I met the woman who changed my life, Rita Davenport, up close and personal …
I first encountered Rita in 2007 when she was the President of Arbonne. At the time, I was involved in the network marketing company and was ALL IN. The entrepreneurial side of me had just been awakened and my soul was on fire …
She was presenting to the entire “Arbonne family” in Phoenix, and we were in the North Phoenix Baptist Church (if you’re not familiar, it’s a GIANT church) and every seat in the house was full.
In my true Gelie style, I arrived super late and everything was about to begin … there was no time to look for my team.
My options were to sit in the back … or bravely walk up to the front and find an empty seat so that I could absorb the energy and feel it fill my body the way I was feeling adrenaline rush through me daily.
… No really, I was on fire.
I walked up to the front and found myself a VIP front row seat. #TrueGelieStyle
I have no idea what transpired during the whole time I was there, but when Rita took the stage, she literally took my breath away.
There have been few people in my life that have had such a tremendous impact on me as this stranger standing up in front of me.
Her presentation was funny, witty, inspiring, charming, inspirational, uplifting, intoxicating … and at that moment as I was looking up at her from my front row seat, I said …
… I want to be like her.
I want to have my own network that I’m at the “top” of. I want to be on stage sharing stories to inspire people. I want to live my life as an adventure and have the opportunity to share it.
I could literally feel how badly I wanted that lifestyle. I could taste it, smell it, feel it, hear it.
My stomach was in knots because for a moment I feared I wouldn’t be able to …
… And then, I went out and made all of that happen 
You guys know the rest of the story (that’s still not over!).
So tonight, when I had the pleasure of running into Rita at Carey Conley‘s VIP cocktail mixer that’s kicking off her Vision is Victory event, I couldn’t wait to tell her about that moment.
I walked up to her and had one of the most amazing conversations. Told her all about that day at the church and how she truly moved me. We talked for a while, and she said a lot of things that made me SMILE, but one of the things she said that stood out was “you were bigger than Arbonne.”
Yes, I was meant for something different and I’m so fortunate that I discovered my calling fairly early in life … but still a huge ode to my friends who introduced me to Arbonne to awaken my entrepreneurial self and put me in the room with Rita that day.
10 years later, I got to meet the woman and tell her how she impacted me, just as I’m on the brink of another huge entrepreneurial growth spurt.
Isn’t life funny like that? #inthemoment
Documenting my life pivot 