In this episode of The Whole Circle Podcast we talk to the lovely Leia Dillon about her journey of becoming a doTERRA Wellness Advocate and then building a flourishing doTERRA business.

Tracey and Jo met Leia about 18 months ago on a doTERRA trip to Fiji.

Recently at the 2018 Australia doTERRA Leadership Conference Leia shared her powerful story of how having a doTERRA business has changed her whole family’s life and in the process given them the financial security and freedom they needed whilst their son, Mako, has been suffering with some serious health concerns.

How long has Leia been building a doTERRA business?

Leia has been growing her doTERRA business for 3.5 years now.  She was a High School Teacher when she first started using the essential oils and then just began naturally sharing them with friends and family.  She started growing her business part time whilst she was still teaching.  From there she started cutting back her teaching hours until her doTERRA business reached the rank of Platinum which is when she was then able to stop teaching and focus on doTERRA full time.

Leia’s story

At the beginning of 2017 Leia found out that her little boy, Mako. who was 7 at the time, had a really rare and severe hip condition called Hip Dysplasia.  They had been spending a long time searching for answers since their son started walking and when they discovered that the condition he had was a really big deal, it was extremely shocking and required him to have reconstructive surgery of his hips and tops of his legs which would leave him in a spica cast, which is a half body cast, for several months whilst his bones and body recovered then he faced the journey of completely learning to walk again.  It was quite an ordeal both mentally and physically for Mako and the whole family.

Thankfully through it all the one thing Leia knew she didn’t have to worry about was her doTERRA business because she knew that being her own boss she didn’t have to take time off work, nor did she have to think about how they were going to pay for it all, so she felt extremely lucky for her successful doTERRA business and for also having the oils to support them through it all.

At the time they were ranked at Platinum but were close to rank advancing to Diamond so they had the financial backing they needed to get them through this family crisis.

By July 2017 they had reached Diamond rank and at this time they were in the midst of surgeon appointments and getting things ready to book in Mako’s surgery which was finally booked in and took place in October 2017.  Leia’s first two Diamond rank monthly pay cheques paid for her his surgery.  This was a massive achievement and even though they had private health insurance, they still had a very large out of pocket expense to pay given that Mako required two Surgeon’s to operate on him.

Moving on from the surgery, having her own business allowed Leia and her husband the freedom to be able to both be home with Mako to care for him and his high post-surgery needs.  His spica cast meant that he had a cast from his belly button down to his ankles and his legs were splayed apart which was very emotionally frightening for him and would require both Leia and her husband to move him around.  Without their doTERRA business they would not have both been able to be home as it meant they had a constant stream of income coming in.

Tracey pointed out that for the average person in a ‘normal’ job, when such a family crisis might arise, they wouldn’t necessarily have the leave accrued to be able to take a lengthy period of time off and still be paid, so more often than not people would be taking this time off unpaid and it could put such a financial strain on families.

If Leia had still been teaching, she would have needed to leave her job given the amount of time her son needed to be cared for and her husband would have needed to have gone back to work a lot sooner and when she thinks back she does not know how they would have survived if not for their doTERRA business and the residual income it provided  It could have quite easily resulted in them having to sell their house or car to be able to financially survive because the financial side to her Mako’s condition is ongoing.  They still have 2-3 appointments a week and she would still not be able to be working now.

After the surgery she did the bare minimum in her business for 2-3 months and she is very blessed to have a capable and amazing doTERRA team that kept things ticking over whilst she focused on family.  That’s the beauty of setting up strong foundations for your doTERRA business as it ends up creating that residual income for you, so Leia could check in with her team occasionally, but because they knew she was going through a hard time they focused on growing their businesses which meant that it ended up growing her business at the same time.  When she did start to refocus back to doing work, she was at home, so she could still be present for her son and work on her doTERRA business as well.

So what does a doTERRA Diamond rank income look like?

When you start off at the level of Diamond rank you are earning (roughly) $10,000 per month and then it can average out and be anywhere between $10,000 to $14,000 per month which, as we have heard, Leia was earning working part time whilst Mako was unwell and being cared for.

When Jo was working part time, prior to Additive-Free Lifestyle and doTERRA, she was earning $23,000 … per year!

As Leia said, even though money isn’t everything, when you are already in a stressful situation caring for your son who is dealing with a serious condition which is costing a lot financially, to not have to worry about where that money has to come from to give your son the best of what he needs, is a massive relief.

Tracey agreed, even though we say that money isn’t everything, it really is a big factor in us living and for things like paying a mortgage, to have a car, to run a car, to pay school fees, to eat, to pay all our bills, to keep our heater going through winter, so that financial pressure cannot be underestimated or overestimated and a lot of families break up because of finances or issues arise in marriages because of finances and a lot of stress happens with our own children because we are arguing about money.  So, for Leia to have that pressure completely gone is an absolute blessing.

What was the process of caring for Mako?

Mako had a full reconstruction of his pelvis and had 3 cm removed from each femur bone which is now held together with plates and screws which he will have to have another operation at the end of 2018 to have all of the plates and screws removed and then he had 3 cuts through each pelvis with bone grafts and that all happened on each side.  It was a major 8 hour operation which was the longest 8 hours of their lives.  Following the surgery Mako then had an epidural in place for 6 days.  So it was a massive ordeal for him!

When he eventually came home from hospital with his spica cast on, we would have to turn him every 2 hours from side to side with pillows to stop pressure sores from forming under the cast.  Leia is a part of a few Facebook support groups for this condition which has been really helpful and there is so many things that parents face post-op with their little ones, some of them really generic or common things like tummy issues or things which the oils have been amazing for, such as circulation.

Then when his cast was removed the journey to re-learn to walk again began which was really slow going.  They assumed that because he was a kid he would recover quickly but it was a lot bigger than they expected.  It started with really small movements such as moving his knees and ankles just slightly so they would set alarms on their phones and every hour they would do small movements with his legs to start to get some mobility back again.  From there it went to beginning to weight bear and now he has been through 3 different types of walking frames and the physio has been ongoing and now he can stand, walk, get a little bit of a jog up, play handball at school and ride his bike.  He’s still quite stiff and there’s still a long way to go with physio, but in terms of him being able to do what he loves to do, he is pretty well back to himself which has made him much happier.

How much time did Mako have off school?

He had all of fourth term 2017 off, so Leia basically home schooled him which she found really hard….hat’s off to all the home schooling families!  He did go back into school a few times, once was for book week dressed up as a mummy from Goosebumps (lol) and because of his spica cast they could not drive him anywhere as he did not fit in the car, so they would have to take a wheelchair taxi if they needed to go places with him.  As they don’t live in town and live about 30 minutes from Tweed Heads and 2 hours from Brisbane, they would not go many places because it was just too difficult.

Jo and Tracey were amazed at how Leia, Mako and their family got through it all and upon reflection Leia doesn’t know how they got through it all either, they just did.

So what does the future look like for Mako?

He will have the operation at the end of 2018 to have the plates and screws removed which is quite a minor operation in comparison to what he has already had.

Because Mako was undiagnosed for so long it is likely to impact him for the rest of his life.  It is very likely that he will need another operation later on when he is a teenager and there’s every likelihood that he will develop osteoarthritis as he gets older because the bones rubbing on bones will start to cause pain and then he’ll likely have to have hip replacements from his 30’s onwards, but there’s no definite on what’s going to happen yet.

What does Leia do with the essential oils on a day by day basis?

Leia gives Mako a massage every night, although Mako did give Leia a foot massage the other night and for those that don’t know, at the time of recording this podcast, Leia was 39.5 weeks pregnant so she deserved the foot massage! Lol

She gives Mako a massage with Copaiba, Frankincense and often Lemongrass or AromaTouch blend which are all really great for helping his muscles and joints to relax and to soothe him after a big day because he gets really tired.  A couple of times a week Leia will get a call from school to come and pick him up early from because he’s tired.  He’ll also have magnesium baths and she’ll add Frankincense often as well.  Frankincense and Copaiba have been amazing and Copaiba in particular.  Leia attended the US doTERRA Leadership Conference last year when they released Copaiba and she felt like they were talking to her and that the oil was brought out for Mako, so she was super excited about that and they started to use it straight after his surgery.

One huge impact that Copaiba had was that the doctors said that he would get really bad muscle spasms because of the way that they have stretched, pulled and moved everything  around which would be really uncomfortable because he would not be able to move and stretch it out because of the cast.  So, when Leia learnt about this she started using Copaiba on the bottom of Mako’s feet because it’s really relaxing to the central nervous system and from this, Mako did not have one spasm!  The medical staff in the days following the surgery kept coming and checking for spasms and then they were all talking about the fact that Mako was not getting any muscle spasms, so Leia told them about the Copaiba she was using on him.

What an amazing mum! Amazing family! And amazing essential oils!

Tracey shared that having a doTERRA team is much more than having a doTERRA business, it’s a community that all has each other’s backs.  doTERRA as a company is so supportive and just has no competition, competitive nature and has an amazing culture.  It is hard to describe how wonderful it is because when you try most people don’t believe you.

You simply cannot underestimate the power of residual income and what that can do for you!

For anyone that wants to build and grow a doTERRA business, then all you need to do is reach out to Jo, Tracey, Leia or your existing upline if you already have a doTERRA wholesale account.

Links and Resources