From Passion to Leadership

By Cathryn Mora

It is said that leaders aren't born - they are made. And, just like anything else, they are made through hard work. This has never been more true, or more clear, than as relayed in the stories in From Passion to Leadership.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Change Empire Books
• Release date: Sep 28, 2022
• ISBN: 9780645178074

Cathryn Mora

I Fly is a collection of 20 authors from around the world. Chapter 1 - Roslyn Donaldson And still I rise Chapter 2 - Mary Wong Breaking the silence Chapter 3 - Bonnie Jo Guidry I changed my mind: A story of overcoming OCD Chapter 4 - Peta Cashion Healing my inner child Chapter 5 - Marta Madeira-Mulungo Nothing can stop a soul with a mission Chapter 6 - Kenneth Nathan From rage to redemption Chapter 7 - Lisa Boorer Onward and upward Chapter 8 - Camilla Constance Awakening woman - from shame to freedom Chapter 9 - Annette Densham The monster in the room Chapter 10 - Ivan Brewer Un-broken Chapter 11 - Bisi Osundeko Why me, why not me? Chapter 12 - Charlene Kay Fouts Breaking the chains Chapter 13 - Gabrielle Conescu My catalyst for joy Chapter 14 - Charleen Siteine Me and the man behind the mask Chapter 15 - Brett D. Scott The best time to change is now Chapter 16 - Marsha Schults Healing autoimmune - naturally. Taking control of my health and debunking the 'no cure' myth Chapter 17 - Dr. Sherine Price On the wings of grace, the Universe and I Chapter 18 - Juliette Mullen Finding me again Chapter 19 - Jo Jacobs A journey to rise Chapter 20 - Taryn Claire I once had cancer for two weeks

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This book is designed to provide information and motivation to our readers. It is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged to render any type of psychological, legal, or any other kind of professional advice. The content of each article is the sole expression and opinion of its author, and not necessarily that of the publisher. No warranties or guarantees are expressed or implied by the publisher’s choice to include any of the content in this volume. Neither the publisher nor the individual author(s) shall be liable for any physical, psychological, emotional, financial, or commercial damages, including, but not limited to, special, incidental, consequential or other damages. Our views and rights are the same: You are responsible for your own choices, actions, and results.

Authors have tried to recreate events, locales and conversations from their memories of them. In order to maintain their anonymity in some instances, authors have changed the names of individuals and places, and may have changed some identifying characteristics and details such as physical properties, occupations and places of residence.

I started this company to help as many people as possible realize their dreams.

I recently wrote a little pamphlet titled Like a Bridge Over Troubled Waters, as a marketing piece to give people my insights into the Juice Plus+ Company, the products we offer, and how joining our mission can offer people more choices in their life, especially during the difficult times that so many are facing today. This book is a great accompaniment to my booklet. This is because these stories give you, the reader, a glimpse into how people from all walks of life took advantage of a partnership with the Juice Plus+ Company to create meaningful choices, and build their dreams.

I know each of these people, and they are not just telling their stories. They are sharing what is possible when you partner with us. The Juice Plus+ Company and our Partners teach one another. Our success is like a team sport.

I hope that these stories spark something within you. I am the luckiest man in the world because I have been able to work alongside people like the authors in this book, get to know them and their families, and their own personal quirks. I have laughed with them, and I have celebrated with them. This is a rich bunch of authors – rich in humor, heart, and a desire to help humanity. And if you do get inspired, then read my pamphlet Like a Bridge Over Troubled Waters.

Happy reading

Jay Martin, Founder

The Juice Plus+ Company

Desperation to inspiration

Jeff Roberti

Set the world on fire

Shelly Mackey

Promises made, promises kept

Harriet Sulcer

Meant for more

Nila Mason

Make the bed or make a fortune

Bob & Sue Burdick

I am enough

Wendy Campbell

Becoming me

Janice Neigum

Make a life, not just a living

Curt & Lori Beavers

The best is yet to come

Melissa Hyde

There are no excuses, only priorities

Dany & Debbie Martin

Keep punching

Kerry & Mickey Daigle

What if?

Jennifer Myers

Believe

Barb Kunst

What if? How one little question can change the world

Loren Lahav

Finding purpose

Ali Schneider

Holding the space for good, to turn to great

Dougie Barlow

You have to give up something

Ilona Morrison

100 dollars in my shoe

Radka Prusha

Surviving to thriving

Nicole Scott

Love lifted me

Wendy Stewart

Authors

Write Your Own Book

CHAPTER 1

Desperation to inspiration

Jeff Roberti

The distant hum of early morning traffic permeates the thin walls of my one-bedroom apartment. Sparsely furnished on a young bachelor budget, the open space is an echo chamber, sounds reverberating and bouncing from wall to wall with gleeful abandon.

I rub the sleep from my eyes as I hear my answering machine beep and click on repeat and glance at the clock radio. Who is calling at 4am?

I pull myself out of bed, my feet hitting the floor with a thud, and shuffle into the living room. The red light blinks furiously on the machine, and a corresponding feeling of panic rises in my throat. Nobody calls with good news at this time of the day. Hitting play reveals a voice trying to be heard through strangled sobs, but I can’t understand a word my mother is saying.

The fact that my mother is crying hysterically is not a good sign.

About to rewind the tape, I pause when the phone rings and pick up the receiver, tentatively holding it to my ear and bracing myself for bad news.

Jeff Roberti? an unfamiliar voice asks.

Yes, I say, swallowing loudly, my throat dry.

This is Pastor Diaz at the regional hospital in Orlando. His voice is quiet, gentle, almost paralyzing as I wait for him to drop the bad news. I’m afraid to tell you that your father has just died, he continues, adding, I’m sorry, son.

The room starts to spin, my world is thrown into chaos. I drop the receiver to run to the bathroom and purge from both ends.

How can Dad be gone? He’s only 46.

I sit on the floor and weep until the morning sun burns through the windows and I am weak with exhaustion.

Mom and Dad and my younger brother Jonathan were only in Orlando, two hours away, in order to see our other brother Paul graduate his diploma with the navy. Knowing they were together is some small comfort, though it doesn’t ease my grief.

As the hours press on, and phone calls fly back and forth across the state, I learn that Dad died of a massive heart attack that nobody saw coming. They went out to dinner and then returned to the motel, and in the early hours of the morning, he got up, grabbed his chest, and died. No second chance.

I waved them off a few days ago—Mom behind the wheel of her rusty old Plymouth—and said a brief goodbye, never imagining it would be the last time I saw Dad alive.

What will Mom do now? Dad sold encyclopedias to support the family, and despite his incredible work ethic, there has always been more month than money. He was talking about them moving back to West Virginia, about buying Mom a new car, for years. I suppose neither of those will happen now.

Images of my childhood clamor for attention in my head. I remember getting up late at night to get a drink of water or go to the bathroom, and I’d see my dad sitting up in the living room—smoking, thinking, his face drawn into taut lines of worry. My parents have struggled financially for years, and now, at 22 and as the oldest of three boys, I want to step up and help. I just don’t know how. I’ve waited tables, mowed lawns, cleaned pools, worked construction—anything and everything to make ends meet. But it will never be enough.

I am soon convinced that stress killed my father, and it shapes my model of the world.

This inspires me to take a more philosophical approach to life than my friends and family anticipate – I decide to make my father’s death mean something. It's not what happens in life; it's what you do with what happens. It’s the meaning you give it.

I don’t want my dad’s death to be just some tragic event that happens to our family—I want to take the pain and turn it into purpose. This becomes what drives me, fueled by a yearning hunger for more. I don’t want to end up like him, stressed, almost broke, and dead before I’m 50.

My burning desire to succeed is backed by an incredibly strong work ethic. I just need the right path to get there. I try a network marketing company that delivers decent results, but I want greatness. So, I keep looking. I need an opportunity to go into business for myself, to be my own boss, and to earn what I’m worth. There’s no point in simply trading time for money.

I listen to tapes of every speaker I can get my hands on, and am fortunate enough to meet and be mentored by prodigious sales pros like Jim Rohn, Larry Thompson, and Mark Hughes.

I’m invited to a convention in North Carolina that I’m assured will change my life. It’s a ten-hour drive from Sarasota, and I don’t have money for flights or a hotel, but that’s not about to stop me. I jump into my car and start driving… Rolling Stones and Zeppelin playing as loud as the crackly car stereo will allow—which, to be honest, isn’t very loud, given my car is a dinosaur limping towards extinction.

After a long drive, with more than a few pitstops for coffee and naps, the signs welcome me to Asheville. I sleep in the car, shower at the nearest gym to the venue, and put on my one suit. When I arrive in the crowded parking lot of the Grove Park Inn, I pull my hair back into a ponytail, adjust my skinny tie, and walk into the conference with the most confidence I can muster.

The energy in the room is palpable, electric, and I pull my jacket tighter around my middle as excitement courses through my body. Speakers are positive, encouraging, inspiring, and every new person who steps on the stage fills me with the confidence to take the next step towards my own business. The adrenaline courses through my body—I’m ready.

This is it. This is what I’m meant to do.

God has answered my prayers. This is my chance to do something great.

I fill out an application to become a partner and walk away from the event, confident that this is my path. I don’t have a higher education, and I don’t have contacts, connections, or a dollar to burn, but I have a strong vision and a work ethic to match. I tear up my list of excuses, borrow some money against my car and buy a box of inventory, ready to start putting my dreams into action.

As Jim Rohn once told me, Jeff, if it’s to be, it’s up to me.

Jay Martin and the Juice Plus+ Company are about to change my life. I have just officially become the business owner of my own health product distributorship!

*

Zig Ziglar is known for saying, You will get all you want in life if you help enough other people get what they want.

I create the mindset that I am going to go out and meet people, come from a position of strength, a voice of authority, and support it with all the passion and enthusiasm I have burning within. I want to lead by example and be the best distributor and best partner on my team. I’m going to acquire the most new customers and most new partners, hold myself accountable, and build safety in numbers.

I create a 90-day plan and put it into immediate action. I go into a market, camp out for three months, and run ads in the newspaper to invite people to my presentations. I become very good at getting the phone to ring and while I don’t have the money for an office, I use hotel lobbies to meet people and present to them from my presentation book, sharing the company story, the product story, and the opportunity story. I speak to 20 or 30 people every day for a year; in other words, close to 10,000 people a year see me speak as I introduce them to the Juice Plus+ whole food based nutrition in a capsule as well as to the business opportunity.

My drive and ambition are burning bright, but I also have a servant’s heart and people can tell that I really care. I add to my team at lightning speed and am honored to meet so many incredible people.

One day over lunch, I flick through the magazine of another network marketing company and see an article about a couple named Bob and Sue. I call Bob and arrange to meet them in Fort Lauderdale for a presentation. Bob has a long beard and tattoos peeking out of his shirt—he looks a little like Charles Manson and I’m a little intimated, unsure if he will respond to my energy.

After the presentation is finished, I ask, Did you see an opportunity and are you prepared to get started?

Wordlessly, he shuffles over to Sue and talks to her quietly, nodding every so often, before coming back and looking me square in the eye. Jeff, we’re going to borrow the money from our rent money and get started here tonight, he says. But if this is a scam, I’m gonna chase you to the frickin’ ends of the earth.

And with that I sign the first power couple on my team—and then everything changes for all of us.

I just keep building one leader after another. In one year, I become the number one income earner, at just 24 years old. Corporate invite me to Memphis to see if I am a two-headed monster. They can’t believe that somebody is building this fast, but I studied the best guys in sales to get to this point. I believe in the company, I believe in the product, and I believe in the opportunity. Most importantly, I believe in myself. What I lack in money, education, experience, and background, I make up for with work ethic.

Nobody can lift your weight for you, I tell the guys at head office. You get out of this what you put into it.

They all smile and nod in agreement.

Expansion feels good and I won’t stop until there is nothing left to reach for.

Soon, the day arrives. I have worked hard, reinvested into the business, burned the midnight oil, and put in that extra 10% effort above everybody else. And it has paid off. My bank balance shows the goal I had in mind and I know exactly what I want to do with it. I drive down to the new car dealership, puffs of smoke exiting my exhaust when I accelerate. Today I get to fulfil a dream I’ve had since I was a kid, sitting in the back of my mom’s rusty, dinged car, dreaming of a sleek new car in the driveway.

I’m so proud when I hand over the cheque to the sales guy, who seems a little taken aback by someone of my age buying a shiny, top model automobile with all the bells and whistles.

Don’t worry, sir, I think, smiling to myself. It won’t be the last.

I pay for 12 months’ insurance, top up a fresh gas card, and drive the shiny blue Lincoln Mark VIII out of the lot and head out of town for its inaugural outing. I open and close the electric windows with childlike glee as I drive, grinning. Would Dad would be proud of me? I like to think so.

I drive for hours, enjoying the purr of the Linc’s powerful engine. And, finally, I arrive. I go to the trunk and get out the materials I need, nervous and eager that this day has finally come.

I walk up to the front door of the log house, eyes following the smoke rising from its chimney and then bring my attention back down as I knock twice, loudly. The door opens and there she is, a smile breaking across her face.

Jeff? Mom says, pulling me into a hug, her arms tight around me. I thought you weren’t coming until new year.

I wanted it to be a surprise, I say with a grin, and step back so she can see the car.

The West Virginian morning sun reflects off the bonnet, highlighting the pretty, deep blue duco and reflecting in Mom’s eyes. The large, red bow I affixed to the roof is bright and sleek and shiny against the glare of the mountain snow and I look back at her, almost holding my breath, to see her reaction. She stands with her hand over her mouth, tears cascading over her cheeks.

Jeff, she manages, eyes glistening.

Merry Christmas, Mom, I say, dropping the keys into her hand. Thank you for everything.

Everything has been worth it for her expression alone.

*

Ich spreche kein Deutsch is the first phrase I learn when I find out that Juice Plus+ is expanding to Europe. Specifically, Germany.

I don’t speak German. How am I meant to start a team in a country where I don’t speak the language? Europe is an enormous market, and being able to grow my team across the pond would be the opportunity of a lifetime. But how can I share the product and business opportunities we offer in a country I’ve not only never been to but also have no clue about the language?

If only I’d turned out to be a language whiz on top of my business skills.

But, as they say, the bigger the problem, the bigger the paycheck—and I’m more than ready for the challenge.

Can’t manage on your own? Recruit somebody who knows what you lack.

I place ads in the newspaper for English–German bilingual speakers and meet with everybody who responds. Some interviewees are more promising than others, but in the end, I luck out on the first few people I meet: Tom, Mark, and Jacque. The sons of German immigrant families, they are polite, young, and enthusiastic. And more than willing to cut me some slack for my shoddy German.

I meet each of them in the lobby of the Hyatt hotel in Sarasota. Sipping on my coffee, I explain my plan to the tall young man seated across from me. If you go with me and open up Europe, I tell him, we’ll start in Germany and then we'll expand into Austria, Switzerland, Italy, all over… Watching his face, I add, I can help you become one of the top marketing directors in the company.

Jacque looks suitably impressed, and the other meetings prove to be just as successful.

After a few weeks of training, I take the three of them to a Juice Plus+ conference. The light in their eyes reflects my own excitement.

After the conference, I fly to Frankfurt.

The arrivals hall is bustling with people, and I look around, wondering what to do next. This is my first time outside of North America, and while my team will be meeting me here, for now I’m on my own.

I’m pleasantly surprised at how many people speak English, although I can’t get to the safety of my room fast enough. By the time my team are in town to meet me, I’m buzzing, ready to start our European expansion.

Under my direction, the guys hire a hotel conference room every day for a week and place ads in multiple local newspapers for the presentations. When I walk into the room, the patterned carpet and beige curtains demonstrate chic professionalism. The lectern at the front of the room is ready for my translator, the products are set up on the table, and the partner application forms sit alongside them, ready. The room is ready, the team is ready, I’m ready.

I have come to live by a mantra called tell, show, try, do. When I sign up a team member, I say, Let’s do this together. I’ll tell you, then I’ll show you, you try it, and once you’re ready, I’ll cut you loose.

As the room fills with hundreds of people, their hushed voices a gentle susurrus in the large space, I clench my fists by my side, pumping them a few times to maximize my energy. Almost every seat in the room is full. It’s an impressive turnout.

Welcome to the Juice Plus+ Company. My voice booms through the room. The company with a heart.

Willkommen bei der Firma Juice Plus+, Mark says, smiling at the sea of faces. Das Unternehmen mit Herz.

The presentation flies by, and by the time I finish, the room is buzzing with energy. Feeling good, I go on to talk about the history of the company, the products and what they can do, while Mark translates with easy confidence.

At the end of the session, people crowd around the tables at the front, eager to fill out application forms and ask questions; their motivation to become involved is almost palpable. It sets an incredible precedent for the coming months.

As the weeks go by, the numbers are never quite the same. Sometimes there are three, four, or five people in the room; other times, they bring their friends and there are 15 or 20. If I’ve learned anything from my mentors, however, it’s to remember the law of averages. If we show up day after day, presenting with enthusiasm and heart, results will follow.

A couple of weeks in, I notice something funny. I start telling the company story and the product story, and after I finish a line, one of the guys translates but talks for much longer than the sentence I’ve just finished. And then I realize they’ve translated me so many times that they know the whole spiel by heart.

Every night I go back to my room and pop a CD into my Walkman. I listen to a lot of experts; I always feed my mind. I truly believe that you have to keep yourself in a peak resourceful state, to show up every day and put in the work. Success breeds success. I am primed for success, and my time in Germany is already showing results.

We spend 90 days in Frankfurt, 90 days in Munich, 90 days in Berlin; my team is thriving and working with them on creating their success is a dream come true. I am fortunate to have chosen a very coachable team and they respond incredibly well to my leadership.

Simple disciplines equal multiple rewards because you don’t have to do a thousand things, I tell them. Just do a handful of things a thousand times over, and then over again. Consistency is required, but if you keep going, you will reap the rewards.

And reap they do. I build five frontline National Marketing Directors during my first year in Germany and then we move on to Switzerland, Austria, Italy…

Five years I spend creating a team in Europe, ultimately building 40 frontline marketing directors around the world. My biggest lesson is that it’s never about you. It’s always about the person in front of you, meeting their needs, adding value to their lives, and creating raving fan relationships.

After five years in the US and Canada, then five years in Europe, I keep cranking out daily action for another ten years. Long-term relationships equal long-term success, and the years I spend in Europe—making almost one hundred trips to the continent—set me up for many years to come.

*

The auditorium, 10,000 people strong, erupts into applause as I take the stage. The music is pumping, and everybody is on their feet, clapping and yelling encouragement. What an incredible crowd, I think as I walk to the lectern, checking one last time that my over-ear microphone is securely taped to the side of my head so I can gesture freely during my speech. I’m introduced as the #1 top earner in the company, and I’m ready to inspire this audience of beautiful people.

I think the reason they bring me up here is to show you guys that if I can do it, anyone can do it, I say, and a few whoops of agreement and support arise in the audience. "My