Thrive – General Session III

The time was ripe. It was the final day of THRIVE ’09 and the final general session… It was time for Gordon Morton. And Gordon made sure that this general session began the same way that the XanGo business did seven years ago—with charitable giving.

He took the audience back in time to what he calls the “prequel to Joe’s story,” where his parents raised he and Joe with an understanding that money is just a tool for the enlightened mind. That’s why, when Gordon and the Founders were creating the XanGo philosophy and taking input from leaders of other companies, they refused to work with the ones who considered themselves their own favorite charity.

Now, after seven years, the world is realizing how serious we are about charity. We are not going to let it become a footnote or a sideshow. It is at our core. If anybody didn’t see the XanGo Goodness Foundation coming, then they weren’t listening to what we were saying. We always said that giving was in our hearts, and we always knew its role would only expand.

With that, Gordon let the big screen do the talking by showcasing the latest XanGo Goodness film.

Keeping with another tradition as old as the company itself, and keeping a promise that he made in Las Vegas earlier this year, Founder & Board Member Aaron Garrity took the stage, microphone in hand, and vocally lifted the audience to their feet.

Now, there’s no law against being a board member and a rock star, but if there were, Aaron would be an outlaw. While he was delivering the song “Better Days” by the Goo Goo Dolls, a montage on screen showed XanGo Goodness delivering better days to children across the world.

And, not ready to leave the subject of Goodness behind just yet, XanGo CEO Robert Conlee entered the stage with the Goodness Meal Pack on his mind. With the recent creation of Goodness recognition, there was a new type of XanGo Distributor to be recognized: the Goodness Emissary.

And who better to recognize our Goodness Emissaries than 200K Glenn Sparks, a giant giver in his own right. He came out with a question: What is success? And, though success means many different things to many different people, it means something specific to XanGo: “At XanGo, success is measured by an existence improved—a life given the opportunity to be lived as it should be.”

With the Emissaries of Life and Hope being recognized for their worthy accomplishments, Robert had a Goodness surprise up his sleeve. Seconds earlier, John Machlovitz had been pulled backstage for reasons he didn’t know.

Here’s what you need to know about John: he and his wife have donated the most Meal Packs overall in all of XanGo—and for that generous effort, Robert announced that John and his wife were going to join XanGo on next year’s Operation Smile mission to Thailand!

After the powerful and uplifting force of Goodness recognition, it was time to recognize the forces that drive XanGo: our 500K Selects. One by one, 13 iconic Distributorships were introduced by the XanGo Founders and received their hard-earned praise. As Gary Hollister said, “these Distributors are definitely on XanGo’s list of best-sellers.” And there’s little doubt that Dwayne & Melody Dyer will put the number of iconic XanGo Distributorships up to 14 very soon.

XanGo 200K Elizabeth Salinas delivered the message that life can always get worse; but with XanGo, it will always get better. It just takes work. Take it from someone who knows. Next, 200Ks Eric & Heidi Welch shared their joint story of making a change and sticking to it, while letting its success stick to you.

Starting with the special update that the funds which had been raised for Operation Smile at THRIVE ’09 were now at $70,000, it was time for the drawings and giveaways! Meet your winners below:

ABCs Cruise Winner: 1K Yu Chen Chen
Recruiter Car Winners: Michael & Rebecca Botticelli
Bringers Car Winner: Edith Riza
Store Car Winner: Elin Henriksen
Surprise Car Winner: Deborah Rutz

Congratulations to all the hard-working and happy winners! Thankfully, XanGo has found a way to top the excitement of giving away FOUR CARS (and there aren’t many ways to top that kind of excitement). What is the way that we’ve found? Doug Wead.

Doug has a way of making 30 minutes feel like 3 seconds while delivering a year’s worth of inspiration. And the inspiration that he wove into today’s message was—and listen closely—that “It is not about what you are able to do. It is about what you are going to do.”

We are all created equal, and there are millions of things that we can each do. We can play an instrument, speak a foreign language, play on a sports team, earn a million dollars… but we often don’t. And it’s not because we can’t. It’s simply because we do not decide to do it.

So. Decide to do it. It’s that simple. Thrive with us.