It is with a heavy heart that after 10 & a half years with Perfectly Posh (my Direct Sales company) it has all come to an end.

On June 1st, 2022 Posh products (not the business, just the physical products) were bought by a company called Innov8tive Nutrition (a Terry LaCore company). The first couple of weeks of June were very frustrating for all of us (consultants and customers alike) but I figured that I would do my best to sick it out and make it work.

We no longer had a host program, our Perks incentive was taken away, our “Buy 5, Get 1 Free” deal ended, the shipping was more than doubled what we were use to paying, and consultants were not allowed to ask questions in any of the private Facebook groups. (We were told to send emails about questions but most of those emails went unanswered.)  Everything that I had loved about Posh had been taken away and even though the products were still there, the culture had changed on me and I realized I no longer belonged.

For me, my business is so much more than just making money. It’s about offering quality products to people at affordable prices with integrity and authenticity. I was no longer able to do that with this company and I found myself at a crossroad.

I had started to explore other opportunities and actually got suspended for being on an information call with another company even though it was not even a competitor. They locked me (and 16 others) out of our back offices and blocked us from all the Innov8tive groups on Facebook. After their “investigation” was complete, I was reinstated as one of the Innov8tive “promoters” and had access to my back office again but they never allowed me back into any of the company Facebook groups so I had no way of getting information and had to go through other people. It was a serious case of feeling like “the red-headed step child.”

After this incident, I knew it was time for me to move on but I was going to stick it out for as long as I could since I had a team who I loved and customers who depended on me to bring them pampering products. I was figuring out my choices but in the end, the choice was made for me.

In my field of Direct Sales I have always been of the belief that we should vent upward. Never vent to your team members or customers as in causes a lot of issues.

So in a private leader chat on Facebook with my upline and sideline (about a dozen of us top leaders), I shared (along with many others) about my feelings & my opinions which we are all entitled to. With things being so complicating and feelings were at a high all around, we shared our beliefs in what we thought was a safe place. We strategized how we would make this work in spite of all the horrible changes that were taking place.

Since I was never allowed back into any of those Innov8tive groups I asked if the other leaders could give me any news that I missed. I then receive a private message from my upline telling me not to be negative in the leader chat. She also told me to reach out to the main CEO who is basically in charge of everything to ask if she would please let me back in the groups. I explained that I was not being negative but simply stating facts but I agreed not to ask for help or say that I had been blocked anymore.

Just shut up and sell products is what my new job with this company takeover had become.

Well, I got a call from the Home Office on a Friday shortly after that telling me that I should not be negative. I explained that I have been nothing but positive for my team and customers. I was also positive for other people’s teams. I had also been helpful to team members & even other leaders. As a matter of fact, I was one of the few who was doing trainings in our team group and while I didn’t agree with so many things, that didn’t stop me from being the leader that I am. I explained all of this on the phone to the Home Office staff who called me. (This individual is kind and authentic and I even wondered how he could stay with such a company but maybe he was like me and exploring other options too.)

Well, as it turned out, somebody in that private leader chat took screenshots of things I said from the first couple weeks of June (we were now in July) and sent it to the Home Office which is the reason why he was calling me. He was under the impression that I said these things in a team group where thousands of people were seeing them. I explained that it was from a private chat where there were about 12 of us and that I was not the only one saying these types of things. (Of course, I did not share what others said because I have integrity.)

I did explain to him that those were old things and lots of things had happened since then. The person who sent him those screenshots only sent him negative comments. Nothing positive. None of the screenshots where I was helping people. None of the screenshots of me answering questions for others. Just screenshots of me venting. (Again, I was NOT the only one but I was the only one who was turned in.)

After that Home Office conversation that Friday, I got an email Monday morning telling me that I was terminated for violating the policies and procedures even though I had not even agreed to any of them yet. (The reason I had not agreed to them was because I was still waiting on clarification about a certain section and I needed that clarification in writing. Remember earlier when I stated that emails were not being answered? Yeah, that was one of them.) While this same Home Office staff who called me was trying to get clarification for me about the email I was still waiting on, neither of us knew Innov8tive was actually trying to get rid of me. All of this came as a surprise for both of us on Monday.

Trying to process all these different things, I eventually went to our large team page that my upline was in charge of as I often do throughout the day to answer questions that people had when I discovered that I had already been removed from there. (And just to clarify, my “upline” consisted of only my sponsor and her sponsor. I am still in communication with my previous sponsor. Her sponsor has still never reached out to me since that original message about not saying things in the chat. So if you are in to mysteries, there’s your clue as to who may have spoken to Home Office about my “negativity.”)

At this point, rather than fight to clear my name I decided that I was going to close the Posh chapter of my life.

I had been with Posh for more than a decade and I never wanted it to end. Especially not in the way that it did.

But the truth is that all of this was just confirmation for me to move on as the CEOs had said multiple times that “Posh is no more.” And they were correct. The Posh that I knew and loved so much was gone.

It died on May 31st, 2022.

I look back now at all the great times that I had with Posh. It was so much more than a product. It was a fun and exciting culture of like-minded people from all different backgrounds and beliefs and somehow we all found joy in sharing the same products.

I went on so many incentive trips and earned so many different awards but the best gift of all during my time with Posh was the people I met along the way.

I have so many incredible people in my life that would not have been there had it not been for this little soap & lotion gig that I discovered. I really wish there was a way to know that you are within the walls of “the good ol’ days” while you are still in them.

This change has been both a grieving process and a relief.

Saying goodbye to the old culture of my company, learning that my values don’t align with the new company, then being wrongfully terminated, it’s a lot to take in all at the exact same time. But this change has been a blessing in disguise! I am now free to run my Boutique the way I want again. I’m free to ENJOY what I do again and I have even found some other really great products to offer to my customers. (More on that another day.)

So if you ever find yourself in a situation where you feel lost or stuck, look around and see if your values in life are out of alignment. See if your passion is being squelched by other people’s version of success. Ask yourself if people you are surrounded by are the people who have your best interest at heart or are you just a pawn in their path to their own success.

Remember that sometimes things don’t happen “to” you but rather “FOR” you just like they did with me and now I know I am right where I need to be for this season of my life.