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Well, there is a very large story that leads up to this point, so I don't even know where to start.
I guess I'll tell you about Kati and I. We met in December of 2006. If you would has asked me in January of 2007, I would have told you we were going to get married. The story of when we met is super lame, and I always wanted to make up some romantic story that you'd only see in the movies about the night we met. But I haven't done that yet, so I'll spare you the 5 seconds and skip the story. It was fun how we got to know each other however. Kati is from Montana, and she went back home to visit her family for Christmas 2 days after we met each other. For the entire 10 days she was home we spent probably 4 hours a day on the phone with each other. That's 40 hours of talking to each other before even interacting with each other in person! With that amount of time you can't help but to really dig into some great topics and really start to get a grasp on what the person it like. I have always said, all I want in a wife is two things: 1. Someone who I am extraordinarily attracted to (physically, emotionally, mentally). 2. A girl who loves Jesus. Well, throughout our first 2 weeks Kati turned out to be exactly that. She got back to Denver on January 2nd, 2007 and we hit it off immediately. The next year is a complete blur to me. All I remember is that I quickly fell madly in love with this woman. On December 23rd, 2007 I proposed to my love. It was a magical night. Everything went perfectly. The engagement was absolutely the most horrific time of my life (some may know what I mean). It was nothing but blissful fighting. I think it is God's way of really seeing if you have what it takes to be married, because you're brought to the edge many times. An overview of our engagement would be this: we planned a big wedding, told everyone, everyone made plans, then we realized a big wedding is not what we wanted, we changed our wedding to a sooner date and a much smaller size, everyone was pissed beyond belief, we got married and it was the most wonderful day of my life. May 16th, 2008 was the day. I'm not kidding, the best day of my life thus far. It was perfect! For those of you thinking about getting married, just do what you want, don't succumb to the pressures of "what a wedding should be".
Marriage has been fantastic so far! I always heard that the first year was the hardest. Well, if that's the case then I think we're going to be just fine. The one hardship that we've had is financially. This is kind of the beginning of our USANA story. We started our marriage off in debt. Car loans, student loans, credit cards, you name it. In the 8 months that we've been married we've tried really hard and taken many steps to try to get out of this mess of debt that we're in, but we've been unsuccessful so far. The debt just continues to grow. I attribute some of this to my ability to make the kind of money I should make as the main provider for our household. I'm a carpenter, and I absolutely love my job, but I made $20k last year before taxes. I'm sorry, but that kind of money cannot support a family, especially if children could potentially be coming in the next couple years. So, I've been looking at my options. I've always thought like an entrepreneur, and I feel that I've waited long enough to start acting like one. So from November 2008 until January 2009 I have been slaving over the thoughts of how I can be an entrepreneur. I looked for businesses to buy (vending machines, laundromats, convenience stores, etc.). I thought about how I can start a business on my own. I actually am starting a clothing line as well, but that's not going to support my family. I thought about how I could just start doing construction work on my own, not on an hourly basis, but on a per job basis. There were major flaws in all of these things.
It is then that I feel like God led me toward something completely different. I was at work and the guys who paint the houses we remodel were chatting over lunch. I walked up and one of the guys asked me, "What do you think of when you hear the words 'network marketing'?" The first thing I said was, "scam". Then the other guy asked me why then started explaining his company. All I really got from the whole conversation was the name USANA. I didn't think much of it, because I'm the first to be skeptical of anything outside what I think is "normal". But there was something in me, like a little spark of hope, that made me think that there might be something to this company. I went home that night and did some research. Turns out that USANA is publicly traded on the NASDAQ. That right there told me that things were different than I had originally thought. I sat down for an hour that night, and every single thing I found about USANA caused me to believe that it was a completely legitimate company. Mark (the painter) sent me some links to some videos to watch about the products that USANA sells and the way that they run their business. These videos got me even more excited. By the end of the night I wasn't fully convinced, but I at least didn't think that I was dealing with a complete scam.
Over the next couple days I started to look into network marketing a little more. I had so many misconceptions that I had no idea where they came from. Well, apparently NM is a very profitable way to market a product. Lots of the largest companies in the world are actually beginning to market their products in that way. Two nights from when I first heard of USANA Mark invited us to a wellness seminar. Kati and I decided to go, with the intention of really deciding if USANA was for us. The seminar was incredibly impressive. There was no hype, no gimmicks. It was very professional and to the point, with a splash of motivation. They didn't try to sell us on anything, which I liked.
Two nights later Kati and I signed up. It's only been 5 days since we started, and its already been unreal. We've really begun to make a team and start to strategize how we are going to make this business work. It's been fun setting up our website, email address, blog, etc. We got our products a couple days ago, and have been using them. What amazing products they have! We have set some initial goals and now must work through the details about how to accomplish them.
One thing I do know, there is a lot of wisdom and integrity in network marketing in general, and USANA. I say that about network marketing because it is based off of relationships, integrity, and hard work. It is the "wisdom of the day" because it really allows you to leverage your time to make the maximum amount of money. I say that about USANA because they are consistently ranked at the top in both their business method and their products. They are promoting health and trying to keep people from dying so often from completely preventable diseases. I think that's a pretty good cause to work for. So we are sold on this company, and if not this company, at least the network marketing model.
We've never blogged before, so hopefully we remember to keep up with it. We started it just so we can share our journey with you. From almost the very beginning until we make it big in the business.
Thanks for reading our first post. Here is how you can get a hold of us if you need to:
phone: 720-289-1094 (Matt) or 303-915-6743 (KT)
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