London Book Festival

As a newly published Author in September 2011 I entered myself and my book Mum’s The Word into The 2011 London Book Festival annual competition

The competition honors the best of international publishing and all the submitted works were to be judged by a panel of publishing industry experts using the following criteria:

• General excellence and the author’s passion for telling a good story.
• The potential of the work to gain a wider audience in the worldwide market.

The Categories were

General Non-fiction

General Fiction

Children’s books

How-to

E-books (word or .pdf file acceptable)

Photography/Art

Poetry

Audio/Spoken Word

Teenage/Young Adult

Biography/Autobiography

Audio/spoken word

Best Unpublished Short Story (all manuscripts welcome)

Cookbooks

Compilations/Anthologies

Spiritual

Wild Card

Music

In addition to honoring the top selections in the above categories, The London Book Festival will award the following chosen from submissions:

• London Book Festival Author of the Year-Honors the outstanding book of the competition.
• London Book Festival Book Design of the Year – Honors outstanding and innovative design.
• London Book Festival Publisher of the Year – Honors the top publisher based on materials displaying excellence in marketing and promotional materials, as determined by our judges.

For my work I have received an Honorary Mention in the How To Section of this competition and all winners and honorable mentions in the competition will be honored at a dinner held January 26, 2012 in London. To view the winners and of course my 1st acknowledgement for my 1st book Mum’s The Word please click on the image below

The Winners of The London Book Festival Competition

How did you initially become involved with Avon/What was your reasoning behind joining?

I joined Avon because I moved home and area (150 miles away from home)..Although I found a job working 20 hours a week 10-2pm Monday to Thursday I wasn’t meeting anyone my own age.  So, I looked in the local free ads and found an ad that said Join Avon Meet New People!…I called and was recruited within 48 hours!

My reason to join Avon was as simple as wanting to meet other women and mums my age although I could of done with the extra income it wasn’t and still isn’t the reason I joined.

How did that progress into recruiting your own representatives?

Recruiting Avon representatives of my own became an option after my 3rd campaign as an Avon lady myself.  Basically the Area Manager called me and said how great I was doing and if I would consider recruiting others to do the same as me and earn from their orders?…Of course the option to meet more women and make new friends was at the forefront of my mind so I agreed to her coming to my home and talking me through the process.

What makes you different to others who have the same role as you? How are your team different to others?

Mmmm, what makes me different?…I think Avon sales leadership is a very personal thing.  It is an easy concept and the company have given us all the opportunities to grow an incredible business, however, that doesn’t mean we all do.  I have the ability to create new ideas and ways of working new systems that are different to others in the company.  I can then develop my ideas and put them into duplicatable systems that my entire team can use and pass onto their team members too. I am incredibly proud of my Team and how they have developed into independent leaders that all help one another.  We work closely as a team and I have several training days a year when we all meet up and go through my new Systems and Training

What is your official working title now?

Senior Executive Sales Leader

What does a typical day involve for you?

This is so varied.  Some days I recruit new Avon representatives into my team and others I spend One on One training a Down Line Sales leader.  Other days will be me at home Blogging, training online, placing adverts, calling team members and providing training and development over the phone email or even Skype.  I love the social media side to my business too, as I enjoy sharing my top tips and ideas with anyone that wants to listen and develop within the Network Marketing Industry.

Also, my new website www.mymumsays.co keeps me busy as we have a Free Forum where we have new people joining every day.  It has Blogs, Events, Videos, and of course the forum where people discuss their business and offer and ask for advice on how to develop themselves further.

What is your favorite part in being involved in this area of the industry?

Definitely the people I meet.  It is still the core reason I do what I do.

I aspire to Inspire

And this industry allows me to do that

How and why did your husband become involved?

The money for Brian! He watched how my income doubled in my 1st year and at the time Brian’s job was leading him nowhere so we talked about the benefits of him joining the Avon Sales Leadership business and how long we had to re coup any money we may lose due to him becoming self employed (which was very minimum as we were entitled to working family and child tax credits).  He loves to be labeled The Avon Man!

How does the business fit around your family/family life?

Easily.  Our family life is amazing due to the industry we are in.  We can drop everything within a split second if we have too, and on occasions we have had to.  Avon fits into our lifestyle and family life not the other way around.  We even do training days in the kids holidays or weekends so our kids and our teams kids can come too.  We have a play room/corner set up with laptops, game boys toys and pens and paper so they don’t get bored!

Any particular career highlights/moments you have been proud of?

There have been a few but I think the most important one was in 2008 when we won The Team of the Year award.  We had worked incredibly hard that year and grew our team sales by over 125%, and it was my 1st time on the Avon stage at the annual conference too.

What inspired/motivated you to write your books?

Winning the Team of the Year Award inspired me to write my book.  I thought it was amazing how someone like me could achieve such an award.  I mean I m just a housewife and mum with no qualifications and no sales back ground.  If I could do this anyone could, so I wrote my journey down in a book called Mum’s The Word as an inspirational tool for other women that may find themselves in my position.

I was single with 2 kids from 2 different dads and on income support.  I lived in a council flat and had left school with no qualifications.

Now I live in a £1 Million Pound home and have 2 brand new cars on the drive (Merc and Audi) and have travelled all over the world!

Our income grows every year, from £7,000 in my 1st year to over £130’000.00 this year, I really want to shout out to the world that if I can achieve this anyone can!

What is your advice for anyone wanting to do what you do and be successful at it?

Write down WHY you want to become self employed WHY Network Marketing and MLM and then keep your Why’s close to your chest.

I have found the people that fail in this industry are the ones that forget WHY they wanted it so badly in the 1st place.

Read books, go to meetings and training days, get yourself and mentor, follow the successful people and JOIN the successful peoples team.

Take responsibility for your own business growth and simply “Just keep Going”

Are there any other areas of the industry you would like to work in/explore?

Yes, I love motivating and inspiring others so much so I have started doing Guest Speaking.  I love this as it gives me the opportunity to show people that it really doesn’t matter where you are in life today, YOU can do amazing things if you just set your mind to it.  I have a guest speaking even coming up in January and I am exhibiting my books and my Avon business there too.  Please feel free to take a look at the event details and if you would like to attend let me know as I can get you discounted tickets

http://www.gailreynolds.co.uk/224/

C17 Avon Sales Leadership Earnings 2011

Avon Sales Leadership is all about YOU …The individual that puts in the time the commitment and the determination to achieve exactly what they set their minds too.

After 9 years in the Avon business this has been one of the most trying years for us a family and a business and yet we earned record figures and sold more than we did the previous year.

MLM is an industry that should be greatly recognised as the way forward for many families that are finding it difficult in these trying times, and if you would like to ask anything about how we have managed to build this Million Pound business for just £25.00 joining fee, just post your comments below

What can I earn with Avon your ask?

Let me share with your my Avon Earnings for the past 3 weeks work and add that together with the previous 3 weeks pay cheque too…

I hope you will see that Working with Avon isn’t just pocket money and that Multi Level Marketing really does have a place for the people in the world that want to become financially free and be their own boss!

This is what hard work, determination and vision has bought me and my family this week:

Campaign 16 Avon Pay

And…if you click on the image it will show my last 3 weeks pay too….

I earned Over £20,000.00 for 6 weeks work!  Phew…and it isn’t even the Christmas campaigns yet!

Who thinks the Network Marketing Industry doesn’t pay?

I would like to talk with you

I often have questions thrown at me that make me completely STOP in my business tracks & think for a moment before I answer. It has become a working hazzard and I take these questions very seriously. That was until I was confronted with this one… This question came from my dear darling brother. But before I go into the “Conversation” I will tell you a little of his back ground. Aged 30+ with 5 children and a small 3 bedroom house with a job he had been in for 6+ years. He called me one late evening with a tone to his voice I had never heard before. “Gail” he said….”I give in….Show me how to make as much money as you do at that MLM thingy you do”… A taken back I sat as comfortably as I could and asked him one single question. Me..“You have seen me build this business for over 8 years, so why now?” My Brother.. “Because I can’t take the pressure of the work any more, it simply asks to much of me, I rely on far to many people every day. From staff that don’t care to customers that simple aren’t buying, I constantly argue with the wife & the kids just stress me out” Me..“OK I hear what your saying. Let’s talk” So, within the next 4 weeks, my brother was a Full Time Network marketer – Direct Seller – MLM’er. Within a year he had achieved many things. Trips to Madrid, 5* Hotels and Spa treatments. Recognition for the Highest achieving new comer in 2010. As a sister I was very proud. But now comes the BIG whammy… Last week my brother called. He had a tone of voice I had heard just once before! My Brother..“Gail, I am gonna QUIT !” Me.. I braced myself and then asked “Why?” My Brother..“Because I can’t take the pressure of the work any more, it simply asks to much of me, I rely on far to many people every day. From staff that don’t care to customers that simple aren’t buying, I constantly argue with the wife & the kids just stress me out” Me..Dumb struck I swiftly answered.. ” Nobody said Life was easy, and we all rely on someone somewhere for something, our jobs no matter what they are or what your title within that job will need some form of reliance. Dear Brother let me explain.. The supermarket chains rely upon the Manager to get in the staff – The staff rely on the delivery driver to make the deliveries – The deliveries are made and the staff rely on the manager to tell them where to put the stock on the shelves – The customers rely on the stock to be on the shelves for when they want to buy it – The super market relies on the customers to buy the stock to pay the manager – The manager relies on the staff to have stocked the shelves as he instructed so the customer would buy the stock – The manager also relies on the customer to buy the stock that he relied the staff to stack on the shelves so he can pay the staff ! Are you still following me?… My moral of this story is. When we within the Network Marketing and Direct Selling industries rely upon others it is not for us to assume the task you set will get done, but it is for us to have the ability and strength to see it through. To build a strong network of reliance & reliability with patients-courage-conviction but most of all belief that you can do it. This is what this business is all about. Don’t worry about what someone didn’t do, congratulate the ones that DID do it. Work on your ability to adapt and move on. Rely upon yourself to make the right decisions and create a strong reliable team of Customers-Distributors & Leaders. Only through your actions as a leader will this happen. I will end my tale now with one question…Did he stay, or did he quit?… And how would you have handled this one? Gail Reynolds ta tar for now….Of for a Cup of Tea and a Scone You can Count On Me