“Grateful is our mindset.”
I hope you all are having a great week. Thank you for taking the time to read this today. Today I want to talk about gratitude, of course, and in order to do that, I invite you to go back in time with me to about 15 years ago.
The year was 2008. TLC was officially five years into its existence. We were still very much a struggling small company trying to make it happen every day and hoping for the best. The reality was that we didn’t really know from month to month whether we were even going to be in business. Also that year, the economy was in full recession, and most people were not very optimistic about their financial futures, including us.
Then, something happened that changed everything: The phone rang. Of course, the phone rang every single day, and most of the time it led to a sale or maybe just a question. This time was different, as the person on the other side of the phone called just to ask if they could visit. They had heard about our company and they were interested in joining, but they wanted to visit first to make sure it was a good fit.
I personally thought this was a bad idea. I mean, we were working in a basement in a neighborhood. There was a hair salon on the other side of the basement, and there were kids, pets, and babysitters in and out all day long upstairs. I thought to myself, “If these people come here, they are definitely not going to join us.” Jack, on the other hand, disagreed. He enthusiastically told them to come and visit us. It would be great!
A few days later, the man who had called and his wife showed up for their visit. In order to protect their privacy, I will call them Ken and Barbie. When they arrived, they did seem a tad surprised that our office was in the middle of a neighborhood, but they seemed okay with it. I found out later why that was.
We didn’t know it, but Ken and Barbie had already made up their minds that they would join TLC and help sell our products as long as one condition was met. That was why they really visited: to let us know what the condition was. The condition was that we needed to sell this tea that they knew about that was helping so many people, but nobody knew about it. They claimed that hundreds were already drinking it, and if a company were willing to take on the product, they believed that number could turn to thousands and even millions of people.
Honestly, at that point in my five short years with TLC, I had already heard people talk like that hundreds of times. I didn’t think much of it. But we started trying the tea and so did our friends and family. It was very evident that the tea was an amazing product, and so the deal was made to start selling it at TLC.
There was one more condition, though, that Ken and Barbie demanded we meet before we moved forward. That condition was that we must name the tea “Iaso Tea.” Ken and Barbie were of Greek descent, and they explained to us that “Iaso” was the Greek goddess of health. To be quite honest, we didn’t think that was the best name, but we were desperate, so we went with it.
Most of you know what happened after that. We started selling the tea a couple of months later, and TLC took off like a rocket. We started growing month after month and year after year, and it’s been a wild ride for sure.
There is one more thing, though, that is quite ironic. A few days before the world-famous “Iaso Tea” launched, Ken and Barbie decided they no longer wanted to be part of TLC. Yes, that’s correct. Ken and Barbie quit and walked away. The tea went on to sell millions and millions and millions of packs and Ken and Barbie never sold one single pack of it.
For me to say that Jack and I are grateful that these two human beings connected us with the tea would be the understatement of the century. We are very grateful, and they have reached out a few times to congratulate us. I’m not sure if they regret leaving because they went on to be successful in other endeavors, but I’m sure it crosses their mind once in a while.
Here, though, is the moral of the story that ties back to this core value. As we venture through life, we will meet many people. Some of those people are in our life for a reason and some just for a season. One thing is for sure though, please be grateful for them.
You just never know who or what they will connect you to. In our case, Ken and Barbie connected us to Iaso® Tea. I actually believe that’s all they were supposed to do. They weren’t supposed to visit so they could be here for the last 15 years. Their visit was instead divine, in my opinion.
They showed up out of nowhere like an angel. They left some blessings behind, and they moved on. So will some of the people who will come in and out of your life. And in those moments, you don’t really see it sometimes, but when you look back and reflect, you always do.
At some point in the future, someone new will come into your life. You might not be sure why, and you might not be sure how long they will be with you, but just remember this story. When Ken and Barbie called us to inform us that they decided to quit, we were very upset.
We had no way of knowing what the next 15 years would look like. Now, of course, it’s easy to look back and realize how grateful we are for Ken and Barbie. They were only in our life for a season, and it was for one very great reason!
This tea and this company have gone on to help thousands and thousands of people live a better life. I’m proud to be a part of it, and I wonder what angels are going to show up next!
God bless each and every one of you, and please continue to have a grateful mindset in everything that you do.
Have a great week!
