Chapter One

1. Are You Ready to Put Yourself Out There?

What if?

What if you stopped worrying about what everyone else thinks?

What if you stop judging people based on what they look like on paper or in person?

What if something/someone is not too good to be true, and it’s just that good?

Playing the what-if game has helped me break through a barrier of fear and change my life. When I flip the script in my head and say, “What if?” everything shifts and rings the confidence bell. My relationship with myself, my prospects, and anyone who comes within three feet of me starts to soar. It’s made me a proud, fearless she-warrior ready to love on anyone I can! That’s what my job is and yours, too. Get others to think, “What if? Could this be a game changer for me? Could my life be different or better?”

I have my parents to thank for instilling a growth mindset in me. I was born in Brooklyn, New York, to two Russian immigrants, Boris and Lyudmila (Lucy for short), and moved to the New Jersey suburbs when I was seven. My parents were strict, but they showed me the true meaning of hustle, grit, failure, starting again, and success. They encouraged and mentored me, and instilled a fearlessness in me to ask for what I wanted. My parents had a vast appreciation for the opportunities in this country, which was a recurring theme in the stories they told me about growing up in the Communist Soviet Union, where a factory worker and a doctor earned a similar income and entrepreneurship was considered a crime, punishable by jail time. There was little to dream of or hope for.

When they came to the United States, they couldn’t believe the possibilities. They thought, “You can start a business? You can get bonuses? You can ask for more money?” Even though both of my parents had great careers in computer software development in Manhattan, my dad was all about finding opportunities to create wealth and leave a legacy for his children. He had other businesses and viewed side hustles as “adventures,” and he always encouraged me to start my own. It was that excitement for opportunity that made a lasting impression on me and was what fueled my own drive.

In the eyes of my parents and friends, I had accomplished quite a bit by age thirty. I married my college sweetheart, Randy, the best damn guy in the world, and I had an executive position at one of the top real estate companies in NYC. From the outside, it looked like I had it all, but in reality, it wasn’t the life I had envisioned. Something gnawed at me nightly, and I knew deep down something wasn’t right.

I was making good money, giving my all for my company, trying to meet quotas and climbing the corporate ladder, but I was unfulfilled and knew this wasn’t “it.” I worked my tail off day in and day out, twenty-four seven. I had numbers to hit, and I worked around the clock to meet them. But here’s the thing, once you met your quotas, upper management would increase them the next quarter, making it harder to chase your goals! Why was the reward for my good performance a push to work even harder? There was no celebration, little recognition, or even a positive outlook when you hit your goals either. It was such a backward system—instead of motivating me, they added more stress and put me in a position where I didn’t want to work too hard.

To make matters worse, my husband had just graduated from law school, and we were repaying the crushing loans, the economy was crashing, our credit card bills were getting larger every month, and we were trying to get pregnant. I needed to find a way out of the corporate world, but I also needed to make real money—and a lot of it. So instead of quitting, I recalled something my dad always said, “Just ask for a promotion! What’s the worst that can happen? They say no.”

The fact that I was one of the youngest people on the management team didn’t stop me. We needed more money. Period. I decided to put my big-girl panties on and just ask. A few weeks later, I got a call—someone had quit, and they needed a replacement fast. After a few interviews, I moved up another step on the ladder and landed a job as the manager of the Park Avenue office.

Hooray! My dad was right! I just had to ask.

The Promotion

I was so excited about my new position and the big raise, better title, bigger and better office, Blackberry, and new challenges. Great responsibilities were on the horizon, and I was going to bring home a lot more bacon. Then, a few days before I started the new role, my boss introduced me to my new counterpart.

“Miriam, this is Greg. You two will be co-managing this office. Well, he’ll be the managing director, and you will be the manager—you’ll report to him.”

I was stunned. I felt sick. I couldn’t believe they just found an agent with no managerial experience—and he was going to be my boss! What? I was confused as to why senior leadership didn’t think I could handle this level of responsibility on my own. I had already basically done the job for the last two years at another office. Later, someone told me that a little birdy said they wanted “some testosterone” to head the office, and I lacked what was required to be a managing director at that time: a penis.

Instead of starting an awesome new role and independently managing an office, I spent months training Greg. Through the course of our many conversations, we became good friends, and at one point, we talked about salaries. I found out that he made 50 percent more than I did! What the #$%^?

On top of that, I felt lonely. When I worked as a part-time agent, I had friends at the office. We would go to open houses, lunches, or happy hours together. After the promotion, I did my best to maintain my previous friendships in the other office and connect with new people, but the dynamics had changed. I had also gotten pregnant and was one of the first of all my friends to have a baby, so I felt like the odd woman out trying to figure out the whole pregnant-to-working-mom thing.

The pay disparity and this loneliness solidified the thought I’d been having for quite a while: I needed to make a change.

My Turning Point

I’ve always been an entrepreneur at heart (I ruled the babysitting scene in middle school) and was determined to find another way to make money—a better way. I had no idea where to look, but I knew I had to start. I began searching for other jobs and side gigs. I confessed to an old friend in a Facebook chat that I was miserable at my job and was asking how she was doing as a new working mom.

She told me she was also over corporate America, and alongside her advertising career, she had started a side hustle with a network marketing company and asked if I was interested—no prior experience was needed. My initial reaction was, “Hell no, I don’t want to throw cheesy parties and sell to my friends.” I told her I would think about it, and to be honest, I did. It wasn’t just a throwaway line you use to turn down someone in the nicest way possible. The more research I did on the industry, the more compelling it became. The possibilities she described were enticing, and honestly, what other options did I have in the little time I had free? I spoke to my father and my husband, who both gave me the green light and nudged me to give it a try. So in a moment of courage, I said yes. I was more than ready to jump off the corporate hamster wheel.

I became more hopeful when I found out that the company was founded and run by two women who believed in female empowerment. After working at a company primarily run by men, I was ready for a refreshing change. I began to learn the business during little pockets of free time during the day. In the evenings, I took advantage of the fact that I was nursing an eight-month-old and had no social life.

Real talk: it wasn’t easy. I felt vulnerable starting something new, but after several months, I started to find some success. I didn’t have a fast start, and I made many mistakes, but I learned from them. I used them to guide me, and I never gave up. Because I embraced a growth mindset, my business grew exponentially over time. And after several years, I was financially free and making more money than I could have ever imagined.

Over the last nine years, I’ve developed an extremely successful home-based direct sales business and a team of thousands of incredible women and men who are now dear friends. I didn’t build this network by hoping and wishing to make contacts, or by relying on family and friends for their support; instead, I looked for opportunities to meet new people, cultivated new relationships, and nurtured the ones I already had. I became a person of the people. Getting to know and falling in love with the process, the people, and the business. I believe that this—along with building a positive business and team culture—is what has made me successful.

I used to think it was impossible to have a lucrative career and have the freedom to spend time with my...