Consider this powerful lesson from nature: Aspen trees are quite humble. Individually, they are outranked in most measures by other species of trees. Their wood is soft, and their roots often burrow as little as 30 centimeters below the soil. They have trunks 7-46 centimeters in diameter and grow 6-24 metres tall. An individual aspen tree will rarely live longer than 150 years – that’s nothing compared to the thousands of years a bristlecone pine can live. But collectively, aspens are like nothing else on planet Earth. Did you know that the aspen trees living in a grove together are all connected underground by one massive root system? Entire hillsides of aspens can be one connected plant – every tree in the grove shares the same DNA. In fact, the largest organism in the world is a grove of quaking aspen trees – named Pando – located in Utah. It has been spreading and growing and thriving since the last ice age! The roots you share at Melaleuca Melaleuca’s phenomenal growth comes from the hard work of thousands upon thousands of individuals just like you. Each story is unique. Collectively, we are amazing. Take a moment to explore a few experiences of fellow Marketing Executives whose lives are connected thanks to those individual dollars.
ill and James are very experienced in traditional businesses. As entrepreneurs, they’ve learned a lot about risk. “We’ve invested hundreds of thousands of dollars in other businesses that didn’t make it,” Jill shares. “We watched one of our companies burn to the ground one night. We lost everything and had to rebuild.” When the Vinecourts were introduced to Melaleuca, they saw something truly unique. “We looked at the business plan from a traditional business standpoint and thought, This is a no-brainer. There is little risk. There’s no financial investment,” Jill explains. “There’s risk in my other businesses. If I don’t do my job that day, maybe one of my employees won’t get a paycheck that week.” One of the qualities that Jill and James like about Melaleuca is there’s room for everyone. “We can only hire so many people in our traditional company,” Jill points out. “We share the Melaleuca business plan because there are people out there that we know cannot make it from paycheck to paycheck. There are so many people out there who haven’t been given opportunities like we have.” Living near the fourth-largest Amish community in the world, the Vinecourts have found an opportunity to build a unique Melaleuca team. Jill works closely with Senior Director 3 Ruth Ann Gingerich, an Amish community member and close friend. Together, the two travel to Amish communities in Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Tennessee, Wisconsin, and even Montana. To make it possible to visit very rural places where there are no hotels, Jill used her Melaleuca earnings to buy a little travel trailer that she pulls behind her pickup. “We go places where Melaleuca isn’t taught and teach it,” Jill shares. “How else do you get Melaleuca to an underserved community like that where there isn’t technology to reach them?” “It is so rewarding,” Jill shares. “I can’t tell you how good Ruth Ann and I feel when we leave an Overview. We are very honored and humbled.” Jill & James Vinecourt Senior Directors 4 • Ohio, USA J
A part of something incredible Consider the amount of work and reward that $6.5 billion represents. Each dollar of commissions earned corresponds to the focused effort of thousands of Marketing Executives. It represents the lives enhanced by customers who were each personally introduced to Melaleuca by someone like you. Consider the sum total of personal interactions, needs discussed, products shared, and problems solved that the number 6.5 billion only begins to reveal. Figures in billions of dollars have become commonplace in the news. The Walt Disney Company bought Marvel Entertainment and Lucasfilm for $4 billion each. An average Major League Baseball franchise costs $2.2 billion. Out of the world’s 195 countries, only 41 have a gross domestic product less than $6.5 billion. While we frequently hear about numbers measured in billions, we rarely stop to wrap our heads around how enormous a billion really is. You have a very personal relationship with Melaleuca and the person who introduced you to the company and its products. Your sense of the organisation may be limited to a few people, or, if you’re a busy business builder, it may involve hundreds of contacts. But either way, it can be difficult, as the saying goes, to see the forest for the trees. In celebrating this milestone, let’s help you zoom out to see the experience we all share from a different perspective. If you were counting the $6.5 billion and could continuously stack one $100 bill per second without sleep, it would take you 752 days to count every bill. That’s over two years! The stack of bills, by the way, would be 7,09 kilometers high. Or you could lay those $100 bills end to end in a continuous line from San Diego to Boston and back! How has Melaleuca grown from a company of eight people and eight products to something so massive? This growth has been accomplished entirely by the passion of thousands upon thousands of customers – the little guys – building something to rival the giants. Each contribution adds to the overall growth. The company has grown to this size one conversation at a time. Each new Customer starts as a relationship that is nurtured. Each new Customer had a need that somebody took
the time to identify and help solve. In business terms, this is called organic growth. The power of connections How did you get introduced to Melaleuca? Someone shared it with you. How did you discover your first favorite product? You shared your need and then found a solution. What does $6.5 billion in commissions paid actually measure? Millions of connections made between the little guys.
PANDO Means “I spread” in Latin {
• Covers 106 acres with over 47,000 connected trees • Weighs nearly 6 million kilograms • Age estimated to be 13,000–80,000 years old • Started as a seed the size of a pepper grain
8 JANUARY / FEBRUARY / MARCH | EU.MELALEUCA.COM
JANUARY / FEBRUARY / MARCH | EU.MELALEUCA.COM 9
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