New Zealand's first President's Team member, Daryl Mitchell was born in New Guinea and spent nearly half his life in Australia and the other half in New Zealand. "I consider myself to be a Kiwi," said Daryl, "but this depends on who is winning the football.
"I joined Herbalife in October '88. A good friend, Andrew Potts, sponsored me. He's a nurse who got involved to supplement his nursing income. Andrew was always trying to gain weight, while I was always trying to lose weight, so we made a good team. I've been trying to lose weight from the age of 13. It wasn't a health-threatening amount of weight but it was very damaging to my confidence and psyche. I tried lots of different things— whatever Mum was using. She'd been yo-yo dieting forever. With Herbalife I lost 10 kilos in six weeks and 5cm from my waist. That gave me confidence in the products, which led to confidence in the business."
'Andrew was very smart. He put me into a business meeting straight away and that's where I heard about the earning potential. At my first meeting a fitter and turner got up and announced he'd made an extra $250 that week. I thought if I could make half that amount I'd be rapt! I got started with the business and my mum was my first customer. My presentation was pretty basic: "You're overweight and you should try this!" Mum did and lost 9 kilos and dropped from a size 16 to a size 12. That prompted my three aunties to get onto the products and that got my business going. I made Supervisor in my first month by forming a syndicate with some friends and we piggy-backed into qualification. I decided to take the business by the horns and go to the Extravaganza in Los Angeles. That's where I saw the big picture. We came home via New Zealand and planned to stay for a 10-day holiday. Andrew stayed for about a year and I haven't been home yet! It's been a fantastic working holiday. A couple of years later I met Catherine, who is now my wife. She was a stressed-out personnel consultant. I got her onto the products and she gained 8 kilos, as she was quite underweight. She noticed her skin improving and her headaches were not bothering her so much."
"We now work the business together and our lifestyle is exactly what we want. I work four days a week and we enjoy a three-day weekend working from home around the kids. We have a great team spirit and culture within our organisation. Most of our business is in New Zealand, but we have a strong team in Indonesia and a strong team in Florida."
"We had some hurdles and obstacles to overcome along the way. We made the decision back in '95 to go to Argentina when Herbalife first opened there. Our progress in New Zealand was sluggish so we figured a change of country would make all the difference. Of course it was us who needed to change, rather than changing location. Our high hopes of doing very well in Argentina were soon deflated. Catherine was there for six months, while I stayed for nearly a year. We had a positive experience initially, but then it all turned to custard. We came home with our tails between our legs, having spent all the money we'd ever saved - and then some! Our New Zealand business fell away because we weren't there and we hadn't developed leadership for the team at that point. We came home completely demoralised with no money left whatsoever. We ended up living in the basement of Catherine's parents' house and Catherine had to go and get a job."
"While our pride and our spirits were dented, our faith in the business was still on track and a couple of short years after that we were back on our feet. My advice is never go anywhere to start a business, only go to advance business that's been generated at long distance by your local contacts. My strong feeling now is that our best markets are still in New Zealand and Australia. The potential is largely untapped, compared to what can still be achieved. Unless you want to go to another area to experience a different culture or lifestyle and if your main objective is to build a business, I would advise you to fish your home pond first."
"I have my own lead generation programme and I'm continuing to build my consumer base and also my Distributor base. You tend to work closely with people who are developing their own business-building plans and spend most time with those who are doing most of the work. I'm very active and I enjoy supporting others who are active."
"In the early days I pretty much built my business on flyers. Now I make sure I've got at least three methods of enquiry going on at any time. If I'm going to be working with someone they need to have their plan in place and we can work together to design that plan. Every one is going to be a bit different. Part of my time is spent attracting new business, but while I'm doing that I'm also using it as an opportunity to train someone I'm working with. I've got them alongside me whether that's physically or through phone calls. I'm using my building activity as an opportunity to teach others how to do it. This is very easy to duplicate downline. So what we have is a systematic approach to help them get their businesses started."
"The best thing about Herbalife is the freedom we have to make choices. We can now do pretty much anything we want. We plan to do quite a bit of travelling and have lots of family holidays. I'm also interested in outdoor activities such as hiking and trekking and I'm in the right country to do that!"
"We now have a 9 week old baby girl and a 2 year old boy, so five months ago we moved to a suburb called "Half-Moon Bay" in Auckland to be closer to Grandma and Grandad. Before that we built our business while we were living on Waiheke Island, a 35 minute ferry ride from downtown Auckland. People go over there for the lifestyle. Yet a lot of them end up not changing their lifestyle but having a more hectic existence in the pursuit of lifestyle and happiness. It was there that we really got our lives together. We actually did it! We got the 'work from home' thing going and we've got the financial security. Our goal now is to tell others how we did it."
"From a little home office on an island with a population of just 7,500 people we built a global business that brings us a growing income from 12 countries. So it doesn't matter where you are - it matters where you want to be!"
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