Tula,

It's sure nice to see someone passionate about a company that they are involved in just like you are for TriVita. How do you market it~besides this forum?

Hi VitaLIFE,

Thanks for your comments... I am passionate about TriVita, aren't I!

I mostly market offline to my warm market, local businesses and people I come in contact with in my daily life. The nice thing is that I really only need to let people know about the products and the income opportunity because if they choose to become involved, TriVita takes care of the rest. My work load is very, very light unlike other network marketing opportunities.

I also have an email list of contacts from many years of being online in various projects, both business related and social.

These methods have proven very successful for me, but I am here to learn from Jamison and other experienced members. I'd like to become more proficient at other forms of internet marketing. However, since I do represent a well known and legitimate company that also happens to have an exceptional opportunity attached to it, Jamison kindly offered to open a special forum for TriVita.

Naturally, I gratefully accepted since it would afford people who are looking for something they can really sink their teeth into and be confident that there's is a very good chance for people to make as little or as much residual income as they want with TriVita. It is definitely one of the best companies to work with there is. And the timing absolutely couldn't be better!

Tula

One of the things I've mentioned as a priority when looking at a company to work with is its support system. Over the years I've been involved with companies whose support is mediocre at best; positively dismal at worst. Likely you know exactly what I'm talking about and have resigned yourself to such things as listening to elevator music until you're comatose from long waits while you're put on hold.

This is time consuming. And shows little respect for you as a business person or the efforts you make on their behalf as one of their affiliates or distributors.

However, it's not always because they lack respect. Many times it's because they lack the financial wherewithal to put in place a support system that adequately deals with their needs.

I have to admit that I never realized before exactly what's involved in providing good support for a large company. I know what I like. A real person who has received adequate training, who speaks my language reasonably well and who respects me as an integral part of the the company's success.

Seems fairly simple. But in reality there is a lot more involved and I found Elizabeth Guthrie's presentation on TriVita's Call Center incredibly informative. It also increased my respect for TriVita as a company. Never before have I had the pleasure of working with people who make such determined efforts to make our lives easier as we go about building our business.

This is long, so grab a tall one and enjoy! Tula

... to be continued

As told by Elizabeth Guthrie, Director of Call Center of Operations
Transcribed by Tulasu


LIKE ALL TRIVITA STAFF - SHE'S GOT THE STUFF!

My experience directly impacts the initiatives of our Care Center and my vision for our Call Center's future.

I came to TriVita about 3 and a half years ago with over 10 years of leadership experience in the call center industry. I had actually just acquired my bachelor's degree in Criminal Justice and was getting ready to go to Law School when I sort of stumbled into the call center industry.

I really had no background in health and wellness, I am definitely a call center person... that has been my area of expertise over the past 10 years. I really came here to help build some of the infrastructure. I had previously managed large scale reservation call lines for Commercial Airlines, as well as some other Call Centers with over 800 agents.

And I've always said it doesn't matter whether you're managing a call center with 10 agents, or you're managing one with over 800... the phones need to be there, and the infrastructure has to be there in order to run a world class center. So I've brought that experience to TriVita and that's what has been my focus since I arrived.

We've created an environment that makes TriVita unique and different from any other call center I've been with and that's really what I'm hoping to share with you... some of the things that really make us different.

I've had the privilege of not only being the Director of the Care Center, but also working alongside of our senior marketing team which enables me to take directly from Michael and Marcus their vision for the company and execute those directives accordingly.


PREPARING FOR GROWTH

We've spent the last 3 and 1/2 years in the Care Center making sure that we have the most efficient as possible infrastructure in place, not only from an operation standpoint, but to also make sure that we're giving world class service.

How that translates to affiliates is that you and your customers don't feel our growing pains. We are definitely exploding with growth right now, which I'll talk to you a little bit about. But whether we're receiving 50 calls an hour or 100 calls an hour, it doesn't matter. I'm responsible for making sure that my team has that infrastructure in place to support that growth so that your customers, as well as all of you, get through quickly when you call; that you're not waiting on hold, that the person on the other end of the phone is professional, and that they're friendly. We don't want you feeling like you're the 100th call that day with the representative sounding comatose on the other end of the phone.

We want to make sure that they're enthusiastic, upbeat and that they're excited to talk to you. And to make sure that they are giving appropriate recommendations and to make sure that those orders are being place accurately and efficiently. When our customers call in, they know that they are getting the best products for their individual health goals.

We've really spent the last 3 and 1/2 years trying to make sure that we have everything in place for where we're at right now. And definitely growth is here... the sales are off the charts. And before I close I'll definitely share with you some of the numbers.

... to be continued

So what makes TriVita's Care Center different? It boils down to customer experience. There are 5 different things that come to mind when I think of customer experience in our Care Center.


ONE: INTERACTION WITH CUSTOMERS

The first thing that makes us unique is the interaction between our consultants and our callers.

For those of you who may not be familiar with Arizona, it really is the mecca of call centers. You can drive around and there's a call center on every corner. One of the things I really wanted when I came to TriVita was to make our call center different... something that would distinguish us from every other call center. Not only to insure that we're providing world class service, but to also attract a higher class of employee. We want only the best at TriVita.

The first thing we did was rename our call center. We changed the name from Call Center to Care Center. By saying that, it's not just a fancy name, it really represents our call flow and the experience we want our members to have when they call TriVita. So we have striven to separate ourselves from the average call center.

Call centers are normally very transactional. It's all about getting a customer on and off the phone as quickly as possible and getting the order placed if it's a direct sale company; just place the order, get as much as you can out of the customer and then let them go and move on to the next customer.

We didn't want to have that kind of interaction. We didn't want to be just another order taking company. We wanted to make sure that our consultants were taking a few extra moments on the phone to establish a relationship with our members; to ask questions that might identify the caller's health objectives so that they can recommend appropriate products so the customer can experience wellness. This is our most important objective.

C.A.R.E.

So when we talk about the Care Center... each of the letters has a very significant meaning. And this is really the heart of what we're all about.

C stands for Connect
We want to establish a positive connection with every caller. That's the enthusiasm, the friendly upbeat attitude, being empathetic if someone has a health condition. Being able to express sympathy with that or any trials and tribulations they deal with. So we really want to establish a connection.

A stands for Appreciate
We recognize that our members have a choice from whom they get their supplements and we appreciate the fact that they came to TriVita. We always want to take a minute on every call to show that we really, really do appreciate all of you as well our customers for being members with us.

R stands for Recognize
We don't just want to take product orders, we want to take a few minutes to identify health objectives so we can recommend nutritional products that may help them. So the R stands for recognize - picking up on cues. For example, if a consultant hears someone on the phone say they have inflammation - take a few minutes to talk about some of the other products we have that can really help them manage their inflammation.

E stands for Educate
It's about being able to recommend the appropriate products for a customer's unique health goals.

You can see the name, Care, really follows a path. You can't recommend products and ask questions until you've really connected with a person.

Thank them for being a customer with us. Ask them questions to ultimately allow us to sell to our customers and make good product recommendations.

That is something that is very, very different from a lot of other call centers. Call centers are all about getting on and off the phone as quickly as possible. They manage agent call times very closely. They time every second that the agent's on the phone. And don't get me wrong, we don't want our consultants spending an hour on every call, but we do want them providing a higher level of customer service. We want them to take their time instead of cutting corners. We want to make sure that when the consultant recommends products we're not just trying to sell any old product. We want to sell products that will really help our members with whatever their health goals are.

That's the first thing that makes us unique.


TWO: EFFICIENCY LEVELS

The second thing that makes us unique is our service level.

I'm really proud to say that we've been recognized for our efficiency level. Here are some incredible numbers.

Year to date for 2009 as of June 22 when I refreshed the number, our Care Center is answering all incoming calls within 11 seconds on average. That is phenomenal. In 2008 we were at 25 seconds which is still incredibly respectable.

The point I'm trying to make is that as TriVita continues to experience exceptional growth, our service level is actually getting better. That is unheard of. Those of you who have been with other direct sales companies probably know what I'm talking about. Most company's service level gets worse if they are exploding with growth because they simply can't handle so many incoming calls.

I'm really proud to share with you that it is quite the opposite for us. As our call numbers go up, we actually get more efficient and that is because of everything we've implemented over the past 3 and 1/2 years to prepare or this growth.

84% of our calls are handled in 30 seconds or less. This is unheard of in the industry. Most call centers strive to have 80% of their calls answered in 30 seconds or less, but actually meeting those objectives is not very common. It is usually one of those goals that you set but rarely meet. We are actually meeting it.

So we are handling 84% of our calls within 30 seconds of when they come in. We're very fortunate, and this is where I have to compliment Michael Ellison, our CEO. He believes wholeheartedly in quality customer service and he has made it possible for us to run our operation at that level. It really is a true world class operation.


ABANDONMENT RATES

The other piece to our customer service level is our call abandonment rate. For those of you who might not be familiar that terminology, call abandonment rate is... let me illustrate... Have you ever called into a credit card company or a call center and you became so frustrated from waiting on hold for so long you finally hang up? When you hang up that call gets tallied as an abandoned call. So call centers keep track of how many people hang up. Obviously you don't want people hanging up.

We also measure our call abandonment rate. Most call centers hope they manage a call abandonment rate of less than 5%. Again... it is one of those goals that call centers put out there, but never, ever reach. I'm very proud to share with you that our call abandonment rate is only 1.45% for this entire year, an unheard of less than 2%.

You take our level of service, couple it with our quality of service and you have something very powerful. We take a little extra time on the call providing a higher level of customer service and we're doing so while still handling our calls efficiently. We're very proud of that.


THREE: CONSULTANT TRAINING

The third thing that makes our TriVita Care Center unique is our staff training.

We have approximately 70 consultants in our Care Center. I have 5 Performance Managers directly reporting to me who manage consultant performance on the floor. So management to consultant ratio is about 1 to 14.

We record 100% of our calls into the Care Center to insure the highest quality control. So if there is ever a question about somebody having a poor experience with a wellness consultant, we are able to go back and research what went wrong on the call. I'm glad to admit that those times are rare, but when they come up, since we record 100% of our calls, we can go back and pull a call and see what actually happened and provide whatever coaching is necessary.

We hold our wellness consultants to very specific performance criteria, even in little things... we make sure they thank our customers... we make sure they're recommending other products. We have a whole call criteria that we hold our consultants to. Every consultant meets with their performance manager every week. So every week they have a one on one. They pull random calls, they listen to those calls, and they coach on those calls thus providing one on one development.

In my case, I actually meet with my performance managers twice a week for calibration sessions. We listen to calls together to make sure that we're evaluating for top quality and that we're in alignment with how we establish call quality. We establish sales goals. That is one big perk that goes into our training.


REAL TIME CONSULTANT HELP DESK

One of the other pieces that goes into our training is our help desk. This is unique for our call center as well. We wanted to make sure that when we have a new wellness consultant that comes right out of training, they have real time support at their fingertips. There is a lot of information on policies and procedures consultants need to retain... not easy.

Whether the consultant is brand new right out of training or has been here 3 years and just can't remember how to do something, at any given point in time, they can just dial a 4-digit extension and be immediately connected to a more seasoned wellness consultant to gain support in real time during a call.

This Resolution Management Desk not only provides support for all of our consultants whenever they need it... but they also perform supervisory duties. If ever a customer service issue escalates, which is rare, but we can't please everybody and certainly we make mistakes from time to time, then these supervisors are available in real time to provide support and resolve an issue so that it doesn't exacerbate or get worse.

My team is really accountable to Michael, to Marcus, to the entire executive team to insure that we are meeting our service levels and that we are providing quality customer experience. So we take these things very seriously and between the quality of the calls and the service level, we're running a pretty well oiled machine.


FOUR: OUTBOUND CALL DEPARTMENT

The fourth thing that makes our Care Center unique are the outbound calls that we make to you, as well as all of your customers.

I always say that our outbound call department is small but mighty. We have a team of 5 consultants and they contact new members 20 days after they place their first purchase with TriVita to welcome them and make sure they are having a positive experience with TriVita.

Obviously, if they've had a bad experience, they may not call to tell us but just stop ordering. So we like to call people 20 days after they place their order to not only welcome them, but to make sure they're using the product properly and make sure that they're having a good experience. In this way, we reduce potential attrition and of course that directly effects all TriVita Affiliates.

We want to make sure that we keep the life-time value of those customers and that you affiliates continue to make commissions on those life-time purchases. We try to capture a reorder on those calls thus making another sale.

The other thing the Outbound Team does... and this is relatively new as it iss related to our Share & Earn program... is contact all new affiliates as they come in and welcome them to TriVita as an Affiliate Member. Besides giving them a warm welcome, we also make sure they are having a good experience with Nopalea and go over the basics of their Starter Kit to help them get started.

We want to be sure that they know about the Share & Earn Webinars, that they know the importance of watching the initiation DVD that is in that Starter Kit. We want to make sure that they're taking Nopalea correctly, so that they are having a good experience. Ultimately, this all benefits you because we are making sure that any new affiliates that you refer are having a good experience and are getting their business off to a good start, and hopefully they will be affiliates with us for a very long time and will be successful at building their TriVita business.


FIVE: LOW STAFF TURNOVER

Finally, the fifth thing in the Care Center that really makes us unique is our low rate of staff turnover. Unlike a lot of other call centers, because we run such an efficient operation, our consultants don't feel that typical burn out that you usually feel in call centers. A lot of other call centers have lower service levels with calls in queue all the time so it is just call after call after call.

That can become very exhausting for the agents that are taking those calls. By running a very efficient operation and giving our consultants the freedom to spend a little extra time on the phone to make sure they're not cutting corners from a customer service standpoint, job satisfaction is much higher, and as a result, we have an extremely low turnover rate in our call center. Obviously the more tenured our employees are, the more knowledegable they will be on the products, and thus able to provide better support to all of you affiliates and to the customers in your organization.

Those are some of things that come to mind when I sit down and think about why our Care Center is so different.

All of you as affiliates work very hard to get our phones to ring. You're bringing in new members. Our TriVita Corporate marketing team is out there acquiring members as well - that is what gets the phones to ring.

Now I see the torch being passed to my team. We need to make the most of every call that comes into our Care Center. It is great if those phones ring, but if we're not picking up those phones and calls are abandoning that doesn't help the company or you. If they're getting through, but they're not having a good customer experience, that doesn't help the company or you, either.

In summary, I'm really focused on making the most of each call that comes in.

... to be continued

SOME EXCITING GROWTH FIGURES

I want to share some numbers with you that I think are really thrilling, growth that we are seeing in not only how often the phones ring, but also in terms of specifics on getting the most out of every call.


CALL VOLUME

To give you a little bit of perspective, in 2008 the Care Center received over half a million calls, specifically 548,674 calls. We handled a whole lot of calls! We generally average about 46,000 calls a month, so that gives you an idea of the magnitude of our operation. We're obviously very busy. In 2009, we're currently averaging about 50,000 calls a month.

But here's the thing that is really, really exciting. Our call rate this past April (2009) was up 16% from our call volume of April of 2008, which is awesome! That's right when we were in early stages of launching Nopalea. In this economy with the recession and everything else, the fact that our call volume is going up is incredible.

For our call volume of May of 2009, we were up 24% over last year. So the hard work that is taking place in the company, not only from formulation to branding, the packaging to marketing, but your efforts to bring in new customers, is all really paying off.

And obviously, our City Tour was a huge factor in launching the product and creating that exposure. The momentum is there. The energy is so high right now... and we're really starting to see it in our call volume.

Once again, my job is to make sure you don't feel our growing pains. As call volume is going up, our service level is getting better so that just shows that during the past 3 and 1/2 years, we've been dotting our Is, crossing our Ts and lining everything up to make sure that we're ready.

Now that the explosion is happening, we're on our A game, we're ready for it. It is very exciting. In terms of the Care Center, the call volume is going up, the phones are ringing, service level is high. That's awesome. Now the really exciting news is our average sale.


AVERAGE SALE PER CALL

You know once the phone rings, that's great. And once the customer get through, obviously that's important. But I want to make sure that my consultants and my team are doing their part to maximize every call. That we are not just taking orders, but that we are taking a few moments to recommend other products... to tell them about Nopalea if they don't know about Nopalea... to make sure that we're talking about the income opportunity.

The Call Center team has done an awesome job of getting behind Nopalea and pushing our average sale beyond what our past averages were. In May 2009, for every call that came in that resulted in a sale, our average sale was up 16% over May of 2008; up 16% in this economy when people are on fixed incomes and they are watching every penny they have. The mere fact that we were able to increase the average sale by 16% is a testament to not only the marketing department, but to the entire organization's efforts to get the word out about the benefits of Nopalea, including how our wellness consultants promote to incoming calls.


MONTH TO DATE FOR JUNE 2008

This is the number I want you to note - month to date for June (we still have 7-8 days left to go in the month), but already for the month of June we are up 24% above our average sale in June of 2008!

Again, in this economy to have our average up 24% above what it was last year is just awesome. Yesterday we had our highest sale day ever in the history of the Care Center. Granted it was only one day, but I was really fired up and I know the team was as well. So, we're really, really pleased with what we're seeing and how are we accomplishing it; how we are getting the consultants engaged and motivated because every time that average sale goes up, that is more money in your pocket as well. Every time we get those averages up, you're going to see the value of that in your weekly check.


CARE CENTER INCENTIVES

So what are we doing to keep that momentum up in our Care Center? What are we doing to continually see that growth? We are constantly running incentives in our Care Center with different themes to get consultants involved. As an example, this month we did what we called June & Bloom to go along with the whole Sonoran Bloom theme. We did a June & Bloom incentive - everyday at 12:00 o'clock, we go around with a little cart and give our wellness consultants a one ounce shot of Nopalea.

Why are we doing that? Because we want our wellness consultants to take the product. You can't sell it if you don't experience it. I'm sure you've all heard Terry Newsome say, "Facts tell, stories sell" and it is so true. We want everybody on our team to have their own experience with it. But if they don't have their own experience with it, we make sure they know somebody who has had an awesome experience with Nopalea - we want them talking about it on the call.

So we've been going around everyday at 12:00 o'clock and they all get their daily dose of Nopalea. And they love it, don't get me wrong. If it is 12:03 and we haven't come around yet, emails start flying - "Hey, when are we going to get our daily shot of Nopalea?" So our team is excited. That excitement and that energy given to our wellness consultants translates into their interfacing with the members.

The other thing we're doing in our Care Center to keep that sale rate high is focus on a different product up sell every month. But we're careful here. We don't want to be another one of those companies who try to sell whatever they can for the sake of making a dollar.

We're here for a bigger purpose. We're here to help our members experience wellness and we want to make sure that the experience they have is a good experience, so we want to make sure that the products that they are getting are really right for them.

As an example, if we have Prostate Formula on sale, we don't want to go selling Prostate Formula to everybody because not everybody needs it. Bone Builder's on special this month, but we're not focusing on that on every call because not everybody needs that. We're not trying to push a product on somebody that they don't need.

What we're trying to do in our Care Center is up sell products, and educate on products... products that everybody can use; Nopalea, for example, or our core products like Vitamin C, Omega Prime and obviously Sublingual B-12. So it is important to us that we're only promoting products on the call that we can really get behind and we know it is something that everyone needs.

So we're seeing average sales just continue to grow and I think that's a direct reflection of everything that we've done. I outlined the 5 things we're doing to translate into a higher level of customer service. And when you have a high quality of service and couple it with a high level of service, it translates into customer compliments.

I'm going to read a couple of them because it makes it all real. At the end of the day, these callers are real people, they have lives. And our consultants are really committed to making sure that customers have good product experiences. We also want to make sure that as you bring in new affiliates, as you recommend TriVita to your family and friends, that they too have positive experiences.


From Susan Wright:
"Just wanted to let you know that we signed up a new customer today, Adam Sebastian. He reported a great experience from Derrick in the Care Center. A special thank you to Derrick as he was extremely professional, knowledegable and helpful with all of Lisa's questions. He also up sold her on Nopalea. She originally called only for Balanced Woman and Vision Guard.

"Thank you again for everything and we want Derrick to know how much we appreciate all that he did."


From Sherida Johnson
Sherida called in to compliment Monica Dugan. Sherida shared with her some family issues with cancer, and Monica was kind enough to share her own experiences with cancer which brought comfort to Sherida. Monica was kind enough to share the benefits of Sublingual B-12 explaining how it provided needed energy, a big problem when dealing with cancer. Sherida said that not only did she help me feel better letting me know there is help, but she was extremely patient as well.


From Mrs. Pucchini
She was thrilled Linda Johnson recommended the Digestive Complex. Her son started taking the product due to Linda's recommendation. She said that Linda Johnson gave excellent personal examples of how the product worked for her and that Linda's a keeper and really cares.


These are just a few examples of literally dozens of compliments that we get in our Care Center everyday, and I have to say that I've been in a lot of other call centers and you don't get that. So our consultants are not just selling, they really care and it is clearly translating through the recommending products in a compassionate way and making sure that they're recommending the right products to the right people.


------------------
And that's translating into higher sales. What strikes me about this is that as affiliates in TriVita, all of this 'up selling' is going on at the expense of the company, but WE GET TO BENEFIT!

It has been noted how passionate I am about TriVita. LOL You've just read one of the reasons why.

Thank you for reading! If you got this far, that's quite a feat. Tula

Tula,

You are obviously very passionate about your business. I like that.

Trivita looks like they have good products. How do you help your people to become successful?

Thanks, Ace! I AM passionate about TriVita. And honestly, I've never been like this before... I knew another Ace a few years back and if you're the same one, then you may even already know that.

I typically am quite reserved about opportunities because I could see the weaknesses and while I hoped that my team would be successful, I worried that many would not.

With TriVita, I believe EVERYONE is a future success story. Let me point out the 3 general groups of people that come into TriVita. Not to label folks, but it helps us understand the levels of involvement that we can choose between with TriVita. No other company provides all 3 of these options. No where else can you actually start making money BEFORE you've even started to market.


1. The HAVES

Some people don't want to market due to time constraints or other circumstances, but they have a lot of money that they use to purchase MAP customers from which they can earn commissions. In fact, there are super-star athletes, top executives and professionals, stock market players and movie stars who have directed some of their money into TriVita. They don't market at all, but they purchase large amounts of MAP customers over time and collect, or rollover, the commissions earned on those customers. This method works very well for some. They enjoy a highly reduced involvement in the marketing aspect of TriVita.


2. The HAVE NOTS

Many people who come to TriVita are desperate for another source of income because they have fallen into need or because they are afraid they are going to fall into need. That's what this recession is doing to the average Joe. There's no shame in that and TriVita took these new circumstances into consideration when they recently launched the Share & Earn model. The entrance is very low and new signups will be equipped with a 1, 2, 3 Simple Success System and all the online, as well as offline tools they need to get started. These folks will develop their business through actively marketing both TriVita products and the TriVita income opportunity.


3. The WORKERS

This group is comprised of a mixture of the above and they will achieve the highest level of success possible with TriVita. They may not have tens of thousands of dollars to buy customers with, but they will consistently purchase as many MAPs as they can afford on an ongoing basis. They will consistently roll over a percentage of their earnings every month into new MAPs. And they will consistently market. They will use the same 3 Step Simple Success System that everyone else uses along with any other marketing skills they have or that they develop.

And there is one more thing leaders will do, which brings me directly to the response to your question, Ace. What I do to help my people succeed. There are 2 main areas where leaders help their people.


HOW I HELP MY TEAM

One way is by means of the Team Build concept. We build deep, not wide. The maximum number of affiliates you ever need on your first tier in TriVita to go all the way up to Presidential Director is three. That is not to say that you can't have more affiliates on tier one, but there is no long term advantage in building that way. Three is not an impossibly high goal! TriVita itself encourages the team build concept by paying over double the compensation on affiliate purchases on Tiers 2 - 7. I often mention that I believe a compensation plan must make sense. It must have long range growth in view, not only instant gratification. There is no question in my mind that TriVita's compensation plan does just that.

This structure not only encourages us to help our team members, but allows the gratification of seeing them become successful, too. And you know success breeds success. That little person that receives a new sign up from their upline often is so inspired by that, they go on to do great things all on their own steam. I have given away dozens of signups to my team members and continue to do the same. No one in a direct-sale, multi-level payout plan will achieve success as long as they think myopically about only their own success. Our success depends on our team's success. Period.

The second way I help my team is simply to be there. Be available to answer questions, do phone calls, walk them through signup procedures. Basically, provide training and support. I administrate a private forum that is loaded with content for all of the new people that join on my team. We have information sections, inspirational sections and areas where smaller branches in my team can have private areas of discussion. The bulk of the content has been provided by myself and all of my team can access this material. But they also can ask questions on anything that is unclear and not only get timely answers from me, but my upline jump in with responses and encouragement, as well.

I actually spend the bulk of my time with my team members. It has been one of the most gratifying things imaginable when I see some of my most reluctant and timid marketers suddenly blossom and begin to grow their business because they discover just how easy it really is.

Most recently, I've invited my team to join me in a Core Group in which we will all contribute to the expansion and development of our own teams using techniques provided by both TriVita and by some of the more respected marketers we are in touch with. We will develop in areas of both personal growth and marketing abilities and instill these same concepts in our people.

Internet marketing is something that takes a long time to grasp and implement and I recognize that many of my people trying to market online are not going to achieve much success in the way they are going about it. So as I begin my own learning curve, I want to be able to help my team build in other ways that provide more immediate results, so that they can actually be earning WHILE they join me in the internet marketing learning curve if they wish to develop their skills in that direction as well. Watch out... they will wind up here!

The whole point of it all is to build success in each and every member of my team. They all mean a tremendous amount to me. If I can pass on to my team leaders that same sense of affection for their team members as individuals and that same sense of responsibility towards those who choose them out of thousands of others as their sponsor, they will do the same for their team as it develops. This will build a rock-like foundation for a team whose strength will translate into exponential growth which in turn leads to a business that will pay financial rewards for many years to come. We WILL succeed and I invite every single member of this forum to put me to the test.

Tula

Just thought I'd pop in here finally to say hello. I'm Tula's sponsor in TriVita and I'm very proud to have her on my team. She is doing an absolutely superb job of growing a very solid business, and extremely quickly at that. And she is also an incredible support person to all who join her team.

I'd like to share a bit of my background and experience in the business world, and especially with TriVita. I've been in TriVita for almost two years now. I have done just about every kind of biz there is online, as well as some businesses offline. I have operated a dental laboratory in San Francisco for 20 years, and am now running (have been for the last 10 years) an arts & crafts wholesaling business where I manufacture, market, and distribute products all over the US and even abroad. I do well, but it's a lot of work. I joined TriVita because I saw that I could make the same amount of money I make now, and even much, much more, by doing about 1/4 of the work.

When I launched my various offline businesses, I had to spend around $50K - $150K in start-up costs. It took a very long time to recoup all that principal and start making a profit. This is usually not the case with online businesses, and most certainly is not the case with TriVita. With the costs mentioned above, and with franchises costing on the average of $100k just to get one's foot in the door, I would say that $1500 (tops) to launch a business that will take care of you and your family for the rest of your lives, is a pretty good deal.

The beauty of this business is that the company does all the work for me; they do product research and development, advertising, marketing, and promotion, fulfillment, accounting, warehousing, customer support, etc... while I reap the benefits of all that work. LOL, that's what I call a good business arrangement and partnership! All I do is purchase my customers, and share the company's unique co-operative marketing model with everyone I know. I then make sure I support all those on my team as best I can. That's about it. It doesn't get any simpler than that!

It's been working so well for me, that I plan to slowly sell off my brick and mortar company (in fact, already started doing this), and take that money and invest it into my TriVita business instead. I'm tired of working 24/7 - life's too short! I want to start spending more time with family and friends and enjoying all the good things in life. And we all know that most of the online opps are iffy at best. Yes, even the ones we may consider our "top" ones. If you are not fully in control of your business, you are at the mercy of someone else's whim, mistakes, dishonesty, bad decisions, etc...

What impressed me about TriVita is that it's been around for over 10 years now, with not only an all-round stellar performance, but such tremendous growth that their offices and warehouses are more than doubling in size as we speak. This, plus the fact that they are backed by a 35 year old media giant, convinced me that I couldn't go wrong. The CEO is obviously a very astute businessman, as well as a wonderful humanitarian who believes in giving back to his community, and to those less fortunate in other parts of the world. I really liked that about this company. It wasn't just all about me, me, me, as I've seen with some other online businesses.

Ok, maybe more later...don't want to put anyone to sleep, LOL.

Nutrition is definitely what we all should be participating in, Tula what other products does TriVita have I only see the B-12 supplements. thanks

Michelle