It was the summer of 2009 and I was sitting in the dining hall when my life changed forever.
I was 23 years old and it was dinnertime at Windells Ski and Snowboard Camp near Mt. Hood, Oregon. The kids ranged from 8 to 17 years old. My brother was the head camp counselor and I came out for a week to be the camp nurse. I had some of the best experiences there at that camp.
Sitting there at dinner, a young camper came and said, “Payton has a bottle of wine in his fridge.” Confused I asked, “Wine? I will go check it out.” At camp each counselor was responsible for a group of 8-14 campers per cabin. Payton’s cabin was the youngest group. Wine wasn’t something you would want in the refrigerator with young kids around to get their hands on. I also didn’t want Payton to get in trouble so was covering for him too. I went into his cabin, took the wine out of the fridge, and put it in the trash in his bedroom.
A few minutes later I saw Payton and said to him in my perfect snow bro accent, “Dude, why do you have wine in your fridge? I threw it away.” He was shocked, “Dude what are you throwing my juice away for?” Confused, I blurted out “juice?” With that he ran off to rescue his bottle of juice. As he did, one of the other counselors at the camp said, “Yeah it’s like a $40 bottle of juice.” With a weird look on my face I responded, “Who buys $40 juice?”
Payton and I had already hit it off earlier in the week because he had impressed me. We were talking and he mentioned a quote directly from a book I had read. Now, I didn’t think any of these snow bums could read so it surprised me when he quoted that book. After that initial interaction I learned he was more than a snow bum, and we became fast friends.
The day after the juice incident we all piled in the car to go up to the mountain. I asked Payton what’s up with this expensive juice. I don’t remember a thing he said, but I remember him showing me a video on the website later that day. The next thing I knew we were sitting outside in the courtyard at camp and I was signing up to buy cases of this super juice. He showed me pictures of cars, money bonuses, and how we could get rich by sharing it with other people. I had no idea what he was talking about, but I remember thinking ‘this guy is going to be successful I am following him’. When he told me about making residual income and money that showed up for doing the work one time I immediately said, “Why didn’t anyone ever tell about me this?”
That was my introduction into the Network Marketing industry 7 years ago, and the company was Monavie. I had no idea what I was doing or how to sell a $40 bottle of juice to my friends. His enthusiasm was contagious though and he showed me the light.
I grew up in the woods outside Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. My parents and their parents were blue-collar workers. I was told to do well in school and then get a good job. I thought the way you got rich was to win the lottery or marry a rich woman. I was not searching to be an entrepreneur, or own a business. The opportunity found me; this was a new concept and I loved it.
It is crazy to trace back everything that has happened because of that moment in time and what it has done for me. It was due to that interaction that in the years to come I met my mentor, moved to Utah, bought a condo in Park City, moved my whole family to Utah, grew a ton as a person, and met some of the most amazing people in my life. It was all because I said, “Yes” to an excited young man offering a new opportunity.
I guess you never know the impact until after the deed is done and you look back at all the things that happened to get there. Since that time my career in network marketing has been anything but a smooth ride. I have seen ups, downs, and all of the in betweens. I continue to learn new things everyday.
My message would be to those in the industry of network marketing: get excited. Enthusiasm is contagious. Sometimes people will join you just because of that. If you are not in the industry, keep your eyes open to new opportunities. It doesn’t have to be network marketing, but you never know what might be out there for you. You don’t have to know everything right away, just trust yourself and allow yourself to make mistakes and learn along the way.
Chris Lengle Productions 