Your Thoughts Really Are Things... Part 1
Hello, everyone. This is Jerry Clark and I am talking to you from my home in
INTERVIEW
JERRY DRHINO
Lisa, welcome to our program today.
LISA KITTER:
Hey, Jerry, thank you so much. I am excited to be here and it is really a privilege to be able to share with these folks today.
JERRY DRHINO
Excellent, I know you have a plane to catch shortly so we are going go ahead and make sure we go over this information so we can get you off to the airport. We want to make sure you catch your flight; you have a lot of stuff to do there.
What don't you start off by sharing with us a little bit about your background. Because we know now that you have a six-figure income, that you're earning in the networking industry and it wasn't always that way. Well, let us take it back a little bit to some of your beginning and so forth. Were you born with a rich family or something or entrepreneur family or can you tell us a little bit about your background?
LISA KITTER:
Absolutely. You know, I certainly did not come from a wealthy family at all. As a matter of fact, mine was probably middle class or even a little below middle class. I grew up in
JERRY DRHINO
Did you have any brothers or sisters?
LISA KITTER:
Yes, I do, I have an older brother, and his name is Scott. I have a younger brother named Todd.
JERRY DRHINO
In
LISA KITTER:
Yes,
JERRY DRHINO
Wow, how did you guys get to
LISA KITTER:
Jerry, I always knew I was coming to
JERRY DRHINO
Now, why
LISA KITTER:
Lifestyle. I used to watch television on occasion when I'd go to a friend's home and it seemed like, you know, all the great shows--the Brady Bunch, Partridge Family--hey, they were in
JERRY DRHINO
Interesting. Now how did you get into marketing then? Did you come to
LISA KITTER:
When I first got to
JERRY DRHINO
From that garage sale, huh?
LISA KITTER:
Yeah, from that garage sale, literally. So it was a matter of finding work. I mean, I felt that
I ended up working retail sales for awhile. Moved from retail sales and I was always involved in the health and fitness arena, so I taught aerobic classes, got involved in weight loss programs, inspiring others. As a matter of fact, that was really my first step as far as kind of motivating--motivating others. I did some personal growth, and I did some weekly training on weight loss, health and fitness and went to weight loss centers. I was like their spokes person for that. So that was always a side job. That is something that brought in revenue for me. Ever since I was really young, I wanted to own my own business. I knew I was going to be a successful entrepreneur, I just didn't know in what area.
JERRY DRHINO
Now how did you know that? I mean, what kind of examples did you have of people who owned their own business? Is this from your family?
LISA KITTER:
No, not at all. My family is pretty employee-minded, although my father tempted a few business but never saw success and always ended up back at a J O B. But for me, I think the first taste of that kind of financial freedom happened when I was 11. I started babysitting. I baby sat every single evening, every single weekend in order to have school clothes, in order to be able to buy my own school clothes. So I started babysitting, and I realized, hey, this is my money. I can do whatever I want with this money. You know, one time I, gosh, I was about 12, and I ended up spending $75.00 on a skateboard and no one could tell me I couldn't do that, because it was my money.
JERRY DRHINO
You got hooked on the idea of having your own money.
LISA KITTER:
Of having my own money, realizing that the more time and the more energy that I put in, the more money I was going to make. And there was a point from about age 11 up to about age 14, babysitting was the only way I knew of making money at that age. So I would babysit evening, I would babysit weekends, whatever, whenever, I was there.
JERRY DRHINO
So you were driven? Okay, so now you are in
LISA KITTER:
Well, I began to look around for an opportunity, a business that I could start, something that I could do on my own. I actually got into residential property management, got my real estate license, worked as a residential property manager for about seven years. Was considered successful in that industry, but it was not the kind of success that I knew I was capable of. I had reached kind of a ceiling as far as my income. I knew I didn't want to do real estate sales and I've always, like I said, wanted to have my own business.
Here was a key point, too. When I was in property management, I managed the property and even though I took their profit margin way up, my income did not go up as dramatically as the profits I was seeing coming into the company and the organization. Yet the owner would come and visit and he would drive a new Mercedes, you know. He was off on Wednesday golfing while I was working and I said, um, something is wrong with this picture. I'm behind the desk and putting in all the energy and the effort, he had the gumption and the wherewithal to start this business and now he is enjoying the fruits of his labor and I'm doing the labor. It is time to reverse this, you know, this whole situation, change this role.
JERRY DRHINO
So you really started actively looking for some ways for you to be in that driver's seat, so to speak. Really have your own business. So, is this when a networking opportunity came your way?
LISA KITTER:
Yep, that was about 1993, when I began to have these thoughts. At the beginning of 1995, I answered an ad in a newspaper, stumbled on a network marketing program, network marketing opportunity through an ad in the newspaper. You know, of course, I thought I was going to a job interview, took my resume and ended up at opportunity meeting.
JERRY DRHINO
Really? What was your impression?
LISA KITTER:
Oh, I was hooked. I loved it. They started drawing the numbers on the board and doing the circles and, you know, you bring one and they bring two, and they bring two and the whole nine yards and I saw the potential immediately. I was very excited about it. It was a health and nutrition company which, of course, I had an interest in health and nutrition anyway. So I thought it would be a perfect match and I got very excited about that opportunity and actually worked that opportunity for couple of years.
JERRY DRHINO
Really, did you, like, get rich over night?
LISA KITTER:
Unfortunately, no. That I did not do.
JERRY DRHINO
Well, tell us about the learning curve? I mean, what are some of the major distinctions you got in that first couple of years of really working your business, really hard? I mean, did you achieve some great results with that particular company?
LISA KITTER:
Initially, actually, I achieved some good results for someone, you know, first time out. I did achieve some pretty decent results.
JERRY DRHINO
Why do you think that is, though? Initially, starting out, you achieve some pretty decent results. What key factors would you say, you know, it is because I did this, or it is because of this happened, this is why I believe I achieved some key results?
LISA KITTER:
Because I thought I could. That is it. I thought I could. I came in, they painted this incredible picture of what the potential was, of the money that was possible and I thought, I can do that. Piece of cake. No problem. I went in there with the mindset and the attitude that I could do that and I actually did. I started off my first few months with a bang. I was the top manager in the entire country for sales volume, in the summer of '95 for three months running. That was pretty empowering. That was exciting and unfortunately I was in a relationship where my spouse didn't think that was as exciting. I was putting in 10, 12 hours every single day.
JERRY DRHINO
Wow, so you were really committed? So you were really working this thing?
LISA KITTER:
Oh, absolutely. I went in there with a commitment that I was going to do whatever it took and work as many hours as it took because I really, really saw my vision of my future.
JERRY DRHINO
And so it sounds like that your husband at the time, I mean this is your ex-husband now?
LISA KITTER:
Yes, ex-husband.
JERRY DRHINO
It sounds like he didn't see that same vision, right?
LISA KITTER:
No, he sure didn't. And I really-- I don't place the blame on him at all for my lack of success, but I took a drastic dive, nosedive down because of all sudden I started getting this feedback at home. I wasn't home enough. I was putting in too many hours. How much did it cost me to make that amount of money? Why was I going to another training? That was ridiculous--didn't I understand they were just trying to take my money? Was it really going to help me long-term? Why didn't I go back to a job, at least there I had security, I had benefits, all of these different things. That negative feedback, that negative energy that was coming to me, boy, I mean, I was buying into all of that and all of a sudden, I didn't have the results anymore. I went from that spiral downward. That lasted for about a year and a half, almost a year and a half.
JERRY DRHINO
Wow. So what kind of advice do you have for people who also have a spouse that is not supportive, that may be giving them negative energy, that may be not so excited about what they're doing when they get into networking and so forth? I mean, would you just tell them all to just get divorced? I mean, what would you say?
End of Part 1... This Interview Is Continued in Part 2...