Unexpected Blessings (from Brittany Hembrough)

I want to introduce another blogger that I think you'll love! Her name is Brittany! We connected through an online business we both are a part of! Brittany is one of the most motivated people I know. She's overcome a lot and has always found a way to pick herself back up. This has always inspired me. So without further ado, she'll be sharing her story and how this simple online business has been a huge unexpected blessing in her life!

"Hi friends! Tonight we are going to be talking about something near and dear to my heart, but I know it’s a topic that some of you will roll your eyes at. Yes, we’re going to be talking about my journey so far with R+F. I have yet to talk about that on my blog other than in my introduction post and I’m honestly not sure why I haven’t talked about it yet because it is a HUGE part of my life and brings me so much joy!

Let’s start from the very beginning. I was first introduced to Rodan + Fields by my sweet friend, Julia. She had been a consultant for about a year and was having great success with it and thought I would enjoy it too. I straight up ghosted her for MONTHS thinking things like, “I don’t want to be THAT girl,” and “No one will want to buy anything from me, I don’t even have good skin.” Fast forward a few months and my sensitive skin was at it’s all time worse. Julia sent me a sample and I was FULLY convinced that I would hate it and that it would hurt my face since I was at the point of only being able to use water on my skin. I used the sample and was absolutely blown away by how amazing my skin felt after just one use! At the time I was going to school full time during the day and was working full time in the evening and had to cut hours here and there to make my clinical hours work, so I had also been looking for a way to make some extra money to fund my love for shopping during my last two semesters of OTA school. After seeing how much I loved just one single sample I knew it was something I could potentially represent. I talked with Julia more and learned about the doctors, the company’s values, and the business and quickly knew it was something I could share with my friends and family. My exact thought process was, “Why be just a customer? This will be EASY to share because the products speak for themselves!” So, I dove in head first as a consultant after never trying the products other than that one sample. Go big or go home right? That’s always been my mentality, so I saw no reason to change it here.

Fast forward 3.5 years and I can honestly say that this business is nothing I thought it would be and at the same time is everything I never knew I needed in my life. There are so many aspects to this business that I did not know about that have been a huge blessing to me. I honestly thought while joining that it would be nothing but getting better skin, helping other people get better skin, and making some extra income. That’s the only vision I had for this and I am so thrilled that I was so very wrong. Yes, the products are amazing and have transformed my skin. Yes, the income is amazing and I will talk more about that aspect here too. What I didn’t see coming was the community, gaining some of my best friends, amazing personal development and growth, reconnecting with old friends because they needed help with their skin, the joy I would feel when a customer tells me that the products I introduced to them not only changed their skin but have also allowed them feel confident for the first time in years (or ever), and the momma bear/best friend level pride I would feel when someone on my team tells me how this business has changed their lives.

First let’s talk about the community and the friends I’ve made so far. I never pictured needing new friends when I said yes to being a consultant, but luckily that is exactly what I got. You see, I was never the girl who had a ton of friends. I was not the popular girl. I honestly had a hard time fitting in anywhere other than with my family for most of my life and for the first time I feel like I’m somewhere that I truly belong. Some of the women are people I would’ve never met had I not become a consultant and some are women that I knew before and thankfully have become much closer with thanks to R+F.

It’s hard to really explain how it feels, but the best way I can think to describe it is feeling like I am at home when I’m with them. I feel like I’ve known these women for my whole life, I feel like I can be myself with them without being judged, I feel like I can tell them anything and they will still accept me. The community as a whole is amazing, but I’ve also been given some of my very best friends. They are some of my biggest cheerleaders and are also people I know I can turn to when I need support. For example, the last 6+ months have been the hardest months of my life (see my last blog post if you don’t know why). When I was knocked on my ass and didn’t know which way was up it took me a while to wrap my head around things. I initially told very few people outside of my family what was going on and over half of those people were those who have come into my life through R+F.

One stayed up until late at night for several nights texting me and talking to me on the phone when she should’ve been sleeping, one took me to lunch the very next day so that she could show me that I was not going to be alone, several checked in on me every single day for weeks and to this day check in on me regularly. They tell me both inside and outside of R+F how proud of me they are. We share our hardest, lowest times and our biggest, most exciting times with each other. I don’t know what I would do without them in my life and I truly believe many of them would say the same about me. This community is one of a kind and is something I am beyond thankful for.

Over the last 3+ years I have grown in ways I never saw possible and have learned so much about myself. This business has pushed me to step out of my comfort zone in so ma