Confessions of an Herbalife Millionaire

Take your time, and enjoy this account, told by one of Herbalife's greatest success stories, (John & Susan Peterson)! Its long, so don't start unless you have around half an hour to spare:

John Peterson, speaking at Indianapolis STS in '98

I was looking forward to being here, so sometimes, I am a pretty young guy still, but I feel like a grandfather in Herbalife. So I was listening to the introduction and however, it always affects me a little bit and I wonder, are they for sure talking about me? Because I remember back, almost like it was yesterday when I got into Herbalife and there are a couple of reasons that I am here and I want to share those with you.
I will start by sharing with you my story and hope that you can relate to who I am and where I am coming from.
Then I'm going to get into some things that have taken me from an average guy who was going broke to becoming a multi-millionaire. Something like that can happen only in Herbalife. I'll share those things with you that made a difference for people out there around the world in the countries that I'm in.
Now we will back up. I want to go back, actually to the third of March 14 years ago when I was selling real estate. I had spent 10 years in the real estate industry and I really enjoyed it. Back then Houston was booming with the oil industry, I had moved from Minnesota down to Texas. I was thinking that would really put it all together for me. I could put my future together in the real estate industry and it would happen fast, because of how fast Houston was growing. So I did that, I moved to Houston and that is where I met my wife, Susan. Things were going great and I not only kept selling real estate but I invested all my profits back into real estate.
Maybe you weren't affected much by what happened when the oil crash of the late 70's early 80's came. Houston was hit the hardest, probably Denver was maybe second and I don't know about the rest of the country, but it devastated me. Everything I'd worked for, for 10 years, almost like overnight went away. I'd bought properties and then before I knew it the banks had the properties and I was struggling to keep my car and to keep my house and I only knew one thing at that point, nobody was buying houses.
My wife was a decorator, Susan was a decorator back then, and nobody was decorating.
I had one of those floating mortgages, you know those variables that was like 18% and it was going up, so things were just getting worse and worse, I couldn't hang on to the house and the car so we each went out and got another job.
I started selling real estate on the weekends in Galveston because people with money were still buying all this property and what not and that looked like what would be the answer. And then, I don't remember what the name of it was, but a hurricane came through and I had all these lots under contract and took it all away. So I didn't get any of that. So I thought, well, on the weekends I would go to the north woods because people were buying these acres of woods, so got a few of those under contract and tornado damage took all the woods.
So, no matter what I did, it was like what ever I touched sure didn't turn to gold. So, I was jumping around on these weekend jobs and still keeping my regular real estate job as a manager in a company wasn't making any commissions during the week and Susan was teaching art at the university two times a night at the school and she was doing her day job.
So between the two of us we were putting well over 50-60 hours a piece into our jobs and we never even saw each other and it wasn't getting any better. This went on for two years. My original idea was to find these extra jobs and we would just ride it out till the market gets better. Well, fortunately, I stumbled into Herbalife because it took almost, well it will be 12 years before anything changed in the real estate market in Houston and I never thought it would be that long.
But, at any rate, how I found Herbalife, I'd heard about it in 1982, and I heard about it from a friend of mine that I grew up with. I grew up in a little town, Elderly, MN, population 20,000. A farm community. Jim and I grew up together and he was behind in every thing. He flunked school and went off to college. When we were in high school, like on the basketball team, he was the guy that always sat on the bench, he never got off the bench, always tried and everything, but he never got anywhere.
So when he called me in 1982, when I was in Houston, and tells me that he just found a new company and he is going to get wealthy. I asked him what he had been doing and he said "Selling mattresses". I asked him "How much have you made?" and he said "Well, nothing, I'm just getting started", and I pretty much already knew that and I felt sorry for him. So I bought one of these distributor packs and I really didn't want one but I felt sorry for Jim, and what not. And I'll never forget waiting for that thing to come because I wasn't interested because I was still happy, at that point, with my real estate business, the crash hadn't happened yet.
But I remember waiting for it and I kind of started thinking and dreaming a little bit about what it might be like to have your own business. And I remember him telling me that this was going to become a world leader in nutrition and weight loss and what not. I thought "What if he was right?", and I thought, "Jim...nah, it couldn't be".
Anyway, back then we didn't have the nice boxes that you got today like this, it came in a little brown box with green print on it. And my particular box must have moved through the United States a few times because it was all tattered up when it came to the door. So when I got that thing, what ever I thought about owning my own business went out of my head, when I saw that beat up brown box I thought, "He's selling these things, I can't believe it".
I opened it up. I didn't have to lose weight so I looked at the cans in the beat up brown box and I forgot about it, I put it on a shelf. Susan, my wife, about two weeks later said "You are going to have to do something with that thing you got from Jim, it's gathering dust".
I'll never forget when I finished the phone call to Jim, I looked up and said to Susan, "Poor Jim, the guy has gone from selling mattresses to selling vitamins and worse than that he thinks I'd be interested". That was my attitude.
So anyway when she told me it was gathering dust I did something with it, I flipped it in the trash. That's how I started my business. Anyway, that was 1982.
Well in the next two years, everything I just told you about happened. And in that two year period, when I tried to hang on and go against the flow of economics or what ever what was going on in Houston, I gradually started losing my self confidence because things weren't working. They were just getting worse and as the bank took one thing I'd built up after another. I felt worse and worse and it started eroding my self esteem.
So by the time I actually did get started in Herbalife, I didn't have my self confidence. I didn't have my self esteem. And I certainly didn't have any money.
Any way, I got to the point where I realized I was becoming one of these guys with all the answers and no money and I decided, OK, I don't have the money, but I'll get the answers. So instead of having preconceived notions, you know one of the reasons I didn't pay much attention to Herbalife in 1982, was because when I talked to another friend about it and said what Jim was sending me, they said "Oh, that is something just like Amway, you don't want to get involved in that".
You know what I know about Amway, zero, I didn't know anything then and I don't know anything today. So many times myself and other people, we make decisions on preconceived notions or feelings of hopelessness, is exactly what happened to me, so I just kind of blew it off and then all of a sudden I'm struggling. So I decided to get the answers, and when I was calling ads in the paper I kept hearing about Herbalife, and I said "I'm going to find out".
I get a hold of Jim and he is a different guy. He had an air about him on the telephone. He had confidence and he told me that he would show me how to make $10,000.00 a month.
Well, I'd never made $10,000.00 a month, the best month I ever had in real estate business, and there weren't many of them, was like $8,000.00. I couldn't comprehend $10,000.00 on anything but full time, so I said "No, I can't do that". And he told me, "Well, John, why don't you start part time?". And I said "What does that entail?". He said "If you will put 10-12 hours a week in, around your schedule, it doesn't have to interfere with anything you are doing, I can show you how to make an extra $1,000.00 a month". And that's what I bit on because even though I didn't even believe I could get the thousand, to hang on to the house and the car, I was running about $400.00 to $500.00 short a month. And we were going to run out of any ways to get that.
So I started thinking, maybe I can get that $500.00 a month and instead of sitting at home worrying about the future, I might as well put my extra time and energy into that. And that is just what we did and so our first little goal in Herbalife was to make $500.00.
Yet, the very first month, after Susan and I got involved and started talking to people, when we added it all up at the end of the month, we made over $2,000.00. I couldn't believe it, it was almost what I was making full time and I'd done this in just 10 or 12 hours and didn't even know what I was doing.
We started thinking about it and it started changing our life right away. Because being in the financial straits we were in, maybe once a month I could have thought about taking Susan out to dinner and I would always have to quick peek at the menu first and look at what the prices were and tell her we could pick from this, this and this, that's all I could afford.
Well, once we got going and got an extra couple thousand dollars coming in, one of the first things I did, was I took her out to dinner and handed her the menu and said "You can have anything you want". It was little things like that that started to change.
Then we went to a school after somewhere in our second month. I didn't want to go, because I was in Houston and it was in Dallas. Jim, my sponsor, told me I needed to go. I told him - "No you go do that and waste your money getting there and waste it on a motel and waste all that time training. I'm going to stay home and make money". I was excited that I was making money. I said "You guys go get all the training, I'll stay home and make the cash".
Jim said "Oh, John you got making a living thinking". And I said "Well, what other kind of thinking is there?". And he said "There's getting rich thinking". I said "What is the difference?". He said "Making a living thinking is adding up what it is going to cost you to get the information and the inconveniences that might come along with it". And he said "That's what you told me", and he said "Getting rich thinking is the opposite, it is going to get that information with eager anticipation, not worrying so much about what the inconveniences are, but eagerly anticipating getting the information and putting it in the action to change your life for ever. That is getting rich thinking".
I thought about that, and I thought about it. You know I still didn't believe him but I thought about everything he had told because finally I was actually making money. I thought "Well, he is right". So, Susan and I decided to go. We went begrudgingly because I had to buy gas, it was a 5 hour trip, I had to get a hotel and I'm thinking "There goes all my profits" before I even get started.
By the time I got to that school I was completely negative. For 5 hours of the two of us telling each other why we shouldn't be going.
Then we get into that school and it's a different deal. The first thing that happened was that Jim introduced me to Tish.
When I was leaving for that school, I found out that there was another distributor in my block. I didn't want to go to Dallas now and I told Susan and she said "There goes half the business". And then just as we were leaving my neighbor called me up. We got him started and he filled me in that this lady is not just a distributor, she is a supervisor! I thought "Oh, great, there goes all the business". Think about it. How could I have had that fictitious picture in my mind. But you see, everybody has a different picture of what life is, whether it is from preconceived notions or whatever. The picture that got painted in my mind was that I would be doing Herbalife with my little red wagon and I'd be going around the neighborhood with it. And when I found out there was another lady and she was a supervisor and I'd just barely become one, I thought "There goes the business". If I hadn't gone to that training I probably wouldn't be in Herbalife today. I'd still be out there doing what so many people do. Struggle with the JOB, just over broke.
But anyway, I went to that training, and when we got into that training, Jim introduced me to Tish. I asked her what she used to do and she said "Truck driver". And it didn't take me long to figure that out, just listening to the conversation. And I said "Truck driver". And she said "Yeah, I used to fill pot holes in the roads in Dallas". I said "How are you doing at this?", I was expecting a couple thousand dollar dealer, part time like me, and she said "Eighteen thousand dollars a month".
I said, "Eighteen thousand! How did you learn to do that?". Well, she said, "I just come to these trainings and get as close as I can to the front row. I write down all the notes I can on any one who is making more money than me. Then I go out and try to do it. Then I bring that information back to the next training and that experience and I listen again. And I get better and better at it. Now I get these big checks".
Then she said "You gotta meet Roger". So she introduced me to Roger. I liked Roger right away because he was kind of skinny and I could tell he didn't need to lose weight, so I feeling good, because I didn't either. And he was smiling and all this and I said, "Don't tell me you are a truck driver" and he said "No, I am a carpet cleaner" and I said "Were you a good one?" and he said "No, I went broke". I said "So how are you doing in this?" and he said "Well not as good as Tish, but I'm making 14 grand a month". And I said, "Fourteen thousand a month from a carpet cleaner, how do you learn that?" He said "I do like Tish, get as close to the front row as I can and take good notes of any body who is making money, then I just go out and try to copy that. And what ever happens I come back from that experience and refine it at the next school". And, gees, my sponsor is a mattress sales man and he is making 20 grand a month.
A truck driver is making 18, carpet cleaner is making 14 and all they're doing is sitting in the front row taking notes and I didn't even come with a paper and pen. I had no idea what was going on here. I told Susan "Run and get the paper and pen, I'll get the chairs".
We never got in the front row, we got two rows back and that's where things started to change for me. And that day, everything changed because the first thing I got out of that training, this is what you want to: why I am telling you this in detail is because your people you started in business are going to go through the same things that happened to me. All they can see is the little picture and they need to get a bigger picture. You all got a different picture about what Herbalife really is when you got exposed to the big picture.
So the first thing that happened to me out of that thing was that I got the big picture! See, I walked into that school with a little teeny picture of a mom and pop business and I didn't tell you that I imagined that my wagon would be red. And I'd be going around the neighborhood. Well, that kind of picture made me do little things and I made little commitments and wasn't excited about the business I was in.
Well, after that day at that training, I got the big picture. I heard Herbalife was going to become a billion dollar company. I heard Herbalife was going to become the leader in the weight loss and nutrition industry. I realized all of a sudden that I didn't need to worry about this little old lady on my block, whether she was distributor or a supervisor. I didn't have to worry. I could sponsor in my own neighborhood, in my own city, in my own state, in my own county, all across the country and we even started talking about international back then.
So, all of a sudden, I go from this little mom and pop picture of making a little extra money to believing I could earn $10,000.00 a month this company. It's going to go like crazy and all I have to do is hang around, be teachable and roll up my sleeves and go to work like the mattress sales man, the carpet cleaner and the truck driver.
So, I got the big picture, and when people have the big picture they do big things. They make big commitments and they go bigger and they go faster. So, one of the things that trainings do is give people the big picture of where and what their life is all about. Now I probably have a bigger picture than any body in this room. I'm not going to guarantee that. But I've now been to 31 different countries and I've seen an enormous amount of stuff that has changed my picture to even bigger than it is.
The first thing I got was the big picture. The second thing was that by meeting Roger and Tish and so many others I saw that there was no common denominator in terms of background to these people. Just average people. No common denominator background. But they were successful, making way more money than average people and what I thought they should make. But anyway more than average people I knew were making... more than I could imagine. So I started believing.. if they can do it, if there is still an opportunity than I can do it too!
I started believing that I could actually make 10 thousand a month and that school was the first time anyone said to me. At least I thought they were talking to me and maybe they were because I listened. That I could get rich.
In all the years that I had gone to school and gone to college, and 10 years spent in the real estate industry I grew up with the idea like my parents did. Work hard, and if you work hard, stay loyal and do a good job and do it ethically you will always have a job and every thing will be fine for you. But no body ever talked to me about getting wealthy before and I had no clue how as to how it's done or how you get there. At that school they started talking about getting wealthy. My ears were burning. By meeting and seeing all those people with no common denominator, I started believing that it could happen for me.
And then the third thing that happened. I got enough ideas out of that school that day and I had a plan of action. When we were going home, we didn't need a car, I could have flown home on my own wings. I was so excited because I got the big picture. I believed I could do it if I just kept working and played the system and I had a list of things to put into action. So I went home, the one big motivating factor for me was that nothing had worked for me for two years then when I found something that worked and that I got the big picture I went at it with a passion like I never had before. Now I am now thankful that I went through all those troubling times in the real estate business or I would have never looked at something like this.
So those are the three things that I got: the big picture, the knowledge and this plan of action. Within the next ninety days of applying it our business exploded. We got an $8,000.00 royalty check. I don't know what our wholesale or retail was. But that was fast. Then Susan came home one day and said "John, we need to quit our jobs" and I said "No, we can't do that, Susan. Anything this good is not going to last, it's too good to be true". I said "Trust me". Because I had just gone through the trees being blown down and the beach blown away and all the rest of the stuff, so I'm thinking, it isn't going to last. And she said "Yeah, but do you realize that we are having fun", and she told me that she has glad she had her husband back and all this stuff and I said "No we can't do that, you know". And she said "Well, you know I gotta tell you I've already quit my job".
Well, I didn't want to be left behind so I quit mine too. And that next day, we get up like usual, except there are no jobs to go to and all morning long we look at each other and say what do we do? Since I didn't know what to do I called Jim about 1:00 all scared and said I don't know, maybe we made a mistake, we quit our jobs and we are full time and we don't know what to do? "Well that's easy, what did you do part time?" And I started saying all this stuff and he said "Just do that all day long". I said "OK". So we started doing that and anyway that's when business exploded on us and we hit some timing like we are in now when the company has momentum. And nine months later our royalty check alone was at $40,000.00 a month. I just had to realize that nine months earlier, the rags situation and nine months later I'm rich and I couldn't believe it.
But that's what had happened to me and it all happened so fast and I was inexperienced in this business I started to think "Well, I don't need to recruit anymore people, I got an organization growing without me. Pretty soon I decided I didn't need to go to trainings because I had been trained and I figured I'd heard it all. So I thought what do I need to go to those things for and so pretty soon I quit going to the meetings. Then my check drops from 40 thousand to 37 thousand a month and I started thinking "Gee, what's wrong with Herbalife?". And I keep going on my sabbatical and it dropped to 35 thousand. And I'm thinking "Gee, wonder what's wrong with Mark Hughes?" And then we get tested in America and some of you have heard about it and if you haven't, or it doesn't matter, it's in the past. And that really shook everything at the seams and all of a sudden as fast as that check went up it went down faster. And all of a sudden it was down under $4,000.00. And I am certain that Mark Hughes is going to do like most people would do, because he has already made his millions and anything he does therefore is a risk. If he doesn't make it, he stands to lose his millions, he can just bankrupt and take the money and run. And I'm convinced he is like every one else that's what he is going to do.
So I told Susan, "I'm not going down with the ship". And she said "Well, I'm not going back to decorating and we are having fun at this even if we are not making any money any more". So I said, "Well, I'm going to go, I've got a buddy in Austin". And I said "I'm going to go start up there with this sales job and he got me in." And I said, "So you can pack the house up and by this time we know we have lost the house for sure, so it is just a question of when the man was going to come and pick up the keys. So you can mail all the stuff off in a trailer or what ever and I'll meet you in Austin in a month and I'll get the thing going". So anyway, we get it going and every night we are talking and I'm telling her what is going on with my new job and she is telling me about who she sponsored and what's going on with Herbalife. And I'm surprised she is still in Herbalife and it keeps going on, and after about 60 days, I know I don't want to talk to Susan anymore about this because I don't like hearing about all the fun stuff, and I've got this grind job over here. And it's going into the third month and I ended up top salesman for the month and my bonus was going to be about $800.00, and I'm thinking "That's chicken feed compared to Herbalife bonuses, Herbalife wouldn't even dare give one out like that". And I made up my mind, I talked to Susan and she had already moved, we were in Austin now. And I said, "You know I don't care any more about how much money we make or what ends up happening, you know what I miss? I miss the fun. I miss the freedom. I miss having our own business. I miss being able to work together and have the opportunity to have no limit on what we are doing. So, I'm going to not take that bonus, I'm going to go in there and tell them that I couldn't feel right about taking it and tell them that I'm quitting." So I went in and I said to the "You know, I can't take your bonus" And they said "What are you going to do?", and I said "Herbalife". Silence...and I could just hear them all say "Gosh, this guys gone nuts".
Anyway, a long story short, about 6 months later my boss at that company signed up under me and started working in Herbalife. But anyway that's where everything changed because I came back and I realized what I had. I realized what I lost. I wanted that freedom and I wanted that fun back and I wanted that chance back. We came back at it and then we got going and it took about another 90 to 120 days of applying the things that I'd already learned but stopped putting in practice, some of which I am going to share with you today. We got that check back up to like $11,000.00 a month. And then it seemed like it got stuck and couldn't seem to move that thing. And so then I had to go back and take the same principals and apply them again. Then all of a sudden we got the thing up to $20,000.00 a month. And it got stuck again for months and we pulled the same tricks out of the hat and get the thing going again and we get it up to $40-50 a month and the last couple years it just exploded as Herbalife exploded. Now Susan's and my business has expanded to 31 countries. The newest one-Thailand. And Herbalife has been paying us right around 2-1/2 million dollars a year for probably the last five years. So that's great but I'm stuck at around $200 thousand a month. So, poor me, right? But anyway, it doesn't matter, we all get stuck in some level whether its how to sell your first product or you gotta sell two or whether your a supervisor going to GET Team. And so, a little over a year ago and I remember the date as the school at Miami where I here Mark talking constantly about what is coming up and how we are now going to 5 billion. And I'm realizing right then that if I don't pull the stuff out, all the things that I've learned and start applying all those again, then as we go for the 5 billion it's going to pass me right by. And I'm going to stay stuck or I can apply all those things and start moving again.
So, after that school, I committed to get going and so did Susan and so what we did was we applied these things that I'm going to share with you and in a years time we moved our royalty up by $16,000.00 a month. And the way this business works, if you are sponsoring wide your infinite will be about 3 times what your royalties are. I'm not good in math so just use round numbers instead of $16,000.00 take $15,000.00 at the three level and if you get about three times that on the infinite that's 45 thousand plus 15, that's 60 thousand, right, a month. But if you multiply that by 12 months a year that's a 600-700 thousand dollar increase. And if you all knew me and where I came from, and I'm not any different than the rest of you guys except I paid attention to some of these things and gone out and done them.
If I can increase my income by $600,000.00 a year with this system by just applying these things than who knows what you can increase yours by. And my new goal is this: because we all have new goals because if you don't you don't have a dream of going somewhere and nothing happens. But as Herbalife goes to 5 billion I want to be making 5 million dollars a year and I'm trying to brake out of that 2 1/2 million dollar range. We're on our way. We just increased it by 500-600-700 thousand a year.
So that's kind of where I come from and my story a little bit and if I look back, I do the same things today that I did 13 years and some months ago. The concepts have never changed. The technique has, the technologies have, the details have but the basic concepts never have. And I was told in times like this, 13 some years ago, I didn't believe in him then but I figured what have I got to lose to go. He told me that if I treated the next six months like my life depended on this business that I could set up my life and set up a foundation for a business that would pay me for decades. And that is exactly what has happened.
I can go back to Houston and I'm still getting paid major money on what I did in that first 6 months. And I will never forget my neighbor, Bill. Bill was an engineer and things were a little tough, you know, when the oil crash hit and so he joined and he got up to Millionaire Team and then the bumps hit and so his check dropped significantly. But he still had a check going and then he got a little promotion in his company, so he told me that he was just going to forget about Herbalife. I said, "Bill, this thing is going to go to a billion dollars, just hang in there. But his wife convinced him to give up, not renew the distributorship. Well that little organization grew from Houston and on into Ohio and from Ohio on through New Mexico. Just out of Mexico, not what ever I get out of that line in the states I get over $15,000.00 a month. There's probably another two or three thousand so call it 18 to 20 thousand. Bill gave it up. Now that's going on for 13 years. So 13 times $20,000.00 a month for 13 years you realize what that guy gave up? Imagine that. I could tell you four more stories like that where I made several million dollars. People started and didn't stick around, so you want to stick around, you never know what you start. In fact, my sponsor isn't around any longer, he made 5 million dollars and decided that he was going to be the next Mark Hughes and he was going to split the company. But it didn't quite work that way. Once you get started you never know what you have actually started so I would certainly hang around. But anyway, what happened, I don't do any thing different other than adjust to the technology, the time and the details. But here is the important thing, I've been through enough ups and downs in Herbalife. I told you about my first big test and how that happened even when I became unteachable but something that I learned, that I am extremely excited about, is after they can never take away what I know. And I can do it again and again and again, so nobody can stop me again. The might get my cash or what ever but they can never stop me from going forward. If you take the time and learn from the Herbalife system and what we got going on here you can have your dreams come true and if somebody takes your dreams you can go get them again because nobody can ever take away what you have learned.
So, the first thing I would do is this. I am going to share with you the key things that have made a difference for me. And one of the big reasons I am here is, I always watch what is going on in my group and when I see people that have committed to Herbalife, and once they have made that commitment to Herbalife and then they start learning how to do it. And all of a sudden they get into the production phase where they are doing 10, 12, 8, 10, 12, $15,000.00 of business a month and they start getting a little check I know if the timing is right that thing can be exploded. You have to have the people that have that commitment and help them out to see if you can't take the momentum that they've got and advance it a little bit by sharing the things that have helped make a difference for me. And so that's the real reason that I'm here and I hope it does good for all of you.
There are a couple of things that I would do, the first thing I would make an action list. Along with your notes, what I would do is have an action list. So that as the day goes on, from what I say and from what the other speakers say that you can take the things that click in your mind and you say "Gees, that's what I want to put into my business". Make an action list and then on a day like today you should have a list of 20 things on that thing cause remember when I went home from Dallas 13 years ago, I had a list. I didn't call it that then but it's an action list. Its the things as you write down than later when you are done here you take those 12, 15, 18, 20 items and you categorize them in order of what you want to get going first and the things that you learned out of this school that's important. If you don't start implementing within the next immediately within the next 24 hours then you wasted it because you won't do it. In other words, if you don't' get it into action and start, you will think about it but then you will start thinking well, you will do it tomorrow and tomorrow turns into next week and then pretty soon you don't do it. So if you are going to spend the time in this training and you all had to make a sacrifice and a commitment to get here, same as I did, then make it count. Realize that when you take the notes and if you don't get it into action with them in 24 hours or less you know what you are going to do, you're all done. And I've seen a lot in 31 countries and thousands of people I've dealt with; it isn't going to happen at all.
Secondly, for the most part, most of you are doing things that got you to this school already. In other words if you are a supervisor, well you did things to get to supervisor, if you are a get team member you did things to get to a get team member if you are a millionaire team you did things to get there. Don't stop doing what ever you are doing just because you hear new things here today. Take what you hear, and keep doing what you have been doing and take what you hear today and blend it in. Because you might find what you hear and what you actually tried wasn't what you really expected or wanted. And if you stopped what you were doing and start something new that doesn't work for you than you got nothing. And that's a big danger with new people because they hear so many different things that they stop what they are doing and jump over here and when that doesn't work for them they stop and lose their momentum they got initially. Then they wonder what went on, so keep doing what ever you are doing that is working for you. Blend these things in and if it starts working better for you than what you are doing, do more of it. If it doesn't seem as good, back out of it. I always tell my people to blend in the new.
Anyway, now I am going to start with these concepts and I've got 12 of them and if we have time I can open it up for some questions.
But anyway, to help you out on your point 1. How I always took notes in Herbalife. Learned all this stuff and kept up with somebody taking fast like me, was I just wrote the number for my point and then I put the main point. I didn't have to get every detail to remember the concept. So, the first one I would put is Sharing the Promise of the Future. One of the reasons that I didn't take off as fast as I could have until I came to that school was because of this little picture that I had. One of the reasons was that in 1982 I blew it off was because somebody said it was like Amway and I hadn't heard the promise of the future. I didn't know what was going to happen. I just heard vague things about vitamins and company. And what so often happens is when we talk about or introduce someone to Herbalife we want to tell them what is going on but quite often all that comes out is the price of what they gotta do and what they gotta sacrifice.
And here is what you are going to find: people every where are willing to pay the price for certain things if they are sure they have some assurance or feel confident that they can get in on the promise. But what nobody wants to do is to pay the price and not get the promise. We are all here and what you are here for today is for the promise and not the price. But we all know there is a price for the promise. So, what ends up happening quite often, especially like if we work a meeting. We invite somebody down. They come in and they hear the at meeting what already happened. They are listening to the past. So when the meeting is over you sit down or what ever and what most of us then do is we go into the price of the kit. Price - tell them how much it costs. And then we tell them by the way, this is Tuesday night, come back Thursday night, get a baby-sitter take off early from work do what ever you gotta do, spend some gas get down here and take some time and be at this meeting and bring some guests. Well, to the new person that's price again. They gotta arrange their time, they gotta drive down here and they gotta be here and that's all price. Maybe they gotta be away from their family, maybe they gotta get a baby-sitter who knows and so they hear price again. And on Thursday night after the meeting is over we tell them now you gotta come back Saturday and bring along guests and what ever but not only is there a meeting but then we are going to do a follow-up training so get a baby-sitter all day long and take work off all day long. So they hear price again. What they come in for is the promise. But they just keep hearing price, price, price. So what I learned a long time ago is to share with people what they want to hear. Where their real interest lie and that is in the promise of the future.
We just got back from the President's Team conference? That whole thing was about Mark letting us in on and seeing what the future is going to be like in Herbalife. What the promise is for us. But not everybody gets to get into that room. So you need to learn how to communicate the promise of the future to new people. And so, here's how I do it. It's not important that you do it like I do what's important that you get the promise of the future in and blend that in with price instead of just price, price, price, price. Because it's amazing to me when I hear about how some people do their business. All they talk about is price. That scares a lot of people away, especially if they don't know what the promise is.
So, first off, I look back and I know what has happened in the last five years. Five years ago we were at one hundred ninety five million and Mark Hughes said we were going to go to a billion and he said we were going to do that by opening some opportunities and by introducing some incredible products called Cellular Nutrition and Thermojetics.
And what happened... The company in the next year jumped to 405 million. And the next year it jumped 750 million. And the next year it jumped to 990 million. Then we hit the billion two and last year we came in just that short of a billion and a half.
Massive growth, we grew 5 times in 5 years and what I learned and why I am sharing that with you is because what I've learned is the easiest way of predicting the future is to look at the past. I learned that from Jim Rohn. And think about it, just open the Wall Street Journal or what ever and look at all the stock quotations and all those quotations what they come from is a prediction of what is going to happen by looking at those companies past performances. It's no different with Herbalife.
So we can look at what has happened in the past and if we grew five fold in the last five years then we can grow five fold again in the next five years. If we have the right things going for us. Now we come to today. Mark Hughes just introduced the diet of the century in America and it will be taken around the world. We got two of the products, the other two will be out shortly and then our product starts going around the world in March. Two billion dollar products that we are introducing.
Then we are opening up some smaller countries. We are going into China and then we are going into India. Each of those countries are billion dollar markets. That's how we are going to go from the billion and a half we currently are to the five billion in a few short years. By the introduction of those products and those countries. Which is exactly the same, just different products and different countries as two years ago when we went from two hundred million to the billion.
So, if you want to look at what that means to you and me, a billion and a half going into five is 30% of five billion. That means that in the next five years as we grow from where we are today that 70% of the people that are going to buy these products haven't bought them yet. They can only buy them from people that are distributors. Secondly people that are going to join, 70% of them that are going to join over the next five years and can only join under somebody that's already a distributor. That's our market and that's what is going to happen in the next five years. We are going to grow five times faster, five times bigger, we are going to have five times more millionaires than we already have and we have already created more millionaires that any other direct sales company in the world and all that's going to happen. We are going to grow the biggest and the fastest in the next five years. More than we have in the previous sixteen years. That's what new people want to hear...where we are going...and that's the promise. Clear on that?
We have been growing at a rate the last two years of increasing by 300 million dollars a year. This year we are going to double that, we are going to increase by 600 million, so what ever has gone on in the past and the incomes you have heard up here over the next couple years you can multiply by five.
And the only question of this 70% increase that we are going to have as we go to 5 billion a year. Well let's take this year, 600 million. Herbalife pays out $72.00 out of a $100.00. So, 72 on 600, let's just take 70. That's 420 million dollars that's going to be paid out extra this year in addition to what it was already paying out. 420 million extra dollars on this 600 million increase and the only question is - who is going to get it? That's the only question - who is going to get it and how much they are going to get of it. It's going to happen. It's going to happen with or without me and with or without you. I'm going to get my piece of it and what I'm doing now is letting everyone know I'm getting my piece of it. Because if there is ever a time to increase and move and get on step to go to the next level, it's when Herbalife is on the move.
Now, I don't care how you share that but you need to get into your presentation where Herbalife is going and the promise of the future and what that means to the person.
The timing they are walking into it is perfect. And most people understand that in business timing is everything. You guys may not know it in the room, some of you do, some of you know it as well as I do, we have never had timing like this in our life. We have this solid foundation and a system where you can sponsor nationally and internationally and plug people into a training system. We are in a position to grow like never before. Even if we didn't get the diet of the century, even if we didn't Aquajetics, even if we didn't get China and India we are still going to grow. You add that to it and we here is what is going to happen, and I've watched this for 13 years. Every single thing that Mark Hughes has said about this business, his company, has happened. Not always exactly when he said but it has happened and it has always happened bigger than he said. Now you just have to go back and look at the history of Herbalife and look at the tapes of where every thing he said it has happened. Not exactly when he said, but it has always happened. And so, I look at what he is saying now. The plan actually makes, when he puts it on paper, over 6 billion.
So somebody asked him, "Well, what happens after 5 billion, Mark?" and like that he says "We go to 20 billion". So he sees the future way ahead of us and the picture right now is 5 billion. So if I you were my new person for example and I said "Well the kit's going to be this much and when you are done writing me the check on that, check your schedule, I want you to be here Thursday night. Get a baby-sitter or do what ever then when Thursday comes I want you to take the whole day off Saturday." Price, price, price, price.
That's a whole lot different than me saying "Well, listen, I just gotta, you know, before I tell you any more, I just gotta tell you about the timing you walked into. Timing is every thing in business and I don't know if you know what happened to this company recently or where they are going but that's going to make all the difference in the world to you and me, this timing, and I need to fill you in on it. The last few years we have gone from 200 million to 405 to 750 to 990 to a 1.2 billion. This year we jumped up to a billion and a half. More important than where we've been is where we are going. And what I've learned is the best way to predict the future if you don't have a crystal ball is to look at the past. So I shared with you the past, we grew five fold. Now we are in a position to grow five fold again as they introduce the new products Aquajetics, the diet of the century and expand counties. And we got the foundation with the STS training systems all over the world. We are going to grow faster - five times faster, five times bigger and create five times as many millionaires and the incomes you heard will be five times bigger over the next five years. More is going to happen in the next ten full years than has happened in all sixteen previously. The 70% increase means that 70% of the people that will be in this company haven't joined yet and they gotta join under you and me. And 70% of the people that are going to buy these products and be the customers of this company over the next five years haven't purchased them yet. And they can only buy them from distributors like you and me so we don't have any time to waste.
So either we are going to catch it and make a fortune off this or it can pass us buy just as easily. So what we need to do is we need to get going right away and all you gotta do is take advantage of all this timing. Just fill out this application and pay that measly fee and we are on with it. And I got to tell you about Thursday night because we don't have time to waist if you are to get your people in here to take advantage of this".
That's the difference, and again don't worry about how I said it or trying to say what I said. You can say it any way you want. Do it in your own style but get the promise of the future in there and get the emphasis on that. Take the emphasis off price. Then you will see people more eager to join, more eager to take the next step and so on and so forth.
So, we go to second point. And I would write on this one consistency, consistency then makes timing automatic. As I said earlier, timing is everything in business. How many in the room here believe this as a momentum business? And if you have momentum when Herbalife has momentum your business explodes. How many are real clear on how momentum works? Ok, not many of you. So, let me explain that. This point will take a little bit longer but you won't get the point if I don't explain momentum. And I didn't understand it when I got into Herbalife but I sure understand it now. And it's what makes Herbalife grow by such leaps and bounds. So the easiest way to understand momentum, it snows here right, I don't see snow here but it snows right? Some where there probably there is a hill too, right? So, if you were to make a snow ball and you roll it up and you start pushing it down a little incline going slowly at first you, are doing all the work right. And you are pushing it, the snow is right. The conditions are right like the conditions are right in Herbalife. But as you push that thing it starts adding snow to it self and pretty soon that snow ball starts going on its own. If you have ever done that pretty soon its going faster and faster and pretty soon that snow ball that you had to do all the work to make it get started pretty soon that thing is going faster than you can keep up with. And that is exactly what happens in Herbalife once you get that momentum. When you establish momentum the thing starts taking off the business goes faster than you can keep up with. And that's how with a lot of our cases we start getting 10 and 15 and $20,000.00 a month jumps in our checks, it's off of momentum. First you establish momentum than you advance momentum than you sustain and sustain means to keep it at that level. So you create the momentum of the snow ball you advance it by getting it moving till it gets going faster and faster and faster then when you want to keep it going at that speed you have to sustain that momentum. So there are three phases of momentum.
Now, it works in almost every thing, it probably works in every thing I haven't put it to the test in everything but lets take body building, lets take weight loss and lets take building our business. All three of those, momentum works in them. And the principal is the same if you get momentum you can't miss. So, you could give me the weakest person in all of Indiana and if they got into a program, you know, body building three or four times a week, and they were doing this, ok, to get bigger arms. If they just went and did that three times a week and did it consistently I don't care how weak they started, those arms would have to get bigger. Do you all agree with me on that? Now, and they could even be the weakest, they could be the ugliest, they could be the stupidest and they could be broke, it wouldn't matter if they did this what ever excuse they give or how bad off they are. Their arms are going to get bigger if they do this. Now the problem is, in the very beginning when you first start working out, is the first day all you get is pain and you don't see any difference in the muscles. None at all, you get the pain. If you keep doing the routine the pain goes away. If you look by the day you can't see that muscle growing but if you do it for 30 days you are going to feel a little difference. If you do it for 60 you are going to see a bigger difference. If you do it for 90 it will get even bigger. And so in most cases to get momentum you are going to need 90 days. That's why you hear about 90 day plans so much. But, how would I establish momentum in losing weight? Simply by doing the basics, there is nothing complicated about it. What makes it happen is the consistent work out. Now, if I skip it and do it inconsistently I get the pain but I don't get the results and then it's nothing but frustration. So, how do I get those arms up there. I do the basics. Now, I've got momentum and I can feel it in my arms after 30 days how do I make them bigger? I keep doing the same thing. And that's where I advance that momentum and get them bigger. Now I want to keep those arms up there. How do I sustain that momentum, how do I do that? I keep the work out going. If I stop at any point then I lose my momentum. And if you have ever done any body building you can stop doing it for a month or two and your arms are right back to where they started. And if you want to get it going again it isn't a matter of just a couple work outs, you have to start all over again. So, the point I am making here is this, anybody can establish body building momentum by consistently doing the basics and if you consistently do it you can't miss. I don't care if they were stupid. I don't care if they were ugly. I don't care if they were broke. I don't care what their condition was. If they do it, it is inevitable that it is going to happen.
Now lets look at weight loss. What are the basics? In body building is doing what ever your routine is. In weight loss in our company it's two shakes and tablets. So you take your shakes and tablets. That's the basics. And you take anybody, if they cut back and take the two shakes a day and the tablets what's going to happen with consistency of doing it? They're going to lose weight, no question about it. Now if they don't do it consistently or if they cheat or don't take it right then it isn't going to work. So how do you establish a weight loss formula? Take our shakes and take our tablets. That does it, ok? So now we lose 20 pounds, so how do we advance that to lose more weight? Same thing we take the shake and eat the tablets. If we keep doing it we will lose more weight. Now once we have lost how do we stay there? We all know that if we completely drop the program and go back to our old eating habits we get all our old problems back again. If we keep doing the basics, two shakes and the tablets or if you want to go on maintenance or what ever that's how we keep the weight off, same thing.
So now we get to our business and this is why there is no mystery to Herbalife if you understand momentum . The basics in this business is the same as the use of the products, wear the button, talk to people. If you are good at consistency I don't care what your circumstances are just like I didn't care about body building or what ever, you are going to get your business going, you are going to establish business momentum. If you are using the products and your talking consistently you are going to get business momentum.
Now, here is what screws people up. They start sponsoring people and all of a sudden they get this group going and they realize that I've got people here I don't know how to take care of these people. So if they stop doing what worked, they stop sponsoring and stop the basics and they lose their momentum. And if you lose your momentum than you can't catch what is going on in Herbalife and your check doesn't go up. So it is really quite simple if you are using, wearing and talking in some form and you do it consistently you are going to build business momentum. If you keep doing that you are going to advance that momentum and if you keep doing the same thing you are going to sustain it. Now to go back to my story I told you today, I do the same things that I have been doing for 13 years and some odd months. I keep doing them over and over and over again, and so that gives me momentum. And how I get the momentum is through consistency. Consistency equals momentum whether in body building, weight loss, or building the business. Doing the basics over and over is how you establish momentum. Where people get screwed up is they get the momentum established and now they want to advance it so they change what they were doing. But if I change what I was doing here or change what I was doing to lose weight that's where I disrupt my momentum. And so that's why in the 90 day plan people why get so confused. When you get a group in the first 30 days don't change and do something different the next 30 and lose that momentum. Or you'll have to start all over again and so the third month now instead of advancing or staying with their momentum they are restarting it and it is a up down up down frustrating discouraging thing.
I'll give you another example of it. I'm sure you all know what the pump is to pump water out of the ground, does every one understand it ok? You never know. I deal with this in different languages and everything and to make sure I like a nod. But anyway we pumped that water and I one of my personal vacation homes they had this outside pump so we were pumping water and I was sure there wasn't any water. So I pumped 10 - 12 times and sure enough there was no water, called the Realtor and I said "Hey, give me the guys because this pump doesn't work". "Oh, no, I tried it myself and you just have to pump it." "I did pump it." "Well" he said "you didn't pump it long enough". So I went back out there and I pumped it and it took 18 pumps to get the water. So, I hadn't really dealt with one of those pumps much before, this was years ago. I got rid of it since, too much work, but any way you pump and pump it. I pumped it 18 times and the water starts coming. So I go in the house and I tell Susan "Hay come on, Hon, it does work".
Later I pump it 5 times, 6 times, 10 times, 12 times and I don't know it did work. And I go back in and call the guy again and he said that it takes 18 times. So the point being is this, once you get that water going you've got established momentum by pumping, pumping, pumping. Once the water is going I don't have to go 18 times for every squirt of water I just keep the thing going and the water keeps going but if I stop I got to start all over again and do all those 18 pumps. So the principal is the same with almost anything. You start this thing, you establish it, you advance it, you sustain it. And in our business it is by consistency of the basics. I told you consistency equals momentum and then that's going to equal automatic timing. I don't miss good timing in Herbalife. What so many people try to do is they try to look what is going to happen in Herbalife and decide to gear things up. Well since it takes 90 days to get momentum quite often something can happen and by the time you get momentum you missed what ever event was coming or what ever was going on. And so what I have learned is this: I keep the basics going whether it is in body building or weight loss or in building by business the basics of using, wearing and talking or what ever you want to do. If I keep that going with consistency than automatically I'll get the momentum like I just described, Ill establish it, I'll advance it and I'll sustain it and if I do that than automatically whenever the timing comes from Herbalife it's automatic for me. I don't miss the timing. When people miss the timing it's because they are not consistent. They try to crank it up just before this or that event put some short term energy in it and they get all disappointed. Another big thing that happens is, and I'll never forget with me, I started my business and I thought I lived this. And many times I'd come up with my next big plan and I'd get after the basics, what ever they were and two three days down, after I'd been working long hard hours I'd look down at what I'd accomplished and I'd see nothing. And I would get discouraged and it isn't any different with weight loss and its not any different with body building if you start you feel the pain and you look and you don't see anything if you get discouraged and therefore stop.
JOBBY It's the same thing. I've had people call me two days later and say "I haven't lost my 30 pounds". And they say " I don't see any difference so I'm going to quit the program". Well it's the same in business, same with weight loss, same with every thing else. You have to know that consistency, with out that consistency you let the whole thing go. But I haven't missed the timing in Herbalife because I simply have my basics going consistently that gives me momentum automatically over time and then when the good timing comes in Herbalife automatically I catch it an go. And so another thing with this particular point is I've also learned that there is two periods that I've paid the most attention to in the business and if I crank it up and do my 90 day plan, this is when I do it. In either the first quarter or the last quarter. Now I do last quartet because it sets you up for the next year. Then everything gets rolling and the momentum that you establish in the first quarter if you keep it going finally you have bigger momentum, in the second quarter it gets advanced, sustained in the third and on into the fourth. So if you are ever going to work a 90 day plan do it in the last and first quarters. That's what I do, every single year I work the last quarter and the first quarter. That pretty much determines what my years income is going to be by what I do right in there.
And I just keep doing the same things. Now you heard my story here this morning. You know sometime back I got tired of telling that story. I told it over and over, country after country, city after city and I just got tired of telling the story. But then all I have to do is remember how many millions of dollars I have made and I'd even tell the story one more time. What I'm getting at is I get tired of it but that's how I get momentum and that's how I grow my business. By consistently doing the basics. And one of the basics for all of us is telling our story. So if you are tied of telling your story, and you are tired of going to the meetings then you are tired of what it is going to take to get rich. It's just doing the movements over and over and over it again.
I stopped doing those, remember my story? And for a while I had a problem. My checks all started going down but what I started doing was wondering what was wrong with Herbalife. Than I started wondering what was wrong with Mark Hughes. And what I needed to do was look in the mirror and see what was wrong with me.
I'd lost my momentum because I lost my consistency of the basics therefore I had no momentum. No matter what was going on in Herbalife I wasn't catching it. I was loosing it. So, I turned it around and now I have timing. I've never missed timing again because I'm consistent. So that's the second point.
Third point this is a biggie and it's helped me where ever I go in Herbalife. Especially since I've ended up on the chairman's club. People somehow think I'm going to solve the Herbalife problems of the world. And for various reasons where ever I go I've got people telling me they've got this problem and I sure wouldn't do that and wouldn't want to do that and why they don't do this and all this that and the other. And they ask me what I'm going to do about it. Here's my response: I'm responsible for everything with my business other than three things. I'll take advantage of everything Herbalife's got. If they don't have what I want, than I'll make it myself. If they've got something I don't want than I don't use it. Its that simple for me. I'm always happy so I've always got a good attitude because I'm only expecting what should be expected. And not all these things from Herbalife since I'm an independent contractor. When Herbalife pays us that kind of money and gives us 30% more than any other retail company in the world, how can I complain about that. I need to take some responsibility myself. And that's what we all need to do, if we want control.
Now Nick told us the other day an interesting line, "Walk the walk and talk the talk". And I need to tell you the story so you can make sense out of this. It was, I don't know how many years a go but I remember it because I was stopped at $20,000.00 a month. We were in Los Angeles and there were some new announcements coming up and Mark wanted us to go on this conference call. I was out there so he called and there were new product announcements, nothing of the magnitude of what we've got now. But there was enough stuff that they were getting ready to go. And I was told basically to get on this conference call with the rest of the distributors in America and tell them everything that was coming, how excited I was and "Why don't you tell them how your gonna with all this how your gonna get to 60,000.00 a month". And I said I'm not at that yet, I'm at 20 in case you haven't checked. Basically what I was told was that if I want to get to 60 than I'd better start talking that way. And anyway, in the heat of the moment, I get on the conference call to it going and say "Hi, I'm John from Denver, CO. I'm doing great now at 20,000.00 a month but with all this I can see in no time at all I'm going to get $60,000.00 a month".
And, you know, when I got all done I thought "Oh, my gosh, what have I done?". My distributors were in on that call. Susan was on that call, how could I explain that? So, you know, I go home and sure enough Susan says "What are you doing, are you dreaming or what?" Well, they put the pressure on me, this and that maybe I'll do that, who knows you know.
And I knew I had a meeting that next night and I knew I said that so I'm thinking $60,000.00 a month. So I figure I'll at least have a guest there and play the part. So if I'm going to play the part I'll put on my best suit, you know, put my best pin on, shin my shoes up, and I did all the stuff and walked into that meeting and see some of my distributors. And they say "Really, your going to $60,000.00 a month?, I said "Yeah, didn't you hear all the guests I got going, see that row of guests I've got, yeah we're going".
What ended up happening, I started talking that way and I really couldn't stop. I kept doing it and an amazing thing happened. It was 8 months later and we were at $60,000.00 a month.
If I hadn't started walking the walk and talking the talk I wouldn't have got there, so, here is the point to this - you have to project where you want to be. You have to start acting that way. Telling people you are going somewhere. Because in this business we recruit people and people need somebody to follow and people want to follow somebody that's going somewhere. And if you are not going anywhere, what you are saying is: "Yeah, I'm making $1,000.00 at this and I think that's fine. I think I'll just hang around here and watch the company explode". Well, who wants to join that person?
If I'm at $1,000.00 now with everything that is going on I'm going to 10 grand. Well the new guy says "Gee, I want to go to 10 grand with you". If you look at Mark Hughes, we are not at five billion dollars yet, but what's he projecting out there? Five billion - he is walking the walk and talking the talk and getting us excited about it and we want to follow to get a piece of that. You got to take it down to your level. So, if you are a get team, then you need to start talking how quick you are going to get on the millionaire team. Now, what if for all this that I don't get to 5 million by the time by the time Herbalife hits to 5 billion? What if I only get to 4 million, poor me, huh? But it's better than 2 1/2. And if I don't start walking the walk and talking the talk and letting people know that I'm going beyond where I'm at, especially in my group, than who wants to follow me? Who wants to join me?
So you need to learn to walk the walk and talk the talk. There is an Amway saying that's been around for a long time on this concept of "Fake it till you make it". It's the same concept, but you don't have to fake anything. Mark Hughes when he was at the summit said this is not an act. This is where he is going. And I know where I'm going. And if I don't start thinking that way, talking that way, walking that way, acting that way then I'm not going to make it. So, I'm going for the 5 million, I'm walking the walk, I'm talking the talk. You guys gotta decide what you are going for. Whether it's the next team level or for 5 grand, or 10 grand, or 20 grand a month, or what ever it is.
Now the next point, point 5 is this, I would just draw a little triangle on my paper and I would then put what I've got here - Plug into reality. And if I here's what I know, it all comes down to it, I know I get paid for doing four things: selling products, signing up people, training them and promoting them once I get them going. Anything that I am doing during the day that doesn't fit into those four areas than I'm wasting a lot of my time.
Now sure, I can do some setup to get going so my phone is ringing to talk to people about retailing and recruiting and whatever. But if my whole day was setup, and I never got to selling anything, and I never got to get on the phone to recruit somebody or I never was on training somebody or I was never on promoting somebody to the next level, then whatever I'm doing, I'm not going to get paid for it. So those are the four things we get paid on and that's what I want to spend at least 80% or better of my time that I'm putting into Herbalife on and if I'm not then I readjust how I am doing things. Because these are the only four things that you are going to get paid for.
That's a reality. People get involved in all kinds of things and wonder why their check doesn't go up. And if they are not doing these four things than it's not going to happen. Retail, recruit, train and promote.
Now, plug into reality...this is, on that triangle, I don't care what business or industry that you look at there is going to be what is called an attrition rate, where people drop out, people come people go. In the real estate business and I had worked with several different companies over the time there were always people coming and people going, it always happens. In this hotel there are going to be people that who are going to be employed here and leave here, new ones will come other ones will go. That's just the way it works and it is the same thing in Herbalife.
Some people think, the people that go are the ones that don't make any money. Well, one of my best guys left at $60,00.00 a month. My sponsor left after making 5 million dollars .
Here is what kills most people: pride, ego, arrogance and greed. Pride and ego thinks I can be the next Mark Hughes or I can do even better, well, for both of those guys it didn't work out. They are both struggling, ok, trying to make it on their third or fourth company and so on. So, it is not just because of money. Sometimes it is because somebody doesn't follow instructions. Sometimes in multi level we have people who are the best trained and then somebody strokes their ego and talks them into going to this next company. And they go over there and find out they left the best thing they ever had.
So, I know this, that if people have been dropping out of the bottom and I don't have many at the top then my organization can't grow and my check can't go up. So when I see people on my printout with zero distributors behind their name and they didn't recruit anybody when they call me and want to know why the check isn't very much it's not a mystery. It's a simple deduction and it's scary.
If you don't add it at the top and we know stuff is going to drop out of the bottom other things have got to go down sooner or later. And there is the luck factor in there, you sponsor somebody that goes and keeps working. But if I look over time, you know, the only way I got lucky is by working hard. If I work hard I get lucky all the time. If I don't work hard I don't get any luck. So, understanding that I consistently recruit, I've never stopped, I'm doing it today, 14 years later. Do I get tired of recruiting sometimes, sure. But I never get tired of the new people and all the experiences with that. But I go through the same motions to recruit that is part of the game.
I'll share this, and this is the was it's been for 13 years. There is a law of averages in everything. And I learned if you make it personal and think you are the issue then it is going to be a tough frustrating aggravating business. I learned a long time ago that if I signed up 10 people. Out of 10, three of them, I'm going to wish I'd never met. Have you had that happen to you? Well, if it hasn't, hang around you will find them or they will find you, there aren't that many of them but they get around. There are going to be three that are going to take some patience. Meaning that when you tell them to come to the next meeting or tell them to get on the particular call or whatever it is, they don't take the step. They are not ready to do those things yet. But you can develop a rapport with them on the products and they start liking the products but they are just not ready to move the way you want them to move yet. But if you will be patient with them and keep that rapport going on, the three things I told you: get them liking you, get them feeling better about themselves, and if you treat them with an attitude of caring more about them, than making money off them, they will feel good about you. When they start making extra money, when they start changing their financial situation or they change their health by loosing weight or lowering their blood pressure or whatever, they can't help but feel better about themselves. And if you keep thinking about how I am responsible and you talk about how good his life will be instead of complaining about things. You talk about the good things and take responsibility you will have people hanging around you all day long. And they won't leave you. But if you get greedy, get your ego in the way, get your pride in the way go after the money instead of the person and so on and so forth than all that stuff can change.
But I know that there is going to be 3 out of 10 than I'm going to wish I hadn't met. Because they are not going to follow instructions. They are not going to be teachable. If they don't want to help themselves I certainly can't help them. I wish I'd never met them but it happens.
Then are three of them that take patience and there are three that spark. The three that spark are the ones that when I tell them on Tuesday night we got a meeting Thursday and bring people back. The guy makes an effort. And Thursday night when I tell him that there is a training on Saturday or something or other or to come over to my house for HBN or what ever the guy makes the attempt. That's the one that sparks. That's who I focus my attention on.
Now if I had my way, I would just sign up the three that spark and forget about the rest. But you don't know who they are. Each distributor is like a closed book. You can't tell what is in the book by looking at the cover. And if you do, you are making one of the biggest mistakes you will ever make in Herbalife, and that is prejudging. The people that I thought in the beginning would take off like a rocket were gone. One guy I thought "Gee, why is he even buying the kit?" he takes off. So you never know because you never know what is inside somebody that just needed a chance. Since it doesn't take any extra ordinary skills in Herbalife other than just being willing to work and be teachable anybody can score at this, especially if you stick around.
So, I always set up 90 day plans because if you don't get momentum in this business you don't go far. I'm not going to say you won't make money but you will never make the big money if you don't get the momentum. And in order to get the momentum I've got to be sponsoring people.
Well, if I set up with a plan to only sponsor two or three people I don't want to do it any more because you know what I end up with? If I only sponsor two or three, they are the two or three that I wished I'd never met. Every time. I don't know why that is that way but it's true almost every time. So if I'm not going to set up to get 10 or more I don't even set up a plan.
Why I set up 90 days is because it takes that long to get momentum going and all I got to do is the basics. Just keep doing the basics all the way through the 90 day plan. That doesn't mean you don't make any changes through the 90 days. They're called mid course corrections.
I keep extensive gauges. I even keep gauges on the gauges of what is going on every day and if the gauge is not right well then I make a mid course correction. But I am not looking down to see my progress because that's just where I got side tracked. I look out 30 days, in other words I start doing my business, and I get going and doing my basics, I don't expect to see a lot of difference in the short term in my business. Anymore than if I look at my weight each day. So I just keep doing those basics, measuring the gauges every night to make mid course corrections but I don't look for my progress checking how far I've gone till the end of the 30 days.
Then I can look back. If you do it this way you will be blown away by how much you did. How much you accomplished. How much you have grown and how much you learned in 30 days. But if you try to do it every two or three days you are going to get discouraged and never make it to 30 days because you won't see it. So if you understand that you've got to for consistency and you need 90 days to put it together. Then if you set up a plan to sponsor enough people you will have what happen happens to me and its been this way for 13 years. But if you only set up your plan to sponsor two or three, it's going to be a frustrating experience. You are probable going to get the ones you didn't want. Now you are forced with trying to change people and get out of them what you want and that is even more frustrating. You are going to learn that you can't change people. People can change but you are not going to change them. You can inspire them and that's what I am doing up here today, I'm not here to change anybody, I am up here today to inspire you with the things that have made a difference for me. I decided for things to change I had to change and I had to want to change.
The most frustrating experience is trying to change people. It is easier to find somebody else than to change somebody. So, I set every plan up to after 10 because if I set it up for 5, I get the ones I didn't want and the rest take patience and I'm again miserable and got a mess on my hands. If I go for the 10, I'll always find 2 or 3 that spark. Now I've got somebody to work with and now I'm excited and the way the thing goes and I just repeat that month after month after month. And I don't get side tracked the next month thinking well I've got 10 new people I've got to manage them. I don't manage anybody because I can't change them so I might as well leave them that way and keep doing what I am supposed to be doing.
If I am doing what I am supposed to be doing, then it's easy for me to teach the people that want to recruit. I just share with them what I am doing . So you lead by example, that's point 5. Get 10.
Here is the other thing I found. Any time I am sponsoring and I get past that magic number of 10 the odds change, the law of averages changes. Don't ask me why I can't give you the exact reason why numbers are this way. But once I am over 10 it is the reverse, instead of getting 3 that take patience, and three that I wish I hadn't met, and only 3 that spark, the thing goes the other way. Where I have the largest number sparking and a few that take patience and almost nobody that I wished that I hadn't met. And I don't know why but its magic past 10 and its frustrating if you don't have at least 10.
Here is something I learned in the very beginning and I've kept doing this till today. In the beginning I heard that you make up in numbers what you lack in skill. When I started I had no self esteem, I had lost my confidence. I knew nothing about the business. So I had only one choice to make up in numbers for everything else that I lacked. I learned that it was a numbers game. And once I understood it was a numbers game and that I wasn't the issue. All I had to do was run the numbers and if I run the numbers it'll take care of the everything else.
Here is another important part. I remember bring people down to a meeting and having people hear the same presentation and this one would join and this one wouldn't. So I would wonder, Gees what did I do wrong? What didn't I tell them? And so I had this conversation and it went on and on. And so I talked to Jim Rohn and I said, "Jim, I can't understand this, you know, its a mystery to me". And he said "That's exactly it, John, it's a mystery". And so I said "What do I do about it?" And he said "Nothing, its a mystery". And I said "Yeah, I know but what do I do?" And he said " John, don't you understand? Mysteries can't be solved". I didn't get it. And I said "Jim, look how do I get to the person that you know that I didn't get in?" And he said "That's the mystery" and walked away.
Took me just a little bit to figure that out. Then I realized that it isn't my job to figure out why they didn't see it. The mystery is: Some see it and some don't. It has nothing to do with me. But I was beating myself up thinking what could I do to be better at sponsoring. Now if I get somebody and they say "Well, I don't know" My response is "Gosh, I can't help it that you are a mystery. See you later I gotta go".
So, on to number 6. This is about what I do to start a new guy. And this is important, we are sent to every country in the world and people always ask, how do I deal with other languages. I don't. Put an ad in English and find somebody that speaks English. I got to 31 countries that way. The language is never a barrier.
But how to start a new guy. I need to set this up a little bit. When I started the business, I had no money and I had lots of time. Today I've got lots of money and I got no time. So it is the complete opposite. Everybody in this room is going to fit somewhere in the middle of that. Either you got no money and a lot of time or you got a lot of money and no time or some where in the middle. In the beginning one of the commodities I needed was money. I don't need that any more. You'll find out that money is only an issue when you don't have it. If you got it who cares? Now if I want more money it's easy, I just go out and earn it. I just go and do the things that I am sharing with you here today. Consistently to develop momentum and automatically catch Herbalife's timing then away it goes.
But because I don't have time anymore and I realize I can't get any more time. I can't earn any more time. That's where I get my urgency in the business and in life in general. All the things I want to do and see what ever the clocks ticking and I can never get the time back. If I make a mistake in the business I can always correct it and earn more money but I can't get the time back. So, my most precious commodity is time, it's extremely valuable to me and I don't want to waste any of it. In addition to that whoever I am dealing with, I don't want to waste their time either because if I'm wasting my time, I'm wasting theirs. I want to find out as quickly as I can when I sign up a new person if they are going to be in the game with me or not. Because the last thing I want to do is go spend three weeks with somebody, do a bunch of phone calls, to find out they are not going to work out. That I wasted their time and I wasted mine, it's a frustrating experience. So, when I sign people up I set up a plan to go after 10 or more. Or I don't even plan to do it. It is just too much work other wise.
But when I am starting a new guy the first thing I focus on is his product story we're going to sell and I'm sure you have heard that. But you would be amazed how many people don't pay attention to that. When somebody tells me they have a problem with a new distributor, the first thing I always ask is, "Tell me your product story". They respond that's not the problem, the problem is over here. I say "No, tell me your product story ". Because here is what you are going to find people do best at what they are excited about. People will only stick with something that they believe in for a long period of time. So, I know this: If somebody doesn't have an emotional attachment to these products and or the stories they've heard, they are not going to be in this business for long. They might hang around a month or two but they are not going to last.
So, the first big priority when I start people are product results. I tell them right up front. "If you don't get excited about these products, if you don't get an emotional response and feel a difference the business isn't going to work. So we can do whatever we want to get going on the business but we have got to put the most emphasis on your product results. Then I will teach you to develop a product story. So, that's always the first question when ever a distributor has a problem: "Tell me your product story". And you would be amazed. That is the problem almost 99% of the time in their business. They are not going to be able to recruit if they don't have a solid foundation for their business. They are not going to be a good seller if they don't have compelling product results.
Now the second thing I tell people and I do this very quickly is I tell them they need to develop two stories. See, I learned in Herbalife that how anybody makes money or how we get rewarded is by bringing value to the market place. We've got something of value to bring to the market place life changing products and a marketing plan that can change peoples financial future. That's incredible value. But we need to learn how to communicate that message or that story to the market place so that we can cash in on the value we bring. So by attaching yourself to these products and this marketing plan each of us is far more valuable than we've probably been before. So, I tell them that they need to develop two stories to communicate that and turn these valuable products in the market place into cash in the pocket.
The first story that they need is the product story. Now how does everybody get a product story? They drink the shakes, eat the tablets. I tell people the more they take the products and the more consistently they take then the faster they are going to get a result. Then we are going to help them package that. But who is responsible for getting the product story? They are. They gotta eat it and drink it and they gotta do it with consistency and that's going to be their story then I tell them I can show them how to get their phone ringing off the wall with people wanting products. Wanting to know about results people have and other people's stories. But what brings life to the story and what brings creditability to the story is adding your own truth. It doesn't have to be a big story. It just has to be a true story.
I never had a weight loss story and I always felt bad about that. So I borrowed weight loss stories and told my energy story, and how I gained some weight on the products, cleared up my sinuses and digestive problems and so on and so. They get clear on that but they need to develop a story and they are responsible for the story they develop. I'll follow up and I'll package their story but whether they get the story or not is there responsibility.
Second story is their money story. Because we can teach them how to get the phone ringing off the hook with people wanting the opportunity. But what brings validity, credibility and life to the Herbalife story is adding their own to it. People can't comprehend something that they haven't experienced and when you get beyond the norm and the norm is a couple three, four thousand dollars a month, you get much beyond that and it doesn't even register. They can't comprehend it. They can't imagine it so it is a waste of time and you probably scared more people away than you attract with big checks. What got me was $500.00. Remember I told you. The pitch was $l,000.00 and I had in my mind that if I get half that it would be great. Mark Hughes got started to make an extra $400.00. So you don't need big checks to recruit.
When I hear somebody say, "I'll start recruiting when I get a $10,000.00 check". You are never going to get a $10,000.00 check with that kind of an attitude. You've got to start now and all you need is an income story. So I started with a thousand point order, because of I could get that 42% make $420.00. That's 5 customers to get the best deal in terms of the least commitment for the most profit that there is in the marketing plan. Now, if they do that and sell it in ten days to two weeks, then their income story over the phone after they told their product story is "Gees, I just got started and I don't know how to spell Herbalife yet and I earned $420.00 in the last 12 days." That's what attracts peoples attention from center of influence. That you are new, you don't know what you are doing, but you made an amount. Here is why that amount is important. $500.00 in itself or $420.00 is nothing in America. But if you take what we get from our job and add an extra $400 to $500, it becomes life style change. Add an extra $500.00 to anybody, to any average American budget and you are going to change their life style. If they wanted to get into financing, they could upgrade their house and go from a $70,000.00 home to a $120,000.00 one on a few extra hundred dollars. If they wanted to they could lease a Mercedes for that couple hundred dollars and leave it sitting in the driveway. Life style change is to be able to take out your wife and say "Order what you want". That's the difference to most people. And it's believable to most people. And when they realize it doesn't have to interfere with what their doing to take a shot at this thing to get 4, 5, 600 extra bucks, that's what they go after.
If they can't afford or can't get a 1,000 volume points that doesn't matter to me. I like a thousand points, it's a convenient way to make a story. If they can't do a thousand points, than the next best thing maybe is the sliding scale. I don't care, I'll go all the way down to a bottle of products then teach them to develop two stories. Oh the way, who is going to be responsible for the money story? They are. I'm help them package it, but they need to buy the products and sell them. And do it quickly so we can package the story. So we can attract people like a magnet. With a good product story, you become a magnet. With a good money story, you become a magnet. And that's what you want to be in this business, a magnet attracting people.
So, on the two stories when we get into, if they can't do the success story, I'll back down. I'll go all the way down to a couple bottles, I'm not after breaking a supervisor. So many people try to break a supervisor. To get the $320.00. Then the guy disappears. I don't want the 320 bucks, I want the guy or the lady or who ever it is month after month after month after month showing up on my printout. And I know if somebody gets a bigger order than they have a plan for than quite often that order ends up being a refund and they quit the business because they got scared. When I end up with a supervisor they have most of their products sold and they have a demand for more so they need to order more products instead of wondering what they are going to do with what they have got.
That brings me to point three and that's product ordering. If after I have gone through these first three points with them and they don't make a product order, I let them know until they do, I'm not going to work with them. And you might think that's hard but guess what, you can't sell shoes out of an empty shoe box. And how are you going to develop an income story if you don't have any products to sell? In fact,, other than the kit, how are they going to get results. We are out of business before we even start if they won't make an order. The size of the order isn't the issue. Because the guy who scrapes it together to get four bottles and makes 75 bucks and comes back and turns it and gets some more and appreciates the chance, he will go all the way. And the guy that invests a couple thousand bucks and he gets thinking he can buy his way in is the guy that is going to go no where. So, it is all relative. It is just getting people started. Don't think you got to get big orders, just get them started. Care about helping them but realize if they don't make a commitment, nothing is going to happen.
Now, I give you what happened to me. Thirteen some years ago, I remember getting the equivalent of a success order because of the 42% discount and I wanted the money. Secondly my sponsor convinced me that I'd save money on shipping if I got it all together. So, I ordered it and it arrives at the house. We get these cases of products and Susan comes in She says "What have you done?" I said "Well, I saved on shipping." She says "Have you flipped out! You put all that money on a credit card to save a few dollars on shipping and you haven't sold any of it?" "Boy did you buy the wrong story".
Well, here is what happened. I didn't want to go talk to my next door neighbor I didn't even understand or know about having a story that happened by accident. But when I saw that all of that product all of a sudden I couldn't have cared less about any of that all I wanted was the money back I'd invested on my credit card. That was all I wanted. So instead of thinking about talking to the guy next door, I had products looking at me, I grabbed some and I went and got the job done cause I wanted my money back. So by making a commitment, it forced me into a little bit of action.
It's the same thing today. They are going to need a product story. They are going to need a money story. And in order to accomplish that they gotta to order some products. I don't care what amount. If they don't after I've explained it to them I don't have time to work waste and I am on to the next person. So I don't waste time with people. They are in or out with me in a matter of a day or two, it's amazing most of the people we get started I've a success order out of them by the second or third day. Be strong on that and you will see dramatic results.
The fourth thing I do with new people is to try and get them to see the big picture. To get then to believe that they can do it by meeting other people that have been successful and who have no common denominator. And develop some form of plan of action. So I try to get them to an STS immediately. I rarely have anybody survive in this business if I don't get them into an STS because they never see the real deal.
The fifth thing I do is get into their center of influence as soon as is possible. Those are the five things I do. Now, there is no specific order. For example I sign somebody up on Thursday they have had no time to get a product result but I've planted some seeds. I've put the emphasis and importance on it. I might not of even had time to talk to them about their two stories. Maybe I didn't even talk to them about a product order yet. But the STS is coming up on Saturday. In that case I set them up so that the first thing that would happen would be the STS. That enhances my chances of getting them to understand about the stories and placing the order. On the other hand it might be that they come in and the first thing that they do when we talk is make a small product order. Then I start telling them about the stories and the training. There just is no order to it. But those are the five things that I am doing and watching for with people. That way rarely do I have a distributor that doesn't work out at least to the extent of supervisor within three days to a week. After getting started they are either with me or they are not me. You might think that is hard and cold or what ever, but guess what, if I hang around for three weeks I've wasted three weeks of their time and I've wasted three weeks of mine. And the big part of that is when you are wasting that time it's stopping you from recruiting the next person that might be the one that lights up your whole organization.
It is a shame and it is amazing how much time people waste trying to make people do what they want them to do and change people. I learned just work the numbers, plug the people in the system. Make up in numbers what you lack in skill, be right up front with people and either get them into your business or out of your way as soon as possible for their sake and your sake.
My most valuable commodity is time and I don't have any to waste so I don't waste any time I get them into quick action. And the quicker you get a person into action the better chance they have to survive and make it in this business. If a person doesn't get excited about something within the first 24 or 48 hours you are going to lose them. I want to get going on something in the first day or two and then go from there.
Now, center of influence. If you don't know it or don't understand how to do it you need to learn it because it is a fastest way to build your business. Especially in times like this because we're in the weight loss industry. Last year in America approximately 36 billion dollars was done in our industry, 36 billion is massive. If you look at the tabloids in the grocery store you'll see new diet stuff on every single one of them. The grocery store, its full of them. That's because everybody that's dieting is always looking for a newer simpler way. They just want something new. Well when you've got something new and different it peeks peoples curiosity. And most of the stuff on those tabloids is a scam, it doesn't work it is phony and its been going on forever. But when people hear Herbalife's name...we have developed a reputation as a leader in the Nutrition and weight loss industry with products on the cutting edge of technology. When we get something new, like the diet of the century, and you start talking about it just came out, the group that makes up this 36 billion industry, they are curious to hear what it is. They know Herbalife has a great reputation and they are very courteous to try it. That's what makes the whole thing sizzle. If you don't go out without something new to talk about people have preconceived notions, whether it is about business or the products, just like I did. When you've got something new to talk about people are curious enough to listen. And when you can get the story out about what we've got they are then curious enough to try it. They have nothing to lose because they get their money back if they don't like it and when it actually starts working and they feel a difference they start talking. And so there is no quicker way to get that moving than to get that word out to the center of influence at a time like this when we are a 36 billion dollar industry and we have the best reputation out there. We've helped more people lose weight than any other company in the world. And now we got something brand new and it's better than anything we had. Four accelerators that take the diet we had into the diet of the century.
You need to learn to get that story out there. You need to learn to get into people's center of influence while we have this window of something new to talk about and it is so easy to get people's attention. It won't always be like that. I remember when Thermo Green & Beige went through different phases. You couldn't generate the same excitement with Thermos today as you could the first 30 days, the first 90 days, the first 6 months. You got a window of 6 - 9 months of this being new. You can do massive business just on the curiosity factor. The quickest way to do that is get into the center of influence of your new people. People don't want to give you their center of influence for several reasons. One, they don't understand what is going on so they just aren't comfortable. They don't see the big picture. Maybe what they think about is seeing themselves pulling the red wagon like I did and I didn't want to go tell my friend I was going to do that. So it could be that. Sometimes they are uncomfortable because they don't know how to tell their product story or the company story. Sometimes they're afraid their friend is going to ask a question and they don't have the answer. There are all kinds of reasons that they don't show somebody they are going to do it.
Quite often when we first start with somebody we will ask them and talk to them about making a list and going to their center of influence. And when they don't do it quite often we give up. To give you a little scenario, I've got these 6 year old twins and if they want something, I'll tell you what, they don't give up. If they want a snack before dinner, first they will come to me. Then they will go to their mom. If she says no they will come back around and ask me. When I say "No, your mom said no" they will come up with some other little excuse and come back. They don't give up. They don't get offended when I say no the first time or when Susan and I say no the second time. They have learned that if they keep it up long enough they may not get that snack before dinner by but they have a better chance of getting it. So they don't give up.
As we get older, we end up giving up on things far too easily, the center of influence is one of those. There are windows into a person's center of influence, and when they say no just remember how you would have been when you were a kid wanting that candy bar, don't give up. So there are the windows. Perhaps it's when a person comes out of STS school like this, maybe then they might think differently. But if you don't say anything about it because you have given up you lose a chance and they lose a chance to get off to a very fast start. Another time, lets say they make their first sale, maybe then they are more apt to want to go their center of influence and listen to you share the story with their center that influenced. Or perhaps after they get their first distributor or after they get their first royalty check or after they get the product result. All those things. Think about when you got your product result, when you got your first check, when you made your first hundred dollars, when you came out of your first STS school, when you saw the big picture. We all think differently after these things happen. That's when we are most likely the think "I've got to start talking to people I know". Think about.
I told everybody right away because I realized when I saw a meeting like this, I realized Herbalife was going to go through the roof and be one of these huge monster companies out there. I took the attitude that everybody is going to either look at this business sooner or later or try the products sooner or later and if I didn't talk to them somebody else was going to get them. So, I decided I was ever going to succeed. I decided that if anybody I knew everybody wanted to use the products or do Herbalife I wanted to make sure that if they ever did they thought about me first. Cause if they ever were going to join and want to make extra money that I had let them know I cared enough about them to tell them about it.
Think about this. I told my brother these things 13 years ago, he bought a kit from me because he felt sorry for me and he did nothing for a year. Two years later everything changed in the computer industry. Different time for him so he jumps in and now he is on president's team. But how would it have been if after I made $10,000.00 a month 6, 7 months after I am the in business and I call my brother and say "I'm making 10 grand a month and I got this thing started in 7 months but I just thought about you now". It would be an insult wouldn't it? I look at it the other way. I'm doing something extremely positive and think enough of them to share my product story and the Herbalife story. That's how I look at. And with the fear of loss that somebody was going to get them if I didn't go plant my seeds they'd end up with somebody else. I cared enough about my friends to figure that I owed it to tell them because I thought it was a real deal and because if they were going to do it and I wanted them to be with me.
Now, here is the easy way to get into the center of influence and avoid all that stuff. Most new people realize they need some practice telling their product story and telling the opportunity story. Does everybody agree with that? Do we all feel that way that we need some practice? Also we know that any business, I don't care what it is, a dry cleaner, a donut shop, a pizza shop, whatever it might be if you take that business and hide it you aren't going to do very well are you? Think about it, I don't know of any business that you can hide and do well in. What most people do when they start a business, dry cleaner, donut shop, or whatever it might be, is they have what is called a grand opening. So everybody in the neighborhood knows that I just opened up my donut shop and please come in and see it. That's their way of exposing their new business and it's the opposite of hiding their business. And if somebody were to get an invitation or you saw them on the corner and you'd say "Hay, I just opened my donut shop, come on over", Jim says you know I'm on a diet program, I don't eat donuts". Would that offend you? You say "OK, no problem, if you ever change your mind I got the best ones, come on down. And if you know of anybody who likes donuts send them on in".
It's no different. People are just afraid that somebody isn't going to want to lose weight, or they don't want to join you in your business and that they are going to be offended. It's no different than if somebody said, "I don't dry clean my clothes, or I don't eat donuts." "No problem, if you ever change your mind, here is where I'm at and I got the best dry cleaning or the best donuts and if you know anybody that does, I'm just getting my business started and I need all the help I can get. I just wanted to let you know and invite you to my grand opening".
So, the people that are successful in business, get the practice and they have a grand opening of some sort. Now, after I explain that concept to a new distributor, I say "Look, I've got some time this week, and I can't say how much time I'm going to have in the future, but if you want to take advantage of getting off to a fast start, I'll help you with the practice and I'll help you with your grand opening. In fact I'll do the work for you. Here is all you gotta do. You gotta find two or three people out of the whole world, two or three nice people that would give you ten or fifteen minutes of your time and be your practice person. Now, you are going to have to get on a three way with me and them. They're going to be your practice person. And I, get this, I'm not going to ask them to buy anything and I'm not going to ask them to join. Because this is practice and we need that and you need people to practice on, it should be somebody that you know. If they ask any questions, I'll answer the questions because it's practice and I'll tell the Herbalife story during our practice and you listen. It will only take a couple of times and then you will get it". And right when I get to the point when I normally go for the close about joining or buying, I'm going to tell them, "Oh, gosh, I've got another appointment, I've got to run, thanks for your time". I will let them know that when I asked you Bob for two or three people that would be nice enough to be your practice person and help you out for 10 or 15 minutes and I'd said they must be very nice people and special to Bob here because you are the first one Bob thought of. Now, after I tell Bob that then I'm not going to ask him to buy or join. I'm going to make Bob look good. That's all going to happen in 10, 12 minutes on the phone. If he can't come up with two or three people, nice people then I gotta ask him what did you do to all of them? But quite often when he realizes it's just practice, John's not going to try to sell or get my guy to join, and he will do the work and in the process of telling the story he gets my grand opening out of the way, I'm going to let him do it. You get on the phone and you start doing that thing and first I tell my story than I tell the company story and what's going on and a little bit like that and then I say I got to go. Guess what, most of the time the other person starts asking Bob what's going on with this thing and how can I meet John or how can I find out or what's this meeting he is talking about or what's this or that. We know my new guy is getting all the practice and experience he needs because he just got involved in signing his friend up and his friend is asking him he is not asking his friend. It is going the other way.
Now, doesn't matter if you use that little technique or not. But I'll tell you what, if you don't watch for the windows and you don't get into the center of influence now, when we are in this special timing and have something new that people are curious about hearing about, if you don't use the advantage of center influence to get that word out, which is the fastest way to build this business, then you are going to lose a ton of business.
Lets go to point 7 this is a big one with me. This one is called goals, dreams and gauges and learning how to become a magnet to attract people. I'm going to back it up and tell you a little bit of a story on this also. It was maybe my third or fourth meeting that I'd been to and I think it was my second month in Herbalife and I'd just come out of the training, you know the first one I'd went to of magnitude like this. So, I'm starting to dream a little bit. I hadn't dreamt for two years. I'd given up my goals. No sense in setting goals because everything I set went the other way. Or the wind blew it away so I didn't' want to set goals and I was afraid to dream because they all turned into disappointment and I can't tell you how many people live their lives that way. Because of circumstances they stopped having hope. They stopped dreaming. They stopped having goals. I lived all that for a couple years and hay, that is not even living. The beautiful thing about Herbalife is not only can you have dreams but it is a company where dreams come true. So I go to this meeting and I hear about getting rich and I hear about setting goals and all this and a couple weeks later I'm driving to our little meeting and there is this red Porsche sitting there. It just caught my eye. Beautiful, red, shiny, Porsche, not a scratch on it, black leather interior and I go up and I tell Susan "I'm going to get me one of these." And she said "John, your crazy, that's a Porsche that's a foreign car, do you know how much money that is. Forget about that, just the insurance will make you poor" and I said, "Yeah, but we are in Herbalife, we are starting to make money", and she said "John, that's for rich people." I said "We are going to get rich", she said "Your nuts". So anyway, while I was looking at it the owner comes out and I'm admiring his car and he said "I want to sell it here is my card." So I take that card and I had my camera with me for some reason or another, and I take a picture of that thing and I couldn't get it out of my mind. And I put it up and I kept looking at that thing and I decided that it was mine and I was going to go after this thing. And the amazing thing is about 4 or 5 weeks later that red Porsche was sitting in my driveway with the keys in my hand.
Now, here is what happened, with my first goal in Herbalife. My first goal was to make $500.00. Remember, I told you that would never happen instead I flew right by it. My second goal was to become a supervisor. My next goals is actually more of a dream, I wanted to be able to do Herbalife full time. And I told you that happened then I started dreaming a little bit bigger and setting a bigger goals. And we accomplished them one after another after another.
I want to show you some of the dreams that have come true for me, there is just a couple of them here. I want to tell you how I got every one of these and how you can get your dreams too. I want to show you where I started and this isn't my dream house, don't worry. But this is a little house in Denver, I lived there, it was a little rented house after we packed and moved up from Texas. And since I didn't have any money at the time I didn't have an office or anything like that, I never got an office, we did all of our meetings and stuff in this little house. People would drive over and you could just see when they drove up, they'd look at the address thinking they must have the wrong place. But they were curious so they would come in. We didn't have much window dressing. We would just show the video tape. We didn't have much furniture yet we would fill the house 2 or 3 times a day with people from our ads and our flyers and all that.
At one point the neighbors got so hacked off because they didn't like the traffic, so they went and cut our phone lines.
But anyway, to make a long story short sometimes somebody would come a little bit late and they would open up the door and one of the cats would shoot in. So then the dog goes after the cat. We would be sitting in there with the video on with the dogs and cats were around and we just acted like nothing happened. And amazingly with all that people signed up.
Even more incredible we didn't have any furniture and the people I trained would have to come back and bring their own lawn chairs and their own coffee cups. And that's how we started our business. As we got going again we started the dream process again. Setting little goals that would lead us to the bigger goals. And as time went on the dreams got bigger and bigger. Today this is a picture of the house we built in Steamboat, Colorado it's 10,000 square feet. We paid for it in cash with our monthly royalty checks so there was never a mortgage. I've got all the surrounding land and there's a stream running through the property. I put a pond in because I like to fish, one of my dreams was to be able to fish whenever I wanted, so I stocked it with these big 5 lb. trout. Any time I want to catch fish I just don't feed them for 2 or 3 days and I go out there with my fly rod and catch fish like crazy. There are stables back here where I keep my Arabian horses. All of that was a dream for me. I still look at it and think "Gee, I can't even believe we accomplished this". Then I wanted a place where it is warm. So bought a condominium in Mexico and then I bought a boat and I named it Richman because you indefinitely pay to keep those things floating. Then we decided we wanted a home for weekends in the mountains and so we built a lake home, that's the largest natural lake in Colorado. There is another one of my boats and this is a picture of me and my little boy. I'm teaching him how to fish. There are a couple other pictures. All of those things were dreams when I started in Herbalife. I couldn't have even dreamt that big really but what happened was first I set some little goals that were achievable. Like making $500.00, than it was supervisor, then it was being able to do Herbalife full time and what not. Then I learned that reasons are like magnets and when I told you that I took that picture of that Porsche back then and I carried it with me every where I went. When I didn't want to get up and do the flyers or do the ads or do what ever I needed to do I would just pull that picture out and it gave me the stamina to go out and do it one more time. And then once we got our little dream we started dreaming a little bit bigger. So you can get all you want. If you don't dream you are missing out on most of what is in Herbalife. Here is how I accomplished my dreams, I attempted to qualify for every Herbalife event. And what I mean by that is if there is an event and a requirement to get so many points to get a Mark Hughes picture. Some people look at it like I used to, Oh, he is just doing that to make more money. I didn't understand how the whole process works. If you get push enough and do a little more business that is going to push you to get more experience. Once you have that experience you take it to a school and refine that experience to a higher level and make it better and better. So, all I've done over the years is I've attempted to qualify for every school that pushed me to do a little bit more. When I say attempted, I didn't' qualify for every one, we missed some. We did our best and worked till the clock struck midnight on the last day. I could feel good about it because I couldn't do any better than I did. What most people do is they don't even attempt to qualify. They look at whatever qualification is and they don't even attempt to do it. And when you don't attempt something you can't possibly make it. Well, by attempting to do it, even if we fail we're doing the basics and by doing that we got the experience and momentum. Now with momentum if I missed the qualification I still had my momentum. And there's always another event in Herbalife so I had the momentum I needed.
But remember the clock is ticking. I'm not going to get any more time, neither are you guys. So you can either live life to the fullest and be dreaming and have fun with some of those dreams or you can have a dull boring life. But no matter what you are running out of time. I didn't care about time when I had no dreams and goals and no hope. Now because of dreams and goals and hopes and excitement time is precious to me, I can't explain it. But here is what I share with people. The speed of the pack is determined by the leader. So if you are sitting there thinking, "Well, my checks not growing very fast and my groups not doing very good", maybe you need to look in the mirror because the pack is not going to go faster than the leader. The speed of the pack is determined by the leader.
Now we'll get to point 9. This is what helped keep it together over the years and something that help me is something Jim Rohn said, "Build a financial wall around your family". After losing all my real estate investments and then my house I paid real close attention when he said build a financial wall nobody can penetrate. And I remember him saying how encouraging it was if you had an extra $10,000 in the bank or an extra $100,000.00 in the bank and he said "Think what it would be like to have a million dollars in the bank". So our first goal was to have $10,000 extra in the bank. I remember how that felt back then, it felt quite amazing because I never had 10,000.00 in the bank before. Then I remember what it was like to have that first $100,000.00 put aside. And I thought how incredible it would be having the first million dollars set aside, just an extra million bucks. That's part of my financial wall. But one of the things I would do with Herbalife is I would start building a financial wall around your family. I had a hard time getting going because I was under all that bill pressure. I remember those days when the bills would be coming in and I would have to look at them, write a check out and put the payment in the envelope and then hang on to it till I sold enough products to pay it. Soon as I got enough money from selling products I'd go to the bank and that envelope would go in the mail. So, I've lived all that. I know what it's like to be broke and live check to check.
What helped me get through this was a book Jim Rohn recommended called "Richest Man in Babylon". It teaches you that it is not so much the amount of money that you get that's important its what you do with what you get and like that. And I'm reading that book an I'm thinking, how am I going to give money to charities and it's nuts you know. I read the book the first time and don't do anything about it. And I keep staying broke so and I tell this to Jim and he said " Well you got to read the book and don't just read it do it". So go back and read it and start applying it. I just followed what that book said and we got out of the financial hole we were in and before we knew it we had an extra $100,000.00 in the bank. I would say if you are in a financial hole, get this business going. And if you don't know how to get out of the hole get that book. It's going to take two or three times of reading it. But what helped me keep it all together even with all the money problems is having a thankful attitude.
Now all I do to keep things in balance is I simply remember where I came from. I remember how I was broke, how, there was no future for me and how we struggled in our lives. Then all I have to think about is everything Herbalife has given for me. And when I think about not getting out and working or sharing what's being shared with me, then its easy to jump on the next plane and go do it again because somebody had to take the time to share these things with me. Now I had to be willing to work and I had to be teachable but if I had all that and nobody shared it with me, I'd be back where I was. So, I'm thankful for what I've got. I'm happy to go out and share it because people shared it with me and keep the thing going. That's my thankful attitude.
Also I have my priorities and you all have to have your own. For me its spiritual, family and business and if I put business in front of the rest of them then my life is a mess. That's the way they need to be for me. I put my spiritual in there first than my family life... those being the most important and then the business. Then everything is manageable for me. You will have to figure out your own priorities. But figure out what they are and then keep them in line cause if you don't its going to end up being a mess.
Next point 10. Is called moving to the next level. Everybody in here is at a certain level. I told you what level I'm at. It doesn't matter where I'm at except that I have to go to the next level or I'll stop. If you look at nature when a tree stops growing it's dead. When a plant stops growing it's dead and if I stop growing I feel like I'm dead so I gotta keep growing. I gotta go to the next level. You guys all need to move to the next level. And it's so easy to do. Let's say you are on a Get Team and you want to be on the Millionaire Team. Some people may say "I don't know how to do it or I don't know if I can do it". I already know you can do it. No doubt in my mind. It's an absolute given that you can do it because all you have to do is what you already did. Because 20,000 times 4 is 80,000 that's Millionaire Team. All you gotta do is keep doing what you did and do it three more times and there is your 40 and your 60 that's your 80. You really only have to do it two more times because the way momentum works you will get to mill team. So there is not a question if somebody's on Get Team that can they get to mill team. It's only a question if they stop doing it again. Do what you have already done. Now you are doing it with different people and around different circumstances, but its going to be easier because everyday Herbalife gets easier. So if you can't do it again, its not because you can't its because you are not willing to do it. You are not willing to make the scarifies and roll up your sleeves and go to work. Same thing is true for supervisor and if you can make world team it's not a question of if you can make get team just do what you were doing a couple of times you'll be on that team. And once you hit millionaire team, all you gotta do is one more time what you did to get on millionaire team. And I'll tell you with momentum if you just repeat what you did to get on millionaire team, which would be 4,000 and 4,000 are 8, momentum will pick up the extra two. And I let people know that you are not even in the game as far as money goes until you are at least on the Get Team. That's when you get that 2% extra kicks in. 2% plus the five you get now 7%. That's just under a 40% pay raise. I don't think many companies are going to offer somebody the chance in about 90 to 120 days from starting with the company to get a 40% pay increase. That's just on the three levels And if you continue recruiting 10 more people a month or something any where near that, as this thing grows, you are going to find that your infinite check is 2 1/2 to 3 times bigger than your royalty check. So, this way of doing it turned into millions for me. But you need to move to the next level. We all have a responsibility to our organization to lead. And if you are not leading, nobody is going to lead it for you, and if you are moving to the next level your people will start moving to the next level and that will push you to levels you never imagined you could ever get to.
I'm going to make a statement here: You might say, who do I compete against? I don't compete against others. I wouldn't even compete against you guys, some of you in this room would be better than me. What I do is I compete against myself. And I know this. I know that this month I can do better than last month if I work at it. Who couldn't do better than they are already doing if they are trying their absolute best. Nobody, just like me. We can all do better. So, you don't need somebody to compete against. You can compete against yourself and do better that you did yesterday, better than you did last week. And you will be amazed at what happens. I didn't believe this when I got started. But I absolutely believe it with all my heart now.
A few disciplines practiced every day will lead you to becoming wealthy. The lack of a few disciplines every day leads to mediocrity. There is nothing I do that is complicated. I sell products. I sign up people. I train them. And I promote. Mainly how I train is plug into the Herbalife system.. I discipline myself to focus on those 4 things. Realizing that's what I get paid for. And anybody can do what I do. I just do them over and over and over.
Now just little disciplines have made me be more disciplined in other areas and led to a total change of my life. It has taken a guy who was absolutely broke and turned him into a multimillionaire. A few little disciplines that we can all do. But in order to really make something out of it I can't just say I'll stop here". I got to try to get a little better and a little better, and a little better and if you do that you will be shocked and amazed where you go.
I was telling a group this morning of some people at breakfast and I said I just got back from Bankok. And when I was in Bankok looking at all the Asian faces I told them then, "You know, looking back when I joined and went to my first training nobody ever told me I'd be standing up here in Asian teaching you how to do business. I couldn't have believed that in a million years. You got no idea what could happen to you if you will take a step forward and take a chance on Herbalife.
Take a chance on yourself, compete against yourself. Start qualifying for every event or attempt to. Get a consistent plan going for 90 days. I'll tell you how I've gotten rich. Take the things I've shared with you and do your 90 day plans and back to back that creates so much momentum its scary.
Here's the way it happens: You establish personal momentum by doing the basics. The key is consistency. Making your mid course corrections. Don't getting faked out. If you were to do that and you did it you would never have to work again. That's the same thing I told you when I started. That's what I was told 13 years ago and that if I took it as seriously as I could, it had nothing to do with part-time or full time. The only difference is you do full-time what you did part time. But if you do it with consistency when Herbalife is having massive fast growth and work six months like your life depended on it. With a full time attitude than you'll have a foundation for a business that will pay you for decades.
Well, it's done that. And it's going to happen again. And if you do the 90 day plans back to back you get so much momentum that it'll just literally explode. Because here's how this works. You get momentum by establishing, advancing and sustaining it, we talked about that. You do that with consistency and you will have what is called personal momentum. (Now, get a couple in the area doing the same thing...locking arms and walking the walk together and talking the talk. Imagine what would happen to your meeting if you all started walking the walk and talking the talk about the next level.) But anyway, you get that going, you got several of you doing it and it really only takes two or three then you got what causes regional momentum. Now if you have personal momentum and regional momentum the business is going to go faster than you could have done it on your personal because the regional is pushing you also. Then when Herbalife kicks in and it starts popping now we get national momentum. And when national momentum going on and regional momentum you score like crazy, providing you have personal momentum. There could be regional momentum and national momentum and if you have no personal momentum you get nothing.
So, it all starts with what you do. And if the time is right, and that's my big message here, the time is right it's either going to pass you or you are going to get rich on this thing. And get what you want out of it in accordance to what you put into it but you need personal momentum. You've already got this regional momentum if you keep doing what you are doing, I'm telling you if you don 't know it, there's national momentum out there. Otherwise we couldn't be growing by 300 million a year and were this close to international momentum kicking in because the same thing that's going on in America only has to go on in 3 or 4 other countries. And its happening in Brazil right now, its happening in Italy right now, it's going on in Mexico, we just need a couple more and when international momentum kicks in that's the thing that moves peoples checks $10,000.00 or $15,000.00 a month. And you can't even understand where all the money and all the distributors that show up on your print out come from. Its from momentum and we are in this rare opportunity were we are going to have international momentum with national momentum and regional momentum, the only question is where is your personal momentum? And if you've got it, with all this going on your business is going to explode beyond your wildest dreams. And if you can have a little discipline with a full time attitude even if your part time you can make the next six months count by doing the basics to establish your momentum. Then, as easy as it is for me to sit up here and tell you how I can't believe what happened to me and get these big checks for a couple hundred thousand bucks and can't believe its for me, those things will be happening for you. Can't imagine it? Neither could I. But I listened when he was telling the story of the promise of the future and to a hand full of things that made the difference from the book, "The Richest Man of Babylon." That got me out of the mess I'd got myself into and built a financial wall around my family. And I looked at those little things and the pictures on the refrigerator and it's somewhat hoakie to me. But it's all real and it all works. And Herbalife has thousands of distributors around the world that are living proof of it. Herbalife's best kept secret is how much more we are paid than Amway, NuSkin, Rexall, Excel distributors and I don't know what all the other ones, there's five of them. But the closest one to us was Amway. For the same amount of business they get paid $54,000.00 and we get $102,000.00 thousand. Same amount of business except they got to deal with 2,000 products and there's all kinds of extra little catches that you gotta do to make that, all we gotta do is build a business. What I want to show you is it says if you get 5 first line supervisors and each of them got 2 and each of them got 2 that would mean 5 on you first level and 10 on your second level and 20 on your third level, ok. Nobody gets more than 2 supervisors and you'll make $100,000.00 a year. If you knew how easy it is to get supervisors in America. Today after you get your plan going learn to take you out of the picture. You're not the issue, let Herbalife, the products, or the training become the issue and just plug people in. You will grow so fast it will be crazy. All you really need to do is focus on getting 5 people and plug them into the system. The system will help them get the people and they'll make $100,00.00 a year.
We are going to take two more minutes on a subject I feel is fairly important and I'll share these comments with you then I'm out of here. I had a guy at the summit, he is not in my group, his name is Mike, say "John, you know Herbalife is exploding and I'm doing a bigger volume" and I said "Like what?" And he said "Well., I'm last month I did $20,000.00 in personal volume but my check isn't growing the way Herbalife is growing". I said "Well, how many of these people do you have in the STS training program?" and he said "That's the problem, I can't get them into the training". I said "That's nonsense". I said "You are signing them up?" He said "Oh, yeah, no problem signing them up" and I said "Than if you can sign them up, if you do it right its easier to get them trained than it is to get them to sign up". So I said "If you can get them to sign up, I know you can get them trained." But, he said "What do you mean?" I said "Look, how are you presenting that?" He said "Well, I sign them up then I find out the schedule and call them up and tell them the schedule". I said " You are back in the price business". I said " Here is the way it should happen. You sell them a kit or package and assuming that they buy it, they get all excited about it, they are ready to go. And now four days later you call them up and tell them "Well, there is a training coming up this weekend and you need to put out 50 bucks and get a baby-sitter and all that." And the guys says "Why didn't you tell me about it up front, I knew there would be a catch. Instead of the guy anticipating and looking forward to the training as being part of his advantage he is looking at it as a negative and he doesn't go". So by not packaging the two together he got people started, they did volume but they didn't see the big picture so his check didn't go up. All along he thought he couldn't get people trained. I said "Turn it around when you sign them up tell them about the Herbalife advantage how we got the STS and if you want to build an organization than you have to get to one of these STS's to get the big picture. I want you to meet the people so you can believe it's possible and get a plan of action and clarity like you have never seen before and watch your business go. And if you are not willing to understand and get involved with the training than you shouldn't be getting the business pack". Now, you change that and when it's part of the deal than the guy's anticipating the training. He bought the training as part of the deal instead of some catch that was laid on him later. So I when I sell a kit I don't sell the kit without the training. In other words, my kit goes out with a $50.00 training ticket or I don't sign him.
You don't have to go that far. Its the concept but when I sell the guy the distributor kit, I'm selling him our training package, our system because it allows him to sponsor somebody long distance and plug him into the STS and get trained. He never even has to train him. If you package it in the beginning and the person buys in and they say, "I got my kit and I my training and here it is".
And then there is one last thing, I'll take two minutes on here, and that's for Mary and Brett. One of the reasons I'm here today because they have learned first how to do Herbalife, they are committed, they believe in the product and now they have learned how to be major producers. But anyway they keep popping up in the top 5 and 10 doing high volume and their checks were moved but its not moving as fast as I think it could and what I showed them is this. If they, did $12,000.00 in volume for a nice wholesale check. That means they know how to sign people up. That means they know how to get success stories. They know how to get supervisors. But the people they get don't necessarily know how to do that or how to use this system the way they do nor do they have the confidence about it. So I said "Here is what you do. Take the same energy and effort you would do to that 12 and do 6 of it yourself find somebody that deserves your attention, not by how much money they have, not by how much money they are earning, but that they want to go forward, they are committed, they believe in the products, they are teachable, they are hungry, they want to do the deal. I said find that person and take the same amount of energy that you put into getting the other 6 but do it with that other person. Get it under them. Don't give it to them. If you give it to them its wasted, gone, no capacity, they didn't learn anything and you will have nothing but frustration and somebody wanting another hand out. Make them earn it, get them out working with you. But since you know how to get the distributor, you know how to get the customer, you know how to get them to success builder, you know how to get them to supervisor, you know how to get them to the STS, do that with them and do it under them. Here is the only thing, you will drop down on my on my list because you are not going to be one of the top producers in terms of volume. That might affect your ego but your royalty checks are going to go up. And so your royalty checks going up because I have the capability of doing 6 of it for myself and find some other distributor to work with, pick the best 1 or 2 people that deserve it. The same energy and effort that I would normally be doing to get the other 6,000, I do it with them. Whether it's 3 way calls or is them living in my house, what ever it is. Or I might be living in their house, whatever is going on. But I know how to do it and I transmit the confidence that I'll help them do it. All they got to do is commit to do the same work that I'm doing and we will do it together.
Now here is what happens, when that 6,000 shows up under them I get a little less because its going to be royalty instead of wholesale. But guess what wholesale, it comes and its gone, there is no residual in wholesale. But the odds of that person sticking around because they have got somebody under them is extremely high. That is going to show up month after month after month and once they get into the system and the thing starts to grow into a royalty. That's how you start making your check jump. That's how I got my check to increase in a year by $16,000.00 on the three levels. First I cranked it up consistently, made my focus on a 90 day plan and a name just popped up. I paid attention and took the best that I had in terms of deserving it, I put him under my wing and I took what I knew about getting him to success builder, getting him to supervisor, getting him plugged into the system and I did that with people as if they were mine but I had them under the other guy and I had the other guy working the whole time. So now not only did I expand my group and train my person, but instead of one time wholesale now I've got a royalty building. If you were my person for example, Robert, now you would have a reason to stick around because now you've got something to lose, you've got someone under you. And you're the kind of person we all lose and that's how I build a check. And I want to thank everybody for your close attention and.................