Message from JR Ridinger CEO of Market America

Well, it is hard to believe, but the holidays have come and gone. It is a brand-new year ahead with brand-new possibilities. 2009 promises to be the year that the Market America vision I have been preaching since the very beginning becomes a reality — to change the way people shop worldwide. That one-to-one engine that powers the business is becoming a reality right before your eyes — just make sure they're open! It will be a year full of breakthroughs, new deliveries and releases, and Market America along with its UFOs will reach remarkable new levels of success.
When I say Happy New Year, I really mean it, because this is going to be a happy and prosperous new year for Market America. While most companies are cutting back, we are expanding. While most companies are firing, we are hiring. While most people are tightening their belt and living in fear, we (ma's global community) are expanding our horizons, prospering, dreaming and growing. While the retail industry is contracting and closing up locations as in-store sales plummet, Internet marketing is growing by leaps and bounds.
How is this possible? Why is Market America a contradiction to what is happening in the economy and the exception to the trend?
First, our prediction of a paradigm shift away from brick-and-mortar stores to online shopping is becoming a reality. Our prediction that One-to-One Marketing and entrepreneurism would be the new wave is proving true right now. The downturn in the economy and the leveraged financial bubbles bursting simply serve as a catalyst to speed it up. The inefficiencies of mass marketing in stores have become more pronounced and apparent than ever before. The inconveniences of shopping in stores are abundant — fighting traffic, waiting in long lines, fuel costs, and not being able to compare products instantly across stores or brands for the best price or best features. This is causing people to move to online shopping at a record rate.
The overhead of retail stores is causing companies to go out of business while we can pass on the savings in our business. Internet shopping eliminates the need for costly inventories spread all over the country and eliminates the exorbitant cost of mass media advertising. Better yet, we are able to match products to people and people to products simply because we care enough to find out exactly what our customers want. And why does Market America do Internet marketing better? Because of YOU — we have people power! People still want to be treated as individuals and have the benefit of a personal shopping guide who takes sincere interest in what they want. We simply offer the best of all worlds.
2009 will be the year that many of the technological benefits and advances that I have been describing in my vision become a reality and are part of everyday life at Market America for both the UFOs and customers! It will become an addictive customer shopping experience… just like a cell phone becoming a life line, a blackberry a "crackberry," Google becomes a verb to find things, and the Internet is now a way of life. Market America will become an addictive shopping service that people can't live without and everyone will have a Market America UFO as a product broker, Customer Manager, and personal online shopper (One-to-One Marketing professional).
The second major factor is that people are shaken and awakened by the economy and the lack of job security. Entrepreneurism is thriving and people need a plan B. People are keenly interested in supplementing and expanding their income because they are concerned about the escalating unemployment rate and they are looking for solutions and alternatives like never before. Make no mistake — everyone needs a plan B. But investing in a large business or starting a company that requires a large investment is not realistic for most people in this economic environment, not to mention financing is harder than ever to find.
We have the solution with the UnFranchise® Business because it does not require a large investment and doesn't involve the risk that traditional models carry. This business requires minimal startup money and can be built to any size through positive cash flow. We are the solution in this economy. As a result, we are growing faster than ever. The proof is in the pudding! October was a record month in sales volume and recruiting. Recruiting was up overall, and both volume and recruiting held steady at the same rate in November again, as other companies slowed down and shrunk. So, it is 2009 and you are in the right place at the right time.
We have always anticipated this happening and to a large extent, we planned on it. It was inevitable in an economy built on overleveraging, ridiculous convoluted valuations, and a bubble of greed resulting from cash-flow models that could not support the inflated values they claimed in the marketplace. The economy was destined to implode. The bubble had to burst — we just didn't anticipate it happening so fast or suddenly!
Market America is not overleveraged and our model is rock solid. We are a real business that has a better method of merchandizing real products that people need and want at competitive prices. Better yet, we provide an opportunity at the grassroots level of this country. It is driven by matching people to what they want at values that are real. People are beating the doors down for our products and then we take it a step further by finding whatever else they want on the Portal. We band together to leverage our collective buying power to provide better products at the best prices and, in so doing, create an ecosystem of entrepreneurs and customers — our own sub-economy providing ongoing incomes to those who make it happen. That is what the UnFranchise and MPCP are all about.
The economy hasn't failed at the bottom. It caved in at the top where the greed and insanity became too heavy. It wasn't from a lack of production or demand for consumer goods and quality products. Commerce will go on and great products at the best prices will thrive. More efficient ways of buying continue to thrive. There is no doubt, you have made the right choice and you are in the right place at the right time. I guess you are just smarter than some of your friends and neighbors who didn't get in. Maybe they will smarten up now and listen. If they don't, oh well — that's their problem.
2009 can be the year to remember — the year you made it to financial independence. It doesn't matter if you have been in for years, or are just starting. It doesn't matter if you are a high Pin Level making lots of ongoing income, someone who made some money and plateaued out, or if you are brand new. This can be the year that you break free if you ride this wave of growth in on the top. The difference between success and failure is so simple! The individual who succeeds simply does what the individual who failed didn't do. So what is it that you need to ride this wave in? What are the things that put you on top? It's 2009 and this is the time to make resolutions and set goals. Resolve that this is the year you make it happen with Market America. See yourself as a Director. What does a Director do, what do they say, and how do they act? Be one all the time. Do the things a Director does and you will be making the ongoing income that goes along with it.

FIRST: This requires setting goals.
Start 2009 out right and get on board with the program. What you set in motion now carries in motion throughout the year and beyond.
Here is what you have to do right now — this week:
1. Decide what you want? How do you want to live? What is your "WHY?" How do you want life to be? How would you live if you could make your custom-made life? List five to 10 material things or regular activities and characteristics of that custom-made life. Arrange them in order of smallest to largest in cost and/or importance. What does each require in income to achieve? That should provide you increments, milestones or a graduated staircase to your dream. What is the total cost of them combined on a monthly basis? What level in the business (Pin Level) provides that income? You need to define it and think it through first.
2. When do you want it? You must set a time or a target date. It doesn't matter so much if you miss it, because you will readjust it with more experience to be more realistic. Shoot for the stars and hit the moon. It can change — but you need a target date. Make it exciting but realistic. Get some help in determining a realistic date based on how much time you will put in and how hard you will work. The date can change or you can change what you do to meet the date. Eventually you will get a realistic date if you measure, monitor, adjust and control. Then when you hit it, you will realize and experience the miracle of creation — because you thought it, focused on it, and believed the goal would become a reality.
3. Determine what you will give in return or are willing to do. Also, what do you have to overcome or change in order to make it happen? List potential landmines, potholes, obstacles, shortcomings or fears we all must over come on such a journey. Everyone has them, but identifying them and setting out to overcome them is half the battle. Best of all, your line of partners will help you! If you can have anything you want in life for the rest of your life — what are you willing to do in return in order to have it? How much time, travel, training and money (in the way of tools) will you contribute? How many meetings will you hold? Will you learn to show The Plan? Will you listen to an audio every day? Will you travel to two national events per year?
4. Determine what you have to accomplish or build in order to achieve the Pin Level that translates into the income you need for your goal. How many centers do you need qualifying and how frequently? How many legs or organizations do you need to build in order to qualify weekly (Professional Coordinator or above)? How many people do you have to sponsor to build those legs to that level? How many meetings or Plans do you need to hold or show to sponsor that many people? How many prospects do you need to call? How much volume can your UnFranchise generate to contribute to this goal? Then divide it by 12 to determine what you must do each month to hit the yearly goal. Divide that by 4 to get the weekly goal. And divide that by 7 to get the daily goal. If you accomplish the daily goals, you automatically achieve the weekly, monthly and annual ones. This may be an over-simplification, but you can get counseling from an experienced leader on exactly how to do it to perfect it. The process of breaking goals into small units of result-producing activities is critical to your success.
5. Write what you have done from 1-4 above into a 50- to 100-word statement and read it twice a day. It is absolutely magical. If you do it for 30 days, it will become a habit and you will be amazed at what you will experience.
The bottom line is that the people who make it do this and those who don't do not make it. The amazing thing is that anyone can do it, and it ultimately becomes your choice.

SECOND: Be at World Conference no matter what.
If you really want to know the shortcut to success, it is getting two to four people there for yourself. It is one month away. It may be hard to find tickets, but where there's a will, there's a way.
Call up your partnership line all the way to an Advisory Council Member to get help, and then call the company at 800-232-8590 for help finding them.
I can tell you without reservation that this World Conference will be historic. Some might ask, "How can that be? They are all one-of-a-kind, life-changing experiences." It's because there has never been so many factors converging at one time in the history of the company. Later his week I will provide a list of all the things we will unveil and all that you will learn and experience at World Conference at American Airlines Arena in Miami. But if you ever wanted to convince someone to do this business — all you have to do is get them there. The rest will be history.
I have never been so excited! Not only will you get the quality of information from the top minds and icons in the business, but so much of what I have envisioned and talked about for years is becoming a reality at this event. Undoubtedly, anyone who goes will pack six months of learning and development into one weekend.
I will be showing you how to use this economy to build, fuel and expand your business. Loren Ridinger and Steve Ashley will be showing you how to experience and create an addictive, fun, money-saving shopping experience on the Portal and all the tricks to the trade, expanding on what she taught at the Upper Level Training where so many people saw the light. Any stable Customer Manager will become 'Go Now.' Get people there and your business will take a quantum leap to new heights because they will leave knowing what to do and committed to doing it with or without you. But that is just the tip of the iceberg this time.
You will see our new technology in action, including our partnership with Google and now Microsoft (yes, Microsoft will be there). But wait, there's more. We are in the process of planning evening concerts to launch maMyWorld, with major artists like Alejandro Sanz, Shakira, Jennifer Lopez, Paulina, and many emerging artists for the entertainment Portal, including Dennis Franks with his band, Second look, and some other big discoveries and surprises at the networking party. It looks like Governor Charlie Crist will be there to speak on entrepreneurism and free enterprise. Obama couldn't be at this one because of the inauguration but we are talking seriously about 2009 International Convention.
We have a major opportunity meeting for the Hispanic community with national figures and all types of media. Be looking for Latino and Hispanics in the Miami area to invite. There will be so much to teach and show you that missing it would be a huge mistake. The stuff we will unveil, release, show and teach will blow your mind. We have the solution and we are ready to unleash it February 5-7 at World Conference.
The point is that if you want 2009 to be your year and to ride in the tidal wave of growth on top, you have to be there. Period. And if you get a record number of people there for yourself, your business will explode and never be the same. Once again, the difference between success and failure is simply that the person who succeeds does what the person who didn't succeed did not do. You are either there or you are not. You either got people there or you didn't.
You should know the best investment you can make in this economy is in tickets to this event, as it will result in ongoing income. It sure beats securities (stock), investments or money in banks. Invest in yourself or someone in the UnFranchise System — that is where the return is! Put what money, time and desire you have to work for yourself into a business that really works and is booming in a stressed economy. People really need to hear this message and they need to see the light. Besides, you cannot lead where you will not go and you cannot teach what you do not know.

Let's make it happen in 2009, together. Make it a happy and prosperous New Year by being there. Start 2009 right.
With gas prices down, travel has become affordable again. I'll see you in warm, sunny Miami at World Conference. We are going to have so much fun — plus you are going to learn and see how to make money with this economy because we have the solution. Stay tuned for my list of reasons why people need to be there and what to expect at World Conference!
Keep growing. Happy New Year!
We believe in you,JR & Loren Ridinger