Boss Babes

If You Want to Lift Yourself Up, Lift Up Someone Else

"Amber, sweetheart, can you go talk to Norman and Shirley for a little bit? They absolutely LOVED your latest livestream and have some ideas about collabing on a future broadcast!" Kymberly smiled demurely and Amber darted out of her seat. Mean Girl reacted well to fawning and praise. I filed that information away for later, in case we needed to rid ourselves of her presence in the future.

Kirra was still absorbed in her phone, eyebrows furrowed and typing furiously. 

"I'll be right back, Kym. I need to make a call, it's about my kids." she said, and shot out of the party room, fear and desperation in her wake. Our Goddess-In-Chief borrowed the newly-vacant chair, not missing a beat. 

Baby Daddy drama? I wondered, realizing I had never met her son's father, nor heard much about him from Kirra. Would it be appropriate to ask, now that we're both friends and Sisters-in-Flourish? 

Kymberly snapped me out of my musings with a jingly hand wave. 

"Charlie, I haven't had a chance to sit down with you personally yet and do a one-on-one coaching session. I want you to know that our team is incredibly supportive and we want every little bud on our Tree of Success to bloom and, well, Flourish." she smiled demurely at me, in that loving, motherly way she has about her. "How are you doing so far on recruitment? Do you have any potential sisters who'd like to join us in mind yet?"

I stroked the rune drawn in sharpie on my wrist, hoping she wouldn't notice my awkwardness. 

"Uhm, actually ... I don't really have any friends. Well, except for Kirra now, I guess." I admitted, shifting uneasily in my chair. This wasn't a fact I was comfortable disclosing, but I didn't want Kymberly to think I was a slacker for not making any sales yet. 

"Oh," she blinked and cocked her head curiously at me. "Well, the best part of the Flourish experience is that you now have something in common with every person in this room. We're all incredibly supportive, not just on a business level, but a personal one too. I guarantee you that if you ask any fellow promoter to be your friend, or to grab a coffee, or help you with a 3-way call when signing up a new customer, they'll be more than happy to. In fact, I'd like to be your friend, if that's okay." 

Kymberly, the Queen, The Goddess, the most perfectly beautiful person on the planet, wanted to be MY friend? Mousey, boring, shy, antisocial, weird little ME? No way! Nobody likes me, except Kirra somehow. 

"Absolutely! Oh my Goodness, THANK YOU!" I couldn't help but let me happiness burst through my voice. Having actual friends was going to be a strange, but wonderful new experience - in high school I resorted to doing other kid's homework for money to achieve the bare minimum of social acceptance, and was still extremely conscious of my outsider status. I felt a wave of warmth radiate through my body as Kymberly clasped my hands and stared into the depths of my very soul. 

"Together, we rise. Together, through friendship and sisterhood, we lift each other up and become our very best versions of ourselves. Flourish is more than a business; it's a brand new way of living and thinking. I see so much potential in you, especially since you're already familiar with how to manifest things," she ran her thumb over my sharpie-rune and winked. "I want you to think about the women you know - in your family, through your work, through your church, maybe the woman behind the counter at the gas station you see every day. I want you to choose one of them who has potential, the same way Kirra chose you, and bless her with the Flourish opportunity. Lift her up, and through that act of service you will start to lift yourself up!" 

I was lost in her sapphire eyes, completely enraptured, my mind already flicking through possibilities. Kymberly must really see some kind of leadership potential in me, to give me the assignment of recruiting a new promoter before I'd even found a single customer, to start forming my own team this early, when I was still learning the business myself? A high honor, for one so new. What about me made her trust me with this important responsibility? Maybe I wasn't as lame and worthless and I had always thought, if it were possible for someone like Kymberly to take such an interest in my success? 

Kirra, presumably finished with her phone call, rejoined us at the table. 

"I'm so sorry, Jimmy is being such an ass lately, I don't even know how to deal with him. He wants to cancel his autoship unless I deduct it from the child support payments!" she huffed and rolled her eyes at the indignity. So there WAS a baby daddy, and he Flourished, too.

Kymberly frowned and turned her attention to my friend. "Remind him that even though you two are separated now, the products are still working for him. They're what gives him the energy to provide for his child and be the best father he can for his son!"

Kirra glanced around conspiratorially and leaned in so only we could hear her speak. "Jimmy quit Flourishing months ago, but I never cancelled his orders. It goes on the joint account debit card and still comes to our apartment. I use his stuff for my sample packs." she grinned wolfishly. "I changed the password on his promoter account so he can't cancel it himself!" 

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Author's Notes: I apologize for this chapter taking so long - was dealing with some mental health stuff last month that tends to sap my energy and creativity, but I'm feeling better now and we're well overdue on the next installment of Charlie and Kirra's adventures in pryamid-schemeing. I hope you enjoy, and promise chapter 9 won't take nearly as long to be ready for your reading pleasure. <3