Day 17 -----

We visited a coffee chain and met with the manager and know how to proceed for the Solar Oven Factory Fundraiser. We also spoke to her and the employee on personal terms, but they didn't see the value of getting $270 back ---yet. The employee, however, did ask us to come back on Friday for a huge event they are doing to raise money for Africa. So, that was cool.

We met with a manager of a pharmacy. The pharmacy is so big that we also have to take measures with corporate, so we'll see what happens. We queried her on the personal level and found she has interest, loves doing stuff like this. So, we have her full contact information, a lovely visit, permission to follow-up about the business, etc.

We met with our favorite manager of a Chinese restaurant we've eat at for years. We have permission to come in and speak with her after 2 or 3 PM and we said we'd wait until next week when Big Z is out of camp.

I called the owner of a nice Indian food restaurant. We have a funny story here about when she and her husband first took it over. I ordered take-out while my car was at the tire shop and she didn't have utensils or anything much to put my order in. We had a great visit, and ever since that time when I come in with, or without Big Z, we have a short and pleasant visit. She has children as well, and in those first days, they were with her at the restaurant, huddled up in the corner with books, a tv, and any other item that might occupy them and keep them quiet.

I asked if we could come speak to her, and when she would be in. She didn't know it was me on the line, and so asked if it had to do with advertising. I told her it could. She hesitated, saying she has stopped advertising . . . not enough customers these days. I explained to her who I was and that I wanted to come in anyhow, because what we have can help even now. I told her I knew she and her husband were good business people and I valued them (he has a construction business, too). So, though Big Z will be at camp, I will go meet with her on Friday.

I had a cool thing happen today as I picked up the phone to dial Big Z's father. There was no dial tone. "Hmm," I thought. "I'm sure I plugged the phone back in." Yes. I had.

"Hello, this is Tess."

On the other end of the line was a woman who said she'd gotten a message from me, but it was garbled and she just had her phone replaced and was calling me back. So, I looked for her information and could not find it !!! She said she was from TX, and she was willing to go through the interview, so we did.

Her computer is in the shop right now, but she's going to the library tomorrow to look at our videos. Her boyfriend is in construction and he's not gotten a good contract in over 4 months. She has 4 children at home, all under 16 years, and one has a disability. She wants to have income to consider retirement, to have something of her own, to have income, and to eventually restructure every area of her life.

After I got off the coaching call with Jacki sharing how wonderful it was to have a contact that you don't know where they came from, I searched and searched and finally found where she came from. She is from a batch of Cutting Edge Media leads that we used with the Calling System we used a few months ago. I'm still following up with those leads ---though, they took a little bit of a back seat during Miracle Team leads ---- I called her again on the 21st. And, it wasn't her--- it was the name of her son AND a different email, but the phone number was the same.

Yippee!!!

It will be lovely to talk with her tomorrow evening and answer her questions. She said, "Just the name of your company is how I feel. One person has a hard time making a difference, but, Together --- now together you can do so much."

What I most loved about this woman was her good nature, and, her matter-of-fact answer to income potential --- Her answer on living comfortably was to have 1/2 million to 1 million dollars a year. Now, she's the first person to ever give that figure --- and to be serious about it. She knows what it will take to care for her disabled boy; she knows what it will take to care for herself and not be a burden to her children; she knows that figure is realistic ---
and, she said that if I'm asking that kind of question, we must have a type of program that can get her to this level.

Indeed. Ginny believes we can, however, I cautioned that it won't happen overnight since we are not a get-rich-program. Instead, we are a "you must take action and use our system" program and do your part. She said it was okay, that she still had some years to play with ;-).

As for Facebook, why, I've got a little bit of a learning curve --- what are all those games, and points and who knows what-- pillow fights, etc. I still don't quite know how to post, but I did get a pix up after Jacki ribbed me for not getting one up last night; and I had another friend rib me because I sent her my pix last week of being bald for T-Day --- so, what to do but to rib her back because she has a penguin as her pix ;-). For those of you that understand it, I commend you, and ask for your patience as I become indoctrinated into the land of social networking. I did find a way to post to my wall about what we are doing --- providing a win-win-win fundraising experience at www.buildasolarovenfactory.com.