Any home can be a Wellness Home

The lady on the left is a Silver Consultant, presenting products to this bedouin man in an Israeli desert. He is a Senior Consultant, happily sleeping on a Nikken sleep system, and in his village, there are already several new sign-ups. Isn't it amazing how the message of Wellness reaches people everywhere! Thanks Dalia Bergsagel for the photo!

Direct Selling and the EU

Is the EU's stance on Direct Selling softening? After previous concerns on legislation and where the European harmonization would take the Direct Selling industry, there are now some signs that give hope to the Direct Selling community that EU politicians might be realizing the value of what we have to offer.

According to Richard Berry, the Director of FEDSA (The European Federation of Direct Selling Associations), the European Commission now supports Direct Selling due to how the industry supports three major areas that are high on Brussel's priority list:

- Coping with worsening job security in EU
- Widening gender attention to female and older age
employment and self employment
-The need to improve the business skills of the EU
population and encourage entrepreneurial activity.

Which other industry could support this better? And add to this the wellness concerns of an aging population and you have one company that is perfectly positioned - Nikken.

A recent Socio Economic Impact Study conducted, in co-operation with FEDSA, in seven EU Member States, by the international market research organisation, Ipsos MORI involved interviews with 2800 direct sellers and the companies with which they worked.

Ipsos MORIs study reveals that over 83% of these direct sellers are women, 70% are aged over 35 years and 30% are 50 years old and more.

Richard Berry states:
"This age profile is higher than those in conventional employment in Europe - a fact that is now appreciated and welcomed by the European Commission. Another valuable research finding is that 70% of all the direct sellers interviewed, for whom direct selling represents their first experience of business, reported that it significantly improved their lives and personal development. This is crucially important in encouraging entrepreneurs."

The study follows new FEDSA research which shows that directselling is now a € 20 billion industry, offering opportunities to nine million independent direct sellers.

To be the most respected wellness company in the world

Mr Bob Richards, President of Nikken Global, inspired us all this week with his powerful message. With meetings in Turkey, the UK, Holland and Hungary during the last week, he met with hundreds of Consultants and shared his vision for the company:

"To be the most respected wellness company in the world."

Simple, powerful and backed up by numerous strategic initiatives, this vision is what guides Nikken as we proceed into a new era of growth and momentum. Sales are up, recruiting is up and excitement is building. Nikken has never been better positioned to take opportunity of the wellness revolution and the distribution revolution, two forces that are shaping our society and changing the way we work and do business.

One of the supporting pillars of this vision is the creation of the Nikken Research Institute. The activities of the Nikken Research Institute include publishing white papers on topics related to complementary medicine. You will hear much more of the institute in the future, I'm sure...

Below a shot from one of our several meetings in Apeldoorn, Holland on Wednesday 7 November.

More money

There we go again! You have sold thousands and thousands of Sports Bracelets so that we can give another big donation to Autism Speaks.

Our contributions are doing a lot for this charity and their representative expressed their sincere gratitude on Monday 5 November, when President of Nikken Global was in Milton Keynes on a visit and we took the opportunity to hand over the second cheque to Autism Speaks.

Over 20 000 EUR this time again, totalling our contribution to more than 47 000 EUR. Well done everyone!

But we are not only contributors of funding. Autism Speaks has also started to do research on how our products can benefit the quality of life for those affected by autism.

Rhythm of Nikken DVD - almost there!

The first DVD production for our Rhythm of Nikken events on 24 November is coming to its glorious end. After a few reviews and amendments, it is starting to look really good.

Providing an introduction to many of the ideas and concepts of Rhythm of Nikken, as well as news and information on products, promotions, incentives and what is happening in the world of Nikken in general, the DVD is the "framework" for the Rhythm of Nikken events and makes it easy for the host to keep his or her event together.

Mixed with live appearances on stage such as a Gold Panel, a success story by a guest speaker and recognition, the DVD gives the events a uniform look and feel and makes it possible for us to reach thousands of people across the continent with the same corporate messages - face to face.

We are already planning the second DVD. But first---- join the Rhythm of Nikken events on 24 November!

Humans Being More in Budapest

Great weekend in Budapest with Humans Being More

The weekend of 29-30 September became memorable for many people, me including. Around 55 attendants participated in an HBM training at the Novotel Zentrum in Budapest with brilliant trainer Kjell Nilsson and our wonderful interpreters Zoltan and Laszlo.

This was the best HBM I have seen so far and a good indication on what is to come as we update and renew the concept next year, bringing in some fresh, powerful exercises. The spirit of HBM will be the same but the impact event more powerfu. So look out for more information on an upcoming Super HBM Launch Weekend!!

What is this man doing?

Felix Puzio in action, working a few of his seven laptops to produce yet another brilliant show.

The Wiesbaden event last weekend was a great success. Thanks everyone for joining. Super speakers. Good to see Sonnenburg again, in top shape, after his world tour over summer.

Felix was awarded a prize for his outstanding service as a supplier (Team Europa) for many years. Well deserved.

We also announced the deal with DaimlerChrysler. In fact, the German sales manager for fleet cars was there to meet us and announce that they wanted to increase our discount on their cars with an additional 5 %! Thank you... this co-operation will surely prove fruitful. We already have the Nikken SmartCars as you see in a photo below. Now an army of Nikken cars will soon be out there in the form of some of the nice new Mercedes-Benz models.

Finally...some impressions from Gothenburg

Yeah, yeah I know I'm late with this one but it was a busy week following Gothenburg. Right over to another event in Luton and then full speed ahead.

We did have a great weekend though. Great show. Sven did a great job as MC and all Consultant speakers were brilliant. We has such a good time that our plan to leave the party early... well, didn't happen.

470 sold tickets, we almost hit the 500 we aimed for. But a great start of a productive autumn period with two more months to go for joining us in Tenerife in January!

This is where it starts

Here we are planning the first Rhythm of Nikken DVD that will be sent out to all the event hosts in advance of the 24 November Rhythm of Nikken events. These new quarterly events will eventually roll out to every corner in Europe, but we start by establishing them in the UK, Ireland, Holland, Germany, Switzerland and Austria first.

Around 15 events will take place in November and then the events will just grow and grow by numbers and countries...

Tony Chaplin, our MD at the left, then Phil Woodcock in charge for Operations and Marketing, John Bradford in the middle, who is our new copywriter, and then Wendy Bradley, from Marketing and very skillfully in charge of the production of this DVD, then me.

Join our events in November! They will be ... grrrreat!

2 days to go!

Interesting things to be revealed in Gothenburg on Saturday. We have just agreed a deal with DaimlerChrysler that will benefit Nikken Consultants that want to take part in the car programme. We will be introducing the Rhythm of Nikken.

Products coming later this year will be revealed.

We'll have a great show ... see lots of inspiring speakers.

My old friend Jerry Clark will be there to do what he does best. Just seeing him is worth coming to Gothenburg this weekend.

So... we still have a few tickets left to sell at the door. Come to Gothenburg and join us!

Inspiration from Dublin

Thank you Joan O'Callaghan and everyone else involved in organizing the Irish Showcase Day on 19 August!


This was an inspirational day with presentations of Nikken, the Wellness Home, great testimonials, recognition and an introduction to the Rhythm of Nikken. The Irish lot were also the first ones to see the images of the upcoming new TriPhase bracelets that will be available in about a months time.

On the top image, our keynote speaker Mark, who is blind but that didn't stop him from being an Iron Man athlete, running a marathon on the North Pole, on mount Everest, running the equivalent of five marathons in one week in the Gobi desert and many more amazing feats. Next to him Irish Consultant Peter Keehan.

Middle photo is of Joan O'Callaghan herself, a great host of the event who really put in some hard work and care to make sure the day was a success. Bottom photo - some of the attendants. Two new Silvers of the Russian community in Ireland. Analoty, the man on the right is an Olympic silver medalist in boxing and now also a Nikken Silver!

Nikken Europe donates 26 271 EUR to Autism Speaks

Here we go! Recently we were visited at the office by a representative for the charity Autism Speaks. We were happy to be able to present quite a cheque to this noble charity, 26 271 EUR, based on a very successful launch of our new Sports Bracelet. Well done folks!!

You've promoted this amazing TriPhase technology product so well that we've run out of stock several times. Big shipments are expected to refill our stock later this month, so we can keep selling this good looking product that also makes you feel good!

We look forward to presenting the next cheque. I'm sure it will be even bigger!

Nordic top leaders meet in Copenhagen

1 August - Nordic top leaders get together with me and Tony at Hilton Copenhagen to have a look at what the rest of the year has to offer, plan together and for us to get valuable feedback from our great leaders on the field who are changing the world one Wellness Home at a time.

The Executive Sales Board is our most exclusive "club", by invitation only. How to get there? Well... qualify for President's Club first... and keep going... and we'll see!

Recruiting in Paris

Again... weather was perfect when I crossed the channel to spend a day in Paris. Was glad to leave rainy Britain to soak some sun by the Northern Station in Paris, a nice lunch at the Brasserie Terminus and good meetings with the top candidates for the job as Regional Network Development Manager for our French language markets.

One of the candidates seems very promising and is now scheduled for a visit to Milton Keynes to get more acquainted with the company and for further interviews. If all goes well... our team will be strengthened by another skilled person who will contribute to make Nikken even stronger.

Viva Espana!

Big excitement over Spanish plans

Hola! From a great meeting in Milton Keynes this week with Spanish leaders.

The Spanish market is rockin' and rollin' and the next big event to shoot for is the Madrid Expo on 22-23 September.

Some added support is now planned with materials and customer services in Spanish is now up and running!

Thanks to Team Spain for visiting us and good luck on your efforts to create even bigger success!

Hasta... soon!

Enough water

Do you drink enough water? The magic of Nikken Pi-Mag water never ceases to amaze me. It really is good stuff and something I miss a lot if I happen to leave home without the portable Magna-Tube for turning any nasty bottled water into easy-to-drink, good-for-you living water.

We have had a lot of water in the UK lately. Rain, rain, rain. To the point where this weekend it's been flooding. A lot of people affected quite dramatically. My share was only having a very long journey home on Friday night - seeing a lot of new scenery - since roads were blocked at several places. I was riding in a taxi and I don't know how many extra miles we did but we surely toured the countryside and finally made it home...

Next day I was glad to watch Victor Bischoff do an HBM training in Stanmore on the outskirts of London. It was great to see all the Pi-Mag water systems and Optimizers lined up.

Expecting visitors from Spain today! Sakita, Diamond and one of Europe's first Consultants, is coming over with a group of Spanish leaders who are really reviving the market and have created momentum there!

Enjoy your summer - hot or not. Did a trip to Brussels last week and it's interesting how the weather changes as you cross the English Channel. Great weather on the continent. UK ... naaah...

Nikken corporate planning the 2nd half of 2007

Your corporate team planning some good stuff for the rest of the year

Here we are. Spending an afternoon at the office going through targets and plans for the second half of 2007. Good times are ahead and we are very busy preparing for the Rhythm of Nikken, new products, new business tools, improving operations, updating trainings, you name it. Nikken is changing and we have cancelled all vacations to serve you... well not all vacations but activity does not slow down the middle of summer in Milton Keynes. If we only could have some more sun... to provide some variety when we look out the windows. We kind of know what rain looks like by now.

We have a lot of us Finns here at the office. Don't know how that happened but it's great to have some "sisu" at the Nikken European headquarters. Here you see one of them, Marketing Executive Mari Daly presenting the support of the Marketing Team for the Rhythm of Nikken concept. She is really excited about it and very focused on the needs of our Consultants. As mentioned, good stuff coming, all released during the next coming months.

Tenerife contest for more countries!

Good news to Consultants in Germany, Austria, Switzerland (German) and Hungary. Tenerife contest running as of ... well now!

Cancel your vacations and get your Nikken business booming so you can join us in the sun at Bahia del Duque in January! Visit the web site of this great hotel at: www.bahia-duque.com

You find the details on eNikken.

Holland rocks!

If you want to see enthusiasm, go to Holland! The Dutch Nikken Consultants livened up the Stansted convention in May, a week later they added spice to the Paris event organized by Jean-Marie Gilbert and the Desroses. Last weekend they had 48 pumped up Consultants at an HBM and there is a new one coming up soon.

I very much look forward to trying our new 2 day format BDT in Busum next week.

Today, a leadership meeting with Platinum Danice Dorrepaal, Diamond Reini Beverdam and their team of key people. Tomorrow morning I meet Jo, Ann and Jantien at Schiphol airport. Also a very committed team with great leadership.

There is great promise for growth for Nikken in Holland. Keep going, guys! We believe in you and will support you all the way to the top.

Greetings everyone from Amsterdam.

Janne

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Polish eNikken coming...

Csesz!

Great news for all of you who are looking into building in Poland or already have started recruiting on the Polish market. We are in the final stages of translation and proofing of eNikken to Polish and it will be released in a matter of days! Also... you can look forward to the launch of some nutritional products early fall. Finally!

Poland is a market with huge potential for the right person who takes leadership there. A lot of materials for Poland is in production and next we will be translating and setting up the Connect web site for Poland.

Another great event in Wiesbaden

Wolfgang Sonnenburg did a splendid presentation in Wiesbaden this Saturday, just before leaving for his 2 month tour of "the beaches of the world". Enjoy Bahamas, Hawai, Florida and California, Wolfgang!

Gert van Briel, Diamond Consultant, did a fantastic job as a host of this business workshop. Christiane von Bredow gave a very inspired presentation on water. I don't know how many times I had to fill my water glass while she was explaining the importance of drinking a lot of PiMag water... but it did fell really good afterwards! Drink more!

This was the first time we gave a thorough explanation of the upcoming Rhythm of Nikken. I pointed out the benefits of the tools and concepts in development to support an orchestrated , company supported approach to building the business that will take the German speaking markets by storm and lead our success to new heights in the months to come.

This was also Steffi Heim's first official appearance in her new role as German Network Development Manager. She did it perfectly of course. Then we had to leave for the airport to embark on new adventures.

See you again next month! On 14 July, Sven Cirnski will join the show as a guest speaker.

Gunhild did it again!

Congratulations to Gunhild Haga from Norway for doing it again! She has won all our incentive trips lately, includong a double win to Dubai when there were very few winners from Europe.

Now Gunhild is the first one to already have qualified for a first ticket to the Kick Off in January 2008 in Tenerife, at the fabulous Bahia del Duque.

You can also win your ticket to participate at the event on 12-15 January with half-board service at this luxury hotel. The competition runs until 31 October!

See you there!
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Nikken on YouTube

I found myself on YouTube the other day... while searching for Nikken. It's the interview that was made after the events company who helped us produce the European Convention 2006 in Amsterdam had won several awards for the production.

Find this interview here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTGJU8HLohY

Tony forwarded this one to me, a clip about the Wellness Home:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKRLh6M_7GE

Another great evening in Germany

The second event featuring Prof. Zacharias was a great success. This time we were in Munich and we also got to see Royal Diamond Claus Nagel use the new business opportunity Power Point from Nikken. He did a brilliant job presenting the business using this new tool. The presentation is still in a test phase while we are updating some of the images for Europe and doing a final check on translations and so forth... But soon you will all have access to a great new presentation tool that I'm sure will help you in your recruiting.

Thank you all for attending. See you in Wiesbaden on Saturday!

It's a small world after all...

I bumped into Lars, a colleague from Amway, on Friday again. We always meet by luggage belt no 6 at Copenhagen airport after having been on the same flight from Heathrow. We even share the same executive travel company to drive us from Milton Keynes. Lars is doing really well, great guy. I just had to warn him about climbing the hills of Kullaberg in southwest Sweden which he should be doing today. Summer in southern Sweden doesn't start properly until a Dane falls off the cliffs there, usually with a fatal result! I guess Denmark is too flat for them to be able to cope with even the tiniest Swedish cliffs.

Steffi and I are on our way to the office right now. Good ol' Gary, the same driver that drove Lars on Friday is taking us there. Good traffic conditions today, the M1 can be horrible. Well, it is going southbound. Big accident and traffic just standing still but we are heading north.

Last week on return from my Hamburg trip, I called my sister. She works as a flight attendant and had just landed in Helsinki. She told me she had been in Hamburg for two days. Had she read my blog which I updated from a restaurant there, she could have joined us!

Small world...

I don't know what the bridge is here but I guess it is that there is no such thing as a co-incidence. Reminds me that I had the most amazing experience of the "law of attraction" a few weeks ago. You will have to ask me personally though. But the bridge here is to recruiting. The people are out there. They need you. They need the products and they need the business. Is it your fate to find the next Royal Ambassador? Create that fate. Go talk to them!

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Planning great momentum

Some really groovy things are going on here... we are planning the future of the business. Specifically the next generation of business support from Nikken to our Consultants.

This fall English and German speaking countries will be the first to experience a new "rhythm of the business"... The Luton event on 26 August sparks this off and in November you will see more...

From left, me, then our Operations Manager Phil Woodcock who is also Head of Marketing, then Mari Daly, fellow Finn and Marketing Executive and on the right our Managing Director Anthony Chaplin.

4,2 million new Consultants!

Professor Michael Zacharias is the leading academic authority in Europe in the fields of direct selling and especially Network Marketing. He has been teaching a course in Network Marketing at a German university for years and is the author of the definitive source book of information about our industry.

On 6 June Professor Zacharias was the guest speaker at a Nikken presentation. From a purely scientific point of view, based on his studies, he pointed out the enormous potential for recruitment of new Consultants in Germany. To match the US levels of number of distributors in network marketing companies as percentage of the population, Germany needs 4,9 million people in the business! Today the figure is around 700,000 which means there is 4,2 million distributors / Consultants to recruit for Germany to even match the US levels. Then we are still not comparing with the markets where the penetration is the highest in the world, countries like Taiwan and South Korea.

Also the statistics on the percentage of the population that is positive to buying through network marketing was good news. The potential is huge. The timing is right. Let's go get our share of those millions of Consultants and create even more millions of Wellness Homes!

Nikken on Channel 4

My excellent PA Donna Russell just emailed me that Nikken products were featured on UK television tonight. PiMag Maxi, Air Power 5 and our life changing sleep system were shown as part of a "healthy home". Finally some intelligent content on "the electronic income reducer" called television. With this type of shows I would even take up TV again... By the way, Donna should be elected the PA of the year. I will certainly nominate her.

Emailing this from a dinner with Felix, Steffi and Prof. Michael Zacharias in Hamburg. They send their greetings, we had a great meeting tonight! Pics on my blog tomorrow, or check out Steffi's or Felix. Links below.

Don't miss München on 11 June and Wiesbaden on 16th.

Janne
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Our new recognition web site

It's finally there! Our Nikken recognition web site is now functional and loaded with photos of all of you that have sent them to us. Can't find your photo? Make sure you e-mail them to recognition@nikken.co.uk

Please note that we have only uploaded those people so far whose photos we have on file. All the rest of the names will be up there very shortly, as soon as we have attached pics of the corresponding pins to their names... so within days or a few weeks all of you will be listed that have achieved new ranks or other achievements since our Amsterdam Convention last year.

Have you booked your tickets to this year's Love Life - Live Nikken - Nordic Convention yet? If not, please act now! The event is all in English so you might want to attend even if you are not one of us Nordic folks.

Yesterday we spent a good deal of time planning some really cool stuff to be launched later this year... maybe I can mention a few more words about it tomorrow...

My Team - Your Team

Here you see some of the good looking and terrific members of my team... dedicated and professional guys and gals who work hard to support all of you out there who are making a difference through the Nikken products, technologies and business.

From left; Rod Greenwell, Training Manager and Regional Network Development Manager for UK, Ireland and Holland, Sven Cirnski, Regional Network Development Manager for Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland, Telsche Reed-Simpson, our Customer Services Manager, then me, then Steffi Heim (welcome Steffi - good to work with you again!) who is the new Regional Network Development Manager for Germany and Poland, Felix Puzio from Team Europa, and the lady on the right is Gabrielle Haubner, Retail Business Developer and Regional Network Development Manager for Austria, Switzerland (German part) and Hungary.

We are still looking for a French speaking person to join our team... If you know anyone with direct selling experience, both from the field and corporate, is based in France, Belgium or Switzerland, and loves communication, training, challenges and is passionate about Wellness... let us know!

Check out the blogs of my team members and follow their adventures all around Europe!

• Sven Cirnski has a Swedish language blog...
• Steffi Heim has a German one...
• ...so does Gabrielle Haubner
• ...as well as Felix Puzio
  

Adventures in the World of Wellness

Welcome to my new Blog of Five Pillars. Stay up-to-date as I travel the world of Nikken, live the philosophy of Five Pillars of Health, visit events, meet Consultants all around Europe and share my experiences from our mutual effort to create ONE MILLION WELLNESS HOMES by the year 2010.

When you want to know more about the Wellness Home and how it can enrich your life, you simply visit www.nikken.co.uk/connect or www.nikken.com. It's amazing how easily you could improve your life starting today by incorporating the latest Wellness technologies into your life.

Who shouldn't breathe clean, energizing air in their home or office?
Why wouldn't you sleep better every night and wake up feeling totally relaxed and recovered?
Why wouldn't you share these opportunities with others and start your own business in the booming Wellness industry?

Be back often for the latest news!