
Last Wednesday night was the season finale of LOST. There are few TV shows that I watch, but I love this one. I blogged about it a while ago and one of the things that I mentioned I enjoyed is the depth of character development. Some people really hate the show, and I get it. [...]
May 19, 2009 | Categories:Leadership | Tags: Convention, Direct Selling, Lost, mlm, Redemption, Rich Razgaitis | Leave A Comment »

Here’s a great article about diversification…But not the traditional kind. It’s not like buying small, mid, and large cap stocks and seeing them all decline. Or Int’l and domestic funds and seeing them tank too. Or even diversifying into Real Estate and watching that crater. Side note: don’t sweat too much those who have [...]
May 18, 2009 | Categories:Business, Featured | Tags: Direct Selling, Direct Selling Association, Income, Opportunity, Recession, Retirement, USA Today | 8 Comments »

Going into the Univera Cruise a few weeks ago I was still working towards my physical goal for the year (and, technically, my target date is still end of June) but I’d moved into the mode of “well, I’ll try my best.” It was accompanied with a bit of a plan, like working out a [...]
May 12, 2009 | Categories:Leadership, Personal, Wellness | Tags: Direct Sales, Direct Selling, Direct Selling Association, ECONET, Executive Recruiting, Leadership, Raz, Relationship Marketing, Rich Razgaitis, Road Tour, Univera, Wellness | 3 Comments »

Today’s a really great day, and not just because of our birth mothers (though I’m particularly appreciative of my mom and my wife) but also because of all the other great literal or metaphorical mothers out across the world–there are some of you who have done as much as any other mother, but for kids [...]
May 10, 2009 | Categories:Personal | Tags: Direct Selling, mlm, Mother's Day, network marketing, Recruiting, Rich Raz blog, Rich Razgaitis, Univera | Leave A Comment »

…you missed it and you’re a Univera associates (or interested in making some extra money), here’s a replay. Normally, I reserve my blog for topics related to leadership, service, and wellness–mixed in with some personal stories. Yet so much of my life is Univera and the related activities spillover continually–and this is one [...]
May 09, 2009 | Categories:Business, Video | Tags: Convention, Direct Selling, ECONET, Executive Recruiting, financial help, incentives, Leadership, mlm, need money, Olympia, promotions, Regan Miles, Relationship Marketing, Rich Raz blog, RIch Razgaitis blog, Road Tour, Stephen Cherniske, Univera | Leave A Comment »

This afternoon I was talking with Rachel Wisby, who heads up our Creative Services team. We were discussing working out, getting in shape, losing weight, all that stuff. And she said to me, “how do you get over ‘Mpmphfhhph’?” “You know”, she continued in her British accent, “Mpmphfhfhph! That thing, it’s like, that moment [...]
May 07, 2009 | Categories:Wellness | Tags: Convention, Direct Selling, Getting in Shape, Getting Started, Healthy, Relationship Marketing, Rich Raz, Rich Razgaitis, Stuck in a Rut, Univera, Wellness, Working Out | 8 Comments »

“During my lifetime I have dedicated myself to the struggle of the African people. I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which [...]
May 05, 2009 | Categories:Business, Leadership | Tags: Associate Recruiting, Direct Selling, Executive Recruiting, Leadershi, mlm, Nelson Mandela, network marketing, perseverance, Relationship Marketing, Rich Razgaitis, Univera | 1 Comment »

Why do we love the “underdog” story? Susan Boyle. “Mine that Bird” (Derby this weekend). Slumdog Millionaire (brilliant fictional drama). To some degree, I think it’s because it represents more of “us.” Where we think we are, and what we hope to someday do or be. But the reality is that we’re less than an [...]
May 04, 2009 | Categories:Business, Leadership | Tags: Associate Recruiting, average person, Convention, Direct Selling, Direct Selling Association, Executive Recruiting, hard work, mlm, perseverance, Relationship Marketing, Rich Raz, Rich Razgaitis, Road Tour, success, underdog, Univera, Wall Street Journal | 1 Comment »

Thanks for tuning in this past week for excerpts based on my recent Servant Leadership article “Lessons Learned from Mother Teresa.” Funny as the way life goes, I had many great blogging ideas this week (seems to always be the case in the rare event that I’ve got a weeks worth of entries already considered). [...]
May 03, 2009 | Categories:Adventures, Personal, Servant Leadership | Tags: Direct Selling, Home of Sick and Dying, Kolkata, mlm, Mother Teresa, Orphanage, Raz, Rich Razgaitis, Servant Leadership, Serve First, Sisters of Charity, Univera, Volunteerism | 8 Comments »

The following post is part of my weeklong series “Lessons Learned from Mother Teresa” (read that post first). This excerpt is part three, the final component, of the Direct Selling News article from March. I’ll post the full article and link this weekend. “Do not wait for leaders; do it alone, person to person.” [...]
May 01, 2009 | Categories:Adventures, Personal, Servant Leadership | Tags: Convention, Direct Selling, Home of Sick and Dying, Kolkata, mlm, Mother Teresa, Orphanage, Raz, Relationship Marketing, Rich Razgaitis, Road Tour, Servant Leadership, Serve First, Sisters of Charity, Univera, Volunteerism | 3 Comments »

“One of the greatest diseases is to be nobody to anybody.” -Mother Teresa There’s a lifestyle component to our industry that sometimes we feel that we need in order to sell “the opportunity.” There’s nothing wrong with lifestyle; nice homes, comfortable cars, and exotic trips are all part of our industry at various times. There’s [...]
Apr 28, 2009 | Categories:Adventures, Personal, Servant Leadership | Tags: Convention, Direct Selling, mlm, Mother Teresa, Olympia, Orphanage, Raz, Relationship Marketing, Rich Razgaitis, Road Tour, Servant Leadership, Serve First, Sisters of Charity, Univera, Volunteerism | 2 Comments »

The following post is part of my weeklong series “Lessons Learned from Mother Teresa” (read that post first). This excerpt is part two of the Direct Selling News article from March. “If you judge people, you have no time to love them.” -Mother Teresa When you arrive in Kolkata, despair, more [...]
Apr 27, 2009 | Categories:Adventures, Personal, Servant Leadership | Tags: Convention, Direct Selling, Home of Sick and Dying, mlm, Mother Teresa, Olympia, Raz, Relationship Marketing, Rich Razgaitis, Road Tour, Servant Leadership, Serve First, Sisters of Charity, Univera, Volunteerism | 1 Comment »

Starting this weekend I’m going to do a multi-part series of posts over the next week on Servant Leadership, specifically as it relates to some of the lessons I learned from my trips to Kolkata, India. Originally, I was going to start the series today, but today, after our most recent Univera Celebration Cruise I’ve [...]
Apr 24, 2009 | Categories:Adventures, Business, Leadership, Univera Events | Tags: AgelessXtra, Bronze, Convention, Cruise, Direct Sales, Direct Selling, Direct Selling Association, ECONET, Executive Recruiting, Gold, mlm, network marketing, Olympia, Part Time Business, Plat, Recruiting, Reward Trip, Rich Raz, Rich Razgaitis, Silver, Univera, Xtra | 7 Comments »

I said I couldn’t do three reality show blog entries in a row, so I broke it up with the Road Tour highlights. So here it is, for my third (but not consecutive) and possibly final reality show blog entry here is Neal Boyd (thanks to Mary Lou Kaiser for this reco). And what I [...]
Apr 18, 2009 | Categories:Business, Video | Tags: America's Got Talent, Direct Sales, Direct Selling, Enthusiasm, mlm, Neal Boyd, Passion, Reality Shows, Rich Razgaitis, Univera | 1 Comment »

I know what you’re thinking… “Hey, Raz has yet another one of those Susan Boyle/Paul Potts videos for us.” Well, actually I do but not for today. Though as I’m on it, there’s another really great video with a super touching story about an American guy who has a special relationship with his mom and [...]
Apr 17, 2009 | Categories:Business, Road Tour, Univera Events, Video | Tags: Convention, Direct Selling, ECONET, FLC, Leadership, mlm, money, Olympia, part time income, Raz, Recruiting, Regan Miles, Relationship Marketing, renewal, Rich Ragaitis, Rich Raz, Road Tour, Stephen Cherniske, Univera | 6 Comments »

This is one of my first-ever predominantly video-blogs (vlogs), but it’ll tell the better story comprised of a few different clips from a great evening. Thanks to all the Phoenix leadership, including Barry and Connie Lucas, Kenny and Esmerelda Rossi, Ron Faunce, Dr. Jack Burns, and many many others who participated and helped. Thanks to [...]
Apr 08, 2009 | Categories:Business, Road Tour, Univera Events, Video | Tags: Aloecorp, Bill Lee, Convention, Depression, Direct Selling, ECONET, Executive Recruiting, executives, Exercise, FLC, Leadership, Olympia, Portland, Raz, Relationship Marketing, Rich Razgaitis, Road Tour, Seattle, Servant Leadership, Univera, Wall Street Journal | 4 Comments »

My creativity brain cells are, I believe, starting to diminish. But the excitement on the road for Univera isn’t! Sometimes when I write these entries about the Road Tour I feel like it might read as a bit of over-enthusiasm for these events, but really, if they weren’t good events I either wouldn’t write about [...]
Apr 04, 2009 | Categories:Road Tour, Univera Events | Tags: colorado, Direct Selling, ECONET, executives, FLC, Leadership, Nashville, Olympia, Portland, Raz, Relationship Marketing, Rich Razgaitis, richraz, Road Tour, Seattle, Stephen Cherniske, Tennessee making money, Univera, univera road tour, Wall Street Journal | 5 Comments »

About the Direct Selling industry is the ability to offer opportunity and development to those who might never experience the chance otherwise. Growing up in the Raz family wasn’t likely a totally normal experience; I think we were a family of restless overachievers yet at the same time each of us were and are, in [...]
Aug 05, 2008 | Categories:Leadership, Personal | Tags: Direct Selling, Wall Street Journal | 10 Comments »