Business Stories

I Just Wanted to Be a Mom

Twelve weeks after she gave birth to her oldest daughter, Toree Allen was contemplating her return to her job at the front desk of a dentist’s office. It was a good job and helped pay the bills, but she agonized over missing so much time with her daughter.

So she took a leap of faith. She left her job and started a home-based business making balloon garlands and designing T-shirts. It was fun, but it took up lots of time, and she often had to drag her daughters along in a balloon-filled car. “As fulfilling as it was creatively,” she says, “it was tough mentally. I just wanted to be a mom.”

Then, early in 2025, Toree and her husband, Channing, took an even bigger leap of faith. They bought a partnership share in a company that built commercial and residential fences. It was a thriving business run by Channing’s dad, and the move allowed Channing to be home with his family more often.

Still, buying their share of the business took every cent of their savings. Toree, who had wound down her garland and T-shirt business, worried about how to replenish their savings. She worried about other things as well, like how harsh cleaning chemicals were affecting her girls’ health. Although she had switched to a supposedly “safer” laundry detergent, it didn’t leave a good smell.

“My daughter came home from school one day and asked me why her clothes couldn’t smell like her classmates’ clothes,” Toree says. “That was it. I reached out to a friend I was following on social media, Executive Director 2 Sheyenne Brumbelow, to find out where she was getting the laundry detergent she often mentioned in her posts.”

Sheyenne walked Toree through the Melaleuca Overview. The message hit home. Here was a company that offered everything Toree had been searching for. After taking a couple of weeks just to process everything now before her, Toree enrolled and became a Melaleuca Marketing Executive.

“Then I jumped in and started building like my hair was on fire,” she laughs.

Today, Toree doesn’t worry like she used to. Her business building largely fits into the corners of her day: early mornings, naptimes, and in the car. She’s free to spend all the time she dreamed of having with her daughters. And the repeat income she’s growing has already had an impact.

“We’re planning a road trip,” Toree says. “We’re going to drive to Disney World! Channing and I have never been able to do this before. Now, thanks to Melaleuca, we’re making one of our dreams come true.”

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