March is No More Excuses Month!

Bill Porter

Scary isn't it? One look at the calendar and you'll realize a quarter of 2011 is nearly gone! What happened to all those great New Year's Resolutions you had some 100 days ago? Have you forgotten them, or just decided to wait until December to start up a new list?

Come on, people!  We never would have won our Independence if our forefathers had kept saying, "Maybe next year would be a better year to revolt against Britain." Watkins would never have become a leader in direct marketing if Associates like Bill Porter had given up after a series of doors were slammed in his face.

Okay. Admit it. When you saw that image of Bill Porter with this message you thought we were referring to Bill when we started this posting with the words, "Scary, isn't it?" Actually, many people had that same reaction when they opened their front door and saw Bill standing there with his Watkins briefcase. They felt that a man with cerebral palsy had no business in door-to-door sales. Little did they realize that Bill would go on to be recognized as Watkins "Salesperson of the Year."  Or be an inspiration to another generation of men and women who believed they could build their own business despite a disability, a difficult economy or being laid off from a previous position. If you have not seen the award-winning film about Bill Porter called "Door-to-Door" starring William Macy, Helen Mirren and Kyra Sedgwick, rent is now through www.Blockbuster.com.  You'll be inspired just like we were. 

Both Alan and I are disabled, though with different disabilities. We were both laid off by our previous employers. Today, we are among a handful of Watkins managers who make up the 2011 Watkins All Star Team, with nearly 50 members of our own Big Bear Country Store associate team. And this is only our third year with Watkins!  But I digress. This blog is about you, and about your unfulfilled resolutions and dreams for a better future. I'm reminded about an anonymous prayer I read somewhere that went, "Dear God, my prayer for the coming year is a fat bank account and a thin body.  Please don't mix these up like you did last year.''

We certainly believe in the power of prayer, but God doesn't make mistakes. We humans manage to do quite well on our own in that department. March is the month to get back on track. The kids are settled into school so we can't use that as an excuse. The worst weather is behind us so we can't use that as an excuse. Summer vacations are months away so we can't use that as an excuse.


Spring is here and it's time to get going on your own Watkins business. Quit trying to reinvent the wheel. Remember, the quickest way the start building sales is to throw a Grand Opening party for your new business, or a First Anniversary celebration, because you were so flooded with orders last year you didn't have time to host a party when you first became a Watkins Associate. (Okay, a little fib, but we all know how people love being associated with a winner). Invite your best friends, neighbors and nearby relatives to the party - people that will want to see you succeed (even further)!

Follow up with those who could not come by taking by another copy of the Watkins catalog you mailed them with your party invitation. 
If they tell you there were products they really wanted to order, but didn't have anything left over after paying bills last month, you have the perfect answer for them. Tell them they can get those products FOR FREE just by hosting a Watkins Good Tastings party or a Watkins All Natural Spring Cleaning party in their own home. And you will do all the work!

Or we'll do all the work! If you happen to live in Big Bear, Palm Springs, Victorville or anywhere in between, Alan and I will even drive to your home and bring along our Watkins traveling dog-and-pony show. You can't even use the excuse you don't have any samples or know enough about the products to put on a presentation.  Everything is packed in our Watkins wagon and ready to roll. Already have a date in mind?  Call us at 888-881-7372.  See, you don't even have to use up any of your cell phone minutes!

Help Wanted

Could you sell an ice cube to an Eskimo?  Are you part of a couple who has been looking for a home based business to work together?  Then we want you whether you are a single person looking for work or a couple looking for a career change. 

Watkins is an incredible company to work for.  It's a family owned business that has been around since 1868!  Our products are top quality and those who know our products will immediately claim its superiority over store bought brands?  Those unfamiliar with the brand will become an instant fans.

We have an limited number of spaces available, as we can only work with so many people at once.  There is a minimal investment to start.  Your initial fee is $39.95 + tax.  Then you can choose any one, or all, of the three Upgrade Packages that are priced $69.95 + tax for our beginners' kit, $129.00 for a  $200.00 Gift Certificate, or our Watkinize Your Home Kit for $349.00 + tax.  This WYH kit has the extra feature of a free website setup ($64.95 Value) plus three months of free webhosting ($59.85 Value); after which there is a $19.95 per month webhosting fee.  It also has a $100 bonus feature.

We offer a free $20 Gift Certificate for just signing up.   If you purchase the Watkinize Your Home Kit we will add an additional $20 Gift Certificate.

You can read a lot more about the features our organization by going to http://bigbearcountrystore.com and click on "Join Us" then click on "As an Associate".  There is a whole page that clearly spells out the Watkins Opportunity.

We would love working with you as we are proud Managers our own Watkin Team... the Big Bear Country Store Power Team.

Or call us at 888-881-7372.

Willard? Can I throw a

Watkins Good Tasting Party?

A what?

A Watkins Good Tasting Party!

You remember that nice Watkins man Pete Donahue who would come

by every month with his Watkins wagon?

Yup.

Well, he died. But not before teaching his grandson Charlie about Watkins.

What’s that got to do with you throwing a party?

Charlie told me I could earn my own money without having to sell eggs at the Farmer’s Market by inviting neighbors to a Watkins party and launching my own Watkins business!

Pete would roll over in his grave! I thought he passed his Watkins territory over to his grandson?

Watkins doesn’t have territories. Charlie doesn’t even go door-to-door. He learned to build his Watkins business from some fellows out in California, who run the Big Bear Country Store.

Why did Charlie go to California when he’s too lazy to go door-to-door? During the war, wives kept the home fires burning and bills paid by selling Watkins. You need to focus on farm chores, not these wild ideas about your own Watkins business.

Wake up and smell the Watkins Vanilla coffee brewing, Willard! Charlie learned a new way to market Watkins from the Big Bear Country Store managers without leaving home. He met them though the Internet, which is how they sell Watkins throughout the country! Charlie was impressed with Alan and David because they became Watkins managers in only nine months, built a team of 40 some Associates, then celebrated for a week in Hawaii while Watkins picked up the tab!

Just because some fast-talkin’ Californians have Pete’s grandson thinking he can give up the farm and become rich by selling Watkins, I hope you don’t think the grass is greener outside our own 10 acres of farmland.

I can make enough money from my Watkins Good Tasting party to become a Watkins Associate, buy my own computer and start selling the Watkins fall holiday product line!

 

Web-hosting? Pete operated a pretty good business out of that wagon. I’m calling the kids. Their mother is showing the first signs of Alzheimer’s.

I’ve already called Betty Sue and Johnny. They’re ready to teach me how to use a computer! They’re even talking about becoming Watkins Associates. You should be thrilled you’re part of a growing, self-sufficient Watkins family.

I may become a Watkins Associate myself, or else a Watkins widower! But don’t make me learn how to use those computer contraptions. I’ll start at the barbershop and show you how pitching Watkins can be just as simple as pitching … well, hay!

Sounds like you’re sold on Watkins, Willard.

Yup.

You too can party your way to a successful, home-based business this holiday season, just by introducing your friends and neighbors to the wonderful world of Watkins.

Give the managers of the Big Bear Country Store a toll-free call at

888-881-7372

They can fill you in on how easy it is to host a party. Or check out their web site at

BigBearCountryStore.com

to see how they managed to become the

#6 Top Watkins Consultants in North America

in their first year with the company!



"Expect to get dinged here and there as you pursue your goal, but like wine that gets better with age, you get better when you have failed a time or two and learned from the experience."



Boy, can I identify with this quote by Gary Ryan Blair that recently popped up in my e-mails from Motivation in a Minute. Yes, I do feel like a good wine that has become better with age. I recall early in my career not applying for positions because I couldn’t handle the rejection if I wasn’t called in for an interview!

Well, it took many years and many friends telling me “You were made for this job” before I actually applied and was selected for some pretty good positions. When the current recession rolled around and my employer “downsized” its most senior staff to reduce payroll costs, those self doubts surfaced again. Who was going to hire a guy in his mid-50s when cash-strapped companies had candidates half my age willing to work at half the salary I was earning?

That was when Alan, who was let go from his position after whistle-blowing on his employer for false accounting practices, asked me to join him in starting a home-based Watkins business. I was skeptical at first. Who would be interested in buying spices, liniments, body care and cleaning products from us when companies with million-dollar ad campaigns were pushing similar products on prime-time television? Unlike Alan, who grew up in the mid-West with parents who used many Watkins products, I was raised in a small Arizona town, where there were no Watkins distributors going door-to-door.

“So Watkins is like Tupperware, Amway and Mary Kay?” I asked Alan, recalling three companies I knew that sold products through local representatives ringing door bells. I couldn’t believe Alan expected me to have doors slammed in my face by people more concerned with keeping a roof over their heads and food on the table than spicing up their dinners.

That’s when I saw the salesman side of Alan come out. “If you can show people a better product for less money than the one they now use every day, they will buy it, particularly if it’s only $10 to $15. Besides, Watkins’ best product is its business opportunity.”

To make a long story short (or to keep it from getting too much longer), I bought into this “business opportunity” and am so glad I did. Sure, I felt those old feelings of rejection at first when people would walk by our Watkins booth and not even stop to taste FREE FOOD samples! And then there was the first person I called who inquired about the Watkins business opportunity and never answered my follow-up voicemail messages after I mailed her a full information packet.

These are the little dings that Gary Ryan Blair was referring to that we all encounter on the way toward our goals. I certainly have learned from these experiences by increasing my knowledge about the product line, and improving the manner in which I approach a person with the Watkins business opportunity.



It has been a very good first year of our Watkins business. We were named the sixth most successful new Associates in the entire company (2009)! As we are about to begin the 2010 holiday season – the busiest time of the year for all of us who wear the Watkins label – we would like to pause briefly for a glass of wine to celebrate our own Watkins success. Care to join us? You too can share in the good harvest by calling us toll-free at 888-881-7372. Let us explain how this is the perfect time to launch your own Watkins business.



David Gurzenski
Co-manager of the Big Bear Country Store

Dip into Summer !

Roll out those lazy, hazy days of summer, those days of pretzel, soda and . . . DIPS!

That’s right, dips! Summer certainly arrived in style over Memorial Day weekend at Big Bear Lake! Hundreds of visitors flocked to this mountain resort community for the holiday weekend, which marks the official launch of summer in Big Bear. They came from such desert hot spots as Las Vegas, Phoenix and Palm Springs, where temperatures are already in the 90-to-110-degree range, to enjoy our ideal 65-to-70-degree weather in Big Bear.

A big event in Big Bear every summer holiday weekend is the Peddler’s Market at the Elk’s Lodge. We were there with our Big Bear Country Store blue-and-white striped tent, peddling our Watkins wares to everyone who strolled by, enjoying the ideal weather and soft breezes off the lake. The tent is well known to locals who come by to see us every Tuesday morning at the weekly Big Bear Farmer’s Market. Visitors may not recognize the tent, but many of them are attracted to our Watkins banner, having grown up with the label in their parent’s kitchen cupboards or medicine cabinet.

The biggest hit as temperatures rise and everyone is thinking pool and patio parties are the wide variety of Watkins dips we invite everyone to taste when they stop at our booth. By far the most popular is the Blazin’ Cajun. It seems regular customers can’t get enough of the New Orleans taste that certainly lives up to its name.

Yet in vast contrast to this spicy concoction is the Mandarin Orange dip that has a way of cooling down the taste buds. Perfect for summer, many first-time tasters say it reminds them of the 50-50 bars they enjoyed as kids – part vanilla ice cream and part orange sherbet. While most of the dips we recommend be mixed with sour cream, Mandarin Orange tastes great with plain non-fat yogurt and is perfect for fruit salads. Imagine a bowl of orange slices, strawberries and blueberries blended together in the rich, cool Watkins dip mix! Yummy!

About that mixture. After following the label and adding three tablespoons of the Watkins dip powder to an eight-ounce cup of sour cream or yogurt, most customers (ourselves included) found it to be much too strong. Now, all samples are mixed with just one heaping tablespoon of the dip powder; the consensus is that we have found the perfect balance. You will get eight-to-ten one-cup servings of the dip out of every jar, depending on the coarseness of the dip granules. That works out to about a dollar a serving, which is much more economical than those individual packets you find in the store.

So feel free to provide a variety of these delicious dips to your family and friends the next time you invite them over for a dip in the pool or a tasty outdoor summer barbeque. One more thought. Many of the dips, such as the Garlic and Dill, make great rubs for grilled meats and fish!

We welcome you to visit http://www.bigbearcountrystore.com/ to order one or more of the 13 delicious dip varieties. You also will be able to view the entire Watkins catalog, as well the specials being offered this month.

If you are in the area, we hope you can stop by the Big Bear Farmer’s Market on Tuesday between 8:30 am and 1 pm where we have at least four of these dips to sample, plus other products to sample as well. To get there, just follow this MapQuest link that will take you to the corner of Big Bear Boulevard and Division Drive in Big Bear Lake.

In addition to meeting one or both of the Big Bear Country Store managers, you can meet Peggy Sue, the store’s lovable pooch. (She’s much cuter than us!) She also gets very jealous if we give any attention to other four-legged creatures. So before she pouts about featuring another dog on this blog, here’s her picture.

Make Every Day Mother’s Day

She loved the card, and the flowers or the great meal out or the wonderful dinner the whole family prepared for her. But what about the rest of the year?

Yes, it was a great day for mothers yesterday, as millions of families from coast-to-coast honored the queen of their households on her special day. Mom must have been gratified that her contributions were being recognized for one day, yet next week the flowers will have wilted, the fine dinner but a pleasant memory.

Last year, when we first became involved with Watkins, we also found the perfect opportunity to honor our mom all year long. Watkins was a familiar name to mom long before we became managers in this 142-year-old company. Mom was approaching 50 when J.R. Watkins first began to take his newly developed pain liniment door-to-door. To save you the trouble of calculating that in your head, mom is a spry 93 who still drives her own car, buys her own groceries and has become our most vocal advocate of Watkins to all her neighbors and friends in Big Bear, California. For the person who possesses P.O. Box 3 in our town, you can imagine how many friends value her opinion and sage advice. She has the biggest collection of early Watkins spice bottles and tins we have ever seen.

Back to Mother’s Day 2009. Knowing that she had been using Watkins products for more than 75 years, we decided to make her an honorary member of our Big Bear Country Store Wholesale Shopper’s Club. We gave her a $20 Watkins gift certificate (which covers half the annual Watkins Associate/Wholesale Shopping Club membership), and informed her she would receive 25% off all products she wanted to reorder throughout the year.

While mom keeps up on many of today’s new technical advancements, she relies on us to place those reorders for her and her friends. Her favorite Watkins product is the Ultra-rich Hand Cream, which she claims. “I practically bath in it.” Not only does it keep her skin free from dryness and itching (a common issue for those of us who live at 7,000 feet above sea level, no matter one’s age), she continues to get compliments about her appearance. “I’ve lost count of the number of people who tell me I don’t look a day over 75!” she says.

http://www.watkinsonline.com/productdetail.cfm%20Product=10484&gCatalogLocale=USA&ECredit=383372

We have to agree, adding that she is as beautiful on the inside as she is on the outside! For more information on how you can honor that special lady in your life all year long with a Watkins Wholesale Shopping Club membership, go to the online Big Bear Country Store: http://www.bigbearcountrystore.com/ or call us at 800-881-7372 and we can walk you through the simple process.

Give your Planet an Earth Day Present

Imagine the reduction in toxins if you stopped using harmful chemicals for spring cleaning and switched to Watkins all-natural home care products.

Happy Earth Day 2010! What have you done today to show your home planet you really care? Did you turn off the bathroom faucet when you were brushing your teeth and shaving this morning, rather than wasting all that water? Did you ask for paper rather than plastic when you checked out of your local supermarket? Did you divide your trash for recycling?

That’s all well and good. But this year, how about making a concentrated effort to help save the planet for your children and grandchildren? Now is a perfect time to start right in your own home. Spring has finally arrived in most parts of the country. You are probably about to begin that annual spring cleaning ritual to get your home ready for the new season. When you haul your cleaning supplies out from under your kitchen and bathroom sinks, take a moment to read the labels on the containers. We did just that about a year ago when we wanted to find out what was so powerful in those products that made our whites whiter and bathtubs brighter.

We were shocked! No wonder we had to use rubber gloves to avoid first-degree burns, and would start choking if we forgot to throw open all the windows before using some of these harmful chemicals. That’s why we Big Bear Country Store managers were thrilled when we first learned about the Watkins all-natural home care product line. Our store now prides itself on offering these great products at the Big Bear Farmer’s Market every Tuesday from 8:30 am to 1pm. But if you don’t live within driving distance of Big Bear, you can order these outstanding cleaning products through the following link:

http://www.bigbearcountrystore.com/

What’s so great about Watkins all-natural products? Many all-purpose cleaners contain toxins that can be inhaled. Ammonia-based cleaners can irritate the skin, eyes and respiratory system. Minimize your family’s exposure to these harmful toxins with Watkins. The company’s Natural All Purpose Cleaners feature plant-based formulas that are:

• Ammonia Free

• Animal Ingredient Free

• Benzene Free

• Biodegradable

• Bleach Free

• Boron Free

• Butyl/Ethyl Cellosolve Free

• Diethylene Ether Free

• Dye Free

• Formaldehyde Free

• Isopropanol Free

• Kerosene Free

• Mineral Spirit Free

• Never Tested On Animals

• Non-toxic

• Paraben Free

• Petrochemical Free

• Phosphate Free

• Phosphoric Acid Free

• Phthalate Free

• Propylene Glycol Free

• Sodium Lauryl Sulfate Free

• Sulfuric Acid Free

By going to the Big Bear Country Store website, you can view the growing number of Watkins products that have been endorsed by the Natural Products Association. You will also find a number of helpful tips that will make your spring cleaning a lot easier this year. Here are just a few of them:

• Spray a small amount of J.R. Watkins Natural All Purpose Cleaner on a soft cloth and gently rub cloth over switch plates to remove smudges and fingerprints.

• Never dust using a dry towel, this method will only relocate dirt into the air or onto the floor. For optimal dusting, lightly dampen a micro fiber cloth or paper towel with J.R. Watkins Natural All Purpose Cleaner.

• To naturally clean your microwave place a bowl of water with a few drops of lemon juice in the microwave and run on high for one minute. Next spray J.R. Watkins Natural All Purpose Cleaner on the surface and wipe away crusted food and grease.

• To clean ceiling fans, use a long-handled brush dampened with J.R. Watkins Natural All Purpose Cleaner.