Who is Sandra Miskimmin?
I am a married mum of 3 fabulous children who has taken control of her future. But it hasn’t always been that way. Read my story of how I got to start my own business and how I have ended up helping 100s of people to regain their health and lose weight. It was a long road, with some turbulent times but I am so happy now that I have my own SMASH business and it is rapidly growing.
When you are asked at school, what do you want to be when you grow up, 9 times out of 10, you don’t know. I didn’t!!! I hadn’t got a clue. The guidance at school wasn’t great and I ended up doing a degree in Hospitality Management. I loved it but knew that it was not how I was going to spend the rest of my life – working whilst everyone else had fun!!! That was no fun especially as we had our daughter by then.
I started to look at sales jobs and got one in advertising for a newspaper, found that I didn’t want to be in an office all day and people putting the phone down when you said that you were from the newspaper (read my post on how to overcome that kind of rejection). I then went into merchandising for a crisp company, but I was so bored. Then onwards to selling stationery…bored again and highly stressed (but that is another story) – there are only so many ways you can get excited about a pen and paper! I had really loyal customers and was good at my job but driving an average of 600 miles a week and working long hours whilst raising a young family was starting to take its toll on me.
And then my life was changed.
I went – or should I say was dragged to a “makeup party”. Little did I know that by going there and asking a simple question, (how much money did you make tonight?) that the path my life would take, would change forever.
You see by this stage we had our 2nd child and it was really killing me to go out to work and leave him with a child minder. She was fabulous but she was getting to see too many “firsts” and I wasn’t getting that privilege. It was hurting so bad….I felt like I was failing my children. Realistically, I didn’t have children to miss out on them. Every day I was having the argument in my head that most working mums do…..Why am I working just to pay a child minder? Could we survive on less and for me to be at home with the kids? Could I cope with being a full time mum? etc etc. We have all been there.
So after a very stressful time in my full time job, (I took time out due to depression & stress) I actually decided to join direct sales part time. It was something that I played with it for a year and then I decided to take it seriously. When I was given the correct information, I ran with it!!
I became a full time Virgin 😉
When I assessed if I could make a career out of my Virgin Vie business I actually decided to give up my stressful “proper job” and decided to do direct sales full time!!! People thought I was mad and that I needed to see a doctor for post natal depression but I had calculated that by doing 2 parties a week I could earn as much as I would working full time and paying for childcare. Within the first couple of weeks I loved it!! Not only was I a full time mum but I was also able to be a full time business person too. My perfect world.
Over the years, I continued to work hard in my business and grew a business worth over £750,000, in a very small region in which I was allowed to have my business in. Due to my hard work, I had won numerous awards for both sales and recruitment and I got to travel the world. I was in my element.
Our 3rd child
Then, we had our 3rd child. Me and pregnancy don’t go well together. However, what I found was that I was still able to work my business from home (from my bed on most days as I couldn’t walk) and support my team. Once he was born I was back into my business very quickly. He came to meetings, one to ones and even when I was interviewing people to join my business. As a result of this he loves being around people and is so advanced for his age. How perfect is that?
During the time I was pregnant, the company that I was working for was undergoing some financial difficulty. To cut a long story short, there was a management buy out and then a year later a new owner bought the company. My business was still growing and I was so proud of what our team was achieving. In fact I won a lot of the awards that year for sales and recruitment.
And then heart break!!!
Well, things changed and I no longer believed in the company that I loved. I was truly heartbroken. I came home from an event, sat on our sofa and told my husband that I had just done my last event for this company. He was so shocked!! For me to make that statement was a huge thing. You see, I couldn’t sell or promote something that I didn’t believe in. I just couldn’t do it. So I started looking for something new.
Word got out there that I was looking for something new. Luckily, I was offered lots of lovely positions in direct selling businesses but the one I decided to go for on a “business consultancy” basis. I was working for a company to help them sort out issues in their Ireland team, 9 months passed and the team was turned around. It was known as the “Sandra effect”!
I was then asked to help launch a new skincare business which on paper sounded lovely but in reality was something different (check out my points to consider when picking a new business to join).
The dream job…or so I thought…
So then I got offered a corporate job with a direct selling business that was 50 years old in USA and 20 years old in UK. It was to help modernise the business. I thought “yes, this is my ideal job”. Fabulous products, a great salary and benefits and doing something that I loved. Unfortunately, it wasn’t as good as it seemed. A company that is 50 years old, is very stuck in its ways and even though they may want to modernise, they found it very difficult. Any suggestions that were made were dismissed as “it wasn’t their way of doing things”!! Mega frustration ensued and after a long chat with my husband I decided to walk away.
It was 2 weeks before Christmas and people thought I was mad. A good job with a great salary and I just walk away. You see that is me!!! I have to believe 100% in what I am doing and do things for the correct reasons or I can not do it.
Some people think that is crazy, for me, it is what makes me, me!
Whilst I was in my corporate roll a very good friend and mentor had told me about a business she was looking at. I was intrigued! Initially, I thought the products were a gimmick. However, the more I saw, read and researched about the products and the business the more impressed I became.
This was a business that I could put my name to! And I did!
This was were I was in January 2014. I partnered with an amazing company that helps to promote Total Body Health. I was helping people to change their health and put them on the road to reaching their full human potential.
When we first came across this business, the company wasn’t planning on opening the UK market. However, with the hard work from myself and my team we got the market open.
I believe in hard work, motivating and inspiring people to do their best. With the background and the experience I have gained over the last 20 years I have come to the realisation that there is more to life than just doing what everyone else expects you to do. That it is so important to believe 100% in what you are doing and know that you are offering your clients that best possible service or product available.
SMASH Worldwide
Direct Sales has changed my life, but back in 2018, I knew it was time to move on. Direct Sales gave me the confidence and belief in myself, to know that I was able to do anything that I put my mind to. It has brought me to a point where I now have launched my very own business.
In order to create my SMASH Worldwide business I had to retrain. Yes, it was hard going back to “school” but I felt such a mega draw to study that I knew I had to do it.
I qualified in
- Nutrition and Weight Management,
- Nutrition for Sport and Exercise,
- Pre and Post Natal Nutrition,
- Childhood Nutrition and Obesity Prevention,
- Behaviour Change Coaching,
- Naturopathy and
- Eating Psychology.
- I am a AFN Certified and a Member of the International Alliance of Holistic Therapists .
I now offer a fabulous service to people who are wanting to improve their health. I guide people through the trials and tribulations of weight loss and help them to find a new healthy lifestyle that fits into their life.
SMASH (Sandra Miskimmin’s Alternative Solutions for Health) is helping 100s of women to regain their health. It is a high quality, highly personalised service, that treats everyone as an individual. We are all different, and each health programme needs to address that.
I use the highest quality of products to help to improve peoples’ health and offer a bespoke service to each individual.
I have also introduced The SMASH Way to help women in general to live a healthy lifestyle long term. We all deserve access to high quality information, and my mission with SMASH is to ensure that women have access to this.
My journey throughout the last 20 years of working for myself has been such an interesting one. I am looking forward to seeing what the next 20 years bring. Whatever they bring, I know I will continue to SMASH it.
If you want to start your health journey today…give me a shout, it could be the best decision you ever make.
Yours in Health & Happiness
