Matt Mueller was approached in college to a compelling financial model called network marketing, or multi-level marketing. An opportunity to direct sell household and personal products to consumers that would pay for college.

In network marketing, you not only sell products. You also recruit and train new people to be direct salespeople building their own networks. You then have two ways of making money. Getting commissions from selling and also earning a commission from what your downline of sellers sell.

The network marketing company that chose Matt, as he would say, was Amway and their affiliated personal development company, Worldwide Dream Builders. Amway is a family-owned consumer goods manufacturer and direct selling company founded by Richard DeVos and Jay Van Andel in 1959. According to Forbes magazine, direct sellers generated $8.4B in sales revenue for Amway in 2019.

My experience with network marketing came through Mary Kay Cosmetics in college and one of my three sisters getting involved in the network marketing business. Mary Kay Ash founded her empire in 1963 and has provided millions of women the opportunity to support themselves and their families.

Matt thought he found the ultimate jackpot. Marrying into a family already successful in a business he had grown to love, Amway. What he didn’t anticipate was how the legacy he was building would come to an abrupt end.  

Pleasantville is how Matt describes his upbringing in Cold Spring, Minnesota. His reference is not connected to the 1998 film Pleasantville, with Toby Maguire and Reese Witherspoon as teenagers finding themselves in a 1950s sitcom. Matt refers to his rural hometown as a pleasant place to grow up with two siblings and 55 cousins. A stable and safe place with a solid work ethic.

Matt’s German Catholic parents recently retired from a hairstyling business and his dad from construction to spend the winter months in Arizona. Matt says, “the Sedona vortexes pulled me in,” where he found respite after his six-year marriage collapsed and the network marketing enterprise they were building with his inlaws imploded. Sedona provided the geographical space for Matt to recover and reimagine his life. Eighty-nine percent of direct sellers work part-time, so Matt was grateful he had two other ventures to support him at the time: inflatable carnival business and tanning company.

Matt describes this part of his life as a phenomenal chapter of great lessons learned and memories to cherish. A life without regrets, just learning. Hear the strength and grounded confidence he brings into our conversation. DOWNLOAD 

Next week we discuss how Matt rebuilds his life with a new entrepreneurial venture, Glo Lighting Minnesota. 

After listening, complete below, the Conscious Attentive Leadership Mentoring (C.A.L.M.) Activities.