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’.