How to Earn the Shelf Reliance Incentive Trip. Stretch and Grow

You can see a google doc of this at:  https://docs.google.com/document/d/1WEFPl0ZbmPx_D5N6erPyUnNv_QvTXoG5dVNgtuh_YKM/edit


Have you ever wondered why I always address you (my team) as Shelf Reliance Leaders?  It is because I believe you are the best of the best.  You are the consultants who are and who will shape Shelf Reliance.    As some of the very first consultants (remember we are only 2 years old) we have the chance to affect the company, the consultants under us, and our customers.

I want more for you then to earn a little extra money (although we all love the extra money), I  want to you be a leader, someone who can be invested, innovative, generous, and share what they are doing with other.    This means you need to “stretch and grow”


Earlier this month Shelf Reliance hosted its second convention for consultants.  It was definitely a time for me to “stretch and grow”  If you didn’t make it to convention, we missed you.  And you missed an amazing opportunity.  tonight I’m going to share with you a few things that I learned at convention.  

How did convention help me to stretch and grow?  

1.  I participated in the talent show.  You can watch our video here. http://youtu.be/7Lh7jTn5O_Y  


This is our entry video, I don’t have one from convention.  But I’m sure you will get the idea. 


 

You might not know this about me but I am not really a talent show participator.  I am more of sit on the back row of the audience kind of girl.   Participating in the talent show was a great experience, it helped me build friendships, get out of my comfort zone, and really take part in convention.    This is what being a consultant it like for me a lot of the time.  I don’t love the spotlight, but being willing is a big part of being a consultant.

2.  Mingling.  One of the best things about convention is being able to mingle with other consultants.  Being able to meet face to face with those I work with but have never met was a great experience.   I wish we had more time to sit and chat.

3.  I taught a workshop on Customer Service.  My workshop provided me with the opportunity to really evaluate what I think great customer service looks like and how I can offer that to my customers.

Over the next few weeks I will be sharing a lot of the specifics that I learned at convention.  I hope that you will take this opportunity to “stretch and grow”.  



PS.  For those of you who did not attend this year they announced next year's convention.  It will be March 21-23, 2013 at the Utah Valley Convention Center in Provo Utah.

Business Training:  How to win the incentive trip 

or “Costa Rica here I come." 

 


One of the best things about being a consultant is the opportunity to earn incentive trips.  This year's trip is to Costa Rica.   

You can learn more about the incentive trip here:  http://www.shelfreliance.com/fantasy-getaway


The 25 top point earners, along with a guest of their choice, will be winning a trip to Costa Rica from October 23–27 this year! The trip includes airfare, a 4-night stay with all meals included at the 5-star Hilton Papagayo Costa Rica Resort and Spa in Guanacaste, and an all day tour around the Rincón de la Vieja Volcano including a guided canopy zipline tour through the tropical forest, horseback trail ride, and volcanic mud bath at a thermal hot spring. Prizes are non-transferable.

Are you excited about it?  I hope so.  But what do you need to do to earn the incentive trip?  This is a great way for you to “Stretch and Grow”


Here are my thoughts:

• Look at the numbers.    There is a chart (see below) that shows the breakdown for what you earn points for.  I encourage you to look at the chart today and make goals for what you want to accomplish during the contest.
• Last year the winning consultants had 300+ points or more.  That might be a good place to start your goal setting at.  
• Last year a wide variety of consultants earned the trip.  Platinum executives and mentors and everything inbetween went on the trip.   If you got this e-mail you have the potential to go this year.  Last year from my team 2 consultants earned the incentive trip.  Both were brand new to the business.  
• Be sure to study the point breakdown, it is different from last year.  
• the contest is already active.  It runs from  April 2 to September 1.  Be sure to make this month count!
• Break down your overall point goal to  monthly and weekly goals.  Go ahead and write them on your calendar.  For example if you have decided that you want to sponsor 4 new consultants each month, that breaks down nicely to one consultant each week.  
• Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.  Choose a couple of things to work on.  for example you receive points for sponsoring new consultants, for $100 Qs and hitting new rank advancements.   Working on each of these things each month is much easier then sponsoring 30 new consultants all in one month.  
• Get your parties going.  If you are going to earn this trip you are going to need to be having parties.  If you are in a slump then it is time to get moving.  
• Host your own party and have a 2 for 1 have two parties the same week, this way anyone who can’t make one can probably make the other, for example you could have one on Thursday night and on Saturday morning.)  
• have a friend or family member host one for you,
• call a past host,
• contact a customer who qualifies for the double dip.
• sign up for an event, expo, gun show or fair.
• Talk to your family.  If you are going to be doing more parties than normal be sure to talk to your spouse/kids about what this is going to mean for them.  Get them on board.  Remember you get to take someone with you.  Make sure to let them know what you are working toward.
• Plan for July.  Okay let’s be honest.  July is a hard month.  No one is excited for parties the week of the 4th of July.  So make a plan, what are you going to do in July to keep your business going?  
• Have a booth at a local celebration.  
• Host an open house sampling a new menu.  Invite all of your local customers.  Make it fun and informative.
• Last year Shelf Reliance had a great sale during July, which really helped.  They might have a sale again this year, I don’t know, I haven’t heard anything about one.  But don’t plan on it.
• Make the incentive trip a party of your opportunity commercials.  Whenever you talk about becoming a consultant be sure to talk about the trip.  It can be a powerful motivator for others to join.
• Make it fun.  Reward yourself for each goal achieved.

        Costa Rica Incentive Trip Goals

            The contest runs from April 2 to September 1, 2012
            

Points	Task	My Goal	What do I need to do each month?
5*	Setting up a Q budget of at least $100
10*	Setting up a Q budget of at least $150
15	Sponsoring a new consultant
45**	Maintaining the highest consultant rank you have earned
20	Reaching Mentor rank for the first time
30	Reaching Director rank for the first time
40	Reaching Executive rank for the first time
50	Reaching Silver Executive rank for the first time
60	Reaching Gold Executive rank for the first time
70	Reaching Platinum Executive rank for the first time
80***	Making $350,000 in team sales volume for the first time
90***	Making $500,000 in team sales volume for the first time
100***	Making $1,000,000 in team sales volume for the first time

One of the things that I will be focusing on is signing up new Qs.  To do this I will be focusing on Qs at parties, but I also have a lot of online sales.  Many of these people have not heard about the Q and don't’ know.  I have decided to e-mail each person who purchased from my online store and introduce them to the Q.  Below is the e-mail I’m sending.  Feel free to use it or change it (remember to change your contact info and your URL).


E-mail for online orders

Hi there - Heather from Shelf Reliance here.

Thank you for placing your Shelf Reliance order through my online store.  As a buyer of Shelf Reliance's products I'd like to invite you to try our free food storage planner.

The planner is a free interactive way to develop a food storage plan for your family.  
The planner includes freeze dried options like  fruits, vegetables, meats, and dairy, along with the traditional grains and dry beans.  It is an easy way to evaluate the food storage you already have and plan for what you still need.

By creating a plan that meets to specific needs of your family, you are better able to prepare for the future.  The planner takes approximately 5 minutes to set up and modify.    The planner makes it easy for you remove items you don't care for (in my case: lima beans) and add in foods you do like (mmmmm... freeze dried chicken slices). Once completed you can easily  print, e-mail or add your products to a montly Q (allowing you to build your food storage over time within a set budget).

To try out the free Food Storage Planner go to:
http://homeparties.shelfreliance.com/planner/thrive/setup/

To check out how easy it is to build your food storage over time while staying with in a budget go to: https://homeparties.shelfreliance.com/productqueue/

Again - thank you for your purchase, if you have any questions  please contact me directly at heather@teamshelfreliance.com.

Heather Lorimer, Independent Consultant

PS--If you are creating a bug out bag,  we also have a free planner to help you customize your emergency kit.  You can check it out here:  http://homeparties.shelfreliance.com/planner/emergency

Brown Sugar Strawberry Shortcake

Do you eat strawberries with sour cream and brown sugar?  

The first time I heard about it a few years ago I thought it was crazy.  
Strawberries should be eaten with white sugar.  But then I started thinking about it and I wondered what I was missing.  

by jennaddenda

So I tried it.  

I dipped a clean strawberry in sour cream and then in brown sugar.  It was heavenly.   A little messy but really wonderful.

Recently I was in charge of the food for a meeting of a women’s group that I belong to.  It was suggested that we have strawberry shortcake for dessert.  But the more I thought about strawberries the more I thought about brown sugar and sour cream.   So after a little research and a few false starts Brown Sugar Strawberry Shortcake was born.  

If you don’t have Sour Cream Powder you can make this with fresh sour cream, just be sure to subtract the water (1/4 cup from the Brown Sugar Cream, and ½ cup from the cake).
 

When I make this cake I use the very best brown sugar I can find.  Which happens to be in my food storage.  I LOVE the THRIVE brown sugar.   There really is a difference in brown sugar.  If all you have is 3 years old and rock hard it is time to buy some new fresh flavorful brown sugar.  

I did serve this to the women’s group and they loved it.  I have had several requests for the recipe, which is a sure sign it was good.  

Brown Sugar Strawberry Shortcake

Printable Recipe


For the Strawberries:
1 Pint Strawberries (or 2 cups freeze dried strawberries rehydrated)
2 Tablespoons Brown Sugar, plus more for sprinkling just before serving.


For the Brown Sugar Cream:
1 cup THRIVE sour cream powder
1/4 cups plus 2 Tablespoons water
2 tablespoons THRIVE brown sugar, plus a little extra for garnish
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 Tablespoon Lemon Juice

1 Brown Sugar Bundt Cake (recipe below)

For the Strawberries:
Clean and hull the strawberries or if using Freeze Dried rehydrate in a little water.   Slice the strawberries and place in a small bowl.  Sprinkle with brown sugar.

For the Brown Sugar Cream:
Mix sour cream, water, brown sugar, lemon juice and vanilla extract together. Let stand in refrigerator for flavors to combine (at least an hour or two or even better overnight). Garnish with a sprinkling of brown sugar.

Cut the Brown Sugar Bundt Cake cake into slices.  Place a slice of cake on a dessert plate.  Spoon strawberries over the pound cake and dollop with a spoon of the brown sugar cream.  Garnish with a sprinkling of brown sugar.  Serve immediately.


Brown Sugar Bundt Cake
recipe adapted from Kraft

1 pkg. (2-layer size) yellow cake mix
1 pkg. (3.4 oz.) JELL-O Vanilla Flavor Instant Pudding
4 Tablespoons powdered whole eggs plus ½ cup water, (or 4 eggs)
1 cup sour cream powder plus ½ cup water (or 1 cup sour cream)
2/3 cup water
1/2 cup oil
1 cup packed brown sugar

Preheat  oven to 350ºF.

Beat cake mix, pudding, powdered eggs, sour cream powder, water and oil  with mixer until blended. Add brown sugar; mix well.

Pour  into a  bundt pan (regular size)  or into a 9 x 13 inch cake pan, sprayed with cooking spray.

Bake  1 hour or until toothpick inserted near center comes out clean. Cool cake in pan 15 min. Loosen cake from sides of pan; invert onto wire rack. Remove pan; cool cake completely.

Homemade English Muffins

One of my favorite breakfast foods is Eggs Benedict.  One of the critical ingredients in Eggs Benedict is English Muffins.  Sadly I live in the country and my local grocery store does not carry a very good assortment (okay they don’t usually have any).  

I have been craving Eggs Benedict so I decided to make my own English Muffins.  I am so excited about how they turned out.  They were easy enough to make for a weekday dinner and are delicious.  

In many bread recipes you are instructed to heat or “scald” the milk.  The purpose of this is to denature the proteins that can interfere with yeast development.  By using powdered milk (in this case instant milk) you can eliminate that step. Wahoo!

English Muffins
For a Printable Recipe

recipe adapted from: Allrecipes   


2 Tablespoons instant dry milk powder
2 tablespoons white sugar
2 ¼ teaspoon active dry yeast (or 1 package)
2 cup warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
1/4 cup melted shortening, cooled slightly
6 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt

Mix the instant dry milk powder and sugar in the warm water,  stirring until dissolved. Let cool until lukewarm. Add yeast, by sprinkling over the top.  Let stand until frothy, about 10 minutes.

Add melted shortening and 3 cups flour. Beat until smooth. Add salt and rest of flour, or enough to make a soft dough. Knead. Place in greased bowl, cover, and let rise.

Punch down. Roll out to about 1/2 inch thick. Cut rounds with biscuit cutter, drinking glass, or empty tuna can. Sprinkle waxed paper with cornmeal and set the rounds on this to rise. Dust tops of muffins with cornmeal also. Cover and let rise 1/2 hour.

Heat griddle. Cook muffins on a griddle,  about 10 minutes on each side on medium heat.

Keep baked muffins in a warm oven until all have been cooked. Allow to cool and place in plastic bags for storage.

How to Make Perfect Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookies

One of the best ways to introduce your family to eating more whole wheat is to start with dessert.  Everyone loves a cookie (we all know that I especially love cookies) and chances are when you offer your 5 year old, or your 30 year old husband,  a delicious whole wheat cookie he will gobble it up, and ask for more.   

The only problem is sometime whole wheat cookies can be dry and heavy.  Sueann Allen, from Suzie’s Sweet Wheat, is here today to teach us how to make wonderful light and gooey whole wheat chocolate chip cookies.  

Take it away Sueann.  

Before you begin making cookies with whole wheat flour, there are a few items that I need to address to increase your chance of success.

Three Tricks to Making Whole Wheat Cookies

      1.     ALWAYS use hard white wheat for my desserts. Hard white wheat has a more subtle flavor than hard red wheat and has a much nicer texture.  Many people believe that hard red wheat is more nutritious than hard white wheat, but actually, hard white wheat is slightly more nutritious, making it my very favorite wheat to use in baking.

      2.     Always use either freshly ground whole wheat flour that was ground on the finest setting, or sift your previously-ground flour, or your cookies will be too dry and puffy. If your cookies seem too dry, you may need to decrease the flour by a couple of tablespoons. If they seem too moist, increase the flour by a couple of tablespoons. Try adding the flour amount in a recipe minus 1⁄2 C of flour and then work your way up by tablespoon until you get the exact right consistency. You may want to bake one sample cookie and then bake the rest.

Baking cookies with whole wheat can be a little more difficult than white flour because, if not done correctly, they can be heavier...but when you get it down just right...no one can tell there is wheat in them!

      3.      The key to soft cookies is to bake them just until they are soft and then let them cool on the cookie sheet or baking stone...they will bake while they cool. Do not transfer them until they have cooled for at least 15 minutes.

To Convert Your Cookie Recipe to Whole Wheat

If you have recipes of your own that you would like to convert to whole wheat, use these guidelines:

When converting white flour to whole wheat flour:

o   For every 1 cup of white flour the recipe calls for use 1 cup minus 2 T whole wheat.

o   I generally use, or 3/4 C plus 2 T whole wheat flour in place of 1 cup white flour. 

o   Unless it is freshly ground and then I can usually substitute straight across.

o   If you are using soft white wheat flour it can be substituted straight across.

This chocolate chip cookie recipe is the very best recipe for whole wheat chocolate chip cookies. They are soft, gooey, and in a word, amazing. Not one person who has ever eaten them has known they are whole wheat. I’ve actually had many people ask for the recipe, and they are surprised to find out that they are, in fact, whole wheat. I have one friend who adamantly protests against eating whole wheat. She hates whole wheat in all forms and refuses to eat anything whose ingredient list contains “whole wheat”. When she ate these cookies, she did not believe for one second that they were whole wheat. She loved them. So, if you are looking for a fabulous whole wheat chocolate chip cookie that doesn’t scream “whole wheat!” these are the cookies for you!

Grandma Pattyʼs Gooey Whole Wheat

Chocolate Chip Cookies

For a printable recipe

3 1⁄2 C whole wheat flour (make sure it is sifted or freshly and finely ground)

3⁄4 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1 C butter, softened

1 C packed brown sugar

3⁄4 C white sugar

1 T vanilla extract

2 eggs

11⁄2 C semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cream sugars and butter together. Add vanilla extract and eggs.

Beat for three minutes. Mix flour, baking soda and salt. Stir dry ingredients into wet ingredients.

Stir in chocolate chips. Drop by heaping teaspoonful’s onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake 10-12 minutes. Let cool before transferring.

Makes 3-4 dozen, depending on the size of the cookies.

The trick is to take them out when they are just barely solid and let them sit on the hot cookie sheet...this will cook them just a little longer. YUM!!!!

Sueann Allen is an average American mom, just trying to make it from day to day with four small children. Due to health concerns, she had to get her children on a high-fiber diet.  She began experimenting with wheat about three years ago and has completely removed white flour from her family’s diet.  Her children are no longer on medicine and my whole family is living a happier, healthier lifestyle.  You can read more about Sueann on her blog:  Suzie’s Sweet Wheat. You can check out her book which contain 250 whole wheat recipes:  Suzie’s Sweet Wheat