HELP ME RAISE THE $$$

Today is day 4 of training for the Avon Breast Cancer Walk on October 27-28th in Charlotte, NC. Yes I am from Cincinnati but there is not a walk here this year with Avon. Chicago is closer but that one is in June, not an adequate time frame to train to walk 39 miles. 79 days won't cut it, I need the 226 to get this couch potato body in shape and ready for that kind of workout. We walk 26 miles on day one, sleep in little tents in the wellness village, then walk 13 more miles the following day. I think we're supposed to drop dead after that, not sure but I know my body may just give up the ghost if I don't prepare properly.

2 miles so far each day, and my legs would like to disown me and head for another couch.

Part of participating is raising at least $1,800 to be donated to the walk. My personal goal is $2,500. The Avon Foundation for Women, that is hosting/sponsoring this walk, has donated over $740 million to this cause since the walks started in 2003. This cause is very near and dear to my heart so I am determined to raise the funds for it.

One way is through my donation site for the walk, and you can donated directly there and I get credit for the donation:





If you are willing to put this button above on your page, email me so I can send it to you!!

Or you participate in my eParty For AWBC (Avon Walk for Breast Cancer), I am donating all profits from those sales to the event. This is helpful for those out of town that would like help and purchase Avon at the same time.

The 3rd way you can help is through the Avon Fund Raiser I'm conducting. If you are local I can provide you with the sheets. They are sheets for ordering awesome Avon products at a great price. Like fund raisers conducted for schools or sports teams, only instead of wrapping paper, cookie dough or popcorn/chocolate, these are products most people need anyway in their home. Money is collected and the sheet filled out on the reverse side and then the profits from this fund raiser will be donated as well. If you are local and willing to take a sheet to work or school, or to friends and family, to help me raise this money, contact me! (and yes if your troop, team or youth group needs a fund raiser, contact me, this is a great way for them to raise money!)

PRODUCT REVIEW: Avon Advanced Techniques Professional Hair Color

Back in the 70′s, Avon sold hair color.  I’m not certain why but they stopped at some point.
Beginning in campaign 9, Avon is once again in the home hair color business.  As representatives we were given a free product, color of our choice, to try.  Being natural blondes around here, we are touching up roots often, as we dye our hair a cherry-cola color.  Red dye fades a bit fast, and when your roots are naturally very light, as they come in it can make your hair look like it is thinning rapidly.
My sister, Jeannette, and I use the same store-bought hair color.  We both chose the same color from Avon, that is closest to what we were using.  This is our review:

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Avon Advanced Techniques Professional Hair Color used:  Medium Mahogany Brown 5.65
Marti:  I will be the first to admit that I was skeptical about this product.  Until last November I had never ‘dyed’ my hair.  I am a natural blond and I’ve had highlights done for years, but back around Thanksgiving I decided to go ‘cherry cola’ in color.  As I have no experience, my sister dyes my hair for me.  She has been coloring hers and her daughters for years.  With 4 days to go til my son’s wedding, I figured I was nuts to do this, unsure what to expect,, but my roots needed done so figured what the heck, we have the free color from Avon, let’s give it a shot.  Since it was going to be a bit different, we opted to dye it as a color change.  Both of us used the same color tonight.

Jeannette:  Having used and applied well over 10 different brands of home hair colorant over the years (likely everything on the market), this is the most unique I have ever come across.   Never have I heard of or seen a pre-treatment with hair color.  The rule was start out with clean, dry hair.  I was skeptical as this pretreatment made the hair kind of wet.  That worried me, as I know how hard it is to get the colorant from root to tip of the hair, but when I actually applied the color mix, it was very easy to coat the hair, root to end.  It felt a bit like applying a thick oil to the hair and it went on VERY evenly.

Marti:  The first thing I noticed was the pleasant smell.  Usually dye has a harsh smell, but this was very nice.  I could also feel the difference as Jeannette was applying the color to my hair, a slick, thick, almost oily feeling.  Not at all what I was used to with the foam colors.

Jeannette:  As the person applying I am having to step back several times from the intense chemical smell of dyes, but this time I had no problem at all.  It didn’t irritate my nose or eyes, and does in fact have a fairly nice smell to it.  Also, when dying hair, you end up getting it on skin to some degree at the hair line.  A trade secret my daughter taught me was to use a little dye from my hair to rub on the skin to wipe it off any residual color, with cotton or a tissue (dye removes dye).  However, this wiped right off, without any hard rubbing, very easily on a tissue!

Marti:  After the processing time, my next surprise was the post-treatment.  WOW!  It is thick, almost like a soft margarine, and felt amazing in my hair!  I couldn’t believe how great my hair felt after as well, very soft as opposed to a dry, straw like feeling I’m used too after coloring.

Jeannette:  I was really happy how it didn’t drip during processing and it rinses out very easily!  And that post-treatment, feels like whipped butter, rinses out super easily, and even my hands are soft from it!  Both of us have soft, shiny hair too, which is something I have never seen with other brands.  It is multi-tonal as well, like natural hair color.  As the light hits it you see reds, browns etc, varying shades like you would if this was your own hair and not an applied color.

We are both highly impressed, and cannot say enough about it!  Once again, Avon has surpassed our expectations!

TO ORDER: Marti's Avon Online Store
Your results may not be the same as our own, we can only speak for ourselves from our experience.  We will be using this again!!!

Brochure Tossing My Way

My sister and fellow Avon representative and I are always brain storming ways to get our brochures into the hands of potential customers.  One of our favorite ways is the stick our brochure in the plastic literature bag, fold over the top and then roll and rubber band it like a newspaper.  Then we load up 300-400 brochures each in boxes, pack the car and go 'toss' them like newspapers into driveways.  We each have specific streets or neighborhoods that we toss in, but going together means we can do both sides of the street at the same time, one tossing out each side of the car.  In less than an hour we've distributed 600-800 brochures then we head home.

I know that a lot of representatives think this is not a good way to do this, that each brochure should be hung on the door or the doorbell rang and it handed to the potential customer.  But so far it has proven to be profitable to us.  We each gather several new customers with every campaign this way.  After 3 campaigns we move to a new area for a while. 

Once someone orders the first time, we consider them an established customer and the approach for distribution is different.  If you've ordered from us, we no longer roll and toss, but we get out of the car and hang the brochure on the front door handle.  Inside the bag is our customer newsletter for that campaign, the brochure(s) and samples.  We've also decided that we will do this to the 2 houses on either side of the established customer and include a note that says "I was dropping off a brochure to my customer, your neighbor, and wanted to be sure to leave you one too!".  We also offer a discount then on their first order.

The tossing can be a real adventure for us.  While most of the time the paper boy or girl has nothing on us as far as aim, once in a while we fail.  If there is a puddle anywhere near the driveway it is safe to assume one of us can hit it without trying.  Every so often on lands in a bush too, requiring a stop to retrieve and place it nicely on the driveway. 

While on our tossing outing we will also go through the drive-thru at McDonald's or Burger King and hand a brochure to the worker there.  Many places have 2 windows, one to pay and one to pickup the food or drinks.  That is 2 brochure hand-offs.

We enjoy the radio, laugh a lot and have a fantastic time with our tossing days. 

I never imagined that at 48 (very nearly 49) years old I'd be an Avon Lady, driving around bonding with my sister as we tossed our brochures.  But it is one of my favorite parts of the job, spending time with my younger sister as we work toward building our dreams.