Influence with Integrity

Teri Helms had to borrow money from her oldest son to pay for her first Family Physician Kit, but it was through doTERRA essential oils that she was able to find wellness. After previous bad experiences with other companies, she was not interested in pursuing doTERRA as a business. She says, “But, unfortunately, I took a friend with me to my first class and she wanted to sign up under me, so I was immediately thrust into it.”

She was interested in paying for her own oil usage—which was a lot with five sons— and she knew that in order to do that she needed to come up with $100 LRP order every month. She soon discovered that claiming you can’t afford something is a statement of priorities rather than a statement of fact. She says, “We like to say we can’t afford something, but then go to Starbucks every day. I try to listen to people and move them to a point of realization where they see that their ability to pay for the oils just involves changing a priority. When we did that ourselves, we were fine having an LRP every month.”

Through her previous business experience, her family understood the art of “planned neglect.” Planned neglect is agreeing to neglect some things that are convenient or are an established part of the family in order to achieve a goal.Teri says, “Once we’re at the goal, we’ll go back to the cultural norm of our family. If someone has to eat Cheerios for dinner one night, they know that we all agreed that this is what planned neglect looks like in order to reach this goal.”

Teri also knows that the goals they have achieved in doTERRA are nothing more than structural titles that determine how they’re paid. She says, “I’m not Paul McCartney.