You could not ask for a better place to spend this past October weekend than at the Alderbrook Resort in Union, Wash., reveling in the great achievements of our newest Gold and Platinum Associates this past year.

Between enjoying the crisp, cool fall air, the turning colors of the trees, and the magnificent view of the Olympics reflected in the clear waters of Hood Canal, can you believe we got a lot of work done as well?

I always say that big decisions are made at big events like this one. And between meetings with the Field Leadership Council and members of the Montreal leadership, I’m so excited for what’s to come in this last quarter of 2009, looking ahead to 2010! There were also great training workshops with everyone in attendance and even greater stories shared. I loved the heartfelt community-building and the recognition of so many deserving folks who worked so hard all year!

It was a sold-out event with probably about 80 different Associate accounts represented, and I’m thinking we actually had the entire resort here locked up for the weekend. I’m so grateful for everyone who made this such a memorable event.

If you were on our waiting list and didn’t get to attend, I’m really sorry you missed this great weekend, but never fear! Our next big event happens later this month at the Portland, Ore. Super Regional beginning October 23!

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 just seems like the sweetest man. But that’s for another posting, I can’t do three of those blog entries in a row.

So today? One last look…at the Road Tour. Thanks to everybody that made this such a success.

And a few “behind the scenes” looks at the Road Tour.

Sometimes there are certain moments that words don’t describe well.

Which is why I won’t try to share much about today’s posting and I’ll let this seven minute video taken from “Britain’s Got Talent” give you chills from seeing someone’s dream realized. I wish I could embed the video itself, but that feature has been disabled by YouTube for this particular video–so you’ll have to go to the link at the bottom of this posting.

When watching this, some of you will get chills.

Some will laugh, or smile.

And others will cry.

All of you will be moved.

The experience of watching this is among the most powerful I’ve felt in months. Look at the change in the audience, from the beginning, where they were laughing and mocking this lovely woman who simply has a dream–to being an audience that’s simply…inspired.

So many lessons in this seven minutes. About perceptions. Judgment. Perseverance. Potential. And dreams.

I’ve watched her performance four times in a row, and I can’t stop the overpowering sense of emotions and insight I get from watching what is probably seven of the most magical moments on television that have happened in a long while.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. Here’s the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lp0IWv8QZY&NR=1

And, by the way, if you’re up for a little extra sentiment and contemplation, read the lyrics to the song she sang from Les Miserable “I Dreamed a Dream” below.

There was a time when men were kind
When their voices were soft
And their words inviting
There was a time when love was blind
And the world was a song
And the song was exciting
There was a time
Then it all went wrong

I dreamed a dream in time gone by
When hope was high
And life worth living
I dreamed that love would never die
I dreamed that God would be forgiving
Then I was young and unafraid
And dreams were made and used and wasted
There was no ransom to be paid
No song unsung, no wine untasted

But the tigers come at night
With their voices soft as thunder
As they tear your hope apart
And they turn your dream to shame

He slept a summer by my side
He filled my days with endless wonder
He took my childhood in his stride
But he was gone when autumn came

And still I dream he’ll come to me
That we will live the years together
But there are dreams that cannot be
And there are storms we cannot weather

I had a dream my life would be
So different from this hell I’m living
So different now from what it seemed
Now life has killed the dream I dreamed.

What happens when you pull together 500 people who…

Have high energy? 

Great leadership? 

Are excited about a new paradigm to feeling great? 

And ready to take hold of their own financial future? 

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUV-QV_jp0w

Well, when you combine all of those things in the dynamic city of Reno, and a huge portion of those 500 are guests leaning forward in their seats during the presentations, you’ve got an event that absolutely rocked this past Tuesday night. 

I can’t say enough great things about the event.

And, with our Road Tour every city was really good–many were great and even exceptional. But, Reno was off the charts. Just totally off the charts. Of course Stephen and Regan were fantastic, but so were all of the hosts and participants and people and guests and…

So much of the success of an event is decided before anyone first sets foot in the door. And, what I mean by that is it’s often pre-determined by the leaders in the room and their spirit and excitement coming into the activity that helps drive to a successful event.

That, coupled with bringing lots of qualified people to hear some great news. 

This past week, that’s exactly what happened as we wrapped up the Road Tour in Reno–there’s no hyperbole there when I saw it’s the best event we’ve had in a long time. It was absolutely electric by the end of the night.

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0G5U84Iq0M

And hangin’ with the Reno leaders was a hoot as well. 

Stay tuned for a Road Tour highlights video, for now enjoy this stuff from the Rockin’ Reno team. 

I don’t have any good stories from the event–only great ones, and the leadership there is fantastic. There is no way I can give credit to all the names of people who made such an impact. 

Congrats, team, on such a great event. And, thanks for making the final stop among the best events we’ve ever held.

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 all the first-timers who showed up to check out Univera, the products and the business.

In short, this was my favorite trip to Phoenix so far–I loved the time at the event, meeting all the new people (probably 70% guests), and the great socialization with the leaders post event at Los Alevios! So, enough writing–onto the VLOG…

Growing up we did the annual trip our West, generally Colorado. We’d start in Columbus, Ohio, and  24-hours later we’d arrive into the Denver area. Lots of memories evolve from those trips, including a few funny prospective blog stories, but one of the things I remember most about the journey was the dialogue and the music. I’d spend a lot of time talking to my dad on the way, and we always had this set structure of music that included Karen Carpenter, Paul Williams (such a fantastic songwriter), and, of course, John Denver. So this song will be forever my placeholder for “here.” 

Once you get to this great state you start to understand the “Rocky Mountain High” that Denver wrote about years ago. I always love coming here, flying into what’s almost always sunshine and fresh air. This weekend we had lots of fresh air, and a bit of sunshine (ironically, literally as I write, it’s 70 and sunny back in Oly and 26 and overcast and snowing here in Denver–ha!). 

From Austin, despite what many forecasters were predicting as a wild weekend, the flight was on time and bump-free and Stephen made it on time to his Doc’s event, which I know was sprinkled with good humor as well as some Cheesesteak stories–remember, Stephen, I get to speak last at all of these events.  

During the event, on Saturday afternoon, it was really well run. Eddy Wittry was the guy behind the scenes facilitating everything, and he did a great job, but so many other leaders were involved in the event and particularly presentation, including Anjila Stimack, Dave Walther, Chris Pilgrim, Harris Williams, and John Rogers among others.

And lots of help from many people, including Judy Gillum, Gerry and Michelle Bergeson (great set up guys), and I could go on and on and on with all the people that contributed–thanks to everybody.

There’s lots of great video footage from this trip as well as Austin (post-Tour we’ll do a highlights video) but the following clip is among my most favorite.

Remember Regan, this was just one guy’s opinion. I’m sure the next person you asked would have said…me.  

After a great event, we took the local leaders out to dinner (Dr. Greene and Judy, enjoyed our time together at dinner) and had a great time–thanks, guys, for the gift of some local Colorado wine that looks great. 

Then, the finale…Boogie Machine at Cool Rivers. This is Jerry and Michelle’s band. www.boogiemachine.com

These guys really rocked the house, we met a bunch of other associates out at the event and danced the night away listening to 70′s music. The evening was among the most fun we’ve had on the Road Tour, and both the people as well as the music were responsible for that. 

Which is a great plug for Convention ’09. These same people, and MANY MANY more will be at our event June 26-29, and this SAME BAND will be opening for us on Thursday night–the start of our 10-year celebration. So in addition to great speakers (Bill Lee, Paul Zane Pilzer, Suzanne Peterson, Neil Offen, and others), training and business growth (average Gold who attended Conventions in the past earned DOUBLE the commissions that following year of those at the same rank who did not go), this event promises to be a lot of fun.

Perhaps, even more than the Denver group was this weekend. 

This entry started as what would be a combination of two events, Austin and Denver. Thus the name, Austenver. Then, I started looking at all the great pictures and people from Austin, and I just couldn’t bring myself to pull the two events together. 

As I type we’re en route to Denver, placing bets of whether we’ll land or not. Already, the Frontier flight first thing this AM was cancelled to Denver, and many United flights leaving Denver were cancelled, yet as I write we’re flying in gorgeously sunny skies—hopefully beating this last winter storm that’s apparently on its way (side note: when I landed this was published, so obviously we have made it to Denver and we will see you this afternoon). 

So the three of us are doing our thing in flight, Stephen pounding away on his keyboard (though not quite as loudly as me), Regan sits ahead of us CEO style in first class (bumped, not a purchased ticket) watching 30 Rock, and I’m bloggin’ away.

Arriving into Austin was welcome warmth, spectacular sun and temperature. It’s the best weather so far. And, while weather is really an exceptionally boring and mindless topic, when you live in 40-50 degrees and rainy for much of the year (though I actually love it) the topic of sunny skies and arid warmth becomes just a tad more interesting.

Austin is such a hoppin’ city, and for a Friday night our turnout was fantastic—probably close to 200. Significantly more people than we had last time in Austin, and the energy and excitement was a lot better as well. Not that last time our Austin trip wasn’t great, it was good. But this was really exceptional with the quality of people and just the…Energy.

I’d rather have energy, excitement, and conviction any day of the week over someone with just talent and talk that lacks passion. In Austin we had people that are both talented and excited. The best of both. 

When I reference specific people that I meet on the Road Tour I always hesitate a bit, because there’s always more people that I can’t blog about that I met who are equally interesting. But I try to tie in one story or experience.

At this event I met a guy with a great story, his name is Mario (his brother Tommy attended the event as well), and is signed up under Colleen who was also attending. Mario’s story is a great one, he grew up in the Lyford, Texas area. Which, many of you know, is home to Hilltop Gardens—the Historical Home of Aloe. There’s more to this great story, it’s just evolving and someday I’ll write more about it, but the short of it that Mario has gone on to become exceptionally successful, and as I understand it is an inventor (even featured in magazines like Popular Mechanics) and has also done some feature work in TV. The amazing thing is not that he’s totally bought into Univera—the products and the business. It’s that he has a stronger tie to Hilltop Gardens than most anybody I know.

See, when Mario was growing up, his parents worked in agriculture and in the fields. And, some of the work they did was planting and harvesting aloe.

But the magic is, they didn’t just work any farms. One of the farms his parents worked in the fields was the Hilltop Gardens farm itself, before Bill had actually purchased it (owned by a different family, with a different name—but the oldest aloe vera farm in the U.S.).

So the evolution of this story is an amazing one, and among many other stories of success that will grow over the years this will also be another interesting one. 

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 them or I’d pick some obscure topic to focus on semi-related to the event. 

So Nashville was lots ‘o energy. And I am trying to stay away talking about any of the Corporate presentations, because it’s really not the point of the Road Tour and it’s boring to read about in a blog–instead, the point is to try to get this message and the opportunity–product, business, or both–in front of people who need it the most. 

However, Stephen was fantastic at this event. It was probably the best that I have heard him, he pulled out all stops. 

Energy in the room was fantastic, we had people there from Indianapolis, Knoxville, Georgia–even someone from California was there. And about 70% were first time attendees, another really amazing percentage. 

We spent a lot of time socializing and getting to know those in the area. It really was an exceptional event, we will be back.

Chi-town rocked tonight.

It was a good sized group, about 150, but there were a lot of guests there. At least half. Probably more. 

And, Stephen? On fire. On message. Nailed the products. Was dead on time, exactly 20 minutes. Hilarious. With not one diversion. 

Yep, today we (re) introduced Stephen DVD. And while not quite as good as the “live” version, it still served as a really strong tool to support the meeting. 

You can see some of the highlights from people who participated in the video below.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_1xnELDIT8

Tim Kaufman hosted; sincerely, it was probably the best job of hosting a meeting I have ever seen. He set it up really clearly, was charming yet convicting, serious yet easygoing. He’s a natural talent, and connects exceptionally well with people. 

Also, Diamonds Mark and Patty Middleton, David and Becky Ylinen, and Tony Fightmaster were also attending–along with leaders and associates from the Greater (and much greater, incl. Indiana/Mich/etc.) Chicago area. 

And we kept the meeting to under 90-minutes, which I think is really helpful to maintaining energy in the room–and enabling all the guests to ask question and talk afterwards. In fact, Regan and I spent an hour after the meeting just mingling with people–and when we left there were still at least 30 people hanging out talking about the business, showing people how to get started and work the business or start on the products. 

It’s known as…building momentum!  

We always leave Chicago feeling like it was one of our favorite (didn’t say THE favorite, just one of!) events–and we always leave knowing that we’ll be back sometime soon.

Univera/Matol Ribbon Cutting Ceremony

We arrived in Montreal on Wednesday night, with a bit of a prolonged adventure what with our RGL and NGL experience which I already addressed in another blog post.

Thursday was a day of meetings regarding the Univera/Matol integration, with lots of leadership from Bijan and Jonathan. I can’t mention all the names of the great Univera Matol people, but each are very talented and make an incredible addition to our team.

Friday was the big celebration, the official ribbon cutting ceremony for the acquisition of a new partner. It’s a great addition to our Company strategically and structurally, we have gained some great teammates, much excitement, as well as resources that will help us along our path to success.

There were dignitaries at the event, as well as ECONET and Univera Exec’s, along with Bill Lee himself who gave a humorous yet heartfelt ceremonial speech tying in a cute story about arranged marriages and how he, within one day, felt completely comfortable with this arrangement given the quality of the people, the resources, and the products.

Over 150 people were in attendance at this event, many of whom were Univera associates. And, as good as the party and celebration was, a certain section became all the more lively as a few of the Exec’s took over the duty of serving drinks and tending bar.

The highlight for me? The people.

The people in Matol, now Univera, who are dedicated and committed toexcellence and supporting our plans while also helping to significantly grow the business. The Matol field leaders, who have, in their words, waited years for an opportunity like this–and they feel strongly at home. And the Univera corporate and field team, many of whom were able to participate (Dave Nash, though, was unable to attend due to a birth of their son!!! Congrats Dave, we missed you!) over the days festivities.

And if all that weren’t enough, the Univera/Matol office has a really cool Flavia coffeemaker where you can get as many single shots as you want.

Today was a “Super Saturday” field event led by MANY of our AMAZING Canadian leaders–whose names I can’t all write down but special thanks to Andre, Anne, Louis, Sylvie, Gille, and so many many others for making this a great success. I know there are people I’m not listing, please know we appreciate everything you did and do to make these events so fantastic.

Over 300 people at this event, an INCREDIBLE turnout particularly considering that two days before there were about 500 people that went to a Halifax event (therefore most of those didn’t travel to Montreal). Special speakers included Bill Lee, our owner, Stuart Ochiltree CEO of ECONET, and Robert Bolduc CEO of Matol, and Univera exec’s and field leaders.

Most important were the many Univera associates leading and participating in the event, and I believe for well over HALF the audience this was their very first Univera event. And a good 100 people raised their hands and were already committed to going to our June Convention this year.

A really great day. Energy. Excitement. Business success. Product testimonials. Purpose. Heart. A real blast, for all of us.

Thanks, Montreal, for such a great stay–we hope to come back again soon.

And as I blog this I am riding in the car en route to Portland, Maine.

Stephen’s driving, while wholly testing the limits of this little Pontiac while other passengers in this care are testing the use of the word “wholly” in another spelling and context. But, we are nearing our destination and apart from all the “watch out for bears and moose” signs that are giving a bit of angina I think we will arrive in tact.

Albeit two hours later than we should have. There is much dispute around exactly WHY we took a route that was two hours longer. Some believe it is because of faulty GPS, others believe it due to malfunctioning teamwork, and yet others think it’s because of bad direction. It seems it’s impossible to get true clarity on this, but for now we’ve agreed to sleep on it and readdress in the morning.

This ride is actually quite restful. And Regan is particularly quiet, there’s no heckling or jokestering from the back seat, I expect because he is wearing headphones and using his iPhone–perhaps to watch another South Park. Had I known this was such a solitude inducer for our journeys I would have personally purchased a set of headphones for him over a year ago.

As Regan watches South Park, Stephen’s doing these really loud nasal breathing exercises (I am afraid he is going to hyperventilate on this so an intercession might be necessary–please support me on this), and I’m pounding away on the keyboard at about an 80 decibel on my second battery which is almost kaput, stopping every few minutes to share a new thing I’ve learned on the news wires (by the way, did you know that drinking very hot tea increases your risk of throat cancer? Let it cool a bit first).

We each have our quirks. Stephen and Regan, more than most. Truly, we’ve had a great time together.

So it’s officially day one, and we’re off to Portland to meet some of the Univera leaders for a great dinner at J’s Oyster House downtown, followed by the Portland event tomorrow afternoon.