Rod and Anita Swift - Reliv No More!

The following is some emails that I received from Rod and Anita Swift. They have given me permission to republish their info. I hope you find it helpful.

"Dear Reliv Friends and Former Associates,

This information was prepared for those of you who might have heard rumors and were concerned about why Reliv has felt the need to terminate our distributorship. We have been over whelmed with inquiries and appreciate every call and email from our Reliv friends over this past month . The following letter was composed as a brief explanation and we have constructed a web site to explain and clear up any misconceptions in greater detail . Thank-you all for your love and concern.

As many of you know, Anita and I resigned as Ambassadors several months ago. We realized this may come as a shock to those of you who were not yet aware of it. What may be even more shocking to you, as it was to us, is the response we received from Bob Montgomery via e-mail. Then, two months later on October 26th (and again, via e-mail), were informed by Reliv Compliance that our distributorship had been terminated (as of October 1, 2008).

It's been hard to accept that over the past few months no one from Reliv has made any effort to personally contact us by phone in regards to this issue. So much for that warm friendly relationship we were led to believe exists between Corporate and its Ambassadors.

All the reasons for our decision to resign as Ambassadors were addressed in a letter to Bob Montgomery shortly after the International Conference last August. That letter as well as Bob's response is now available to all you who care about your future with Reliv. I will only add here that after many hours of research our letter of resignation was prompted by what we believed to be serious concerns in regards to the direction Reliv was leading us. In that letter I believe that we honestly made an effort to convey our love and concern for a faltering company we had poured our heart and soul into for over six years. The unwillingness on Reliv's part to discuss much less address the issues we presented them with is evidence to me we must have struck a raw nerve.

Their delayed response was just as I predicted, "shoot the messenger." It has been my experience that corporations are always quick to scrap old worn out machinery but very slow to scrap old worn out business practices. It is stated in the Reliv PA brochure that as President and CEO Bob Montgomery is committed to helping Reliv Distributors achieve their goals. I'm sure that is true but a commitment to a vehicle running on flat tires is not a recipe for success. The reality of life is that most Reliv distributors over the past few years have experienced burn out and are left strewn along Reliv's "Road to Success" that is for them a tumultuous and costly trail of tears..

I asked myself, "Why have Reliv distributor numbers plummeted over the past couple years instead of exploding like so many other companies? If Reliv offers people such a wonderful business opportunity, why were Reliv's profits down over 40% last quarter?" How could I, as an Ambassador, honesty continue to encourage others to join me in a business that I myself, was finding harder and harder to be successful at? Talking to distributors at conference revealed that our story was not an isolated case, but rather the norm amongst nearly every distributor and Reliv Ambassador we questioned (names are being withheld for obvious reasons).

Of course, this was confirmed by the $7 million drop in sales between the 2nd quarter of 2008 and the same quarter of 2006. Obviously there have been serious Corporate decisions being made that are counter productive in this modern day marketing climate. The decline in sales can not be blamed on a few lazy Ambassadors or distributors as Bob Montgomery implied in his response to us.

Let it be known, Anita and I never QUIT Reliv, nor did we expect Reliv to toss us overboard. We just needed another source of income to make up for our dwindling Reliv check. Anita could have gone back to work with her family business, but our sense of responsibility to the organization we had worked hard to build dictated we find that additional income by working from home.

After being exposed to the power of network marketing, one can no longer think in terms of an employee. An exhaustive search led us to a company with a patented cold press method of manufacturing healthy chocolate that was backed up with tons of clinical studies that showed the power of how important antioxidant rich cacao is for our bodies immune system.

Sharing a healthy alternative product that the average American was already eating 12 pounds of a year was pretty much a "no brainer"! Because we love helping people we knew that this was something anyone could do with very little rejection and none of the stress of follow up. (Unlike soy-powder, nobody needs to instruct nor remind you to eat your daily serving of healthy, decadent Belgian chocolate).

Our Reliv distributorship wasn't terminated because we recruited other successful Reliv distributors.(and contrary to rumors, MXI has not paid us to bring our whole downline with us.) We were terminated because we helped a few friends who had either quit Reliv, could not afford Reliv anymore or had just plain been unsuccessful at getting their Reliv business off the ground. They saw what we were doing and asked if they could join us. The unilateral voluntary servitude contract, we ignorantly signed with Reliv over six years ago to get the best price on the products, unbeknown to us, forbade Anita and I from ever communicating anything relating to any type of business or monetary trade outside of our Reliv business, with our friends or family for up to 18 months after retiring from our duties as Reliv Ambassadors. Caring more about helping people than abiding by such a rigid contract, we decided our usual modus operandi of honesty, ethics and transparency was still the best approach, and told Reliv Corporate of our plans. Sadly, the honest approach with Reliv was a mistake as it needlessly subjected us to the wrath of Reliv dogma and soon, the 100% forfeiture of our so called "residual income."

I must tell you that passive residual income I mention had dwindled from $15,000 per month to a measly $5,000 a month over the last 3 years, in spite of massive financial expenditures (over $35,000 in advertising costs in 2007 alone) and tremendous sacrifice of time and effort on our part just to out-sponsor the continually rising attrition. Nonetheless, $5,000 a month is a small price to pay to escape Reliv's all knowing eye and regain our rights and freedom again.

Over these past months we have discovered that few network marketing companies today require anyone to sign an exclusive agreement anymore. In fact, many even encourage their distributors to explore ways to create multiple streams of income through other DSA- member companies. Once again, as a distributor, Reliv forbids you from earning any income or achieving financial success from an outside source. Once you sign up as a distributor you either succeed or die with Reliv. If Reliv is such a wonderful company to be a distributor for why do they feel they must shackle their distributors to an outdated exclusivity contract? Direct-Selling competitors such as USANA, Herbalife, MaxGXL, Youngevity, TriVita, Univera, VitaMark, MXI Corp, and so on... none of them feel a need to imprison their base of distributors to themselves, but instead offer their distributors more modern and cutting edge methods of doing business and some gather upwards of 50,000 attendees or more to their regional conferences, sadly, Reliv is a very different story.

What is it that makes Reliv feel they must chain down distributors with forced contracts of Unilateral Exclusiveness? If the Reliv Success System was as good as they had us claiming and teaching it to be, don't you think we would still be successful Reliv Ambassadors mentoring our exploding organization and just consuming healthy chocolate as an antioxidant rich treat? Your distributor contract shackles you to the Reliv plantation which promises you nothing in return from your loyalty. Reliv didn't promise you that they would never change or dilute the products. They didn't promise you that they would keep products as squeaky clean and naturally pure as the floor of the mauufaturing facilities. They called us distributors "partners" but they never asked our opininon when they decided to join the CRN.

The Council for Responsible Nutrition is a misleading name for an organization of chemical and pharmaceutical companies who's agenda is to control the food and nutritional industry under the WTO's police dog, CODEX. CODEX is scheduled to go into affect Dec. 31, 2009, Google CRN and CODEX for yourself and see how they plan on controlling your right to alternative health as well as the kind of food you buy. Monsanto now controls over 95% of soybean seed in the world and has spent $11 billion over the last ten years buying up every seed company they can get their sinister hands on. This is the company that has given the world "Agent Orange" (a defoliant), "Round-Up" (an herbicide), and a host of other deadly chemical toxins that are contaminating our planet and killing off the honey bees. If it's honey bees today will it be people tomorrow? Out of the words from their own mouth, the answer is "YES".

What benefit can Reliv hope to achieve by their alinement with muliti national chemical and pharmaceutical companies? Why has Reliv refused to put a GMO FREE (Genetically Modified Organism) label on their products? Could it be because Dr. Carl thinks St. Louis based Monsanto is a "Great Company" and he doesn's have a problem with GMO's, atificial sweeteners, artificial flavors or synthetic vitamins as long as they are FDA approved? Now, with the hiring of the new Director of Product Research, Dr. Salty & Sweet, Tom Reynolds, (who's backgound includes the development of Nutri-Sweet) we see Reliv heading down a dark road to the future. Could it be that the real reason Reliv chose to terminate us was because we began to shine some light on this secrete darkness? Why else would Bob Montgomery claim "we made such a fuss" in our efforts to get Reliv to abandon the use of artificial ingredients? We thought we had gained a victory when Dr. Carl, reluctantly agreed, to take the Acesulfame Potassium out of FibRestore and Now. Sadly to say, that victory for clean products was short lived. The whole time we were fighting that battle he was formulating the new product "Glucaffect" with that same artificical sweetener which, by they way, remains in your childrens "Kids Now."

The Bible tells me there are none so blind as those that have eyes, but refuse to see. History tells us that Martin Luther was persecuted as a result of his efforts to reveal truth to the dogmatic and manipulative Church of his day. The Founding Fathers of our great Nation tried to reason with and reveal truth to a close minded and controlling British King. They were persecuted and labeled as traitors for their efforts. Our story of honestly trying to open the eyes of a company we had loved dearly for six years is a far cry from the stories of Martin Luther or our Founding Fathers, but we are secure in the knowledge that we have been led where The Heavenly Father wants us and both Anita and I believe with every fiber of our beings, we have moved forward with our strength and integrity well intact and will be blessed.

As Bob Montgomery himself has said so many times over the past six years of conferences we've attended, "You will never be able to pick up that $1,000 dollar bill as long as you are holding on to the podium." Well, the Bible also tells us to be thankful for all things. So we just want to say, "Thank You Reliv, thank you for all you have done for us over the past six years. But mostly we want to thank you for cutting the chains that bound us to that Reliv podium we so dutifully clung to. We harbor no bitterness of heart, only disappointment that what we tried to communicate went unappreciated.

Anita and I are now free to grab that MXI $1,000 dollar bill, in fact, we're securely inside and driving our new vehicle toward success, road map in hand, with no speed limits. Thanks again Bob, we now know exactly where we're going and how to get there! I suppose, one way or another, Reliv really does make dreams come true.

Sincerely,
Rod and Anita Swift"

For further information, enter the info requested in this link http://RelivAmbassadorsNoMore.blogspot.com (or call or e-mail us personally 541-298-2559 omegasblooms@gorge.net ) and we'll send you link to our Private Unpublished Reliv Page where you'll have the rare opportunity to read correspondence between Rod & Anita Swift, Reliv Corporate, CEO Robert Montgomery, John & Jacquie Hayes and Reliv Compliance, all of which lead without any notice, to the sudden Full Termination of Rod & Anita Swift's entire Reliv Business, including all forms of their residual income.