Transcript
Speaker: Welcome to Mamas Who Lead, the podcast where the essence of motherhood meets the spirit of leadership. I'm Laura Carafino, former Department Defense contractor, now full -time network marketer, coach, and mom to five incredible children. Alongside being a proud military spouse, I journeyed through the highs and lows of transitioning from a structured career to building a flourishing business from the ground up.
Speaker: all while navigating the beautiful chaos of family life. In this podcast, we dive into stories of women who exemplify resilience, leadership, and the unyielding power of motherhood. From insightful conversations with top income earners and network marketing to heart -to -heart discussions with leaders who are reshaping industries, Mamas Who Lead is here to inspire, educate, and empower you to weave leadership into the fabric of your everyday life.
Speaker: Whether you're at the beginning of your leadership journey, looking to pivot your career, or seeking ways to balance your professional growth with family life, this is the place for you. Together, we'll explore the strategies, challenges, and triumphs of women who lead with purpose, passion, and a little bit of mom magic. So grab your headphones and let's embark on this journey together. Welcome to Mamas Who Lead.
Speaker: Welcome back to Mamas Who Lead, or I should say welcome since this is our first episode, where we are unravel the beautiful complexity of leading with heart while nurturing our family. I'm Laura Carafino. I'm your guide on this journey. And today we're diving into a topic that's a personal cornerstone of my leadership, crafting your leadership narrative.
Speaker: From my early days as a Department of Defense contractor to embracing the world of network marketing as a stay -at -home mom of five and a military spouse, my journey has been anything but conventional. Each twist in turn has taught me invaluable lessons about resilience, adaptability, and the power of storytelling and leadership.
Speaker: Every leader story is unique tapestry of experiences, values, and lessons learned. It's these stories that shape our leadership style and connect us with others on a deeper level. Today, we're going to explore how to articulate your narrative and use it to inspire, lead, and connect.
Speaker: Before I dive into what I was going to really talk about today, I'd love to share a little bit about my story and how I got here and why this came to fruition.
Speaker: In the Department of Defense, when I was younger, I set high goals for myself. I always wanted to, I don't know, I always had this feeling, and maybe you can resonate with us, that I was made for more. I was supposed to make an impact, make a difference in this world.
Speaker: And I wanted to leave a legacy that impacted others. And so since a young age, I had wonderful parents or have wonderful parents. And they always said I could do and be anything that I wanted to be. And I believed that. I never allowed anyone say, just because you're a girl, you can't do this or that. And so I was one that always went against the grain.
Speaker: And if you tell me I can't do something, I'm going to prove to you otherwise that I'm going to do it. And so I went with that philosophy with life and I ignored what other people said I should do or shouldn't do and kind of went with what I wanted to do. And I
Speaker: had some lofty goals of working within the federal government and in order to do that, I tried to make decisions that
Speaker: pushed me forward with my goals in mind. Whether it was my college degree choices, what I was studying in college, or what jobs I took at the time, it was always leading me in the direction forward.
Speaker: Working within the Department of Defense was something I really aspired to be. And once I got into that realm, I started with working in politics. I promise I'm not going to talk politics on this. It's too controversial for me, but there was a time that I really, really, really loved it back in the day.
Speaker: And, and so I started off in that area. And then it kind of led me down a path down, you know, working in the Department of Defense. And that really piqued my interest and developmental research. It was all exciting. And so I kind of let walk down that path and loved it. And when,
Speaker: When I got to a certain point, I was like, okay, where am I going to take this? And I was kept pushing forward. I knew where I was going. I had a goal in mind. And then I met my husband. You meet a man and then, oh my goodness, your path changes. And maybe the goals you had in mind may not
Speaker: no longer align with what you're wanting in life. And so his career, he's in the military and his career led us elsewhere in moving and as many military spouses probably can resonate with this that, you know, our careers often don't transfer. Now, my career could have possibly transferred, but where we moved, it would have
Speaker: I would have had at least a two hour commute one way to.
Speaker: you know, just to get to work. And then I had three, we had three children at the time when we moved and I just couldn't put them in daycare for that. I mean, they were all under the age of five and I couldn't put them in daycare for over 10 hours a day. So we made the choice that I had to stay home. And so during that time, while I'm at home,
Speaker: you know, I went from being a very goal oriented, career focused woman to a stay at home mom. And not that that is not very rewarding in itself. And I'm super blessed that we had that capability. But I kind of lost who I was, you know, I wasn't having those adult conversations, I was just around the children, and in a new area, we moved across the country, I had no family, no friends. And so I was kind of
Speaker: in this little hole that I didn't know what I'm doing with myself. I kind of lost who I was. My day in and day out revolved around my husband's career and my children's life. And so
Speaker: I wanted to find me again and I just happened to take my children to go get their hair cut one day at a children's salon and there was this catalog and mind you we're on one income and I am flipping through this jewelry catalog and I'm loving all these pieces.
Speaker: Oh goodness okay I'll have to narrow this down and you know just get the one piece right now because really that's all we could really afford and I asked the salon or it's like hey do you mind if I take this catalog with me so I ended up taking it home with me and I would like flipping through it again circling things that I want to save up for because I really loved it I am a girly girl too even though I worked with majority of men in my career
Speaker: I love all things pink and all the jewelry, sparkle, and I like to dress nice. It makes you feel good when you put on these nice things. And so I was missing it because I was wearing, at this point, leggings and t -shirts and
Speaker: you know, mom attire, you know, workout attire every day, and nothing's wrong with that because I still do that. But I was missing that component of dressing up and feeling good. And so I, you know, just happened to flip to the back of this catalog, I'll never forget this. And it said,
Speaker: You know work from home and you get this amazing kit this kid had probably. I had about eight hundred dollars worth of jewelry and a lot of the pieces that i like to work in it was only like a hundred forty dollars and i'm like okay i can do this and i get all of this and it's a work from home opportunity.
Speaker: It blew my mind. I just, I couldn't comprehend that. And at this point, I didn't really know much about network marketing direct sales party plan at this point. You know, I'd heard of Mary Kay before, Avon, my aunt, you know, whose family member hasn't done Avon, right? My aunt did Avon. And I just remember as a child, like going through her Avon stash under her bed and like picking out all the
Speaker: the newest lip balms every Christmas and getting the little hand lotions and the smelly, the Smell Good perfume roll -ons. I loved that and brought me back. But that was what I had in my mind. Oh, it's just a little hobby that people do and I didn't really think you can make money with it.
Speaker: I just went ahead and bought the kit, didn't talk to anybody. Next thing I know, I'm getting the call from this woman. She's like, hi, I'm so and so. Let's call her Mary. Mary goes, you're welcome to the team. I'm so excited to have you. How did you find my information? I'm like, well, I found your catalog at this salon.
Speaker: She's like, wow, that really works. I'm like, apparently, I didn't really know what she was talking about. But um, you know, she kind of gave me my first steps on what to do. And I mean, I am at this point, ignorance on fire. I'm like, I need to make money. She said you can make x.
Speaker: you know, amount if you do this, this and this and achieve this. And so I went out and did it and I did a lot of things wrong. But again, I'm ignorant on fire and I had this, you know, fire in me that I wanted to make this work. I needed to make this work by
Speaker: And I wanted a community. It was so exciting to have someone I didn't know but was in the vicinity of where I lived right now that was introducing me to this new amazing concept of working from home. But also I will have a community of like minded women to, you know,
Speaker: to celebrate success with, to commiserate and celebrate with that I'm so excited for and that I desperately needed. And, you know, my husband was deploying and I'm like, Oh my goodness, not only do I have my military spouse friends, which we had an amazing
Speaker: family, military spouse community, those women and men that were a part of our spouses club on the military side. They're family to me. Probably some of them are even closer to family to me after everything that we've experienced and went through.
Speaker: I'll share that journey on another episode, so stay tuned for more. But this episode is more of why I'm doing this, what this is going to be about, what this community is about, and my journey and how I've gotten here. So I needed this and I was so excited. This opportunity, Mary,
Speaker: became a lifeline to me, introducing me to many other women. And I was so excited. I started earning
Speaker: earning incentives. And I'm like, this is so exciting, because I haven't, you know, had this in a few years. And since I left my career, you know, I missed the the work environment, I missed the I missed receiving the the atta boys or atta girls, if you will. You know, and those are just, you know, congratulatory is for, you know, reaching certain mile time, mile, mile stones, words are hard today, or just, you know, getting the recognition for a good job done. Well, you know,
Speaker: And, you know, even though I was working, I was an independent contractor doing this, I wasn't really by myself. And it was so nice to be a part of that. And yes, I did things wrong. I spammed people and I got the unsubscribe from friends because I just didn't really know I didn't understand sales. I came from a defense background, defense working nine to five,
Speaker: Really, it was really 4am to 7pm. Long hours, not being home with my kids, you know, trading time for money. And I made really, really good money back then. I made over six figures at a very young age. I started
Speaker: you know, earning that about age 20, 26 figures and, um, which was, you know, when talking to my friends in college, you know, my sorority sisters and they weren't making that yet right out of college. They were making, you know, 35 to 40 ,000 a year. And I was already making six figures, which was before, you know, I had finished college, which was amazing.
Speaker: And so I missed that. And, you know, I started doing really well. I'm like, Okay, well, how do I figure out what's the right way to do because I'm getting unsubscribes and people aren't, you know, responding to my emails because back then I, you know, started off emailing and then slowly started on online, I started seeing people
Speaker: you know, thinking you can do things online. Again, the internet was still fairly new and working online was a new concept. We also had Myspace back then. Yahoo groups, if you remember all of that, yes, I'm aging myself.
Speaker: It was a great, great experience. I learned for that. I don't consider those failures because I was bringing home money. My husband, when I first paid our car payment with it, he was like, what? This is exciting. And so we started to plan around it. This money was paying for date nights. This money was putting groceries on the tables when we need it. It was paying for my kids' extracurricular activities. And this was a...
Speaker: you know, bridging that gap that we needed so desperately, you know, you know, this business model is brilliant. So not only does it make money for the company who created these products, but it also provided a commission based on my sales that I
Speaker: I do personally. And if I train an organization to do that as well, they'll give me a percentage of my sales organization. This business model is amazing. I wish
Speaker: And now I would say more businesses are open to that. They have a lot of affiliate business models within their regular business model. The direct sales, network marketing, multi -level marketing is, I would say, hands down, the best business model. No, no. For those that are listening, it is not a pyramid scheme. Pyramid schemes are illegal.
Speaker: You know, do some come out? Yes, but they're illegal and the FTC will shut them down. But network marketing
Speaker: a direct sales party plan is a legitimate business model that not only enables anyone and everyone who can join to work a business. Again, you are an independent contractor. You are paid a commission. You don't have to source the products. You don't have to manufacture them. You don't have to
Speaker: pay shipping costs. There's a lot of things that go to developing a business and these big corporations and most people don't have those funds. And a lot of those businesses, about 80 -85 % I was looking at statistics on new businesses fail within their first five years. So given that retrospect, this business model of network marketing direct sales party plan
Speaker: is brilliant because it takes away that liability that you would lose a lot of money in investing in a brick and mortar, if you will, or, you know, investing in researching and developing a product and selling it and then trying to
Speaker: market it. It's basically the same concept except for it takes away that risk. So you can buy this business in a box, if you will, and earn a commission. But the problem is with it, even though anyone can do it,
Speaker: everyone won't do it because, or those that do join, not everyone will be successful. And people don't understand that because they, and they think, Oh, this is a scam. And that's, that's not the case. You
Speaker: need to take your own responsibility for what you do and don't do. And if you don't learn how to sell and sell properly or market yourself, you're probably not going to do well. You need to learn that skillset and you have to
Speaker: Focus on your mindset on top of that and personal development because Being a business for yourself. Even if you're an independent contractor there's a lot of highs and lows and you need to learn how to overcome those and The only way you're going to be able to do that is through personal development mindset and that was a big key factor for me because I kept saying to myself, you know when I was trying to figure this out and I was making a little money here and there doing parties and I
Speaker: I was seeing these people earn these large checks and I'm like, how are they doing this? If they can do it, I can do it. Why can't I? Because at such a young age, my parents told me I could do anything. I put my mind to it. As long as I focus on it and I strive to do and achieve it, I can make it happen. And so I never had that negative
Speaker: headspace that I couldn't do something. I'm like, Okay, I got to figure it out how I can do it. I just I know what's going to happen. I just have to figure, you know, figure out what I need to get there. And so my biggest recommendation is, you know, personal development and having, you know, as we're going to talk about today is, you know, your, your leadership in that community, your leadership narrative, you know, and
Speaker: And how you navigate that is really going to help you. And so that personal development is key in success in this industry. Honestly, in any industry, you need to really have a sound mindset and personal development is the key and we'll work on it all.
Speaker: wonders in your life. Bob Proctor has this book, Change Your Paradigm, Change Your Life, and it is so true. I started working on myself. I started changing my paradigm. I was no longer this mom who felt frumpy, who was
Speaker: depressed at home even though i was enjoying every moment with my children i was lacking that community and camaraderie with others and then that's something you know that's spark that's self worth i was missing that and direct sales network marketing party plan.
Speaker: was the answer to that because it just nothing else fit with my husband's career and that enabled me to bring in an income that we desperately needed while we had to move as much as we have over the years. So fast forward through the years, I failed forward and I never say I fail, I fail forward. I learned from those.
Speaker: those were key lessons that I needed to be, to grow into the person that I am today. And, you know, those either missteps or really seasons and lessons taught me what I needed to be where I am today. And then fast forward to, I led my recent company, I led a very successful team. We had a sales organization, over 700 million,
Speaker: and team sales, yes, $700 million in team sales in six years. And I actually resigned from that company last year so I can, you know, I had this burning desire to develop this community and, you know, serve others in a capacity that I always felt I was meant for more. And this is going to enable me to do that. And so I resigned from there, which was so hard because we're going to
Speaker: You become a multimillion -dollar earner in our industry. Walking away from income like that is scary, especially when your family started depending on it. But, you know, if I'd done it once, I could do it again. And, you know, so I kind of challenge myself. And, you know, I go into this
Speaker: exciting path. And I'm so excited to introduce you to amazing women I've met on this journey and amazing mamas that are leading with passion and purpose. And that's what this is about. This community is about helping others and not only those in network marketing and direct sales, party plan, but those in business, mamas who are leading with passion and purpose.
Speaker: You know, that is my goal and objective to bring to you their stories and their triumphs and where we're going to learn and grow together. So that's why, you know, this, this has been a passion or a, a, how do I say this here? Words are hard for me today. It's been on my heart for some time and I am so excited.
Speaker: to bring that to you, you know? So whatever you are, as we're, you know, I'm introducing you to this.
Speaker: this new podcast, I hope you join us. And I want you to think about the heart of your narrative. Imagine your leadership narrative as a garden. Each experience is a seed that has grown into a vibrant part of your landscape. My garden includes the early seeds of ambition, the blooms of success in network marketing, and the deep roots of family and resilience. As I reflected on my journey here, how I've gotten here,
Speaker: is that pivot that I had to do and think out of the box when I left a successful career in department defense and moved all the way to the West Coast and being unable to really continue in that path, that I had to think out of the box. I had to pivot and dive into this world of network marketing and now coaching. What are the pivotal moments in your journey?
Speaker: How have they impacted your growth in your life? Is that something? Can you do something with that? Can you share? Can you help somebody with your story? Those are things that I think about and I want to help others because I know there are others struggling and trying to find their way. That's what I hope this podcast does. I hope this podcast helps someone out there.
Speaker: you're trying to find your narrative, identify your core values. My core values centered around empowerment, resilience, and adaptability. Principles that have guided me through career changes, motherhood challenges, and beyond. Think about what values that guide your decisions. Another thing that has always been embracing your vulnerabilities
Speaker: You know, sharing the challenges of balancing a demanding career with family life, especially, you know, for me as a military spouse, has allowed me to connect with others facing similar struggles. And again, this is why I'm doing this podcast. Your vulnerabilities are a testament to your strength. And they are meant to be shared, and they'll help you connect with others. And I really hope you do so and utilize this community to connect with others.
Speaker: So combine all of these elements into a narrative that's authentically you. For me, it's a story of transformation, growth, and relentless pursuit of building a business that aligns with my life's changing seasons. And oh boy, there's been some changing seasons. It's not been easy. I've been a military spouse for over 20 years.
Speaker: I've been in network marketing for about 15 to 17 years and before that, Department of Defense for 10 years. Your story isn't just for sharing, it's for living. My narrative is embodied in every decision I make from pivoting to a coaching business, walking away from that multi -seven -figure income to now mentoring others in network marketing
Speaker: and business. So let's take the analogy of a quote. Each patch represents
Speaker: a different chapter of your life with varied textures and colors representing different experiences and lessons. My quote includes patches of military life, motherhood, career transitions, and oh boy has there been, and entrepreneurial success and some hard lessons learned, right? It's a reminder that while each piece is distinct and together, but together they form a cohesive, beautiful whole.
Speaker: So crafting and living your leadership narrative is an ongoing journey. It's about continually weaving your experiences, values and lessons into a story that guides and inspires both your actions and those people that you lead.
Speaker: No, this has been a journey for me and I'm so excited to have you here with us. You know, thank you for joining me today on Mamas Who Lead. Remember, your leadership narrative is a powerful reflection of your journey. Embodying the essence of who you are as a leader, I encourage you to embrace your story with all its twists, turns and triumphs and share it with the world. Until next time, keep leading with authenticity, courage and heart.
Speaker: Thank you for joining us on Mamas Who Lead with Laura Carafino. This podcast is more than just a series of episodes. It's a heart to heart conversation, a mentorship, and a community rolled into one. Inspired by Laura's journey from a Department of Defense contractor to a top network marketer and coach, we're here to empower you to lead with conviction, balance, ambition,
Speaker: with family and build a business that thrives alongside your life. Whether you're navigating career changes, scaling your own venture, or looking for inspiration amidst the chaos of motherhood, remember, you are not alone. Together, we'll explore the endless possibilities that await when moms lead. Join us next time as we continue to build this community one story, one idea, and one leader at a time.
