I have titled this narrative “Seasons” as it reflects the many changes and continued growth in my life. I have noticed that the new beginnings and endings that we find in the changing seasons, also parallel the many changes in our own lives. I no longer look at life in a linear line with a beginning and an end, but now much the same as a season, that always comes and goes, continuing in the pattern of a circle, always changing, always something new around corner, always something to look forward to. After a 20 year career in Dentistry, I was ready for a change. Even with a college degree and a career as a Dental Hygienist, I found that every job would soon become monotonous and stagnate with little potential for growth or change. As a result, I found myself quickly bored and looking for the next challenge. I could not understand how I could have devoted all this money and time to my career and then not be satisfied in the end. In fact, when I was in college I remember one of my Dental Hygiene Professors telling me what a wonderful career I would have as a Dental Hygienist. I ended a 20 year career in Dentistry, knowing that I would never go back and started to explore other areas that would challenge me. I became an Emergency Medical Technician and volunteered for a rural ambulance service which was a very rewarding and fulfilling experience. But it was volunteer service and that does not pay the bills. I continued to looking for something new and different when I came across an ad in our local newspaper for a position at a local funeral home. I was interviewed by Tyler Hornibrook and Jason Widing, and they told me as soon as I was able to obtain my Life Insurance License, I could get started with Precoa, helping families to pre-plan their funerals. My career with Precoa started out very successfully with a lot of appointments and lots of sales. My first 5 to 6 months was wonderful and I earned the incentive trip for the Caribbean Cruise my first year in the business. After about 6 months my schedule started looking pretty thin and I started to get worried. I talked to Tyler about my schedule, and I asked him, “Are you sure I still work for Precoa, because I hardly have any appointments?” (I am sure he was amused by this statement or maybe he had heard it before from other counselors??!!!) Tyler calmly said, “Is the Funeral Planning Center still making you appointments?” and I said, “Yes.” and Tyler responded, “well there’s your answer, use your creative abilities to figure this out, you are a smart girl, you can do this.” He was right but I still needed to learn a few things, I needed to go through a process, so I could come out on the other side understanding what needed to be done. Learning more about me and improving on the things I did well and changing the areas that were failures for me. So a few months went by and my schedule got worse and then I got even more worried, only this time I decided to fix this problem myself and find other jobs that would bring in more income and allow me to keep my job with Precoa. I worked part time as a caregiver, so I could have flexibility with my schedule and continue my job with Precoa. In addition, I decided to go back to school to get my health insurance license and became appointed with another insurance company who sold about 35 life/health insurance products. Now I had 3 jobs and volunteered with Chiloquin Volunteer Ambulance Service. I didn’t really solve any problems; I just seemed to add a whole bunch more and had no time for anything including family. After a few months with the new insurance company I realized they had taught me some new skills and given me some new tools, but I did not enjoy the job and I still felt like Precoa was a superior product to anything I had seen in my new career with the insurance industry. One day I was thinking about all I had learned recently and a thought came to me, “Why can’t I apply what I have learned with this new insurance company and use it to increase my sales with Precoa.” Because I had never worked in the insurance industry before, I did not realize that most insurance producers have to generate their own leads and make their own appointments in addition to meeting with families, as most insurance companies did not have a Funeral Planning Center that made appointments for their agents. I started to see that I had a wonderful job with Precoa, because I had this huge asset, the Funeral Planning Center, who made appointments for me and even confirmed them, in addition to constantly generating new leads. I began to think about a new plan to make my business successful, and then I quit all my other jobs and volunteer activities and went to work on implementing my new plan. I soon realized that the Funeral Planning Center was doing a great job for me, however ultimately the greatest responsibility for making my schedule successful fell on me, it was really my job. We have so many wonderful resources at Precoa, but I realized I could not limit my resources to only this, but I needed to explore all the possibilities. I began working with my schedule and when I saw that I had openings, especially the next day, I would get on the phone and try to fill openings myself every night, after my appointments were completed for the day. I am continuing to do this and I am not always successful at filling the next day, but I have started a resource of future business, which I believe can become an endless resource of future business. I am starting to accumulate my own referrals and leads and beginning to realize the importance of following up on them consistently. I am keeping a notebook, jotting down notes about what the family considers to be the next step and when to contact them next. I also try to remember to write down things about our conversation to help me remember the family better and enable me to be more personable with them. Another area I am starting to work with is door knocking. I have found this to be very easy and also fun. People are friendly and are almost always willing to talk. I am starting to look forward to getting the door knocker lists from my Manager every quarter. Another area I took a look at is handling objections. Much the same as I have learned to how to handle objections when working with my families, I also needed to evaluate my own objections in this job. It was time to consider that I might be the problem or the solution in my success with Precoa I think it was so hard for me to see my part in this initially. It so easy to blame others; the Funeral Planning Center wasn’t filling my schedule or the funeral home could be so difficult to work with, and what about my Manager, didn’t he care that I was having a crisis??!!! I would email my Manager and say, could you please log into my schedule and take a look, because it is really bad ( I guess I thought my Manager was my own personal Mr. fix it guy!) Finally, I knew it was time for me to look at would could be done by me and not what I thought should be done by others to make my business successful. The only limitations we have in this business or any business for that matter are the limitations that we place on ourselves. It was time for me to start evaluating and removing those objections that limited my business. I am now willing to knock on doors, spend the evening on the phone, go through files, write letters, educate my families and community on the benefits and importance of pre-planning. So ultimately Tyler was right, I just needed to be more creative and look at all the possibilities. I have had a lot of successes and failures and have certainly not perfected any of this, but what I have learned is to never give up, to continue to learn, explore and implement any and all possibilities. To always strive to awaken that creative person inside you and to always remain teachable.