Pay It Forward

by Darrin Johnson, Senior Vice President of Sales

Perhaps you’ve already heard the story of Nora and Steve McMahon. A Melaleuca Marketing Executive and a cancer survivor, Nora nearly lost her life on the operating table last year when she had a double mastectomy. Just a few months later, Steve, her husband, suffered a traumatic brain injury while deployed overseas with the military.

In October, for the fourth time this year, Nora had to go under the knife to correct some issues from her earlier surgery. Nora, who’s also a mother of six children (including two sets of twins), managed to square away all of the details with one exception: cooking. Without any short-term memory Steve can’t do the cooking, and Nora would be spending weeks in bed.

Nora’s friend asked her to create a meal calendar so people could sign up online to bring her food. Eventually, word of the calendar got around to Danny Tore, another Melaleuca Marketing Executive.

Now, keep in mind, Danny isn’t Nora’s enroller. He isn’t even in her support team at all. But that didn’t stop him from offering to help. He signed up for a meal and then he posted the calendar on social media for hundreds of people to see.

The calendar soon filled with names of people, many who didn’t know Nora at all but who wanted to help anyway. Nora’s enroller, Jessica Waller signed up, as did Trixie Overcashier, Frank and Maria Mosca, and Lyle and Sandie Siemens. But that was just the beginning.

When Frank and Maria Mosca placed an order online for a restaurant to give the McMahons a meal, an employee called to double-check the order and Maria told them Nora’s story.

“The lady on the phone told me, ‘I’m going to cry—that’s amazing,’” Maria said. “Then she said, ‘We’re going to throw in a gift certificate for a free pizza dinner, and we’re going to fix a special dessert just for her.’”

Lyle and Sandie called Olive Garden, which doesn’t usually deliver. But Sandie told the restaurant’s manager the story, and he personally delivered the meal—along with another gift certificate and a get-well-soon card.

“That’s what’s amazing about Melaleuca,” Nora says. “For most people, they’d just bring the meal and leave it at that. But with Melaleuca, there’s this kindness and this culture of helping others, no matter whose organization you’re in.”

She’s absolutely right: There’s something about the culture of Melaleuca that attracts caring, altruistic people who want to reach out and help others. It’s not just what we do; it’s a part of who we are. It’s the result of a seed planted by CEO Frank VanderSloot nearly three decades ago when he crafted our Mission Statement of enhancing lives.

That Mission Statement is an example of how a small act, a simple statement can blossom into something so much bigger. Look at what has happened since Frank introduced that Mission Statement in 1985. Today, it has become a wellness movement that is changing the lives of millions of people and sweeping across the world.

If you’re referring customers on the forefront of this movement, you know exactly what I’m talking about. You see lives changed every day through our safer, healthier products and through our rewarding customer referral program. Marketing Executives have often told me stories of receiving “thank you” phone calls from their enrollees.

Yet it’s also not uncommon to hear about enrollers thanking their customers. You may already know that when someone purchases one of those health-promoting products from Melaleuca, seven other families earn a commission. You probably know Melaleuca has paid out $3.7 billion in commissions over the last 29 years to families just like yours.

This month, on December 15—just before Hanukkah and two weeks before Christmas—hundreds of thousands of families will receive checks from Melaleuca. Those checks will provide hope, confidence and happiness to families throughout the United States and Canada.

Just a few weeks after, we’ll be holding Launch 2015, and this year, we’ll be announcing new ways for you to pay it forward and enhance lives like never before. On January 3, we’ll be announcing some new products that will absolutely blow your socks off. To get the full scope of what these announcements will mean for you, you need to be there at Launch—and I can’t emphasize that enough!

You might be tempted to think, “I’m just a customer; I don’t need to be at Launch.” But I promise you, there will be something at Launch for everybody, customer, business builder and in between.

Don’t just come to Launch. Look around at your friends and family and ask yourself, “Who could really benefit from Melaleuca? Who could use a hand at living a little healthier?” Bring a friend with you to Launch this year. Have them come and experience this incredible culture and rub shoulders with all of these good, caring individuals we have in our Melaleuca family.

Anthropologist Margaret Mead famously said, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” And someone much wiser than me said, “Be the change you want to see in the world.”

I know of no group more thoughtful and committed than the Marketing Executives we have at Melaleuca. Now, it’s time for all of us to “be the change,” and to put our best selves forward in 2015. Come to Launch and you’ll see what I mean. And who knows—we just might change the world together.
Launch is free and open to everyone. Find your Launch location at Melaleuca.com/Launch