Younique 2nd Annual Convention!!

OMG!!!! The 2nd Annual Younique Convention was AMAZING!!!!!

I have no idea how I can put into words what I have learned and experienced at this years convention, however, I am sure going to try my best!!  This will be long, but there is so much to say! Most of the photos in this post were taken by some of my beautiful #YSisters and others by me.

To start with I ran into a fellow Team Diva member at the Anchorage Airport, we shared the flight all the way down, along with numerous other presenters, then shared the shuttle to the Gaylord Texan. 

This resort/hotel/convention center was gorgeous!  The staff was so helpful and polite, and you only saw them when you needed something, otherwise they just blended in with crowds. 

The facility was clean, and the beds were soooo comfortable!  I would LOVE one for my house!

As soon as I dropped my bags off in my room I headed out to see what I could see, and as I wandered around the first person I ran into just happened to be one of our Founders, Melanie Maxfield Huscroft and her family.  She greeted me with a "Pamela, so glad you could come" and a big hug, it was a great way to start out my weekend!

Immediately after that I ran into Shelaine Maxfield, a Fellow Founding Presenter and the wife of Derek Maxfield, our Founder and CEO.  She also welcomed me with a hug, and by now I was feeling amazing!!

I spent a couple of hours wandering around the hotel grounds meeting fellow presenters everywhere, most of whom I have only known through facebook.  Having never met in person, we all greeted each other with hugs and the phrase "so happy to meet you in person" was said on numerous occasions.  It was Facebook come to life, with us all truly acting like the #YSisters we are. 

From there I made my way up to my incredible sponsor, Nichole's suite to help her hand out t-shirts. There were hundreds of them!! While there I met numerous other presenters and my team mate and roommate for the weekend, Christie.  She is such a wonderful person, and so much fun, I am so glad that we shared a room!

The convention began with lunch on Friday and then the first General Session, where we were introduced to the amazing Jason Hewlett, our Emcee for the entire convention, and our first speaker.  If you have never heard of Jason Hewlett, please google him, he is simply hilarious!  He does family friendly comedy and is someone that you can take your kids to see without fear that he would be inappropriate in any way!  LOVED HIM!!

We then moved on to 3 Breakout Sessions: 1) How to Create a Culture of Success within Your Team, with Jaron Winder; 2) 10 Movie Quotes to Adapt Into Your Younique Business with Christine Strong; and 3) Highlighting & Contouring 101 with Mickey Gunn.

Each of these sessions were packed with great information that will help me and all the other presenters succeed in our Younique businesses.

Those were followed by the next General Session where the incomparable Mona Ameli spoke about the 7 Pillars of Success and Leadership!  This session was incredible!  Look her up and you will see just how fabulous she is!

Following Mona, our Black Status Presenters held classes: 1) Care Cloyd & Brook Gray: How to Maximize Party Sales; 2) Valari Ingrbrigtsen & Amy King: Building Your Team and What it Means to "Sponsor"; 3) Cara Ramey & Shawn Nelson: Advancing and Maximizing the Comp Plan; 4) Ameber Voight & Jess Parizek: Coaching, Mentoring, and Building Leaders.  All the classes were great and a whole lot of fun, seeing as how they had all been where we are now, it was interesting to hear what worked for them and how to incorporate some of that into our own businesses.

Dinner that evening was a Texas BBQ and sooo yummy! Followed by the Product Reveal section of the evening, then dancing and even some Bull Riding!

1. Fall release- Lash Comb/Brow Brush on Sept 1! (Get it FREE this month with ANY Collection purchase)
2. Divine moisturizer replacing Brilliant in November- airless pump, cleaner formulation includes witch hazel
3. Precision Pencils- eye liner (10 colors) and lip liner (5 colors) launch September.
4. Uplift Eye serum- oil free, fragrance free, dye free launching September.
5. New face wash for normal/dry skin to compliment current face wash with a new name- Illuminate
6. Glorious Primer will also be changing to the new Airless Pump on November 1.
7. Blusher will become a pressed powder starting November 1
8. New formulations will be EU Compliant!
9. New Collections will debut in November as well.
10. Almost all products except 3 (patenting reasons) will be formulated and manufactured in the USA!

The second day was just as wonderful as the first!  Our First General Session included our Keynote Speaker Bill Rancic! He talked about starting his Mail Order Cigar club, being on the first Apprentice and was an all around great guy!  He was fabulous and then he hung around to take pictures with all of us.  I am the plus size woman in the gray pants under the word Moodstruck! 

Following the General Session was another 3 breakout sessions: 1) Live, Love and Share Your Business with Stacy San Juan, Head of Marketing for Younique - LOVED THIS CLASS!; 2) Social Media with Shama Kabani - Simply Amazing Class!; and 3) Daytime to Drama Makeup with Mickey Gunn. 

These were followed by another General Session where the outstanding Traci Bild spoke about "Getting Your Girl Back" such a powerful and moving session! Look her up and you will realize that we should all Get our Girl Back!

Next were the same classes from the previous day with different Black Status Presenters: 1) Shari Brown & Cindy Brancato: How to Maximize Party Sales; 2) Briana Richardson & Amanda Blockson: Building Your Team and What it Means to "Sponsor"; 3) Whitney Husband & Lauren Pipak: Advancing and Maximizing the Comp Plan; 4) Nichole Smith (my Sponsor) & Julie Leonard: Coaching, Mentoring, and Building Leaders.

We then had our Formal Awards Dinner followed by our Speaker Eva DeVirgilis, and actress/makeup artists, who spoke about how she sees those in her makeup chair.  She is an incredible speaker and you can find her on Youtube, look her up, you will not regret it!

Then cam the awards, where so many of our presenters received fabulous awards!  My Sponsor Nichole Smith, presenter #36 received quite a few.  She more than deserved these and more!

 

The our Founders spoke, first Melanie, followed by Derek, who paused for a moment and brought Cara Ramey up to speak about her situation and how Younique has helped her. 

 

Cara is the sister of our Founders, and having had a difficult delivery with her last child, she was completely bed ridden and suffering from financial hardship due to overwhelming medical bills.  Younique changed her life, and she has not crossed off ever item on her dream board!  I cry every time I hear her story!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After Cara, Derek came back up and talked about Younique, and our new Car Program, launching in the UK (October 1, so contact me if you or anyone you know is in the UK and wants to Join!) and our growth, which is huge! But then he spoke about my favorite announcement from the convention.  He told us about the Younique Foundation. 

 

The Younique Foundation will be a place where women and girls who have suffered from sexual abuse can go to heal and rediscover themselves.  This announcement is my absolute favorite thing from Convention!  I have LOVED Younique from the very beginning, but this made me love it even more.  The complete presentation, that I cried all the way through, is located here: https://m.youtube.com/watch?sns=fb&v=5SXYnQeNrvc  please watch, I know it will bring you to tears also, not to mention how cute Derek's youngest daughter is!!  The Founders of Younique are the most caring, humble, generous and all around great people I have ever had the honor to meet.