Angel Alvaro

Hi there, my name is Angel Alvaro.

If you are anything like me… you love staying at home with your kids and earn money from home. I’ll explain a little about how I combined the 2 and how it changed my life, but first let me tell you a little about myself.

I am a very lucky wife to my soul mate and best friend- a very loving and supportive husband whom I met online and a hands-on mom to a wonderful 2 and 1/2-year old daughter. I have determination and dedication to succeed in whatever I do. I love helping people in any way I can. I am a motivational speaker to our FLP group in Ottawa. People said that I inspire them in many ways -- that I can motivate them to succeed. People describe me as easy going, outspoken, very helpful, friendly and sincere. I am a risk taker - always daring to learn and do something new.

Where Are You From?

I grew up in a small rural area in the Philippines. Being the eldest of five, I was taught and disciplined as early as two years old that I should be helping in the household chores and taking care of my siblings. I was taught that education was the only and best inheritance my parents could give us and that it was the only way to get out of poverty and be successful with whatever you desired in life.

I have been an entrepreneur ever since my elementary days. I would use my school allowance to buy some candy and sell it to my classmates. I used the profits I earned to buy more to generate more profit. Even at that time, I knew that I wanted to be my own boss and have my own business. Whenever I was asked what I wanted to be when I grew up, I would answer “to be a successful businesswoman”; although, at the time, I didn’t know what it took to be successful.

Past Work Experiences:

In the sixth grade, I helped my mother with our grocery store on weekends. I learned how to record the books and discovered how tedious it was. I began to realize that the business world was not an easy one. There were risks involved -- lots of things to learn to be successful in any business; and if you are not careful, you could end up bankrupt.

Other than the grocery store, I had other odd jobs while growing up. I’m the kind of person who don’t mind what kind of job I have to do as long as it is legal and not immoral. I sold encyclopaedias and earned commissions in the process. During college, I offered computer literacy tutorials to earn extra allowance.

I became an Avon lady while working in Taiwan. Through my mom, I would get the Avon orders from the Philippines and have it shipped to Taiwan. My mom became a top-seller in Avon for few months because of this. Also, while in Taiwan, I was a Production Operator in an electronics company. Working in Taiwan made me realize that I loved travelling and meeting people and that I have a knack for learning foreign languages. While there, my survival instinct told me that I must learn their language so that I could understand and be able to communicate. It was in Taiwan that I came to realized that I could go into different places, earn money and learn different languages by working overseas. At the time, it really didn’t matter what kind of job I had, just as long as I could get out and travel places.

My next adventure took me to Europe in Cyprus and in Italy. I was a caregiver. I had no professional experience in caregiving other than being the eldest of 5 siblings and taking care of them when they were small. I motivated myself to be able to do anything with will and determination -- and I did. I learned basic Greek -- enough to carry on a daily conversation while I was there. It was fun.

Working in Italy was the greatest adventure I had. I learned Italian while I was there and had a chance to tour most of the country. It was while I was in Italy where I met the love of my life. My husband and I met online in 2005. Who would’ve thought that I would meet my soul mate online? And what better place could it be than Rome? It all started in one short, simple email. After one year of an online long distance relationship and spending time with each other in Rome, he went on his knees and proposed to me at St. Peter’s Square. So romantic! We had our civil wedding in the Philippines.

Being married to a Canadian means we had to apply for immigration under the spousal category. We had to go through a painful, stressful process of immigration -- being away from your love is so hard when you don’t know when you can be together again. It took us a little over 4 months when I got my visa. That may sound short, but it was a long and tedious wait of our lives. It was all worth it though because in the end we knew that we would be together forever. We complied 3 thick volumes of emails with each other during our entire journey of love starting the first day that we meet online in 2005.

And so I became an immigrant. After one week of arriving in Canada in April 2007, we had to plan the church wedding here for August 25, 2007. I had to decide whether I would apply for a job right away or just focus on the wedding preparations. Since there was not much time left for us to prepare, we decided I would focus my attention on the wedding. I did our wedding invitations, wedding favours, centrepieces, church programs, with a matching wishing well with the help of my sister in-law. The big day came. It was great!

After the wedding, we had what we call a “Trash the Dress” session with our photographers. I had dreamt of a beach wedding but we couldn’t have one, so this session sort of fulfilled my dream as the pictures were taken at a local beach. We were lucky to have found such awesome photographers.

We spent our honeymoon in Niagara Falls, Canada. We had a blast in this place. We rode the Maid of the Mist and saw the waterfalls up close. We went at the Skylon tower and had a romantic dinner at the revolving restaurant! We also went to Wonderland and went through most of the rides. It was a full week of fun and great time together! Little did we know that it will be our last trip to Wonderland for quite a while.

By September, I prepared myself for school in October. I had decided to go to school to get a license in Massage Therapy since i love massage. October came and I thought that waking up early in the morning in a rush was not very appealing to me. What the heck happened to me?! Or my body?! What’s wrong with me?! Too many things were going on with my body and most of the time, I was not feeling well. Then it hit me… I was pregnant. I bought a test kit, and after taking the test, I had to verify the results several times; I had to re-read the instruction several times. We even went to a clinic to confirm it. YES, it was positive. It was the happiest moment of our lives as a couple. We were going to have a baby.

During my pregnancy, my sisters in-law hosted a baby shower for me and they gave me a huge 5 tier diaper cake that contained 250 diapers with baby necessities on it. It was such a great idea, that when a friend of ours was going to have a baby, we gave them a diaper cake too. It is a terrific present for new parents and parents to-be. Soon afterwards, I started receiving requests for diaper cakes. This lead me and my sister-in-law in the creation of our own diaper cakes & towel cakes business last year. Ever since, we have had a steady stream of orders.

I don’t know about you but during my pregnancy, I had every symptom there was for an expecting mamma. I had to stay home and put school on hold. I thought I would go crazy during those times. Being new to this country, no driver’s licence, not knowing anybody... I felt so alone most of the time. It was a hard adjustment for me. I was very fortunate that my husband was very supportive and understanding during those times. And after nine months, our lovely daughter was born in May and oh she’s so gorgeous. And the amazing part – she was born 3 years to the day my husband and I first met online.

Being a mom changed my perception of life and my priorities. When our baby was born, I wanted to be a hands-on mom in everything. We decided that I won’t go back to school until she is three or four years old and ready for school. We don’t want to put her to child care as it is more expensive and it just doesn’t make sense with our budget.

Staying at home with my daughter is great as I am able to take care of her and shower her with my love, but I know deep inside me that I want to do something for myself too and bring in some income. The question was how and when.

I started searching for the phrases “making money online” and “home-based business”. There was a particular article that caught my attention: “Is XYZ business a scam?” I knew the company and for me to see the word “scam” tied to its name, I couldn’t believe it. I clicked the link to the article with the so-called company scam. What a relief to know that it was just an intriguing headline of the article to catch reader’s attention after reading it. I got curious with the author so I clicked her name which led me to her blog. This in turn led me to what I was searching for –making money with your home-based business. She was offering free training so I signed up.

I still have the training saved in my email to this day. The training led me to other industry leaders, one of them specifically was Mike Dillard and his Magnetic Sponsoring course where i came to realized what my real problem was in the past-I wasn’t “marketing” the business. What I was actually doing was “network convincing” and “network prospecting” instead of “network marketing”. I started following these leaders and discovered their secrets to success online. I was able to go after the dream I had given up awhile back in despair. It gave me hope that I could finally become a successful network marketer without all the pain and struggles that I had went through in the past. These people taught me the proper way to do network marketing and how to position myself as a leader. I wish I had found them in the early days of my network marketing career. I would’ve been able to avoid all those painful experiences I had in the past.

Today, because of them, I’m experiencing tremendous success in this industry, happily working from home full-time and living the lifestyle of my dream. They taught me how to be a professional network marketer and I owe them whatever success I have today and in the future. The knowledge was invaluable. I now dedicate my network marketing career in helping and motivating other home business entrepreneurs and struggling network marketers to achieve the lifestyle of their dreams that I thought I could never have back in 2006. I am now using the exact same formula that the top producers are using in building their business online. Through the workings of Sandra Essex, Mike Dillard and many others that I followed, I found Brenda Gagne who is responsible for wherever I am right now in my life. “When the student is ready, the teacher shall appear.”

Hope you enjoy my blog!

To your online success,