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“What is your Virus?” Orville Thompson, CEO of booming MLM company, Scentsy, definitely got the attention of the audience with this question at The Symposium Group’s conference in Salt Lake City last month. The Symposium Group is a consortium of MLM and Party Plan experts who conduct bi-annual symposiums to train individuals interested in starting up MLM and Party Plan companies. Explaining his question, guest speaker Orville commented that MLM companies must “create a viral campaign that will spread all over the world.”

Not too many years ago, success was not a word Orville associated with his experience as an entrepreneur. He typically frequented fairs as well as shows and used kiosks to sell products. Then, at a trade show in Salt Lake, he met a couple of full time moms with a teeny company named Scentsy, who had come up with some unique, no-flame candle products. To make a long story short, the marriage between this struggling entrepreneur and a promising, exciting new product produced a company and a success story that has made MLM history! Great things came out of a small, humble beginning. Orville started out with ten people in his living room. He’s a regular kind of guy that gives the rest of us hope that we can build our MLM dreams!

Orville attended past Symposiums to learn the MLM ropes. At the beginning of this last Symposium when all the speakers gave a brief synopsis of what they’d be talking about, Orville said he’d be speaking about “why it’s important to listen to the rest of these guys.” Then, in his presentation, he said:

Here at the Symposium Group and being connected through the Direct Selling

Association, this is the way I’ve learned the fundamental principles of the

structure of direct selling companies that are very invaluable! You can’t do it

without tying yourself into vendors who know and company executives who

have been there.

When I was here in your position I kept asking the same question. What does a successful company look like? I have no idea what I’m supposed to be looking like--because all there was were successful companies and then there were struggling companies, and I wanted to understand the process. And nobody could either identify the process or they didn’t want to share it.”

The presenters and topics from this last Symposium in May included:

• Getting the Most Out of Your Symposium Experience – Jerry York, Vice President of Sales, ByDesign Technologies.

• Your Critical Path to Launching Your Company: Timeline or Time Bomb! – Sandi Donaldson, President, Moriah Marketing Group.

• Guerilla Retention: 10 Tips to Help You Keep Your Field Reps – Dave Taylor, CEO, ServiceQuest.

• Growing Scentsy: Copy My Best Decisions – Avoid My Biggest Mistakes – Orville Thompson, CEO Scentsy.

• Designing Your Business for Today’s Distributor – Nicki Keohohou, Co-Founder & Partner, Direct Selling Women’s Alliance.

• Commission Plans – Mark Rawlins, President/CEO, InfoTrax Systems.

• The Keys to Attracting and Keeping Top Field Leaders – Ron Williams, CEO and Founder, ForeverGreen.

• Keeping Your Business Legal – What’s New on the Regulatory Front – Spencer Reese, Grimes & Reese, PLLC.

• Your Story is Your Story – Bryan Thayer, President, Dream Builders.

• Xango – Why IT Matters – Russ Fletcher, Sr. Director Information Technology, Xango.

• MLM/Party Plan: Sales and Recruiting – Bob Hipple, President, Eaglecap Consulting.

• Managing Your Business Through Strategic Planning – Spencer Clawson, CEO, Innolect Inc.

At the end of each presentation, time was allotted for attendees to ask questions. They each had a Symposium Guide including the Power Point presentations for the speakers and room for taking notes. For the first time, The Symposium Group offered Audio CDs of the Symposium for purchase.

Probably the greatest benefit and value offered at Symposium was the opportunity to meet one-on-one with the Symposium Group Faculty—the presenters, themselves, who are all seasoned professionals. They spent 3+ hours with individuals who signed up with the faculty members of their choice!

Another invaluable benefit The Symposium Experience offered was best described by Jerry York of the Symposium Group:

One of the most important benefits to gain from the Symposium is that you get to network—get to know each other. Most attendees are thinking about being in the business or exploring the opportunity. Some of the companies have been in the business for a number of years. It’s interesting to see the resultant growth from the networking that goes on here.

For example, I’ve seen that with Scentsy starting out—with Orville being here, thinking about doing it, raising the funds, and now all of a sudden the phenomenal growth his company has had with a group of people. Those stories are out there and we all feed off of that. It’s very, very important!

Michael Fantetti had this to say of his Symposium Experience:

It was a very good value. It was excellent and well worth the money and the time to spend a few days and really learn a lot and meet a lot of good people - a lot of professionals. I've been to several other conferences that were a similar format and really all they were was a "dog and pony show," trying to sell me something. This was not like that at all. If you've been to other conferences you need to look past that and learn real information from real professionals.

In conclusion, you can find out everything you ever wanted to know but were afraid to ask about MLM startup at The Symposium! The very real need for the Symposium Experience can be abstractly summed up with Orville Thompson’s Great Proverb: “It’s better to be on the ground wishing you were flying rather than being up in the air wishing you were on the ground.” Learn more about upcoming Symposiums sponsored by The Symposium Group and other information regarding MLM startup at The Symposium Group.