Hello From Thailand!

Hello Friends,


It seems many times I write I am in Thailand. Once again I am visiting this amazing country! The growth of our business, and the people, here is amazing to me each time I visit. Even more exciting for me is the growth I am seeing in Unicity in each of our markets. People are joining our company in record-breaking numbers month after month. We are experiencing double-digit sales growth as a company and in individual countries. If you haven't listened to my update and leadership tips on the November Global Leadership Call yet, click on the link to the right and take a few minutes to listen now.


Many new Unicity partners are achieving their dreams. Why not you? One of the best things about our business is that you can begin a new sprint any time you choose. Why not begin now - today!

I look forward to seeing you in Bangkok February 4-6, 2010 at the Unicity Global Convention.


All the best,

Stewart

Great Advice!

Greetings everyone,

I just listened to a podcast from one of our top leaders, Double Diamond and Chairman's Club Member Dr. Sven Goebel. I was so impressed with the wisdom Sven shares in this English language podcast that I wanted all of you to hear it. (Depending on your connection it may take a few seconds to load) Click here: PeopleBuilders

All the best,
Stewart

Long time, no write!

What a whirlwind we have been riding these past couple of months. When I made my last posting to the blog we had just finished another record month in May. Inside the company we were working "Mach 2 with our hair on fire" trying to get Bios Life E ready for launch at the Deer Valley Leadership Summit in July. It was a horse race right down to the day but we made it and oh what a success the launch was.

Bios Life E has already exceeded our most hopeful expectations. We have had to produce four times our original supply just to keep up with the demand. Additionally, we keep getting more and more medical research proclaiming the benefits of key elements in Bios Life E such as the potent catechin (EGC), Choline and L-Theanine. Even our Chief Science Officer, Dr. Tom Cutler, is being surprised by the depth and breadth of the almost daily new discoveries and recently wrote "Is there anything this drink can't do?" One thing we all know here at Unicity corporate: Bios Life E is truly Smart Energy. We hope you are getting even smarter by using it regularly.

All the best,
Stewart

Measure and Report

Greetings,

I leave for Asia today and wanted to post a few thoughts before getting on the plane.

First of all let me offer a hearty congratulation to all of you for building a great May. The company continued its strong growth pattern in almost every market. Most of our markets were up double digits for the month as was the company overall.

One of things I was always aware of as a Franchise Owner was my own organization’s market share. In other words I would try to measure how my business was doing contrasted to the overall company. Eventually this became irrelevant as my business became 99% of the company’s business. However, in the early days this was not the case.

Being focused on where you are and where you want to be can make the difference between major success and just getting by. One of my favorite quotes is from Thomas S. Monson and goes like this:

When you deal in generalities you will never succeed,
When you deal in specifics you will rarely have a failure.
When performance is measured performance improves, and,
When performance is measured and reported back the rate of improvement accelerates.

This piece of wisdom has been a great benefit to me. When I find myself slowing down in my productive actions I can almost always find the reason why in this little quote. I get back to dealing in specifics and back to measuring my performance and my productivity comes back pretty quick.

ALL the best,

Stewart

Four Stages

Hello friends,

The other day I was reminded about a talk I heard years ago given by a leader in our industry. He spoke about the Four Stages of life. He said that at any given point in time everyone is always in one of these stages.

The stages are:

1-Building
2-Managing
3-Excusing
4-Blaming

Interestingly enough each stage easily leads into the the next stage unless disciplined action is taken. Only the first stage produces happiness and productivity. When we are "Building" we are in a state of advancement and that brings us the good things of life but more importantly it brings us deep personal satisfaction. During the "Building" stage we may be working like crazy and under all kinds of pressure but we don't find it unpleasant or unhealthy. In fact most people say that when they look back on their life it is the memories of those seasons when they were "Building" that bring them the most happiness.

The other three stages are a slippery slope leading to misery and disaster. When we slide from "Building" to "Managing" we are choosing to leave the role of leader and builder and become the person who says "Do what I say, not what I do." When we are honest with ourselves we know that example is more important than words and we go back to "Building" and set the proper example for others to follow.

If we don't break out of the slide and get back to "Building" we soon move from "Managing " to "Excusing". This is a miserable place. The person who is in this stage has an excuse for everything that goes wrong in his or her life. People in the "Excusing" stage are really unproductive because they spend so much of their time coming up with reasons why they are unproductive.

When a person is in the "Excusing" stage it is very hard to avoid the slide to the "Blaming" stage. That move is actually pretty short. It doesn't take much time to move from coming up with excuses for your failure to actually putting a name with the excuse or even as the excuse. When a person reaches the "Blaming" stage he or she is really at rock bottom. They have given up all personal accountability for their situation. As a result of choosing to blame others they no longer have confidence in their own ability to make things happen--it is always someone else's fault.

The good news is that any and all of us can decide in a split second to leave the "Managing", "Excusing" or even the "Blaming" stage and get back to "Building". We all have the ability to take response-ability for what happens to us and be a "Builder". At Unicity this choice carries huge implications because we are in the leadership business. What we do is what others will do. If we are "Managing" or "Excusing" or "Blaming" we will have many people in our organizations doing the exact same thing. But if we get back to "Building", and stay there, we will find the people in our organizations building too and that is what we call leverage.

People have asked me if it is possible to always stay in the "Building" stage and the answer is YES!!! In fact it is essential that you stay there, at least if you want to be happy and successful. So keep "Building", build new skills, build new habits and most of all build new leaders. You will feel great as you do!

All the best,
Stewart

The Time is Now!

Greetings everyone,

It has been a while since my last entry--no excuses just working hard and having fun.

As the world continues to muddle along in this recession Unicity continues to grow. We are seeing month over month growth in sales and new franchise owners. Slim is one big reason for that growth. Another is our incredible compensation plan! I hear amazing stories every month as brand new people join us and make more money in their first month or two than they did in the previous six months. One woman told me that she made more in her first month with Unicity than she did in her last 12 months in her old business.

Are you taking advantage of this truly great moment in time?
Have you made your goals?
Have you resolved to make the changes necessary to build a stronger and better life?
Are you investing in yourself?

I ask these questions because I know what it takes to break out of the cycle of mediocrity—you CAN’T do it by degrees—you have to bust loose much like a car gets free from being stuck in the mud. So bust loose! Make it your determination to be somebody special—to do great things and to no longer live an ordinary life. The power is in you!

Take a look at this new video the marketing department just produced—I love it. Better Way Video

All the best,
Stewart

PS—here is the book of the month:
The Oz Principle
Getting Results through Individual and Organizational Accountability
by Roger Connors, Tom Smith, and Craig Hickman

Greetings everyone,

I thought you might like to see a few pictures from the recent Japan National Convention.

This picture is of the Ikari family. They were elected MVP for 2008 by the other leaders in Japan. This couple is an outstanding example of leadership. There is a great feeling of team spirit in their organization which they support about as perfectly as it can be done. That is probably why they were selected by their peers to win the MVP award.

Here is a picture of all the new Presidential Sapphires. Congratulations to them!

This is a picture of Asada-san receiving his special scuba diving vacation. Just one of the rewards for earning the Presidential Ruby rank.

Here is Kimura-san receiving his special deep sea fishing vacation for earning the rank of Presidential Ruby.

Both Kimura-san and Asada-san also received a beautiful Clerc watch! There were only 12 of these watches in Japan before last Saturday. Asada-san and Kimura-san got numbers 13 and 14!




Here is Kimura-san sharing his feelings after receiving his rewards.

Here is Asada-san sharing his feelings.

The guest speaker, an Olympic Gold Medal winner, gave a very powerful talk about using your challenges, and even your short term failures, to become stronger and to succeed long term.

This was a wonderful event and just the beginning of great things in Japan!

All the best,

Stewart

Japan Convention

Greetings everyone,

We have just concluded the Japan National Convention. The theme was "Make The Future". It was a great event with about 2,000 people attending. We recognized two new Rubys, three new Sapphires and 4 new Presidential Executives.

The keynote speaker was the Gold medal winner in Olympics for Judo. He taught life is always about choice. A person can use failure to make him stronger and prepared for greater success or to justify quitting the pursuit of his dream. We choose what will be!

He then shared some very powerful experiences from his own life supporting the principles he had taught. I found his presentation absolutely great!

The Japan Management Team had also invited Dr. Neal Secrist, a Presidential Diamond from the US, to attend and present at the Convention. He did a great job teaching about the power of Slim to help people avoid many health problems, in addition to burning fat. Neal also briefly talked about why a doctor would want to build a Unicity business. Dr. Secrist was joined on this trip by his wife Kim and I understand they were both treated very well by their new friends in Japan!

It is great to be around people who are focused on being positive--I love this business.

All the best,
Stewart

Honor for Unicity!

Greetings everyone,

With the travel schedule I have had since the first of the year visiting our leaders around the globe, I almost can't believe it; I haven’t been in a hotel for two weeks! I am fully adjusted to the Mountain Time Zone. I don’t have an airline reservation for another 4 weeks. I think I may have stepped in to someone else’s life—but I like it. Hopefully you are doing and feeling as well as I am.

There are always minor glitches that happen in our lives. For instance my computer just crashed and I have lost all my future appointments and reminders. I started to feel a little irritated and then I remembered that I have been using a computer for 20 years and this is the first time I’ve had one crash—that’s not too bad. If I can go another 20 years until it happens again I will feel pretty blessed in the computer department.

Sometimes you get some pretty cool surprises too. This past week I got a letter from the Governor of the State of Utah congratulating Unicity for being selected as one of the Top 500 privately held companies in America. I was pleased to find that we had been selected as #87 out of the top 500 in the USA and #1 out of the top 100 in the State of Utah. We will be sharing more about this recognition in the coming week but I thought you might like to see the letter from Governor Jon Huntsman. Click on this link to read the letter. TOP 500 LETTER

Another fun thing that happened this past week was getting to listen to an audio presentation I had done 14 years ago when I was working as franchise owner. My good friend Paul Kero sent me this MP3 file he had found of me making a conference call presentation to potential new partners. I wasn’t too sure I wanted to listen to myself from 14 years ago but my curiosity finally overwhelmed my fear of feeling ridiculous. I quickly found myself transported back to 1994—some great memories. After listening I decided I was ready to sign up all over again. So if you ever wanted to know how I built my business “back in the day” go ahead and click on this link. It will take about nine minutes to hear it all. 1994 Conference Call

I am currently re-reading Napoleon Hill’s classic book “Think and Grow Rich” – for about the 50th time. It is as inspiring to me as it always is — I fully recommend it to you. The first three chapters hold the key to getting your business off the ground. The rest of the book will tell you how to achieve dreams that you didn’t believe were remotely possible for you. I have been reading this book since I was 21 years old. The title sometimes puts people off but don’t let it bother you. The book is not really about money it is about learning how to turn dreams into reality. If you haven’t read it already - or if you haven’t read it in the last 12 months - you should do so immediately.

Great things are happening in Unicity right now. Make sure you are getting your share of the growth.

All the best,
Stewart

Dear friends,

This past weekend Todd Smith hosted a Diamond Leadership Summit for our top North American leaders. 100 leaders from all over the continent gathered in Todd's hometown of Sarasota, Florida to learn the principles that will propel them to Diamond status. The speakers included all the current NA Diamonds along with one of our Double Diamonds from Europe. The presentations were excellent and jam-packed with practical information that had me taking notes along with everyone else.

We welcomed a brand new Diamond to the club as Jan Bloom showed that she has the right stuff. There were two great nights of entertainment and fellowship. We had a sunset cruise in the Gulf and an evening in Todd's clubhouse on the beach. This was an event that helped everyone in attendance to catch the vision of the Unicity opportunity. I have been taking calls since I came home from leaders that have decided to take their business to a new level as a result of the vision they got in Sarasota.

Watch for information on the next Leadership Summit in Deer Valley, Utah. I hope you join me there. All the best,
Stewart

What a week!

Hello everyone,

I returned home Sunday from Japan where we enjoyed two super events. The first event was on Friday where the President's Club leaders all came together in Tokyo for strategy discussions and advanced leadership training. The meetings were fantastic with an incredible spirit of unity and optimism. We then enjoyed an amazing formal dinner and great conversation. My appreciation for the skill and intelligence of the leaders in Japan just keeps growing.

On Saturday we took the winners of the bi-monthly recruiting contest to the base of Mt. Fuji for a traditional Japanese BBQ. After lunch we went to a curling center. For those who aren't from the upper Midwest USA or from Canada, curling is the sport where you slide a heavy granite rock on a 40 meter ice court trying to put it right in a certain area and not get knocked away by the opposing team. You may have seen this on the Winter Olympics. Let me tell you that this sport is a lot harder than it looks and incredibly more strategic than I had ever imagined. We all learned much about team building and strategy and even had a few moments when the "Stone" actually got in the "House."

I spent the day in the Utah office on Monday and then went to the airport at 4:30 AM Tuesday to catch my flight to Cancun, Mexico. It was snowing and 28 degrees Fahrenheit when I left Utah and about 80 degrees F when I got off the plane in Cancun--that was nice! The European leaders are enjoying their rewards trip here this week in a beautiful resort right on the water. In fact as I type this I am looking out on the turquoise waters of the Caribbean. I wish you were here--what I really wish is that I could stay a little longer. Tomorrow I go back to the office in snowy Utah but the good news is that 25 of our top leaders from Korea will be there visiting the corporate office as part of their reward trip. They are enjoying some fun in Las Vegas and then will come up to Utah for a tour of the offices and dinner at my home on Thursday. It will be good to see them--they produced a great year in 2008.

Like I said it has been quite a week. I should be exhausted, but fatigue gets swallowed up in the excitement and growth we are seeing around the world. Even more satisfying is the growth we are seeing in the leaders of our company in all of the markets where we compete. Let's make this another record year for Unicity, but especially a record year for you!

All the best,
Stewart

Greetings from Japan

Hello everyone,

I am back in Japan. Just got here yesterday for a special President's Club training and dinner. Japan is certainly on a roll right now having just posted another great month in January. This is especially impressive because in Japan the first week of the new year all businesses are closed. So they got it done in a three week month. I am proud of the work that is being done here by the leaders and the management team. They are really working together and the harmony is producing great synergy.

Whenever I come to Japan I have the added benefit of being able to drink our own special water. Yes, we sell a very cool bottled water here in Japan. I started noticing some time ago that when I would be here for about five days or longer (always drinking our own water each day) I would begin to feel really good. I had more strength and stamina, the jet lag wasn't so bad and the travel home was much easier. Now when I check into my hotel the staff smiles and hands me a bag with a large bottle of our water in it--the highlight of getting to my room is to begin hydrating with this water of ours. It has come to a point that I need to do some serious research as to why this is happening to me and what makes this water so special. I will begin that process on this trip and let you know.

I am looking forward to our Global Leadership Call this coming Monday. It is going be great information and I will have with me two very exciting guests. You won't want to miss it! Check the Unicity website for the call-in details.

All the best,
Stewart

Thailand Convention, Cabo

Hello from Cabo San Lucas, Mexico!

I arrived yesterday from Bangkok, Thailand where we just held the Thailand 2008 national convention. The convention had been scheduled for early December but had to be postponed due to the protests that closed the airport. Regardless of all the challenges and hassles with making a change like this at the last minute the event was super! The attendance was about 6,500 strong and the energy was off the chart. Thailand has set growth records in 2006, 2007, and now 2008 and I am willing to go on record saying they will do it again.
On the way to Thailand I visited Hawaii and Japan and met with some of our great leaders in those markets. Japan had an incredible month in December with some of our young superstars growing by almost 100% month over month. The Japanese leaders tell me that 2009 is their year to break all the records. I won’t argue but Thailand, Europe and Korea may differ with them. When I told Joe, our top leader in Thailand, about the goal of the Japanese leaders to be the top market in 2009 he smiled and said “we’ll see about that.”

The sun is shining in Cabo, the beach is pristine, and the ocean a deep beautiful blue. This resort is wonderful and the service is beyond fantastic—in fact I have never had service like this in a resort hotel and I have stayed in some nice places. I think all our North American Paradise Reward Trip qualifiers are going to love it here.

All the best,
Stewart

Time for a New Sprint

Hello everyone,

I hope your New Year is off to a great start! I have always tried to teach that our business is a marathon and simply keeping going is the most important key to winning, but it is critical to remember that this marathon I speak about is made up of a series of sprints done at key moments. Right now is one of those key moments.

I want you to know that I am practicing what I preach. On Sunday night I flew to LA, Monday afternoon I flew to Honolulu, on Tuesday I flew to Tokyo and yesterday (Friday) I flew to Bangkok where I am now. In each place I had opportunities to meet with leaders and prospective new associates. Great things are happening in Unicity right now—this is our time and I hope you are making the most of the moment.

This weekend we will host the Thailand National Convention. We expect about 7,000 attendees and have a great program planned with some very exciting new products to launch. Whenever I visit this beautiful country I am reminded about the “Power of One.” It only takes one leader to change everything in a market. You can be that leader in your world and in your market. Buy a copy of the updated version of John Maxwell’s “21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership”. Make it your mission to immerse yourself in the process of becoming a great leader and watch your world change into the world of your dreams. You can do it!

All the best,
Stewart

2009 New Year

Dear friends,

I wanted to wait until this first full week of January to wish you all a happy and prosperous New Year!

Over the past few months here at the Global Headquarters of Unicity, we were able to watch an unusually rich display of color on the mountainsides as the leaves on the oak and maple trees turn a plush red.

Before these leaves faded, detached and fell, the oaks dropped their acorns and the maples released their seeds and they helicoptered out of the sky to land like assault forces to green the earth. The leaves then followed to cover, protect, warm, and nourish the seeds. Today, those same seeds are blanketed by a few feet of snow.

Darkness, cold, stony ground, mold, bacteria, birds, squirrels, bugs—all intervene, but somehow some seeds make it, and begin to grow. Some tenacious seeds take hold and hold on and hold on—for dear life. In the silence of the winter’s dark, they plant themselves and survive to become the next generation of trees.

This past year, I’ve planted a tenacious and vitally important seed. I announced that by 2012, Unicity will be a billion-dollar company. You and I will be the gardeners of that seed. Much depends on how we nourish and protect this seed—and even though we may not be able to see, this seed has already begun to sprout roots. Unite with me this year in doing all we can to grow our billion-dollar tree. Click here for Unicity's Vision video

Then in 2012, you and I will be enjoying the fruits of this tree—but unlike any tree alive, this tree will provide us the fruits of hope, of health, and of freedom.

It’s my wish and my dream that 2009 overwhelms you with a harvest of hope, an abundance of health, and the joys of freedom.

All the best,
Stewart