From Nu Skin to the New Birth

At the beginning of 1990, I became dissatisfied with life. At 26 I had mounting debts from pursuing a music career and lost my enthusiasm working as a nightclub disc jockey. Around this time, a radio program I listened to called “Musical Starstreams” started running ads about a business opportunity. Forest (the show’s host) talked about a way one could earn a large income and have the time to enjoy it. Soon I received a video in the mail about a network marketing company called Nu Skin.

After watching the video, I was intrigued enough to call Forest and find out why he was involved with a company that manufactured personal care products. Forest explained he wanted to make enough money to buy radio stations and air new age music full-time. Since Nu Skin was experiencing exponential growth, I decided to take advantage of this “opportunity of a lifetime.” I sold all my recording equipment to have extra money for purchasing product and sales aids. My goal was to build a residual income, pay off all my debts, and then resume my music career.

One of the first things I learned in network marketing was how to prospect through my “circle of influence” list. I quickly realized a need to associate with people serious about progressing in life. Most of my friends then were musicians or barflies. None of them wanted to go into business with me. Some of them tried talking me out of doing Nu Skin. 

Consequently I had to search for prospects in the cold market. That was done with newspaper ads and leaving business cards in public places encouraging people to call my voice mail number to hear a recorded message. Those wanting more information about my business were sent the same video I had watched. The process of mailing out videos with prepaid return envelopes was very costly. It resulted in me signing up only two distributors.

So I tried inviting people to my home for interviews. This cut down on the postage expenses and filtered out individuals who were just curious. Half of the people that scheduled interviews didn’t show up. None of the others signed up with me as a Nu Skin distributor. Despite my lack of success in recruiting, I was getting outside my comfort zone and developing better people skills.

To help me maintain a positive attitude, I started attending motivational seminars and listening to self-help tapes. From which I kept hearing how important it is to have your priorities in order. To be a successful person in life, you must put your spiritual goals first, next your family, and then your business. Every time I heard the “spiritual” part, thoughts crossed my mind about going back to church. For a while I was reluctant to do so. The traditional Lutheran church I went to as a child gave me wrong perceptions of Christianity.

Nevertheless, one Nu Skin executive I grew to admire was a former pastor who used an interesting illustration. Jesus put twelve men on His frontline that resulted in Him capturing a large percentage of the world’s marketshare. It was another seed planted that eventually resulted in my salvation on March 19, 1991. For another year, I persisted with Nu Skin despite making very little money plus my sponsor switched to a different MLM company. 

Then in February 1992, I had a dream in which I was in Utah wanting to visit Nu Skin’s corporate headquarters. When I called directory assistance, I heard a recorded message that gave out the number but then said, “Please do not call this number!” When I decided to go ahead and call the number, a glass plate suddenly covered the telephone buttons. This prevented me from making the call. After waking up I prayed, “Lord, if you are telling me to get out of Nu Skin, then please give me a confirmation on this.”  

The next night at church, my pastor had a word of knowledge saying, “Someone here is involved in multilevel marketing...you need to get out of it and find a regular job.” For the next four years I worked at a variety of places until the Lord called me to full-time ministry.

I don’t regret my time in Nu Skin. The experience taught me things that later helped me be successful with evangelism (like isolating objections when people oppose the gospel). Since then I’ve been approached with several other MLM opportunities but remained focused on promoting the most important product available: eternal life.

“but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.” - Matthew 6:20

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Gospel Soul Winning Script

Image
During my early days with evangelism, I developed an approach called the Survey Technique . By asking short direct questions, you can maintain control of the conversation and find out quickly what a person’s spiritual beliefs are. Although the Survey Technique has helped me lead thousands to the Lord, I’m still open to utilizing new methods in reaching people with the gospel. Rodney Howard-Browne 's ministry uses a tool called the Gospel Soul-Winning Script , which originated during their Good News New York campaign in 1999. I became familiar with it a few years later during evangelism outreaches with Rodney’s church in Tampa, Florida. At first, I resisted using the script. I found it restrictive and thought sinners wouldn’t be receptive to me reading the whole thing to them. Then while taking part in a 2009 outreach with Rodney’s ministry in Washington, D.C., my team leader asked me to “stick with the script.” Wanting to maintain unity, I complied with his request. Initially it fe...
Read more

Toking the Ghost Revisited

Image
Back in February 2007, a fellow missionary I was traveling with started talking about “smoking the weed from heaven.”   He would pretend to have a joint of marijuana between his fingers and have “smoke breaks with Jesus.”   He also encouraged other believers to take “hits.”   I was a bit uncomfortable with this idea but didn't contest it. Then in October of that year, I heard John Crowder preach on “toking the Ghost” at a church in my hometown of Fargo, North Dakota.   I was inspired to make a video with John to share with my missionary friend.   During the filming, I experienced much laughter. I decided to make the video public figuring other people might enjoy it also. Two weeks later at a church in Minnesota, I heard Benjamin Dunn share testimonies of people getting healed from “toking the Ghost.”   This was just before he and John Crowder started ministering together.   I believed this was God confirming His word in the mouth of ...
Read more

A Tribute to Al Best

Image
October is Pastor Appreciation Month. This tribute is for one who went home to be with the Lord last Sunday. Al Best oversaw Light in Anoka Church in a northern suburb of Minneapolis. Originally from Florida, Al first gave his life to the Lord at 17 but then backslid. Meanwhile, he served 21 years in the Navy and worked various jobs. That included selling Rainbow vacuum cleaners. I would eventually get to know his sales manager. Eric Gonyon became an associate pastor at Rodney Howard-Browne ’s church (I usually attend services there when in Tampa).  A few years after recommitting his life to the Lord, Al became a pastor. In 2007, the Lord directed him to head north to Minnesota, where his wife Jean is from. First, they ministered in the small town of Dassel. What started as a youth mission transitioned into regular services for all ages. Then in 2016, Al and Jean moved to Anoka to take on a church originally called New Day Fellowship. To counter the city’s motto as the “Hallowee...
Read more