Never Give Up
If there is a theme to Jerry Brassfield’s life and career, it’s certainly “never give up.”
He’s come a long way from entering the direct selling industry as a teenager to founding the company that would become NeoLife. As a boy, he suffered from severe asthma. His mom tried many different solutions but eventually went down a path of natural remedies that changed the trajectory of his life. “She didn’t give up because the doctors couldn’t help me,” he recalled. “She networked with friends and other people and found supplements.” Jerry remembered that they tasted horrible, but they worked.
Fast forward a few years to when he was introduced to direct selling. He had just turned 19, and his brother loaned him $48.50 (equivalent to about $500 today) to get started in a business. Through nearly two decades of successes and failures with that same company, Jerry got to see what could go wrong. He joined another direct selling company, however, because he still loved the model.
“Companies today are trying to do the same thing whether it’s pizzas or satellite TV—if you recommend somebody, they give you a break on your own monthly charges,” Jerry said. “And so, everybody’s trying to incentivize, but I think in the network marketing space, we’ve just figured out very, very effective compensation plans that cause people to want to share.”
Sticking Together
Most of Jerry’s distributor organization stayed with him through the ups and downs. NeoLife essentially was started as an extension of that original organization. “I think there’s a lesson to be learned there. You stick to it; you keep going; and you just refuse to give up. If I were to have a lesson for anyone, it’s you can’t hit the ball if you’re not swinging at it.”
Through the years, Jerry has developed a family tree of success stories that came out of his organizations and businesses. Industry legends such as Jim Rohn, Rudy Revak, Les Brown and Larry Thompson branch out from that tree. Seeing them go on to have incredible success is something he’s especially proud of. He’s always believed in the power of surrounding yourself with exceptional people. His brother Bob was one of those people, having played a key role in the company’s success. Today, NeoLife is in more than 50 countries, and Jerry has turned over day-to-day operations to his daughter Kendra as CEO. He remains very involved and regularly interacts with the distributor field.
Taking Action
Jerry attributes a lot of his success and influence to the principle of taking action and learning along the way. “You only learn by doing. You don’t learn by sitting in a room. If you want to learn to swim, you can’t sit beside the pool for a month and get instruction every day on how to swim; how to breathe; how to kick; how to relax. You have to dive in. When you get in the pool, you’re still going to choke and get your lungs full of water. You’re gonna go under a few times before you succeed.”
He says success in the industry comes from empowering people to take action, not in bogging them down with too much training and instruction before they act. He says they should jump in the water and get going. “You learn from your failures and successes. You learn more from your failures because they sting, but doing and failing are important parts of how you learn.”
Through his experience, Jerry has seen the industry evolve but says the core of people and relationships is still there. So are the challenges. “We have individuals that promise unrealistic results—but all you have to do is find two people. There’s a lot to it and you learn gradually as you go through these steps, and you don’t over-promise.”
In that sense, Jerry is a fan of industry regulation. He thinks it’s made the industry better overall, realizing that sometimes regulation goes too far and sometimes it doesn’t go far enough. He believes in selling products to customers who love them and a compensation plan that divides things up fairly.
Rooted in Principle
NeoLife has evolved its business tools in recent years focusing on online technology advancements in sales and recruiting, but Jerry sees them as just tools to enhance the core relationship nature of the industry.
“You can use these tools to further enhance and to accomplish results that you get from building personal relationships, but you can’t build a relationship that’s meaningful if you don’t get off the screen,” he explained. “I think almost all selling now is relationship selling. We as humans trust that person more than we trust advertising. People that try to skip relationship building don’t go very far.”
Jerry credits his Christian upbringing for laying the foundation for his business principles. He likes to think long-range instead of focusing on quick profits for today. “It’s a more conservative route of just making sure you’re telling the truth, and you’re building relationships. It’s not for me to say what I did that was great. It’s for somebody else to look at and try to figure it out.”
A Legacy That Keeps Giving
At 83, Jerry is grateful for his health and is still very active. Instead of trying to build more wealth, he’s working to give more away. He believes in helping people who need help and wants to be remembered for leaving behind businesses that ultimately help others.
“I would like to use whatever I’ve been blessed with, and I would like the people running the companies I founded to continue to distribute that wealth out to help other people. I think that’s what we’re here for. If I can leave a legacy, it would be to leave profitable businesses that go on not only for the rest of my life, but the rest of their lives. And whatever comes out of that is used to help other people.”
Jerry is honored to receive the Lifetime Achievement Award for his perseverance and influence that have helped mold the industry for more than six decades. “I’m very grateful and thankful to be recognized in this manner by my peers—by people who know what they’re doing. To have this honor, this is special.”
From the June 2024 issue of Direct Selling News magazine.
