Craig Oswalt

Beginning my pharmacy career in 1975, I found early on that I enjoyed using my pharmacy education to help and inform people in managing their health. Over the years, I could see pharmacy changing from a health service profession to an insurance technician job. Patient counseling was replaced by lengthy and tedious insurance forms that differed from company to company. Insurance companies controlled my time and income for the rest of my pharmacy career. I felt my knowledge and expertise was underutilized in that environment and I had no control over my time. I sold my pharmacy and got into business buying and selling collectables which was a passion of mine.

In the mid-90's, I got started in network marketing with a company that made and sold nutritional supplements. I was very interested in the science of nutrition and I researched many company's products to find the very best supplements. I probably recruited five or six people over the course of almost 10 years with that company. Even though I was a pharmacist, I found that people didn't buy into having an urgent need for those products. They were too similar to what other leading companies had on the market.

During these years of "almost" network marketing, I had one friend and companion in the business - Dean Nunneley. Dean kept me just motivated enough to stay. He constantly told me that he knew I could do well; I just needed to have the right motivation come along. He was right. I joined Waiora right at the beginning. I knew Eddie Stone and believed in his intention to create the best company. I also knew Rik Deitsch and had confidence that with him involved in the formulation of products, they would be the best on the market. Still, I didn't pursue the business due in part to having back problems at the time, which ultimately required surgery. Then, Dean called me when Natural Cellular Defense was coming on the market in just a week or two. Suddenly, this product stood out from all the rest to me.

I ordered the product for myself and my family and it's had a huge impact on our quality of life. My step-mother was having such difficulty breathing that she was designated as a hospice patient and required full-time care. She's improved so much with Natural Cellular Defense that she's gone on vacation twice with my dad. She was even able to cook Thanksgiving dinner last year. She is so much healthier compared to what she was.

I started talking to people about Natural Cellular Defense. Perhaps it was because of my conviction in the product that people listened to me, believed in me and took the product. From that, hundreds of people have been taking it, of which only two people have said they didn't feel better, and I still think they didn't take it right. My organization and I have been contacting everyone I know as well as doing direct mailings to my warm market. We also use a lot of conference calls as well as three-way calls.

One of the things I do is provide references so that if someone wants to talk with someone who's had an incredible experience with the product they can. When they see someone they know who had a health concern that is no longer an issue, they start to think about how it can help them, too. More than anything, just talk to people to find out what their concerns are. When you listen to their needs, then you can help.

I'm determined to keep doing what it takes to make my organization bigger and bigger. The most gratifying element of Waiora is impacting the health and well being of so many people in such a profoundly positive way. One of the roles that I have is to answer product and scientific questions for people by putting the answers in terms that people can understand.

If there was a message I could give to everyone who's tried network marketing before without much success (like myself), it would be: Don't quit! Keep at it! The timing has to be right. My time didn't come until it came. Now, in less than six months, here I am…with almost 300 people in my organization and more than 70,000 in volume!