Door hangers explained!

There have been some questions about door hangers, so I thought I'd clear it up for y'all!

In the USA, the mail boxes (typically at the end of people's drives) belong to the American Postal Service, so it's therefore illegal to put anything into these mail boxes, or stick or hang anything on them. Because they have mailboxes, no one has letter boxes in their front doors, and therefore the best alternative to a leaflet is a door hanger. Think of a hotel "do not disturb" sign - and that's a door hanger! Now picture the "do not disturb" sign with a Slimming World design - and that's a Slimming World door hanger!

Carol and I have found that the time to physically hang the hanger on each door is quicker than putting a leaflet through each door, however as you'll know from earlier blog entries, the houses are typically bigger here, so the walk between each house takes longer. Also, the big difference is the weather. With temperatures currently around 84 degrees in the morning, rising to an average of 102 degrees in the afternoon and not starting to cool down until around 8pm, it's hot - damn hot! The maximum time I've spent 'on the street' so far is 3 hours, and I regretted that! We're averaging 50 door hangers per person in 42 minutes in my household (that is just myself and Thomas, 8 years old!) and Carol's crew are way ahead at 100 hangers per person, per hour (a 1/4 of which are army trained though - her son Alexander has arrived to help!). Carol's also doing well at gathering help (a fire woman who does the admin at the church in which she has her Tues pm group, and potentially a couple of young men who live accross the road).

I've found that crocs with socks are the most comfortable shoes (when you have blisters!) for doorhanging - any other ideas welcome (please!!). All I can say is that Consultants must all have the most solid of calves! Wearing sunglasses is not a good idea - I have "panda eyes" from my 3 hour stint yesterday - brown nose and face and white eyes - attractive!

I've been told of two apartment blocks in The Colony that have 250 apartments per block where the manager of the block (if they like you!) will hang your hangers for you. I have to say, it's very tempting, but I know that it wouldn't count as part of my prongs, as I wouldn't know that they had hung them.....what would you do? Post your answers on the comments link............

I'm handing over the writing of the blog to Carol for the weekend, as we're moving into our house on Friday - yes, we really are!!!! It's buggered up the community activities that I had planned for Friday and Saturday (where's my commitment?!), so back to the drawing board next week...

I'm a blag queen!

Today has been a promotion spectacular!

This morning 350 door hangers hung in the Colony. This afternoon word of mouthing wherever I went!

I've managed to talk my way into a breakfast "networking" meeting on Friday morning, and got a table at a business expo on Saturday am. More into my stride with it now - you just have to talk to anyone and everyone!

My two groups are opening in two different cities (towns) and I now know that I will never set a new Consultant up to open two groups at the same time in two different towns - such hard work driving backwards and forwards to each city. By far the easiest to promote is the one where I am going to be living - word of mouth at school today - invited to parents meeting next Friday (more WOM - yipee!).

Funny how we get told all this, but it's not until you actually do it for yourself......!

A meeting of great minds!

Today I met with the Houston lawyers that have been working with us on various items in preparation for our launch, most importantly our Consultant Contract. This has proved to be a mine field, but we're very nearly there with it now. It's all been really interesting to work on and things will be quite different to how they are in the UK, for example, we will be charging more for our franchise, charging Consultants for any training after Foundation training, maybe having the contract so that Consultants have to re-train every two years to have their licence re-newed - no licence, no group! And the earnings will be capped at 40% to start with.

Are you all still keen to come to the USA?!

Freedom of speech?!

A very interesting couple of days! After my run in with the MOG, Carol and I checked out the permit situation, and it turns out that every city has its own rules.

So in Frisco, I need a permit to doorhang. I can doorhang from 9am - 7pm Mon - Fri and 10am - 5pm on a Sat or Sun. Permit costs $35 for 6 months and anyone that doorhangs with me also needs a permit at $35! In The Colony I can doorhang from sunrise to sunset 7 days a week, and do not need a permit (so long as I don't talk to anyone!). If Thomas helps me, it is considered as child labor (absolutely!!) and I need to sign consent forms, am not allowed to take him further than 30 miles away from home, and he can only doorhang from 10am - 7pm on any given day! In Flowermound, Carol cannot doorhang on a Sun or bank hol and can only hang from 9am - 5pm. Carol doesn't need a permit, so long as she doesn't talk to anyone! OK, I know - Carol needs a permit!!!!!

So I guess we should be grateful to the MOG, as without him, we would never have known any of this! Andy says that I'm just the same with bonfires (not before 6pm)!

PS: You may have noticed that I have removed my previous posting containing the F word (no, not that F word), as on reflection I decided that I may cause offence (apologies if I have), and my mum reads my blog - and she wouldn't approve - sorry mum!!

Door hanging - Day 2!

Ow, ow, ow! Didn't realise I was quite so out of shape!!

As my Monday night venue wasn't confirmed until a few days ago, the doorhangers for that group arrived from the UK unprinted, so we're stickering as we go. American labels don't fit in my English printer, so Carol's doing the honors for me, so Thomas and I put out the 100 doorhangers that we had left for Frisco this am. 43 mins and 88 degrees.

We did our first evening shift tonight, starting at 6.30pm (and 97 degrees) - we managed a measly 150 before Thomas knee's started giving way underneath him!!

We've just worked out that we need to hang at least 273 per day, every day to get them all done in time before we open - no problem!!

Door Hanging - Day 1!

Thomas and I started to try and put a dent in our 6,000 doorhangers today. We left home hotel!) at 8am when it was a very cool 88 degrees. Averaged 42 minutes per 100 doorhangers (between the two of us!), had to stop at 11.20am, as it was a "too hot to have your 8 year old walking in this heat" 104 degrees. Told Andy that we need him and Drew in a support vehicle tomorrow for regular refreshment (and resuscitation!) so that we can get a few more done, as at this rate we will take another 14 days to get these done!!

Only met one MOG (miserable old git!) who asked to see my 'permit'. Of course, I didn't have one, but apparently 'the city' require anyone doorhanging in Frisco to have a permit - oops, better get myself to city hall on Monday! So that's a permit for doorhanging, a permit for a banner - I wonder if you need a permit for word of mouth?!!

Drum roll please.......

Slimming World's USA website is now live! Visit us at http://www.slimmingworldusa.com/

Not only are we blessed...we are also the chosen ones!

Our marketing materials have been "chosen" to be checked by customs, meaning that we shall not be receiving them until probably Friday - you know Friday, the day we were supposed to be moving into our new home (again!). Well, we're not (again!), so it's another weekend in the hotel for us!! How will I ever get used to not having cleaners visit every day?!!

We had another fab day visual making. Today's accomplishments were a Challenge Board, a Slimming World synergy board, a Body Magic board, Free food and Superfree food picture boards and we also started on our other visual displays of food packaging. We've decided to pull together various "kits" (e.g: Tex Mex, tipples, breads, Italian, snacks etc) and then we can share these and keep changing the displays in our groups to keep them interesting. I said to Carol that I remember that the Gosport and Fareham team in the Hampshire district always used to do this - make kits and share them around the team - so thanks for the idea guys!

Downtown la la la la la la!

Today started with a meeting "downtown" at the Dallas Morning News. I got the best deal that I could for our group opening adverts. Didn't realise that I would be interviewed to make sure that we were a suitable organisation to advertise in their newspaper - of course they loved Slimming World!

The morning wasn't without drama - a little incident with a dollar bill and a toll booth!! I must get a toll tag to stop this happening! I must also remember that road rage is not a good thing - it's not big and it's not clever (and some people carry guns and knives!!)!

Rest of the day spent visual making with Carol. We have all of our diplomas and other awards ready for our new members table, "meet the team" boards, footprints to show the "way to weigh", a gorgeous Slimmer of the Week basket, a welcome board for the new members table, various countdown visuals - all Slimming World logo'd of course!! I'm sure I've fogotten a few....

OMG - venues are sorted!!

I viewed a church this morning that is perfect for a Monday evening group. It's right in the middle of a MASSIVE area of housing - yipee! And I think that the room could seat about 200 members! Managed to negotiate the rent for the whole evening, which we've found we've been able to do with all of our venues. Much better that way because when we go double / triple session - no rent increase!!! We're also booking our venues October/November & January for the other evenings that they have available, as we know that we'll need to operate more than one group out of each venue to fulfil our growth potential, and of course having our venues booked in advance will make our Consultant recruitment much easier and stronger.

Carol and I visited our Tuesday and Thursday pm group venues today and practised our group layout so that we could best place the chairs, tables and visuals. Thank goodness we did, as we couldn't get the layout that we wanted in the room that we had booked for my Thursday night group, so we've booked a bigger room (for the same rent of course!).

We also went shopping for some more bits and pieces for our groups - baskets to put low syn / free food packaging in, ribbons for our Slimmer of the Week basket (yes, really!) etc.

Carol was contacted today to sign customs forms for the marketing materials that are being delivered to her house. They are arriving in the country tomorrow, but need to clear customs before we get them, which we have been told will be Friday (3 days after we had thought). Our four week promotional period is turning into a two and a bit week promotion (I just hope we can get all of our door hangers out in time!)

We are still homeless!

But don't feel sorry for us - staying in a hotel isn't so bad! We've been told that we can hope to move in next Friday!

Bought some group essentials today - Slimmer of the week basket (the biggest I could find - just need some ribbons and bows to decorate it!), bits and pieces for visual making - Carol and I are getting together to make before and after boards, a "meet the social team" visual (thank you Cheryll Hoskins for that great idea!), boards to display our diplomas and many more visuals besides. We want our groups to visually show "success" - even from night one.

Carol's been out food shopping. She's buying various foods and keeping the packaging to demonstrate high syn v's low syn, as we'll need to teach our members where the syns are hidden. Should make for some great visuals for our interest tables! We'll also be able to discuss in Image Therapy how to make them yourself for even less syns - what's a zucchini again Carol??!!!!

We are blessed!

The last 3 days have been spent venue hunting, venue hunting and more venue hunting! We have spoken to so many Pastors (and sauce!!!), and had so many "blessings". Everyone is so friendly, and even if they can't offer us their facilities as a venue for our groups, they want to know if they can do anything else to help us settle in. I have a few suggestions, but I don't think it's what they mean!

First day at the office!

Carol and I moved into Slimming World USA head office today - do you like it?!! If you look at the window 6 floors up and 5 in from the left hand side of the building.....you won't see us as we have an inside office! Classic comedy moment when Carol sat on her chair and her legs were nearly over her face as it self reclined - I guess you had to be there!

We're going potty!

Went to the Social Security office this morning to register for our Social Security numbers (this allows us to work and be paid!). Didn't know what to expect, but it was all very clean and respectable! We thought we'd be there for hours, so had packed enough food, drink and toys to keep the kids occupied for a week, but in 15 minutes we were done!

Off we went to the Texas Department of Public Safety next to book a time for my driving test - yes, I have to take a theory test, practical test and vision test! I have a 114 page drivers handbook to study in preparation! Couldn't get the test booked though, as I need my Social Security number to do so, so will need to go back in about 2 weeks time. Luckily Carol just had to convert her Florida license to a Texas one, so worst case scenario (i.e: if I fail my test!) - she can be my chauffer!! Not sure she'd be too happy with that though!! Andy made some comment about the Texas Department of Public Safety and how it was for everyone elses safety and not mine - I think this was an attempt at a dig about my driving....don't know what he means?!

Next came more work on venues. I have a meeting with a chap called Jimmy tomorrow who is the Chair of the Board for a church that I really want to hold my Wednesday evening group in. Trouble is, the rent is too pricey - hoping to charm him into a reduction! Also have some more viewings scheduled, so everything is crossed for tomorrow!

On a personal note....a landmark occasion today - Drew started using his potty!! Hooray!! Some of you in Head Office will know just how much this means to me!! Even better as diapers are so blooming expensive here (do you like my American?!)

Challenge Anneka!

On the venue hunt again today in Frisco, Plano and McKinney. I was Anneka Rice, racing around in the car, whilst Carol played the part of (.......what was his name.......ummmm.....) the man with the map in the control center, calling to see if there was any availability. Answers on a postcard please!

Maybe it's because I'm a Londoner!

Whilst looking through some publications for potential venues for our groups, Andy came across a review for a Dallas pub called the Londoner that made him laugh out loud, "Complete with brick walls, plank floors, some frothy pints and a dartboard, the Londoner is the real deal. This authentic English pub has a menu that features Classic Fish and Chips, Shepherd's Pie and Chicken Tikka Masala.....check out Bloodsport Trivia every Monday". That's the location for our next meal out sorted then! I wonder if we'll get a discount as Andy is the "real deal" (born in London!)?!

Some potential venues got back in touch - YMCA, gymnastics center, Ice Hockey rink, a few churches - should be sorted tomorrow.

The hunt continues!

Carol has the two venues for her Tuesday night and Saturday morning groups booked and sorted. I did have mine sorted also, however now it's just the Thursday night venue that is secure. The church where my Wednesday night group was going to be held has come back and said that the rent will need to be higher after all - $100 for the first hour and $50 each hour thereafter. Apparently this is due to the cost of the air conditioning (starting to wish I purchased a smaller house!!). This venue would have been perfect, but it seems they are not open to negotitions, so 6 hours has been spent today contacting various places. Nothing concrete to report, but some call backs to make on Monday. BTW - my Thursday night venue is where WW have held a group for 20 years, so I'm throwing myself right into the firing line!! You'd never have known it as there isn't a poster or leaflet in sight. Wait until we start our promotion next week - they won't know what's hit them!!

Our house, in the middle of our street!

We took Drew to his new home for the first time today, as he's the only one of us that hasn't yet been. The amount of house you get for your money in the states is amazing. Ours is a 5 bed, 4 bath, 3 car garage house with dining room, family room, games room and movie room (and I'm sure I've forgotten a couple of rooms!) all for less than the price of our 3 bedroom semi-detatched victorian house on the Isle of Wight!

Drew loved the space to play with his cars, and Thomas has decided on the spot for the Christmas tree!

We move in next Friday!

We went out for dinner at 6pm - it was 111 degrees! Phew!

We've arrived at the "Big D"!

10 1/2 hours on a plane with a 2 1/2 year old and no television to keep him occupied - courtesy of British Airways! It made me laugh when a member of the Cabin Crew gave me a piece of paper and a pen and told me that that was for my apology - "do I have to write my apology myself then?" I asked!! I told him that I'm expecting a free return flight to the UK for myself and Drew. As Carol said, I can expect it....! Big thanks to the gentleman sat behind and the lady to our right who made the flight bearable (I didn't know BA provided free child care these days!).

We had to upsize our hire car as our medium sized Avis wouldn't stand the 3 suitcases, 3 large holdalls, Jasper Conran luggage set (yes, it's in use!), 4 hand luggage bags, change bag, laptop case, 2 adults, 2 kids and a cuddly toy!!

We arrived at our hotel in Plano shattered, but happy to be here!

Even more farewells!

Emotional farewells at Head Office today! I can't believe that the day to say goodbye is actually really here!! Everyone who works at Head Office is amazing. I hope they all know how much we appreciate their help and support.

Day out at the Embassy!

Today was (finally!) interview day at the American Embassy in London. I had heard much about this, but nothing prepared me for the simplicity of the whole thing. You really do get given a number, called up to a counter, have your finger prints taken, get told to wait again, get called to another counter (like being at the post office), have your finger prints taken again, get told to wait yet again, get called to yet another counter and get asked a couple of questions and that's it! We were there 4 hours in total. Carol had an "interesting" interview - apparently someone of the same name committed a "serious" crime in the USA last November and the Embassy thought they had trapped their culprit!!

We're on a hunt - a venue hunt!

Lots of time spent over the last couple of weeks securing venues for our 4 new group openings - I think we're just about there with it.....

It's a secret!

Lucky me - I had a sneak preview of the new Secrets of Success manual today, as I'm going to be making any adjustments for a USA version. It is fantastic! Every time I read it, I find it's like a really good novel that I don't want to put down. It's amazing that as I know I'm going to be running a group, I'm now being much more diligent about making sure I take it all in! I drew the line at 00:45 hours as I got to the Image Therapy chapter and wanted to make sure I was awake enough to do it justice! Isn't amazing how much knowledge and experience we have at our fingertips?!

More farewells!

Tonight was our last UK Slimming World Oscars! It was so lovely to see everyone before we go (albeit very emotional!). You may have seen us on stage?! The horses are keeping well thank you! A great night (and a late one!) was had by all!!

Passionate about parcels!

Spent time in the Stock dept today learning about stock control, courtesy of Gail Draper. I can tell that Carol is going to be a stickler for her paperclips! This evening we were taken out to dinner by two very nice chaps from CityLink, who were happy to discuss the ins and outs of parcel distribution, as well as golf, football and lots of other blokey things! After dinner we visited the CityLink Hub in Birmingham. I'd always wondered how all of the thousands and thousands of parcels that we send each year ended up at the right Consultants house - well now I know! It's quite an amazing sight to see - all of the lorries from the local depots arriving at the hub and very quickly being unloaded and re-loaded to drive back to their depot with the right parcels. They had something like 425 staff working tonight between 10pm and 2am - it was chaos! We were given a guided tour and commentary by the General Manager - I have never known anyone talk so passionately about parcels - your stock is in good hands!!

Cowboys and an Indian!

WOW what a party!! For the evening of the District Managers meeting, Lisa Salmon had kindly arranged a line dancing leaving "do" for us. Everyone was dressed as cowboys (except for Deborah Sanderson who was our token Indian!), the room was decorated and even the food was themed Texas style - delicious!! The great Mr O even made an appearance!! I don't think anyone knew how tiring line dancing could be and there were a few aching limbs (and heads!) the next day. A great time was had by all!

Nuns!

Today Carol and I went on a field trip with Stuart Cope (Stock dept Manager) to the printers that Slimming World use and to the "pick and pack" warehouse that stores, picks and delivers Hifi and Scanbran to our Consultants in the UK. The printers was very impressive. I expected dust, dirt and noise as the only printing I've seen is when I visited my Dad at work at the Isle of Wight County Press newspaper, but of course things have evolved in the past 25 years!! The working conditions at the warehouse however were so bad that we wanted to bring all of the staff back to Slimming World Head Office - I think sometimes we forget how lucky we are!! When we arrived back at Head Office, Stuart was acting very suspiciously! After a cup of coffee in the restaurant, we were asked to go into the conference room, where there was a national District Managers meeting taking place. All of the staff from Head Office were also in the room, but I couldn't see my team of UK South District Managers anywhere - where were they?!! Lisa asked us to take a seat at the front and then I heard them!! Out came my 7 lovely "Maria" nuns singing a specially written song (thank you Lynn!) to the tune of "how do you solve a problem like Maria". Tears all round! I was then presented with an amazing leaving book full of stories and messages from my District Managers (more tears!). Caryl Richards presented to all our launch and growth plan, pre-empted by the Dallas theme tune and some very dodgy photos (!) and then made a presentation to both Carol and myself of some very stunningly gorgeous Jasper Conran luggage sets! Thank you everyone!!

Last week down South!

Yvonne's last week with her UK South District Managers this week - I am so going to miss them!

They arrived!

Yvonne's "boys" arrived safely in New York! Good to talk to them as it was really strange having no contact for 6 days. They are now in the car heading to Dallas via Washington, Memphis and other places I can't remember! 1,500 ish miles and I bet Thomas doesn't stop talking for one of them!!

The first of many farewells!

Yvonne and Drew (Yvonne's youngest son) saw Andy, Thomas and Jay (Yvonne's Husband, eldest Son and dog) onto the Queen Mary 2. Jay is 15 years old and we were told by his vet that he was not fit to fly to the USA. No Jay in the USA, no Thomas in the USA - no USA!!! The only way to get a live animal to the USA from the UK if not by air is by sea......and the only way by sea is on the QM2 - lucky things!!! I couldn't believe how massive the ship is when you are next to it! The farewell was hard, but the boys will have the adventure of a lifetime driving from New York to Dallas in their hire car! I must have looked a state when they went, as a woman came over and asked me if there was anything she could do to help me! Drew and I returned to Cowes, Isle of Wight, where at 6.30pm we were stood on the sea wall waving furiously at Andy and Thomas (found out later they had gone inside as Thomas was cold, so goodness knows who we were waving at!!). Returned home to a very empty house and sat on the doorstep (with a G & T) listening to the Stereophonics live, who were playing at the Isle of Wight festival.

We did it!

Three days this week has been spent with the "technical" Xpress Weigh Support Team. We've learnt how to "build" PDA's and laptops so that they have the XpressWeigh and XpressIT programs on them. This was the week I was dreading (technophobe me!) - but we (I!) did it - yeah! Thanks to the professional training skills of Adie, Eddie A and Tammy and words of wisdom from Tom Marvell! What a lovely bunch! If you attended XpressWeigh training this week and have experienced any system errors - it was nothing to do with us.....honest! :)

The only way is XpressWeigh!

We've spent three days this week with the XpressWeigh support team in Head Office learning all about the taking and logging of calls from Consultants and helping them with their questions and fixes. A system is used to log and track "cases" (that's the calls, not the Consultants btw!) called XpressLink and eventually this, along with the Sage accounting system will mean that Consultants have a one stop shop number to call at Head Office for all of their needs - very clever! We're launching our USA groups with XpressWeigh (thank goodness!), and in preparation for this Carol and I have both run a group in the UK using the system. As we will be providing support to Consultants in the USA, we also need to learn the Head Office support side of things. Big thanks this week to Donna, Brodie (what patience!!), Helen, Hayley, Martin and Pat - all stars!