Graham & Jane
Oakes
Hi, my name is Graham Oakes, with my wife Jane we have
been running our own business for just over 16 months. It all
started with Jane wanting to become involved with cosmetics,
she has always been interested in lip sticks, eye shadows and
general face painting. The opportunity arose when her brother
and sister in law told us about Herbalife and the fantastic
products they produce. The range had everything Jane was
looking for. Notice I said JANE was interested in.
I
was dragged along to see Richard and Tanith to see how we
could start our own business in this wonderful area of Health
nutrition and face painting. We sat for a while discussing
various bits and pieces and at the end of it all Jane was
interested enough to ‘go for it’. My words to her were “OK if
that’s what you want to do then I will support you and help
out in the back ground, but I am not interested in doing
anything with customers or using the products”. Thinking to
myself, this is just another one of those fads that with any
luck won’t last too long.
So, Jane got started, she went to her first ROM, then I
was dragged to the level 1 meeting. What a bunch of loonies I
found there. I kept quiet and did as I said I would, support
where needed. Then I noticed that, as Jane was on the
products, she seemed to be more active and looking more
vibrant. Jane used to sit though films in the evening and
before half way she would be fast asleep. Now she stays awake
all through them. I was beginning to notice a
difference!
Jane lost some weight and she was looking great. I
started to look at myself and thought I could do with getting
rid of the old beer gut, so I decided I would give the
products a go, just so I could lose a few pounds, no other
motive. I started losing weight and inches, I felt happier,
more awake, less stressed, and generally more comfortable with
my health and weight. Then we went to another level 1 meeting,
I started listening a bit more this time, those loonies seemed
to be making some sense. Then the announcement of the Cologne
extravaganza, great we get to go abroad this could be good, I
thought.
We qualified as we came in to the business at
supervisor level, so we decided to go. I was getting a
fantastic result from the products and I had always been
interested in running my own business but never found the
right one. I had looked at franchises, I had looked at running
a business from the internet, but I hadn’t got the right feed
back from these ventures to pursue them any further. I started
thinking about Herbalife and what it was all about, the
products, the history, the support, the fact you are helping
other people, you make money from it and you make friends, not
only in the business but from your customers as
well.
THEN COLOGNE - I actually said to Jane, I think it was
on the way back, I said ‘I have seen the light’. I think I
frightened her because she said later that she thought I had
gone religious on her. It really was a revelation, we saw the
Herbalife medical experts, so I knew the products were good
and they worked, I proved that, and we were getting new
products as well and the research and investment was still
going on. Then we saw Paul Zane Pilzer the independent
financial analyst who told us where the wellness industry was
going and that we were in the right place at the right time.
Then Jim Rohn who told us about how we are able to progress
our businesses and that we are the people to bring health and
nutrition to the world. Another bonus was meeting all the
others and their enthusiasm for the Products, the future, the
business and their friendship. It really was a revelation for
me. When I look back I can see that all the things that I
wanted from a business were staring me in the face all the
time, I just didn’t realise it.
What I wanted was to help people, to have a good
standard of living, to have true friends, to have a happy
life, to travel the world and above all to be healthy. All
this equals Herbalife. By the way I have learned that those
loonies were in fact just very enthusiastic, ordinary people
who had already ‘seen the light’.
