Robin Cohen

_______________________________ I just think no matter how you do in this business there are always new ways and new people that can inspire you and right now I feel I'm in a new stage of a whole new way of doing it. I feel great!

Robin, is Oxyfresh your full-time occupation? No, well actually it is the most active thing I do. I own some investment real estate now and trade stocks on my own, but yes, this is the only 'work' that I do.

What did you do in a former life? I sold fish and seafood to hotels and restaurants.

You were a fishmonger? Yeah... I'm the original fishmonger.

Let's start at the beginning. How did you first become aware of network marketing and how did you get involved in it? Well, I was making six-figures in the seafood industry and I had to get up about 3:00 AM. I literally worked on the docks to make sure quality control was good. I worked pretty hard for the income that I made. And, I also really liked it.

There was a point where I was called into the office and I was told they were going to take some of my accounts away; accounts that I had brought into the company and that would reduce my income. Somebody thought I was making too much money. I was making more than the general manager. I think I was doing about eight million-dollars in sales and I was very low maintenance, and motivated and I enjoyed what I did. When they did that, well... it was the 'corporate glass ceiling' you hit.

Was it a gender thing— the 'glass ceiling' that women face. Or was it simply that wonderful deal where the salesperson builds the territory and then they cut her back? It was the income. That's exactly it. There really weren't even any women in the business, so I was pretty much the only one. And it worked to everyone's advantage that I was there, because I would schmooze and do my own thing. So, I don't think that being a woman was the issue.

At that point, I'd been looking around, because I wanted to make more money than what I was making. Also, I was getting a little tired of the 'fish boys', and other industry issues. I had been introduced to a very small network marketing company— actually, I’m just guessing it was small— called Viva America. It was nutritionals and they owned the product line Metrin, a skin care product. They broke apart and we were kind of floundering, we didn't know what was going on and we kind of regrouped under Metrin itself. I did about a one-year stint with each company. What I realized was I didn't appreciate being in an environment where there was no stability in terms of management and ownership. I didn't want to invest myself in that.

Also, I didn't enjoy the conversations. I didn't enjoy talking to people about nutritionals as it was very hard to prove the results, and I didn't enjoy being in people's bathrooms showing them how to wash their faces with skin care products, so I just needed to find something else.

Along came Michelle Scott. Michelle Scott had been looking into Oxyfresh, or actually Oxyfresh had been looking at her, and she told me about it. I was hungry and she wouldn't actually sign me up because I was already in something else, so I sort of begged her.

I eventually signed up with her and it turns out I'm the only one she ever signed up in Oxyfresh. I went on to work directly with her upline, Randy Anderson, as Michelle never really got involved. He became my teacher, mentor and dear friend of 12 years.

That's a long-distance love affair, right? Because you're in Philadelphia and Randy's out in California? Yes, and Kansas, California, Germany now, too... yep! He's always made an effort to come out, usually twice a year. He would come out and teach me how to do the business. We would have meetings and I would get to watch how he works with people.

Robin, tell me two or three things you got from Randy, from observing how he operates and how he does things, that have been the most meaningful for you. One of the statements he's always made— and I really live by this— is that when you're working with people you want to assist to be more productive, rather than saying what's wrong, say, "What, if done differently, would create a different result, a better result?" It's always been a very positive way to look at a situation that you want to turn around and not make the people feel badly. It's a starting point with the eloquence and the warmth and the 'not too shiny' professional type of rapport that Randy has.... He's really just a regular person, a regular guy. Whether he's talking to a waitress that's helping us or an owner of a dental practice, he's pretty much always the same guy.

Randy is very authentic, very warm and very easy for people to connect with and relate to personally. Watching him just be himself, with foibles and making mistakes, attract people, was a real eye-opener for me. Once we have the people to work with...

... he always demonstrated ways to elevate them by always empowering them, never putting them down, and finding just the right words that deliver his message so that it makes people feel good about themselves.

What else has been meaningful there for you? I think there is a comfort level for me with Randy in that he's always taught basics. In the twelve years that we've been together in Oxyfresh, lots of things have come and gone, the 'newest hottest tape' or the 'newest hottest presentation' or PowerPoint or compensation plan, and none of that has ever changed the way Randy operates, which has really been just the basics of network marketing.

And what are they, Robin? What are some of those basics? Well, the very, very basic three words - to use, recommend and sponsor people into the business certainly is one. Also, this is a business that's built one person at a time, one relationship at a time and to really strengthen those relationships through a commitment of time together.

Teaching people just the basics of the benefits. Benefits of both the products that you're representing and the benefits to your life style— as opposed to there being a lot of people who feel they need to know every ingredient in a product and get themselves all wrapped up in technically knowing things and getting lost in the shuffle. Randy has never been a big fan of that.

He's never been a big fan of buying leads for example. He will just work a persons warm market forever. There are always places to go and there is an art form to reminding people or showing them that there are always more tentacles coming from themselves and their immediate warm market, so you don't really need the high tech stuff; Not that it isn't a benefit in many ways, but in terms of things like buying leads he was never a proponent of that. I'm not either, in fact I don't think I've ever bought a lead.

Robin, when we talked earlier you, you didn't use the word but I will, that your focus is on retailing and establishing customers. Please talk about that. Well, no, I think I misspoke that. At least not on retailing necessarily. The emphasis that we have in our company is that we have two niche markets that are really, really strong. One is the Dental Industry and one is the Veterinary Pet Industry, and in addition to those we are interested in teaching people how to oxydize their home... how to Oxyfresh their home. And, teaching them how to let people know what they're up to and find people with something 'missing' in their life and let them know about the income opportunity.

The next thing that I do is I always look to teach people to get involved in the niche markets, because it makes sense and it's really well received.

For example, today I'm working with a woman who is not a dental or pet professional, but is interested in working in the pet market right now. So, what she has done is cold-called a bunch of people in the industry and we have several appointments, many at places where she has already dropped off product and information on her own.

Now, I'm coming in to solidify some of the things she talked about. In every conversation we have we are always looking for people who have some discontent and want to join us in the business as well. So, there is a big emphasis on getting people who are solidly using the product and then they retail the product to their customer base, whether it's pet or dental, and all along the way we find vet techs, and dental hygienists, and veterinarians, dentists, auxiliary staff, breeders, people like that who are killing themselves and not making ends meet.

This is a very appealing market for them, because their regular life is so deeply invested in the pet community that, for example, when we offer them a business where they can work within the pet industry, they're really happy because they already know a million people in that business.

Can you give us an idea of your business-building strategy? My organization is very sales oriented. We have a lot of accounts that buy regularly and while we are always bringing in new people, the base of over 12 years is just a really solid base of accounts that buy products. What we did in the month where I tripled my earnings was run specials and very aggressively maximize what we could do with the accounts we currently had, which created a big 'mushroom' of energy. What happened was that we recruited lots of people at the same time.

Robin, when I asked Richard Brooke, the Chairman of Oxyfresh, to recommend someone to do a story on, I asked…“Tell me three things that you admire about this person and what makes those qualities important or special for you?”

Richard said, "Leadership, Robin leads quietly, as is her style, but powerfully. Her people will cite her leadership as a primary motive for them." Can you expand a little bit on what Richard is talking about? I guess I walk my talk. I feel as though when someone trusts me and my company with their time and their money and then start to trust us with their heart, that I take it pretty seriously.

Let me interrupt... what do you mean 'trust us with their heart'? I think there is a difference between network marketing and other businesses, in that if you become really hooked, you get emotionally attached. There's good and bad to that, but the good is:

You feel like you're at home, you feel like you can let your guard down, that you can trust the process, you can trust your partners and know that they are going to go way out on a limb for you and do everything they can for your success.

They will repeatedly show that to you and will act that out in a way that in your 10, 20, 30 or 40 years of working you may have never witnessed before, so you become a little emotionally connected.

At that point, that's when there is a heart connection, and that's when there is something that I take very seriously. Here’s what I think-- a lot of people have come and gone with me, as with anybody, there is a lot of attrition in this business, and those that have stayed know it's not a perfect industry, it's not a perfect situation, but they know we will champion them in a way that will pretty much surpass anything that they've ever experienced. I've had that happen to me and I'm pretty much just passing the baton so that others get a chance to feel that. I think people get that from me, and they pass that onto their people.

There are so many aspects of leadership, there are so many styles of leadership... for me, I just like to champion people and participate with them— including in some of the downers, so they don't get blown away by it.

They know in this not perfect system, this not perfect industry, there are still going to be highlights that truly make people feel different about themselves, make them see sides of themselves they've never seen before and, at the far end, that they can accomplish things. They can then live a life that's more of choice, have opportunities they didn't have before.

We move so fast in the world now, and we have blinders on just to get through a day and get through a week. There is something about network marketing that can help you take the blinders off and have a broader peripheral view of what your life can be. I feel obliged, in Oxyfresh, to do it not just for myself, but for the whole company.

Can you give me an example of what you're speaking about? I have always been a person that believes in regional meetings and I spent a lot of time in Oxyfresh, a good solid year, devoted to regional meetings in all of Oxyfresh, not just my region. It was really rewarding, because at the height of this movement we had approximately 25 or 28 regions over all of North America, including Canada. One weekend I think we had 15 meetings going on and for a company of our size that was pretty significant.

What we were trying to do was get people connecting in a room for a day. It is pretty challenging to get people away from their lives in order to do something like that, to take the time to learn about the products, about the business, about the income and mostly, I think, to have an opportunity to have their intuition speak to them about who we are as a company.

When you hang out with us and you listen to us you learn that maybe we're not the fastest growing, or the most polished, or the best... but we're certainly authentic and we are in this to stay for the long haul and we're willing to go to the mat for values that matter to us.

I think we accomplished that quite a bit in those meetings.

I remember sitting in the audience the first time I went to an Oxyfresh meeting and I was so impressed with who these people were. It's hard to explain, but I just thought, these are real people and I want to be a part of what this is and it was so professionally done. The other thing I thought was, 'I could do this!' There was something about it that wasn't so polished, so big glittering lights and fabulous that it scared me away. Instead I would think, 'I don't have any public speaking experience, but I can do this.' I think you want to have both.

We want to have people feel the professionalism and also feel the message, 'you can do this', because if the newest person in the organization doesn't feel that they can do this, we've missed the mark.

Robin, tell me, what you consider to be the best things about network marketing. One thing is that I've had the opportunity in my mid-forties to have a family, to have small children, and actually raise them. I have a partner, a woman, and we have two small children, boys, two and five. Scot is the five-year-old and Ethan is the two-year-old.

Also, since I have a part-time nanny, I'm able to go into my home office and work, which I love and don't want to stop or miss, so I get to have both. If I worked in any of the other positions I've had I would never be home with my kids or have raised them through their early years so I'm enormously grateful for this time.

And then personally it has given me the ability to touch a lot of people's lives and to contribute things about myself and learn things about myself that I don't know if I would have otherwise. It gave me and continues to give me a medium to do that.

What's the importance of having learned things about yourself? What kinds of things have you learned and how does that contribute to you? One of my highest values is connection; to really have a connection with people. I think that for me, Oxyfresh has allowed me to have very deep connections to people and it's meaningful to me that this very high value is met through my work. It's also taught me a lot about boundaries.

Before you go there... what's the high value of yours that has connecting with people be so important for you? You seem to be saying something more profound than just shared activity. Yes, it's not actually about shared activity, it's about shared dreams or visions or, I don't know, people that want something more and are willing to do something about it within the context of their lives.

That's the key connection with me when I'm talking to a prospect: Do these people really want something new or do they think they do and they will change back to the old thing, because they don't have the where with all, they don't have the guts, they don't have the vision, they don't have that ‘something’ that’s strong enough to compel them to take action.

Then, if they really are willing to do it, what changes are they going to make in their lives, because this isn't going to happen without incorporating some change in your life.

Scheduling: Can you work a little in the day... a little in the night? ...can your husband help you? ...are the kids handled? Whatever it is, they need to be willing to make inroads in their present life to make change happen. So, do they want it for real and what changes are they going to make happen are important questions?

Then, the evolution that comes with this. They are going into a new area, they are learning to do new things and that can be scary. They're with me in partnership, so I'm going to be there with them to support them for the whole ride until they're ready to be on their own.

There's a metamorphosis that happens with all of this. It's a little unconscious, but it's mostly conscious; connecting to find someone with this willingness means there has to be some trust and belief. There may be some inconvenience or problem that we also work through, which develops even more trust and then ultimately there's a connection that happens when you're working with someone and you go through these things.

You've entered their personal lives a little bit, you've entered their scheduled lives, and you've entered their psyche, because this is somebody who is awake, not just going through life asleep. They are awake and wanting to make changes in their life, they're doing it and it creates a connection. That's the type of person that when I'm working with them, I'm devoted and that gives me a hit.

A hit? It's exciting, it's fun, it's rewarding.

Got it. Robin, any last words? In Oxyfresh we have recently been very fortunate to have some new, powerful, wonderful people come to our company and they have a very different style from how I've been taught. I say I'm 'organically raised' in Oxyfresh, and been there so long that I always come back to the growing stalk of what I know.

Now, I'm so humbled by watching this whole other way of people coming into the company. They don't know anything about dentistry or pet products or veterinary medicine, they just know we have this great company and we have great leaders, owners and staff, cutting-edge, solid as can be with great integrity, and they're saying this little baby is ready to explode and they're exploding it.

I'm just awestruck by watching it happen, being a part of it, and being a student of new avenues of how to do things. I just think no matter how you do in this business there are always new ways and new people that can inspire you and right now I feel I'm in a new stage of a whole new way of doing it. I feel great! I feel gratitude around that!

And excited it seems. Yes! Very much!

Robin lives in Wyndmoor, Pennsylvania, and has been with Oxyfresh for 12 years. Robin has developed an organization of 6000 distributors and customers with about 30 leaders.