Life's Not Fair... I Already Know This, but Thanks for Reminding me LuLaRoe

"The world is not fair, and often fools, cowards, liars and the selfish hide in high places." 

Bryant H. McGill

I always try to start my posts with a quote. It helps to guide me, keep me on the right track, and often times I know there are others who can more eloquently express what I am feeling. Usually I blog about my life, but I haven't blogged much over the last year because honestly the last year has been a whirlwind of emotion, mostly worry and angst, as well as an overwhelming sense of life isn't fair, and nobody wants to read that. 

For those new to my blog, or my life, here's the Cliff's notes of my story:

Once upon a time, when I had given up on dating ever again I ran into a guy I knew from school at the local Meijer. As I followed him around the store, I admired how much he had grown up and changed over the years. He wound up being my best friend, and after hanging around three years we finally shared a kiss, and were married just a little over a year later. We each brought a child to our marriage, and we quickly had one together. Then when that little one was just five months old we found out we had ANOTHER child on the way. She was born with hypoplastic left heart syndrome, and passed away when she was only three months old. Her whole life was lived in a hospital bed. 

Life isn't fair.

I thought we had been given and survived our life "doozie" and we went on to have three more children together including a set of twins. (If you have twins feel free to insert Life isn't fair here if you wish!) We had many other struggles throughout the life we were building together, but we persevered and made it through. We were never rich by any stretch of the imagination, in fact on a good day we were middle class. But we were happy.

In April of 2016, my husband was diagnosed with AML leukemia. 

Life isn't fair.

When we got the results back from the bone marrow biopsy we found out that not only does he have AML leukemia, but he has FLT3-ITD and a complex karotype. (I know that probably means nothing to you as I had no idea what it meant at the time!) He was told he MUST have a bone marrow transplant, or he would die. Even with the transplant he is still considered high risk poor prognosis.

Life isn't fair.

We held a "Be the Match" drive as they weren't able to find a perfect match for my husband, and even after that they couldn't find him a perfect match, but he needed the transplant, or would face certain death. Thankfully a young man from England who was a 7/8 match instead of a 10/10 donated his stem cells, so my husband could live.

There are still good people in the world!

When my husband had his transplant I had to leave my job because he required 100 plus days of 24 hour care. He had been a pipefitter and I was a school teacher. He couldn't work, and social security disability doesn't pay for six months, and I couldn't provide 24 hour care and teach school, but we also couldn't be without income so a friend suggested I sell LuLaRoe as a way to make ends meet.

It sounded like a great idea. 

At this point you are probably wondering WHAT does this have to do with ANYTHING right? Well that is my LuLaRoe WHY. They stress that to us all the time... WHY are you doing what you are doing? My WHY was to take care of my husband and family while being able to be home. I bought into LuLaRoe's business model because I believed they truly wanted us all to succeed, even if we were just the little guys. I watched training videos, and conference calls, I drank the LuLa juice, and it was good.

While watching all these home office updates we are told you have to buy more to sell more! So I did. You have to get out of your zip code, and I did, wear your LuLa everywhere you go, and I do. Give it away to people you meet, leave business cards, do random acts of kindness because of LuLaRoe... and I do. I like to think that I was kind before too, but I tried to do as much as I could to practice what I was being preached, because that is the way our owners, Mark and Deanne would want it.

We've had our fair share of problems too...

There were the leggings with holes... a whole lot of them. In fact for awhile I felt nervous to sell any leggings because I swear every time I did someone had pin holes in them, and I was embarrassed, but believed in my company so I replaced the leggings with a smile and would file a return form with my fingers crossed hoping that I would eventually get the credit for the items. 

Then there was the era of backorders, where pretty much everything you ordered was on backorder, and you may or may not get it eventually. They tried to clear that up by making us prove that we didn't get items that we had paid for, and I eventually wound up giving up on even trying to make sense of that whole fiasco. I'm certain I paid for items I never actually received but the time I spent trying to convince them that what I ordered and what I received didn't match was beginning to wear me out, and taking care of my husband and his multiple daily medications, as well as my children was my top priority, so I let it go.

Next there were the holiday releases, my first year you could order what sizes you wanted, there were limits on the quantity you could order, and we consultants often times crashed the server, but we all got a chance to get the things we wanted, and while it may have taken a lot of time, it was fair for the most part. I kept drinking the LuLa juice.

This year holiday releases changed, we had to buy a "capsule" made up of a variety of sizes, even if we didn't want all the sizes. I looked at it as a way to keep people from "hogging up" all the sizes that we all wanted. I kept drinking the Lula juice.

Then the magical collection came along, and we were told buy as much as you can! This will be a money maker! Get all the magical items! With the exception of a few prints, I can't give my magical items away, for some odd reason, people don't want to wear dresses with rodents, frogs, or farm animals all over them... but I kept drinking the LuLa juice. 

It's so random I told myself, it's not anybody's fault that some people  get ALL the great prints, and I get rodents and farm animals... it's automated, they want me to succeed! I knew this because the home office people told me, and they are good people who care about my success! They want my business to succeed, and so do I.

There were many consultants going out of business and selling at deep discounts to their customers. This made it difficult to sell the inventory I had at retail because why buy it from me at full price when the consultant across town is selling it for 30-50% off? To help us, LuLaRoe started taking back inventory and paying for the retailers who were going out of business to ship it back. I knew it was going to be ok, because I believed them in the home office webinars I watched, and I drank more LuLa juice.

We then received notice that they would no longer be honoring the buy back system they had implemented, and that it had just been temporary and now consultants who went out of business would have to pay to send back their inventory and would get 90% of the wholesale cost of things they had bought IN THE LAST YEAR that was in "resalable" condition. I wasn't sure what that meant exactly but I wasn't going out of business so I didn't worry too much. If I could just stop getting boxes full of prints that look like Doritos I know I can make this work!

Please pass the LuLa juice. 

Fast forward to Halloween, and for some reason, there was NO limit on the capsule releases, even though there were new items being launched in the collection. While some people were able to order 250 kits, other consultants got none. I was in the later group, but was assured this would not "make or break" my business. It was still distressing however to see other consultants on social media posting pictures of themselves in front of literal TOWERS built out of their Halloween capsule boxes, but I believed it would be ok. 

Life's not fair.

I have bigger things to worry about then stupid Halloween leggings.

This will not make or break my business.

LuLaRoe cares about me and my success. 

Next came the class action lawsuit business that no less than 37 people decided to forward to me, or tag me in. I defended my company. LuLaRoe wants me to succeed. Nobody told me to sell my breast milk to buy more stuff. I don't even HAVE breast milk TO sell. Those ladies must have been PUT UP TO IT by somebody who is jealous. LuLaRoe wants me to succeed. Mark and Deanne tell me that every week. I believe them. They care about me. They care about all of us, even the smaller retailers. They want all of us to succeed. 

The holiday item release was better, they put us in a queue and we could order after being "randomized" at the launch time. It was still in capsules of various sizes (let me know if you need any TC2 leggings) but I did manage to get a few, and provide them to my VIPS, and besides LuLaRoe wants me to succeed, they keep telling me this, however I am starting to question if this is the case.

Does anybody want to buy THIS? 

No that's not Justin Timberlake, or Bruce Willis, or Hawaiian Jesus, that is Patrick's face! You don't know who Patrick is? Well he's one the head designer for LuLaRoe!! Who wouldn't want to purchase this? Want a Lula suit? His face also appears on several pair of leggings! I'm thinking of sending this to Jimmy Fallon and telling him it IS Justin Timberlake, except I'm not sure what size he wears, and this is a woman's shirt. (Which can be yours for the low price of $35!)

If Patrick face isn't your style, perhaps you would like these adorable leggings! They are in size TC2 and feature Deanne's face on them with all the other cute holiday stuff, because nothing screams Merry Christmas like Deanne's face on your legs! These too can be purchased from me for only $25! 

Her face is rather subtle I didn't notice it at first, but it does appear multiple times on these butter soft leggings! I drew the blue arrow myself, sadly that is not part of the design! (Arrows are a unicorn you know!!)

I know full well that life isn't fair, and with a husband with leukemia, a son in college, and four kids still at home, crying over silly prints is a major waste of time. I don't have time to waste! I have an almost full time job, a part time job, and I sell LuLaRoe! I participate in online sales, and go to people's homes on the weekends! LuLaRoe wants me to succeed in my business! I believe them! Mark said in the home office webinar that if I just sell what I have and stop wasting time crying over Dorito prints I can do this! I may be paraphrasing a bit, but that is what I hear in my LuLa juice soaked brain. 

Last week they told us that the Noir collection was coming!! It was ALL over social media! I was SO excited, my VIPS were excited!  I hoarded money, I sold things, I *might* have put off paying a couple bills until later this week. (Don't tell my husband that part please) Almost all of our most coveted items... in BLACK. The ultimate unicorn was ON IT'S WAY! I could entice people into getting things they may not have otherwise tried by having solid black items to pair with them! I couldn't wait to order! I came home early from my "real" job so I could watch the home office webinar live so I'd have the details! I watched, I listened, I was told to sell what I have and reinvest in my business. To turn cycles and sell more so I could be ready for launches. I drank some LuLa juice. We didn't even have to buy in a capsule. We could just buy stuff, at regular price, whatever size we wanted. I couldn't wait! 

I was stoked.

I was excited.

I was ready!

I logged on dreaming of making my VIPS happy. 

I was patient.

I was giddy.

I was number 32,874.

I was undaunted.

LuLaRoe wants me to succeed. 

They just told me so two hours ago.

I believe them.

I waited my turn to make my purchases. I was hoping to buy about 30-40 items, I have to order at least 30 items at a time anyway. I had carefully calculated my pieces and sizes. I waited my turn and while the time was much shorter than I was originally quoted in the queue, ALMOST everything was sold out. Over 5 million pieces were sold out in 22 minutes. 

I refreshed.

I hoped.

I said some bad words. 

I refreshed.

I said more bad words.

I gave up.

Then I saw this...

It's kind of upsetting, don't you think?

So now I'm starting to think that this LuLa juice is pickling my brain. They tell us that they want us to succeed, but it seems the same people are able to purchase outrageous amounts of inventory repeatedly, while we "little guys" are forced to send our VIPS to other retailers for the "hot" items, which kind of defeats the purpose of having a VIP group. 

There are some things that just randomly happen and make life unfair, like standardized testing kids in public schools (sorry still a soapbox of mine) hypoplastic left heart syndrome, and leukemia. I know it doesn't affect JUST me, and I'm fully aware that I'm not the only one faced with random life shit. 

But there are things that can be done fairly, in life, and in business, so I think it's fair to feel disappointed today. I've trusted that the people who make decisions at the top were looking out for me, and all the other little guys, but after today I'm not so sure. Maybe it's time for me to thrown in the leggings and give up. I'm not sure what to do right now. I need some time to think and process and lick my non-Noir collection having wounds. 

I'm allowed to have a pity party once in awhile. 

If you've read this far, thank you for reading my rambling rant. I

f you are one of my VIPS I am sorry that I failed in getting NOIR items for you. I went to extraordinary lengths to try to make it happen.

Life's not fair. 

I'll get over it.

If you want to get to know me better, feel free to go back and read my older posts. I'm embarrassed to admit that I haven't updated my blog in forever, but I think I need to do that, because I'm having a hard time typing my closing line (and it's not because of leggings)

God is good. All the time.