How did you just have a baby?

This is me one month after having baby Aidan. I know it sounds kind of cliche hearing someone say, it was using a product consistently every day that allowed them to bounce back. For me, that’s exactly what it was! Now before I tell you what it was or what I did I’m going to tell you that these people in my life;  my sister, my mom, my husband, my friends, my step mom all use various products from this amazing brand. I will share what they use and their stories below!

Isagenix has not only changed my life but it’s changed many peoples lives. I think my favorite thing about this brand is there is something for everyone! The basis of Isagenix is a nutritional re-balancing program which is a two part system. Flooding your body with our super food nutritional shakes and pulling out toxins through our cleanse system which incorporates intermittent fasting. Aside for that Isagenix is like an online grocery store. They have everything like the system products I mentioned above, essential oils, CBD oil, protein bars, snack chips, chocolate squares, vitamins, skin care, anti aging products, coffee, hydrate products, greens powders, fruits and more!

Now because I was pregnant I couldn’t incorporate the cleanse part of the system I left that aside and simply drank ONE SHAKE EACH DAY. I swear you guys, this was it! Now I’m still breastfeeding so also not allowed to use the cleanse system, I just have one shake each day. I eat what I want aside from that shake and I did all throughout my pregnancy. Some stats for you; I only gained 19 pounds and when I went into the doctors for my glucose test she said my levels were above average! But, guess what? I ate more sugar during this pregnancy than I think I ever have. This one simple shake each day gave me my daily nutrition and kept my foundation solid so I could eat what I wanted and still be generally healthy. Now I’m not saying you can have one shake each day and go crazy on sugar because everyone’s body handles sugar differently but having a nutritional foundation is the answer to being healthy.

With my friend Rosemary, who I will talk more about below she found out she had SIBO (small intestinal bacterial overproduction) after trying MANY YEARS to loose weight. She tried working out, counting calories, every diet under the sun and nothing was working because the bacteria in her intestinal track was NOT OKAY.

^^ THIS IS STEP ONE YOU GUYS! The bacteria in your gut! If you’re a kombucha maker or sour krout maker good on you! This is the good kind of bacteria you should be flooding your body with! If you don’t do these things think about a probiotic because bacteria is important! The good kind at least. Let me tell you a little secret, you will never loose weight or be on your way to overall health if the bacteria in your gut is not right.

In my household we make our own sourkrout and kombucha so I’ve had a good bacterial foundation for quite some time. Starting to incorporate the nutritional rebalancing program allowed me to get my daily nutritional foundation on lock so I can be the healthiest I can be! I'm just going to share tid bits about the many people in my life who use Isagenix various products and how they have impacted their lives. To start, My sister uses the full system and has for almost two years now! She was able to loose the stubborn weight. The kind when you look at "skinny" people as say you dont need to loose weight. Well she was one of those people, relatively normal body size but was able to get her body really into shape just by adding the proper nutrition to her diet daily. She was the type prior to Isagenix who would go to the gym and work out multiple times each week but wasn't seeing the results she wanted. Now with the proper nutritional foundation shes able to work out once each week at most and keep her body in the best shape of her life. I remember growing up my sister always had stomach issues, now she still has them but everything is under control! WHICH IS HUGE!! Shes able to eat pizza at night for dinner without it messing up her stomach or have sweets here and there because shes implemented this nutrition in her life daily. Living with IBS (irritable bowl syndrom) hasn't been easy for her but its been life changing since she started using Isagenix.

My husband uses the greens powder and men’s essentials vitamins with Isagenesis. Isagenesis is their anti aging magic that has telomere support in it keeping your body young from the inside out. These vitamins are game changers ladies and gentlemen! We re order these monthly because if we got without them we feel it. My husband has a very hands on, labor intensive job. If he doesn't take his vitamins he can feel the difference immediately. Now like I said above we grow our own veggies in our garden in the spring through the fall but in the winter time my husband struggles to get his greens in. With the greens powder he not only says he feels better after drinking it but they taste good!

On to My friend Rosemary who I talked about above. Shes tried every diet under the sun and was never able to loose weight. When I say every diet I mean every diet! Her issue was her SIBO. Your gut is number one, if you have bad bacteria and an improper nutritional foundation you will never be able to get healthy and loose weight. She unfortunately had to go on very expensive antibiotics to clean out the bad bacteria and she now uses the shakes (one shake each day) to flood her body with the proper nutrition. Ive included a graphic below so you can see everything that's in one shake! Hopefully one day Rosemary will bring herself to try the full system so she can achieve her late goal of weight loss!

My step mom has always been very health conscious. As a runner she saw the immediate benefit as to implement Issagenix into her daily lifestyle and she uses the full system.

My mom also uses the shakes! She’s incorporated one shake each day for over one year now and has lost 20 pounds. She also went to her doctors for her yearly check up and her doctor said all her test results were amazing and asked what she was doing. That’s all from one shake you guys! She’s in her 60’s and has the best nutrition in her life now that she’s ever had. It goes to show, it’s never too late to start!

Last but not least, My daughter uses the Isakids shakes and vitamins! This is a household brand you guys. The biggest gift you can give your children is health. I think every person ever just hopes their baby is healthy when they’re born. Am I right? Don’t you want your 5 year old, or your 18 year old to be healthy too? My favorite part about doing this with my daughter and one day son, is its fun! Shes always excited to make a shake and especially when she has one for breakfast. They taste so good she calls it her "healthy ice cream" and let me tell you, When your kid gets to have "ice cream" for breakfast they will want to do that every morning! So I share all this not to shove Isagenix down your throat but to show you that there's so many versions of health and wellness for everyone in the family. With new guys and gals joining me each month in changing their lives with Isagenix, I share team results on my social media frequently. If you have questions let me know below! I'd love to be able to help you with your 2020 wellness goals. xo, Cara

Business Basics

I’m so humbled that so many friends think of me when it comes to running or building a business. I get asked quite frequently most business basics so I figured I’d write what I know and have learned down. If you have more questions please leave them in the comments below so I can answer them and add to this if need be! Let’s jump in!

BRANDING:
When starting a business you first want to think about a good suiting name. I often think BRAND. You want to pick a name that is going to be well suited for your business but also represent you! If you’re in network marketing skip to the next paragraph where I talk about branding yourself there. The biggest thing when name choosing is making sure it’s not already taken so I suggest making a list of a few names you like to not be disappointed if one or a few are already taken. The easiest way I check is simply typing in that chosen name on Facebook, Instagram and Google. I’m going to use my business for example. When I started my moccasins shop I chose the name HauteMoccsDotCom. When searching on social media you want to keep the name easy and the same all across your platforms so you are easy to find. For example on Instagram you don’t want to have to add periods or dashes, like @hautemoccs-dotcom or @haute.moccs.dot.com. If you run into an issue and your chosen name is already taken I usually recommend moving on to another name on your list.

If you’re in network marketing I coach guys and gals slightly different here. You are branding yourself not the products. You likely are already a distributor for a company and the products represent that companies name. You want to BRAND YOU! The reason I say this is because you want to build a community where you add value daily and then sprinkle your products in. If you can do this you will be successful in any company you’re with. Now back to branding, if you’re stumped I like to think about hobbies, or personal favorites. You can also ask your parents to describe you in 3 words but 3 words that would describe you now AND how you were as a child or a teen. This is giving you some grounds in the area how others feel about you and a path in how you can provide value to others when building your brand and community.

If you have a name your next task is getting yourself a logo, an email, a website, a domain name and set up on all your desired social media platforms. You don’t need to be prospering to start on social media. We all start from ground zero, the key is starting!! If you need recommendations besides the ones I list below for the things I just mentioned you can write in the comments and I can help you further.
LOGO - me
Email - yahoo or gmail
Website - google buying a domain
Blog platform - blogger.com or Wordpress
Social media recs - Facebook or Instagram

SOCIAL MEDIA BASICS:
On Facebook, it’s best to start with a business page. You can find tutorials on YouTube for setting one up. Once you have this set up I recommend inviting your friends to like the page and then start posting daily. Facebook wants you to utilize it’s features so posting, liking, commenting, stories and live videos. If you’re not familiar with any of these YouTube/google it. There are many ways to grow your page following a few to name would be paid ads and giveaways. Paid ads can be tricky because you really need to narrow down your target market before making it live. This will give you the best results, again I recommend doing some research before spending a lot of money here. Giveaways can look different for everyone. The biggest thing is making people tag friends below, leave comments and like or share the post. The algorithm is no ones friend, so you want to set yourself up where Facebook is going to show the max amount of people your giveaway or post. Facebook frowns upon outside links (meaning a link that takes the user off Facebook) so if you have a link you’re posting always post that in the comments vs in your caption. When you have it in your caption Facebook lowers your algorithm score.

On Instagram, it’s best to also make your profile and switch to the business setting. You’re able to access more features like “insights” where you can see when your users are on and most active which helps you to know when’s a good time to post. Like Facebook you’re dealing with the algorithm here as well. You want engagement on your posts. A few ways to start building engagement and a following are as follows. When making posts, post at your busy time. Also use hashtags. This is how others will find you organically. You also want to use the hashtag library to find other people to engage with. There are services you can pay for to grow your following (through loops and giveaways) I own a social media marketing business INSTALOOPS1 where you can pay to do just that. If you don’t want to invest money into growing a following you need to invest time. I would suggest doing this by following others, commenting, liking and engaging with others in hopes they come back and engage with you. You can find people either through the hashtag search feature, searching location or using the recommended follow feature. As you follow people, Instagram will suggest you follow others based upon who you just followed. You’ll see people pop up right after you follow someone!

STARTING ON ETSY: If you have a business with a craft base, I suggest starting or creating an Etsy account. Etsy is a searchable platform used by many. You have to pay for your listings but to get started and your name out there, it is worth it! When making listings you can use hashtags and searchable words that put you in categories widely searched! You have the highest chance to be found on Etsy without having to pay for adds. GENERAL SOCIAL MEDIA TIPS:
- use the features! I already mentioned this but it’s important. The more you use the more Instagram and Facebook will favor you and push your content to more people.
- use a nice device to take photos. The higher quality the camera the better the photos will turn out. I use an iPhone XS Max and edit my photos in Lightroom
- be aware of your background and lighting (I would research this as well)
- follow other inspiring accounts on Facebook or Instagram. Study what they do and use their content to inspire you.
- utilize Facebook market place if you’re selling an tangible good. Selling locally will get your name out there and help you get established as a business owner in your community.

GENERAL BUSINESS TIPS:
- CONSISTENCY!!  Be consistent. Show up every day in some form to promote yourself or your business. You want people to fall in love with you and what you do so they think of you and your business first!
- the content you put on your personal social media accounts should align with your business posts. I DONT MEAN POST YOUR BUSINESS ON YOUR PAGE. I mean your photos should be bright and clean, your content should be adding value (I always think to myself, is this photo going to get a lot of likes and comments on it. If it’s a yes, I post it) Think about your content before posting. Don’t share those stupid memes you see everywhere. Once in a while is okay, but refrain from that! A good general rule of thumb. Don’t post about politics, religion or current affairs. At least the controversial topics that could make someone unfollow/ unfriend you. You want to be liked and looked up to. What you post on your personal page matters because people are watching. Think back to branding yourself! Even if you’re not in network marketing, you are associated with your business and you should always keep things professional. Last but not least, dont air your drama out for everyone to see. People want to see positive and motivating content. Not someone who cries poor me or complains constantly! I know theres a lot here but these are just a few of the important tips ans basics Ive learned over the years when building a brand and business! Xo, Cara