Today we’d like to introduce you to Myra Harris.
Hi Myra, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I’m a wife, daughter, mom, and now grandmother! I first heard of Pampered Chef when I was invited by my hairdresser to a party. I worked full time, and attending and hosting Pampered Chef parties was great for years. When I promoted to stay at home mom, that cut our income in half, added the expense of a child, and I was missing out on adult conversation was weighing on me, not to mention affecting the budget. There were more products I wanted, but I didn’t have the extra funds to spend for them, so I decided to give it a try. The majority of the products on my wish list could be earned in my first few months of business, and I could work when my husband got home to care for our daughter. I didn’t even know about the commission, I just wanted those products! When my kit and then products earned AND a paycheck arrived, I was thrilled. The cost of my kit was paid back with the first one, and my second check bought our first dishwasher! It was the perfect fit for me with time home, time away, a fun way to share tips and recipes with friends, and the income we needed to fill the gap.
My first goal, all those products? Yes, I earned all those and continue to earn the new ones released. I have a very pampered kitchen & vintage camper to say the least! Growing up, being the teacher was always what was fun to me for play time, so this allows me to teach simple techniques, share things I’ve learned along the way, and have fun in the process. It’s been one of the most rewarding things I’ve ever been involved in, and not just in commissions. This truly is a relationship business, there are fellow consultants as well as hosts and customers all across the US that have become dear friends and some that are just counted as family now. When you are invited to someone’s home and you make food together, you just connect on a personal level. The people are my favorite perk for sure. The amazing paid for vacations that I’ve earned thru the years cannot go unmentioned either. I never dreamed to need a passport to visit Paris, London, Toronto, & Mexico as a bonus of my business, or to get to go to Disney, Las Vegas, Miami, California, and more thru the years. I’ve had paid time off at jobs before, but never amazing destinations paid for!
The personal growth over the years has been something that has helped me in all aspects of life as well. I love to learn, and the training available to us is unmatched, and I’m not talking about selling training, but leadership training, speakers like Rory Vaden, time management, networking, and so much more that have helped me in so many ways outside of my business. I re-entered the workforce after my daughter was grown, and have been able to keep my business going alongside my full time job, being a new grandmother, camping every chance we get, and enjoying life.
I’m one of the few who still offer the traditional gather friends and make something yummy to share in person parties, fundraiser kick offs, and wedding / gift showers. There’s just something to be said about gathering friends with food. That said, I’m also thankful for the many ways we can connect when that just isn’t an option. It’s been a blessing and a curse to have so many options online. I didn’t own a computer or a cell phone when I got started! Hard to believe since we rely on them so much now. I love cooking and sharing on my Facebook and TikTok pages – just every day things that I do in my kitchen, or my camper that others may want to try too.
It’s exciting to have our very own online platform that anyone that can open a link can access, and we can even do texting or old school pass a catalog parties as well as great online gift registries. Most know the brand and you still hear, ‘Pampered Chef? I love Pampered Chef!’ Many are cooking at home and controlling their ingredients, and they are looking for quality tools now more than in several years past. I love that I can offer tools that will stand the test of time that I can share with confidence in the quality and usefulness along with personal service. Product knowledge, the love of cooking, and the love of quick tips, and easy techniques allows me to serve beyond a sale. I love sharing the opportunity to do what I do as well. It’s been a huge blessing in our life providing things we didn’t dream of before, and it is amazing to see what it does for others as well. We all start with a similar kit of tools, but what we do with it is as varied as you can possibly imagine! Like most direct sales models, some try it for a reason, a season, or a life time. 24 years in so far, and I’m a lifer.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
There are always challenges to face with any business. Thankfully, since everyone eats, and Pampered Chef has such a history of high quality, it’s still a loved and needed line of tools even when the economy shifts. We’ve seen so many changes in our world over the past few years, but we’ve been able to adapt and adjust. Thankfully, we were already working to direct ship all orders instead of having everything go to each host for deliveries prior to Covid, so that sped up our timeline to complete that. Online parties were a necessity at that time, so we were able to expand that offering on many platforms and have the items shipped straight to each person. Now with so many social media restrictions, we’ve created our own platform to use for online parties to avoid that censorship. It’s a season of change again now as the generation that really embraced pampered chef in person parties are often past the point of needing to stock their kitchen, and the next generation did lots of social media online parties – which created lots of issues on who got to see the information. Now we are tapping back into in person, as well as developing products and offerings for young chefs like our Kids Club. We know young families need things to not only feed their family, but also entertain their kids, and teach them as well. You don’t get much better than cooking for math, science, and life skills. I’m thankful that our home office is always a step ahead and trying to make the experience better each day for our customers, and for consultants like me. Life has ways of tossing challenges your way as well, and the flexibility of making my own schedule, and being able to do more or less as life happens has been wonderful,
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
Cake decorating has also been another passion of mine since learning to make a frosting rose from my Aunt, and having access to more pans and tips in home economics class in high school. I’m pretty much self taught, and have enjoyed the challenge of creating unique cakes for many thru the years. I did the wedding cake for Katie that gave you my name as a referral. I love seeing the expression on the face of the recipient when they see what I created for them. There just aren’t as many hours in the days any more, so I’m pretty much retired from caking so I have room for my new love – vintage campers and camping / glamping. We enjoy seeing them, restoring and repairing them, camping in them, and sharing them in rallies. We are hosting one in July in Pigeon Forge to support St Jude. The campers will be all decked out for Christmas and open for viewing, much like a car show, for people to see and the owners will be there for questions. Of course I always have my Pampered Chef information on hand to share as well.
I currently provide customer service at a local utility company, and have worn many hats thru the years. I’ve worked at a credit union, a news paper office, a florist, a plastics manufacturing company, a dental lab, and restaurants. Every where I’ve worked, the people have been my favorite perk. I just enjoy talking with folks from all walks of life. There’s always a way to help someone, even if it’s just to give them a smile.
We love surprises, fun facts and unexpected stories. Is there something you can share that might surprise us?
My college degree is in Dental Laboratory Technology, so if I’d continued that, I would be in a lab somewhere creating crowns, bridges, retainers, or dentures! I enjoyed the creative side of that, it was exciting to take a wax mock up and transform it to metal with heat and molten metal. I worked in a lab for a short time before getting married. It’s funny how you think life will go one way, and it takes you another. I’d toured a lab with a high school Health Occupations class and a person was making a ring alongside another who was making a metal dental crown with the same process – I was intrigued! I also had a Vocational Home Economics class in high school where we had a commercial kitchen, and lots of cake decorating tools to use. I’ve gotten to go back there and share a few tips and techniques with classes, and helped add some great new tools to their kitchen with a fundraiser. It was great to give back to a program that taught me about food preparation beyond the home kitchen basics.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://pamperedchef.com/pws/myraharris
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pamperedchefmyra/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PamperedChefMyra
- Other: tiktok @myraharrispc
