Boss Babes

Your Name Is In Rooms Your Feet Haven't Even Entered Yet

"Is this your new promoter? Hi, I'm Amber!" A bony, tanned hand with avocado-puke green nails  was thrust into my immediate field of vision. I awkwardly shook it, hoping my grip was strong enough. 

In Office World, it's proper to stand and look the other person in the eye when initially shaking hands. In Flourish World, pretty people invaded your personal space and didn't give you room to stand or the space to ask them to move so you could. 

"Hi, I'm Charlie," Upon shaking, I noticed the white decals on Amber's nails matched the loud Flourish logo present on the colorful jumble of banners and displays sprinkled throughout the party room. I kept my own nails unpolished, and usually bit off any of the white growth whenever I found myself absorbed in a particularly irritating work project at my office job.

Did the company pay her for becoming a hand-modeling billboard, or did she do that on her own?  Did she do it for light, airy, curation-worthy photos of holding cappuccinos to post on Friendli or is she just super passionate about the company? Please don't make me get my nails done, Kirra. I hate wearing those chicken claws! 

Amber claimed one of the open seats at our table. She played with a piece of shaggy, over-processed peroxide-blonde hair and stared longingly at my leftover mozzarella sticks.

"Do you want one?" I offered, trying to be polite to someone I instantly disliked for the sake of camaraderie in my new sorority.

"Oh NO, I couldn't possibly," hair twirling intensified " I'm doing keto and can't have those. They sure do smell good though!" she laughed nervously. Amber was supermodel thin, and definitely didn't need to be on a diet. Her collarbones jutted out from under her avocado-puke Flourish tank top, and I was a little jealous. I guess her diet, and the Flourish, was working better than expected?

Kirra was still absorbed in her phone, and Amber was busy eye-raping my leftovers. Suddenly uncomfortable, I glanced at the big, long table in the center of the room where most of the other promoters had been seated when we arrived. Most had stood up and were mingling in small groups, drinks in hand. Two harried waitresses were clearing the detritus of their meal, one politely nodding and smiling at a male promoter hovering near her, arms full of dirty plates. Is he hitting on her, recruiting  her, or both? The urge to flee the room and indulge in a smoke consumed me, but I was afraid of receiving criticism from a nosy promoter who thinks that "smoking isn't part of a premium lifestyle."

For people involved in the health and wellness industry, the Flourish crowd certainly didn't eat like it. Many of them had ordered chicken wings, burgers, and other junk food. Almost all of them were drinking. Sure, I got mozzarella sticks without even thinking about the implications, but shouldn't the team leaders be more conscious of the example they were setting for the rest of us? I quickly decided that starting tomorrow, I would be more discerning with my food choices, to prepare myself and my mindset for when I was leading my own team.

"So Charlie, what's your why?" Amber inquired, in a tone that betrayed her boredom with us. Uhm, what? 

"Uhm, what?" I decided to eat one of my now-cold mozzarella sticks, mostly because it would probably annoy the crap out of her, and because feeling slightly guilty about not cleaning my plate because food costs money and we don't have enough to go around for you to be wasting it had been programmed into me since childhood.

"Ohmigawd, Kirra, you haven't had her do her 'Why Video' yet?!" Amber blinked at my friend with incredulous disbelief. I popped my tongue against the lump of fried cheese and breading, for extra obnoxious effect. The faux-confidence of the Flourish crowd must be rubbing off on me. Normally, I'd never be so boldly passive-aggressive to a Mean Girl.

"Hmmm?" Kirra raised an eyebrow but didn't look up from her phone. Perhaps she doesn't like her, either, and is being rude on purpose. 

"Her 'Why Video!' That's like one of the first goals for a new promoter to do to start building her business. She's supposed to do it when she joins and everything is fresh in her mind so she can refer back to it whenever she feels like giving up as a reminder to why she joined in the first place!" Amber scoffed. "Cheese and rice, gurrrl, don't you pay attention to anything Kymberly says? Have you even given her the Fast Start Bonus checklist?" 

That got her attention. Kirra snapped her phone away from her face and glared at the irksome blonde.

"Of course I have! We're in the editing stage of her video and she's working on closing her first two customers!" 

This was a blatant lie. I had been posting daily pictures of three-step related content, such as me drinking the shake and giving the camera a thumbs up or selfies wearing the patches, with brief captions about the Flourish journey I had copied from the company's official Friendli account's marketing memes. However, I hadn't gotten any other instructions from Kirra about what exactly I was supposed to be doing as a promoter. This was the first time I had heard about a potentially helpful checklist.

Amber opened her mouth, probably to call her out on the lie since I had been very visibly confused when she'd initially asked me about my 'Why Video,' but snapped it shut quickly.

Our Goddess-In-Chief was purposefully gliding toward our table, an avenging angel on a mission.

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I decided to go back to using the original quote images I find for my chapter headers - that way it'll be easier to credit the original authors (or whatever social media pages I happen to find them on). The last thing I want to do is get accused of "pulling a Rachel Hollis." This chapter was written and posted in late April 2021, and at this moment in time she's currently in the news again, generating controversy about something off-color she said in a TikTok video. I've never read her books, but I know of them and they were very popular among MLM friends when I was "in the business." Should I pick up a second-hand copy and reference it in Boss Babes? It seems like something my Flourish girls would gobble up and compare notes on at a weekly meetup! 

What's your favorite motivational, personal development, or self-help book? Tell me in the comments on this chapter and don't forget to vote and follow! <3