Yvonne Foong: Fighting NF

I was chatting with a good friend earlier in the afternoon. She has been on a weight loss frenzy. Since Yuin Yin and gang are running a Lose Weight for Charity campaign, I told this friend to consider getting the products, which turned out to be Herbalife. But she mistakenly thought that I was selling it so I protested.

“Hey I don’t sell anything and everything. Otherwise, I would have been a market trader”.

This friend of mine has helped to take photos of many things people made and donated to me over the years. Maybe the variety of color and form overwhelmed her.

In actual fact, I was merely selling the original creations of other people prior to this. April Yim made jewelries. YC made dresses. Josephine Yap made bags (coming soon), Mei Hou produced glass paintings, and so on. These people donated their handiwork to me without earning a cent except for April who supplied her specially made earrings and necklaces at cost price because she was making them to specifically suit my Heart4Hope campaign. It has been four years since I started raising funds and today, there are many similar ‘blogshops’ out there that sell clothes and accessories sourced through wholesalers. It’s easy to get confused.

The important thing here that I have to remember is my purpose. Heart4Hope is a campaign to raise funds for surgery, not a business. I employ PR strategies, not marketing.

Even as I become an Amway distributor, the strategy remains unchanged. I’d learn everything about Artistry and Nutrilite, and anything I need in order to speak for the products.

That is the main thing about public relations. We only promote something that we can be confident and truthful about.

And the truth is, I started an Amway business because I’d have the opportunity to gain financial independence for my family and I. Earlier, I wrote that with Amway, I hope to build an NF Foundation and assist people in the future. That is a dream for the future. But right now, I am worrying about my parents’ and their immediate future.

I’ve just shifted my study table back into my bedroom in order to be alone. Out in the living room, I am always reminded of dad’s numerous ailments. He refuses medical attention and whenever he was hospitalized on emergency, he demanded to be discharged before anything was conclusive. So over the years, his problems stacked up until a point when one can’t decide where to start caring. Mom is relatively healthier, but just like my father, has never planned for her old age. Come what may is their motto.

Hence, while raising funds for surgery I also need to come up with contingency plans. With my trust fund in place, Rockwills legal executives can handle finances related to my healthcare so should anything untoward happens to me, my parents won’t go on wits end again like what unfolded ten years ago when Aunt Ivy’s cancer came back. Now with the Amway business, I hope that I won’t have to go running to people should anything happens to my parents.

Sounds quite desperate, no? Even so, I would rather stick with the public relations principles that I am used to, and not try to sell you anything and everything.

Pray that I can follow through with this.