JANUARY-1995 Meeting Nathan Ricks
“Ladies and gentlemen, here is Nathan Ricks, the man who has redefined Network Marketing, he is a legend and leader that has been with Nu Skin since the early years. He's going to explain how you too can make it in this business.”
David had called me about this meeting at least a month ago.....
David, however, was visibly comfortable in his role, he even seemed proud to have brought me to the lion’s den. He had been involved in this MLM (multi-level-marketing) deal for years, knew who everyone was, and possessed the perfect personality: approachable, likeable, unafraid of rejection, and determined.
.....
as everyone suggested, I’d need to invest heavily more time and money. Both of which I had little, but if I didn’t “commit” and “go for it” it would never lead to anything. Most of my friends advised adamantly against MLM, urging me to learn more before taking a leap of faith. Despite how good those brochures looked, I felt as if I was joining a religion and said so to David, who laughed and said, “Well, you got to believe in something, might as well be a religion that makes you money.”....
it took him about twelve minutes to explain why Nu Skin was so much better than all other opportunities... not one word about the products yet...
When I realized that all the money generated from my first level sign-ups, before becoming an executive distributor, would go to my “up-line” or sponsor, in my case fellow actor David Christian for his effort of “coaching” me, it didn’t make that much sense to me. It merely told me that Nu Skin didn’t believe in me until I had burned up my warm market and I would only be paid a commission from anyone they signed. Nathan made it crystal clear; he’d not take any of us serious unless we got in at “a thousand points.”
“Why would I take you serious if you don’t take Nu Skin serious?” He blurted in the microphone. With one point to equal one dollar, it was for most us a lot of money to invest in something that had not made much sense to me and several others who shared their concerns with me later. Nathan, aware of the deflating murmur traveling through the room said, “Remember, look at what you are getting; a company, products, a ‘hands-free,’ seamless compensation plan and awesome leadership... for only a small investment.”
Obviously Nathan's talent was (and still is) to create “sense,” out of the whirlwind of data and stories that spoke of a different world, a promised land where all dreams come true;....
David wasn’t the first one to pursue me; a woman before him had tried. She prospected me when I was cashing a check for $2,000 for my work on a film at the bank. She stood behind me and leaned over, looked at the check, and said, unblushingly, “Two grand? Uh, well, I know a deal that can generate that kind of money every week.”....
I saw her sitting at the bar in a mini-skirt and push-up bra. I knew I had to be on my guard. Women do not meet men in mini-skirts for a business meeting unless they expect whatever it is they’re after will require their “assets” to be thrown in to get it. They know what the basal, fatal attraction can do to our mostly primitive, one-track male minds. She turned around, smiled, grabbed my hand, pulled me in, and laid it on thick using the subtle separation of her legs to get me off-guard when she kissed me on my cheeks accompanied by, “Don’t you Europeans do it this way?”.....
I looked at her and wondered how many other guys had fallen for her sexy charm and joined Nu Skin just to see her run around in her minis—crazy.
Besides being unprofessional, I didn’t feel that I was anything more than a warm body in her mind.