Connie Weber of Hillsboro started selling Pampered Chef 11 years ago. In April, she celebrated her 1,000th show and 25th wedding anniversary.
?April was a very good month,? she said.
Weber said she started buying Pampered Chef products 25 years ago, and when she became a home consultant, it was a win-win plan.
?I love the Pampered Chef products, and I enjoy working with people and getting them used to their cooking supplies,? she said.
Surprisingly, Weber said, there are people who bought a kitchen utensil because someone said they needed it.
?They made the investment,? she said, ?but now they need to use the tool.
?Everything is an investment if it?s used daily.?
Citing one example, Weber said a spatula has day-to-day, multiple uses in her kitchen.
?I want people to be happy with their products and know that almost all Pampered Chef products have dual purposes,? she said.
Vim and vigor
Many of her family and friends have equated Weber as the ?Energizer Bunny? because she just keeps going and going.
?I can?t sit still,? she said with a chuckle. ?I sell Pampered Chef products because it?s fun, it helped make ends meet and it allowed me to stay home with my kids.?
When she started selling items and participating in home shows, she was 37 years old.?At that time, her daughters, Courtney and Allison, were 11 and 8 respectively.
?We needed a new vehicle and our kids were active in a lot of sports, which cost a lot of money,? Weber said.
Pampered Chef not only made it possible for those things, but it also provided extra spending money for shopping and cooking, she said.
The home business was also a family affair, Weber said.
?My husband did dishes and our kids stamped catalogs and folders, all helping us earn actual trips,? she said.
With her family?s support, Weber said they all started to see the rewards from her hard work and resourcefulness.
?I earned my first trip for a family of four to Washington,?D.C.,? she said.
?Then Eddie and I celebrated our 20th anniversary with a five-day all-inclusive trip to Mexico?s Riviera Maya.?
Changing with the times
In 2003, Weber said she pushed hard to promote shows.
?I did eight to 15 shows a month,? she said.
?It was a fun way to meet people, get people involved in cooking and an easy way to help people try new tools and cook at home instead of eating meals out.?
An avid cook herself, Weber said she has almost everything Pampered Chef has made.
?One thing I don?t have, but will have this month, is the RockCrock,? she said.
?I will be able to grill, broil, microwave or put it in the oven,? she said.
Every six months, Weber explained that Pampered Chef will change out or retire items.
?Sometimes 15 to 40 new products are either restyled as the need arises, become even more user friendly and dishwasher safe,? she said.
?Everything is ergonomically tested.?
Weber?s director
Patti Glass, senior director of Pampered Chef based in Grand Rapids, Mich., spoke about Weber and her accomplishments.
?Connie has received the excellence achievement award (from Pampered Chef) for several years,? she said.
?With 60,000 consultants, only 1 percent of our company earn this award and Connie consistently earned this.?
According to Glass, Weber is her No. 1 seller and has been in the Top 10 for many years.
?I have known Connie for 11 years,? she said, ?and she is a very dedicated and goal-driven person.?
One thing Glass said she admires about Weber is that she puts her family first, which is the beauty of this job.
?Her family is so important to her, and she absolutely loves what she does,? she said.
What?s next?
Now at 48, Weber said she began scaling back her business.
?When I went from 10 to 15 shows down to five, it?s a total ?shockaroo,?? she said.
What makes the job a good fit, Weber said, is that it changes with her.
?You can do as little or as much as you want as a consultant,? she said.
The reason Weber said she got started with Pampered Chef was because she wanted to stay home with her children.
?That?s exactly what I have done with this business,? she said. ?I pushed hard for a long time, but now my focus has changed.?
She said she adjusted her schedule because their daughters no longer require a stay-at-home mom.
?Courtney, 20, is a sophomore at Emporia State University,? she said. ?Allison, 17, is a junior at Hillsboro High School.
One thing Weber said she continues to enjoy doing is bridal shower shows.
?I do all the work and the hostess doesn?t have to do too much,? she said.
?I plan the recipe with her. We find one (the bride) would like and then she helps cook with me and gets hands-on (training) with the tools.?
Bridal showers and other shows have taken Weber all over the state and to surrounding states, she said.
?The farthest bridal shower I went to was in Omaha, Neb.,? she said. ?The family wanted me and I made sure the bride and host were taken care of.?
Sometimes, Weber said, she will travel because a family from the Hillsboro area recommends her.
Reaching her 1,000th show doesn?t earn her any monetary rewards, but it is still a big deal and a milestone for her.
Weber said it is uncomfortable for her to talk about herself because she doesn?t want it to come off as bragging.
She said she has fun meeting new people and getting them involved in cooking by trying new tools.
?We can find out so much more when families are eating at the dinner table rather than when they are always eating out.?
Another reason for cutting back, she said, is so that she can take more time with customer service.
By doing less shows, Weber said she can consult with more of her customers.
Some rewards, she said, are priceless.
When people love what they do and have a purpose, they will succeed.
