Sometimes a Woman Can 'Have It All'

EXETER — In an article titled “Why Women Still Can’t Have it All” in The Atlantic, author Anne-Marie Slaughter, a Princeton academic, writes that she left a high-ranking State Department job to rejoin her family after concluding that “juggling high-level government work with the needs of two teenage boys was not possible.” And the article’s subtitle does not mince words:  “It’s time to stop fooling ourselves … the women who have managed to be both mothers and top professionals are superhuman, rich, or self-employed.”

That’s what Exeter resident Lynne Ganley, a former teacher with a master’s degree in education, discovered for herself — that while she wasn’t superhuman or rich, she was able to start a self-employed career that allows her to also be at home with her kids and still make money. And her message to other women is that they can do so, too.

“I loved being a teacher,” she says, “but I didn’t like the constraints teaching had on my life.” She left the profession 10 years ago to start a family, eventually comprising three children, but that meant her husband had to work three jobs. “We never saw him,” she says. “My kids had an at-home mom, but never-home dad.”

Luckily, a school nurse invited her to a home show for Arbonne, a company that sells anti-aging, skin and body care, and health and wellness products and cosmetics by “network marketing” — word of mouth marketing — through its consultants. Lynne became one.

“I immediately fell in love with it,” she says about Arbonne. “One of the biggest things for me was that Arbonne is and has always been a company committed to women like me, who want to have a career but who also want to be there to watch their kids grow up.”

She jumped in with both feet, aiming to make from $200 to $500 dollars a month, but soon discovered that many Arbonne consultants make significantly more, five- or six-figure incomes, working their own schedules without giving up their whole life to do so. “I told myself, ‘That’s what I want.’ … My mission was to literally save my family.”

Within in 1½ years of starting her business, Ganley made it to the second highest level in the Arbonne hierarchy, regional vice president. “The company car is a white Mercedes, and Arbonne pays me to drive that car every month,” she says.  She had made $18,900 a year as a teacher, but made more a month working just part-time for Arbonne, eventually quadrupling her former teaching income as an Arbonne executive national vice president, enjoying company-sponsored trips to Italy, Hawaii and Cancun, Mexico, among other exotic locales, just for following the business plan and growing a business she was going to grow anyway. “I am in these places pinching myself, asking, ‘Is this really my life?’”

But she couldn’t enjoy such success if her products didn’t work. For example, Ganley had tried everything to treat her son’s and husband’s skin issues, but after applying an Arbonne product only a couple of times, their skin conditions disappeared. “Arbonne products really work,” she says.

Deb Wheeler-Bean, an Exeter artist and art teacher, has used Arbonne products for three years. Like Ganley, she had tried many skin care products over the years before trying Arbonne’s formulations, which turned out to be a revelation. “I love them,” she says. “They just work so nicely.”

Seeing a need for a pure formulation based on Swiss products, Norwegian Petter Mørck founded Arbonne in 1980. Before that, if people wanted the benefit of such products, they needed to visit a Swiss spa and pay thousands of dollars for their skin care treatments. “[Mørck] wanted the average person to have access to this higher end product and to be able to afford it,” Ganley says.

Instead of paying models to promote Arbonne products, the company relies on consultants to spread the message, which in turn keeps the product prices affordable to the average person. Because of the successful nature of its skin care products, Arbonne now has a wide variety of health and wellness products that promote health on the inside as well as the outside.

Touting the motto “Pure, Safe, Beneficial,” Arbonne’s botanically based products – everything from toothpaste to baby lotions to anti-aging creams – are as earth-friendly as they are human healthy. Whether it’s the 90 percent recyclable packaging, the plant-based ingredients, or the manner in which they’re shipped, Arbonne’s entire business model is built on the ethics of sustainability. Indeed, UPS gave Arbonne an award for having the lowest carbon footprint of any company it works with.

Arbonne has never conducted animal testing, does not use animal products as ingredients, and does not use mineral oil, which is actually refined crude oil. “It’s petroleum,” Ganley says, “and it’s in 98 percent of skin care products, and it’s not understood by the body like plant oils are. [Daytime television’s] Dr. Oz says that when you put petroleum-based products on your lips it’s like drinking a thimble full of gasoline. I just want my clients to understand what’s on their product ingredient labels so they can make choices that will benefit their health and the health of their family.”

Wheeler-Bean’s two daughters also use Arbonne products, not just because they work, but to avoid the non-green processes that other companies take. “We make a lot of decisions on what we use based on how green a product is,” she says. “It’s nice to have this choice.” 

Arbonne is a business partner of Green Alliance, a union of environmentally conscious businesses and individuals throughout the community. Partnering with more than 100 local sustainable businesses, GA offers members discounted green products and services and aims to increase the profits of local green businesses and the buying power of green-minded consumers.

GA members save 10 percent on all Arbonne products purchased through Ganley. In addition, Ganley will donate 100 percent of the proceeds to the Green Alliance on behalf of people who get six or more friends to attend an Arbonne in-home event in August.

When Ganley became an executive national vice president, her husband was able to leave all three jobs. “My Arbonne business has freed him from the rat race … Now he’s able to do what he wants with his career.” Both now work at home, making their own schedules and being with their family.

“It’s been like a dream come true,” Ganley says about running her own business through Arbonne. And as a former teacher she feels satisfaction helping other women bring families together again, and doing so with a company that has healthy, effective and earth-friendly products. Moms can raise their kids and still make a good income. “I’m giving kids their parents back.  Arbonne is all about making people’s lives better.”

For more information about Lynne Ganley and Arbonne, call (603) 978-6361, email lynneganley@gmail.com , or visit www.lynneganley.myarbonne.com .

For more information about Green Alliance, visit www.greenalliance.biz .