was going to go wrong. So, that was the first thing I noticed I needed to fix.

 

So, one thing I did to fix that was I started a gratitude journal. And I know we've all heard about those for forever, like I can remember sitting in my dorm room listening to Oprah talking about gratitude journals. And, you know, to me, it was always probably something those other people do and I can do that in my head if I wanted to, but there's something powerful about, you know, writing down 5 things each day that I'm grateful for. And I don't write down, you know, 5 big things, like I'm not writing down, “I'm glad I have a roof over my head and I'm glad it, you know, my husband loves me,” I mean, I try to find little things in each day, you know, like, you know, “The dog didn't poop on the carpet… carpet today, I have 2 bugs. You know, the kids didn't talk back,” or, you know, “I got a good night's sleep, you know, got my workout in in the morning,” little things like that.

 

And what I found that does is, so each day as I'm going through my day, I'm looking for the good in it all day long because I know I'm going to write it down. I always do my gratitude at night before I go to bed because I know that night, I'm going to have to write 5 things down. So, instead of, you know, being on guard all day and worrying about problems, I'm looking for what's good in the day. So that's one big thing that's kind of helped change my attitude that's flowed over, you know, both in my family life and my business. I think in general, it's helped me become a much more positive person, which also I think has helped to grow my team.

 

I think at the beginning of the year, I had maybe 2 or 3 brand partners underneath me, and now, I think I have like 12 or 13 on my team. So, since the beginning of the year, something has massively changed. I mean, all the girls that have joined me are all… they're all people that have been in my life, you know, for a long time. So, something has changed with me and, you know, I think now I'm a firm believer that energy is a thing and the energy you're putting off is what you're attracting. So, I feel like the whole change in my attitude and the positive thinking and the positive energy I'm putting off is pouring over into my business. So, that's one thing.

 

The other thing with growing my business is I set a goal for my business; I think that's a big thing too. Because, before, I was, you know, just kind of playing at it, and whatever happened, happened. If we had a good month, you know, great, if not, that was it. And, you know, I read the quote that, “You can't, you know, hit a target you can't see.” I started writing down I need a certain volume number to hit a rank that I wanted, so I started writing down that volume number in my journal each day along with my gratitude. And it was about double of what I had done the month before, so I'll just… I’ll use real numbers here, so I needed to hit $11,000, I'd hit $6000 the month before. The therapist in me thought, “Well, let's write down $8000 because that seems like a decent jump for a month.” But then I wrote it down for one day and you can see in my journal where I crossed it off, and the next day, I started writing down $11,000. Every day, I looked at it, I wrote it, I visualized it, I saw that number in my head, but that was the number I was going to get.

 

And I did get to it by the end of the month; kind of a funny story with that. The last day of the month, I was traveling with my husband and we got up the morning before, he's like, “How far off are you?” and I said, “Like $2000,” he's like, “Oh, I'm sorry babe, you know, it's… you tried really hard,” and I'm like, “No, no, we're not done yet,” I'm like, “I… you know, you don't have to believe in me, but I believe in me. And I don't want to hear any negative thoughts, you can't say anything negative all day.” That's the other thing that I think has made a huge impact is the positive thoughts. Because you're always going to have them, whether it's in life or business or whatever, it's really powerful when you figure out how to reframe those thoughts from negative to positive.

 

So, you know, I'd look at my volume somewhere during the month and think, “Well, I'm just not going to have enough, I'm not going to have enough people order from me,” and then I would, you know, pause and turn that around quickly to something positive. So, I would say, “I have wonderful products that help people, they're going to come to me wanting to get them or wanting to purchase them.” You know, I might have a thought that, “Well, I need to have some more brand partners underneath me or sign up with me,” and then I, you know, would make the negative thought was, “You know, nobody who wants to join me here,” and I would turn that into, “I'm a positive person, I'm a happy person, I'm excited to do this business. People are going to want to do this business with me. They're going to want to be with me and share my energy and benefit from that.”

 

I think that was really, really powerful for me to be able to turn anytime I had a negative thought into the positive thought. And it's a process, like I would have to stop myself and think, “Okay, you're not going to think that,” and, “What are we going to think instead?” I even went as far as to write down several things like thoughts that are occurring negative thoughts that I would have, and then write down a phrase I could reframe it with whenever it came along. So, I think all of that has culminated in my business growing tremendously over the past 6 to 7 months. But like I said, I feel like the attitude portion of it and studying a goal has made the biggest impact on it.

 

Brooke: Good, excellent, I love it. And what I like is that you putting out the positive energy, the reframing of thoughts, the being aware of your goals, I like how you talk about it like you look at your months and be like, “Oh, well, you know, this is just what it is this month,” and now it's like, “Now I have a goal and I'm going to get to it.” And not only that, I think just your story about your husband on the last day of that month being like, “I'm so sorry,” and you being like, “No, no, no, we're not done yet, I got a whole damn day, okay, to get this,” and then you did it, right?

 

Courtney: Right.

 

Brooke: I mean, that makes a huge difference. I mean, if I was to say look at the person who sits over here and goes, “Oh man, I just, you know, I’ve got a day, there's just no way I'm going to do it, I just didn’t make it this time,” versus, “No, we still got a whole day, we can do this,” and then you can probably tell which person is probably going to make that mark versus the one who won't. I mean, so…

 

Courtney: Right, yeah. And the funniest pat was whenever we did… when I did hit that goal, it was like at 10 o'clock that night, we were out on the town in Washington DC literally riding around on scooters, and he abut fell off his scooter whenever I'm like, “We hit it!” So, yes, the attitude is everything with that.

 

Brooke: Yes. So, what is one piece of advice you would give to someone who is new to the direct sales business?

 

Courtney: I would say stay out of the closet, that was my biggest mistake, you know? Be… you know, first of all you have gotten into this business probably because you love the products and you're somewhat passionate about it because, you know, you wanted… you wanted these products bad enough that, you know, you bought into it to some extent.

 

Brooke: Yep.

 

Courtney: And, you know, just own it and realize that this is a real business, this isn't, you know, a plaything that you have to hide. You know, I remember thinking, “What will my mom think?” you know, my mom was always really proud of my education and my degrees and, you know, she would be my biggest critic, and so I almost didn't want to tell her to begin with. But I think you just have to believe in yourself. And, you know, part of growing this type of business is sharing it with others, not just the product, but the business. And like I said, I kind of hid the business part for a while, I didn't really offer that up to share with other people, I would offer the products but not the business. And I would be so much further ahead right now if I had shared the business to begin with. And the funny part is is that at this point, the business is the part I love. Yes, I love the products and I'm passionate about it, but I'm even more passionate that my favorite product that we have is the business at this point. So, I would say, you know, share that… that part right away. Don't just look at it as, you know, “I'm going to sell these products,” look at the whole picture.

 

Brooke: Yeah. So, I know like pretty much with any business owner, regardless of whether you're direct sales, service provider or anything, one of the biggest fears that comes up as, “I'm promoting too much, I'm becoming annoying.” And it's really something it has… you have to like… like, you have to actively become aware of that, in order to sell anything, you have to actually promote it. If people don’t want what you're selling or offering, they're not going to purchase…

 

Courtney: Right.

 

Brooke: … anyways. And so… and I just wanted to say that I have… like I said, I have plenty of friends that are direct sales, and I see their videos, they do lives, depending on which business they’re in, they'll be doing lives and never once am I like, “Ugh, here she goes again selling her stuff,” like it… that never crosses my mind. I'm never like, “She's annoying for traffic to run her business.” So, you know, from me to you, I would say, like all direct sales, like do not be afraid to be out there promoting your business. If people don't want your product, then they'll scroll on, they’ll move on. The people who do, those are your people and they're going to be coming for your product, and it's… it's okay, right?

 

Courtney: Right.

 

Brooke: Trust me.

 

Courtney: And that's kind of what I've told the girls that I work with too because I… you know, as being a leader, that's one of the main questions I will get, you know, they’ll be like, “I don't want to bug people.” And I used to be like that too, but one thing I remind them is, “You have your own reason for doing this, these are your goals, they're not their goals. So, you know, you have to do what you have to do for your goals, so you can't worry about what other people are thinking.”

Brooke: Yeah.

 

Courtney: And like you said, I don't think there's hardly anybody out there that's like, “Oh, she's awful, she keeps posting that stuff,” you know?

 

Brooke: Yeah.

 

Courtney: I just don't think people… never have I had somebody say something negative about that, you know? Occasionally, like my husband's friends or something might make a joke about my, you know, skincare business, but whatever, you know?

 

Brooke: And it makes me stop… and it makes me stop scrolling. Because I will at least look and be like, “Okay, let's check out the board before and after photos. Let's see what's going on. What's the sale this month?” I mean, and sometimes, it's very, very… it happens enough to me to be like, I will be like, “You know what? I'm going to go ahead and try this because I keep seeing it, I've been eyeing it for a few months.” And here's the other thing, we have what we call… we call them in my industry lurkers, but they're the people who they follow you. Now, you may never hear from them, you may never know it, but all of a sudden, out of nowhere, will be someone that you never expected being like, “I’d like the purchase something from you.”

 

Courtney: Right.

 

Brooke: Because they've been following you this entire time, even though you had no indication that this person was even slightly interested in your product. So, someone is always looking and every… someone's always watching and someone is always curious.

 

Courtney: Right, exactly. I was telling my team the other day that I had somebody contact me through Facebook the other day, and somebody I've known for years, but she has never liked commented on any of my posts, never liked any of my posts. I believe earlier on, I'd sent her a message, didn't respond to it, and then the other day, just sent me a message herself and wanted to purchase several things. So, yeah.

Brooke: Exactly.

 

Courtney: Yeah. And the other thing too like, you know, I mentioned my husband's friends occasionally will crack a joke or something, and the funny thing is, now he's the first one to whip around and be like, “Listen, you know what that skin care business does for our family?” And, you know, he's the first to put them in their place kind of thing. So…

 

Brooke: Yes, alright. So, where can people find you these days if they want more of the great Courtney Bates and her great skin care products?

 

Courtney: Alright. Well, my Neora website is courtneybates(so, c o u r t n e y b a t e s).neora(n e o r a).com. On Facebook, I’m just Courtney Bates, and on Instagram, I'm CourtneyBates11 all one… all one word. So…

 

Brooke: Well, the good news is is all that, I’m going to put in the show notes, so…

 

Courtney: Okay.

 

Brooke: Yep, you can just go below and click on it and it'll take you right to her site.

 

Courtney: Perfect.

 

Brooke: Is there anything else you would like to add, Courtney, before we head out?

 

Courtney: The only thing I can think of some of the tips that we've talked about here today and stuff. Even if you aren't, you know, in direct sales, I just want to say that I feel like those changes that I've made, you know, the gratitude, the reframing negative thoughts, those haven't just affected my business, those have affected my whole life, my…

 

Brooke: Absolutely.

 

Courtney: … my relationship with my kids, my relationship with my husband. You know, if mom’s walking around, you know, grouchy and looking for the bad every day, that's a lot different than when you have mom walking around happy, looking for the good things…

 

Brooke: Yes.

 

Courtney: … each day. So, you know, I think it's good, valuable lessons. The setting a goal, you know, I do that in other areas of my life, not just my business, you know? My peloton has to do with that, so… so I just think… I think it's good tools that you can use throughout your life in different spaces, not just necessarily business.

 

Brooke: Absolutely, absolutely. It definitely just… it all works together.

 

Courtney: Yes.

 

Brooke: Life is not in a vacuum, sections of our lives are not in vacuums, they are all happening at the same time, so yes. And there will be a freebie that is coming from Courtney that will include… it's a worksheet and it's all about taking your negative thoughts and reframing them to more positive thoughts, and a gratitude section for you to start writing down your 5 gratitude statements of the day. And you'll also be able to get that the show notes as well. Download that and use it for your own business going forward.

 

Courtney: Awesome.

 

Brooke: Alright, Courtney, well, thank you so much for coming on today and I hope we get to talk to you again about some new topics going forward.

 

Courtney: Alright, thank you so much for having me, I appreciate it.

 

Brooke: Alright pop-tarts, that's it for the day, thank you for listening. And as usual, we will leave a message to my dad. Hey, Dad, I haven't talked to you in a while, so I miss you and we should get together sometime to do lunch. And, yeah, I could call you and ask you, but it's much more fun to do it over the internet on a podcast. Love you!