What’s Making News, USANA?

Who are the ‘Goody Two Shoes’?

Are all the Aussies and Kiwis back from USANA 2011 International Convention yet? Are all the cheers and applause ready for them yet? If not, you’d better hurry up – as they came back with tons of awards and one more USANA title in front of their names, such as Teamwork Award, Million Dollar Club and Fortune 25, not to mention the exciting moment they shined on the stage getting recognised by Dr. Wentz and Dave Wentz. Pictures are ready when you are!

Fortune 25 winners

New Million Dollar Club members

Hear ye , hear ye, USANA trainings are on the way…

Looking at our September’s calendar, wow, we’ve got so much happening in the Business Centre of the Sydney corporate office in Castle Hill! Apart from the Thursday’s Open Day tour (supplied in both English and Chinese, a new and revised version actually), we will have Korean Business Training with our Customer Service extraordinaire, Paul Lee; Compliance Training with Regional Compliance ‘Queen’, Fiona Hawton and Social Media Training with our Marketing guru, Nancy Wang…

What really stands out of the line-up is USANA’s Health & Product Training with Dr. John Cuomo, who is a key person to ‘put dishes on the table for our USANA family’ – who oversees development and testing of USANA’s product range, from the USANA SLC office. He holds over 20 U.S. and European patents and has authored 21 scientific publications! Can you believe it? But this man, doesn’t just spend time in the laboratory - he had his footsteps in one of the most challenging spots in the world - he and his wife Helene, reached the top of Mt. Kilimanjaro early this year! What an amazing achievement!

In this upcoming training, Dr. John will show you why USANA is your #1 choice for nutrition and supplementation as well as giving you an insight into USANA’s many processes, including clinical studies of the USANA products and why these studies are vital. If you still have questions, there will be plenty of time for Q&A with Dr. John!

And the blockbuster is…

USANA is expanding its family into France and Belgium in the first quarter of 2012! Then we will have our family members in 18 countries all over the world! So next time, when you travel to Europe, please say hello to the new USANA fellows and make them feel welcomed!

Ashleigh Neave, Cycling For Life

Ashleigh Neave is a Road Cycling champion! She is USANA’s youngest sponsored athlete from New Zealand, and she’s been with us since 2009. As a valued member of USANA’s athlete family, Ashleigh’s got lots of amazing achievements in her cycling career and she speaks highly of USANA products.

We got the chance to catch up with her and wanted to share her recent update with you:

“So it is currently August, I have been back in training for 2 months now. After some intense conditioning work, physio and a new addiction to yoga I am back with more strength and stability than ever. I have found that the stability postures at Bikram yoga have really helped me to develop balance in strength about my knee joints, keeping them straight and pain-free. So that is very good news, and looks good for the racing ahead. It goes without saying that I am more fired up for the upcoming season than ever before, in particular thanks to my Outward Bound experience for that. :-)


Training is shifting from the base phase to strength and speed phase. A few weeks ago I threw myself into club racing once more after a solid four months rest and of course still continuing my USANA supplements and foods*. The good news is that I can still hold my own against the big boys in B grade in the time trial. I finished 5th in the latest club time trial. I do however need a few more hard miles in the legs to deal with these blokes on the climbs. The last road race I hung in until the last climb where I lost them 50m from the top, making all the difference on a fast descent. Riding home in the second bunch still proved to be a solid work out. I have also noticed considerable improvements in my descending skills after some time off to refresh the top 2 inches; I’m finding myself hitting speeds much quicker than before. (I would like to attribute faster speeds downhill to better bike handling skills after a heap of core training over the winter, rather than one too many desserts during my time off!)

Soon I will be slamming it out motor pacing behind the scooter over the Taupo-Napier road in preparation for the first race of the 2011/2012 summer season. I have never raced Taupo-Napier before; it should prove to be a tough race, especially since women race with the men. I am eager for a chance to prove that I am stronger than ever before, with an ever deepening hunger to perform well. I’m glad that my USANA products will sustain me over this gruelling period and I believe they give me the added edge to recover faster.

Aside from cycling, life is going well. I had good results from last semester (an A+, A and two B+s.) So I can’t really complain at that. I am living independently now too, spreading my wings away from home and starting to fend for myself a bit more in lieu of leaving my teenage years behind in the looming summer. My Grandma recently passed away, the day of my first exam last semester, so it has been a rough few weeks. We are all settling back into routine slowly. I still struggle to go to Hastings and not burst into tears sometimes though. Time will heal things no doubt, it has definitely added to my passion, I so want to make my Gran proud every time I race.

So all in all, all is well. :-)"

Ashleigh Neave

* Ashleigh takes Essentials, BiOmega III, Procosamine II, Active Calcium Plus, Nutrimeal, Proflavanol C100.

USANA’s Got Talent!

Tell you what, USANA’s got talent! – In the USANA family, we do not just have doctors, personal trainers, physiotherapists, engineers and teachers… we also have artists, dancers and actors! Wow!

Have you read about Jennifer Lim’s story, who is a dancer and Julia Perri’s story, who is an actress, published in USANA’s pocket magazine, Health Essentials (Issue 5)? Have you heard what Mel B. tweeted on @OfficialMelB about USANA’s shakes, Essentials and BiOmega III? Have you read the stories of USANA WTA Ambassadors on the What’s Up USANA? blog pages, or our newest Athlete Ambassador, Nathan Charles?



Today, we would like to introduce one more talent … She is Sharmila Periakarpan, an awesome musician! Sharmila sits in the 1st flautist chair of the WA Youth Symphonic Band, Australia, and you may find more about her by visiting her page on the StarNow website. From communications with her, we portrait her as a friendly, bubbly, hard working, enthusiastic and helpful youngster!

As well as being a successful flautist, she is a passionate USANA Associate.

David Mulham, our Vice President of the Pacific Region has said about having a why – “In USANA, you will hear a lot of people talking about developing a ‘why’. A ‘why’ is your reason for doing this business and it needs to be big.” And with Sharmila, her why originated from her years of poor health. With the help of USANA’s products, her health condition improved a lot. “I was just so blown away by the results of the USANA products, and my belief in the USANA products was confirmed after taking the Essentials.” She said. Sharmila’s dream is more a vision than anything – that is to inspire people to go for their dreams and to truly believe that anything is possible!


It is her dream to keep breaking through the challenges along the way in both her flautist career and her USANA business. And the interesting thing is that sometimes the challenges connect to each other, even in totally different industries. Sharmila’s biggest challenge as a flautist is being able to continually step outside her comfort zone. The risks could result in her either hitting the big time in the music industry or falling flat on her face. Challenges like that apply for her USANA business too!

She told us that it’s these two quotes that bring her back to her vision – one is by Thomas Edison while he was trying to create a light bulb: “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” and the other is: “Life is a journey, not a destination.” The more mistakes she makes, the more she learn and grow as a person, and the closer she is to her vision.

If you want to know more about her and her art, you definitely don’t want to miss out on this cool website!

USANA Biz Centre: What Do You Tweet About?

140 characters – that's not a lot of space. If you're a USANA Associate thinking of using Twitter to promote your business, you may be wondering just what you can say in 140 characters. Here at USANA, we love to tweet, (follow us on @USANA_ANZ) so we've put our heads together to come up with some great ideas to engage and entertain your followers:

Ask Questions
People love to give their opinion, especially on topics like health and well-being. Instead of posting a link to a product, you could ask your readers what they do to keep fit over winter. Questions encourage discussion and friendly banter, which leads to your followers trusting you.

Comment on trending topics
If you look to the right of your Twitter screen, you'll see a list of trending topics – these are the most popular tweets on Twitter right now – commenting on these topics will get your name in front of the thousands of people talking about them – if you're entertaining, you might get lots of new followers.


Participate in hashtag discussions (conversations)
Many groups hold discussions and chat sessions on Twitter using #hashtags. You could participate in interesting discussions – you might answer some questions about USANA products or help other USANA Associates set up their business. If you help people, they'll remember you as someone genuine and friendly and will want to follow you.

Post Links
People love to find interesting, entertaining and thought-provoking articles and websites. Whenever you post a link to an article or blog post, include the author's @username in your tweet, so they can see you spreading the word about their website – they may want to give you a shout-out in return.

Re-tweet others’ tweets
Another easy way to interact with people is to re-tweet their tweets. You may find out what people are talking about USANA by visiting search.twitter.com and typing in the keyword ‘USANA’. And this applies to other key words as well, such as ‘fish oil’, ‘vitamin D’ and ‘health’. For those valuable tweets, you may re-tweet them by putting “RT” plus the originator’s username at the beginning of the tweet. Here is an example:


If the originator is not your follower, then chances are that he/she will follow you after the re-tweeting.

Tweet Frequently
Tweets appear and disappear so quickly; your followers might never see your tweets in their feed. The more often you tweet, the more likely people will see your tweets, click your links, and re-tweet you to their followers. Timing is also important – try to tweet in the different time of the day rather than posting lots of tweets in one go; the time that most of your followers use the Twitter service, the time that you should post your tweets. Some more tips from the USANA head office in Salt Lake City are:

• Put thought into what you tweet to the masses
• Share content that offers real value to your followers and others who might be interested in the topics you’re tweeting about
• Re-tweet stories from USANA’s Twitter account or from others who share similar health and wellness information

The more you use Twitter, the better you understand what techniques are the most effective for increasing your followers. So don't be shy, come join us at @USANA_ANZ and let's tweet up a storm!

Why Do We Need Nutrition?

When we are out and about and see lots of vitamin shops, the shops are always filled with people who eager to find good ‘health’ from the bottles displayed on the shelves, have you ever thought why do I need nutrition? We all want to stay healthy, but what’s the benefit of taking nutritional supplements? We could spend hours counting up the numerous benefits, however through listening to others’ stories and see how they got involved in the ‘nutrition revolution’, could this prove inspiring to you?

I recently asked this question to some of my colleagues in USANA Australia and New Zealand, and found they all have a story to tell – and trust me, it’s not because they are USANA employees, it’s because that they actually need additional nutrition, just like you.

Story 1:

“When ladies reach a certain age and time in their life, the body goes through another set of ‘change’…..by experimenting with the dosage of USANA supplements and introducing ones that I might not normally have taken, this ‘change’ was easily managed.”

Marissa Penfold, Business Manager, USANA New Zealand

Story 2:

“Around the time I started at USANA, I was suffering through periods of tiredness where I’d have low energy levels for days. I had taken other brands of multivitamins before but it didn't seem to have made a difference to my overall health. I decided to give USANA Essentials a try and I felt like my old self and had tons of energy every day – even after putting in a long day at work!

After seeing such great results in my health, I got Essentials for my sister and friends and they too reported feeling healthy and energetic. This was my cue to take Essentials regularly, I always used to think I was getting enough nutrition from food but after taking Essentials I realised that supplementation was also vital. I am pregnant now and I also take Vitamin D and BiOmega III and so does my partner.”

Rashida Tayabali, Marketing Team Member, USANA Australia

Story 3:

“I take supplements in the form of vitamins, minerals and herbs for lots of reasons. For a start I always look to nature for help with my health. My experience has been that most symptoms diminish once you get back to good eating, add a few therapeutic herbs and take better care of yourself. I also take supplements so I can stay younger longer. As a woman, it’s particularly important to stay looking and feeling good for as long as you can. There’s no reason why you can’t feel gorgeous and energised into your 60s and beyond. I also love to exercise and I don’t want anything to get in the way of that. I don’t want to have a bad back or sore joints or any of the other degenerative conditions get in the way of my ability to move. Walking in the national park and my regular yoga is just too valuable to me. Finally, one other major reason I take supplements is because I plan to make it to well into my 90s. There are just so many things to do in this life that I need that many years to do them all. And I want to have my wits about me when I do them!”

Brenda Rogers, Training and Development Manager, USANA Australia

Story 4:

“Before I started taking nutritionals, I thought I was very healthy, really. I am in my early 30s and have a healthy lifestyle – I go swimming; eat at least two varieties of fruit every day; drink lots of water; don’t smoke; don’t drink; don’t stay up late in the evening… you name it! And I haven’t been sick for at least two or three years! However, in my last blood test, my GP told me that my Vitamin D level was very low and I had to take Vitamin D supplement, or… I don’t want to share what my GP said with you after that word ‘or’. But I was scared enough to get a bottle of USANA’s Vitamin D on the following day.

There is a piece of news about the famous composer, Mozart, who passed away in his mid 30s, and the cause could be Vitamin D deficiency, and I don’t want to be a second Mozart! Also, my theory is ‘to do the best I can’, so for nutritionals, I prefer the best quality ones and USANA is obviously the right choice.”

Nancy Wang, Marketing Team Member, USANA Australia

There is a nutrition training session happening tonight at USANA head office in Castle Hill Sydney. USANA Associate, Casey De Croon will be discussing “Why we need nutrition”, for anyone who thinks that they get everything from their diet. If you want to know more about the whys, please arrive by 7.20pm tonight (August 10) and the training will start at 7.30pm. Hope to see you guys there!

Note: Vitamin supplement should not replace a balanced diet. Use only as directed. Always read the label.

USANA Biz Centre: Setting Up A Twitter Feed

Here at USANA ANZ, we love Twitter, and more and more USANA Associates are joining us. With 140 characters per tweet, it gives Associates a short and sweet medium to keep their team members and customers updated, share links to the latest health research, promote their websites and blogs and communicate with their audience.

Getting started on Twitter is easy. Simply go to http://twitter.com and sign up for a new account. Think carefully about your username, as you can't change it once you've signed up. You can't use USANA or other trademarked words as part of your name, but your own name or the name of your website would work perfectly.


Follow the steps to complete your new account. Upload a picture of yourself. Fill in your profile. The best way to use 160 characters in your profile is to give a link to your website or to your Facebook page and tell people what you can do for them. Try to use health and/or wealth-focused words – this will help people interested in health and/or wealth topics find you.

Upload a background picture. Remember, you can't use social media to advertise USANA products*, so choose a picture that emphasises fun and good health – maybe some healthy foods or a picture of you working out. Now you are ready to start tweeting!

First, find people to follow. Most people will follow you if you follow them, so one of the easiest ways to gain followers on twitter is to follow a few people yourself. You can follow USANA, such as USANAinc. and USANA_ANZ, as well as your favourite health and fitness bloggers, celebrity chefs, friends, acquaintances, gym junkies, and anyone on twitter who might be interested in your USANA products and business. Once you have done the first step, you may refer to the ‘Twitter accounts suggestion’ by hitting the ‘Who To Follow’ button (refer to the image below) – the system will pick the people you might be interested to follow based on who you follow and more.


Now that you're following a few people, you can write your first tweet. You can tweet about anything, as long as you use less than 140 characters. You can ask questions, talk about your day, post links and pictures (use a link-shortener like bit.ly and Tiny URL), re-tweet things that others have posted, send replies, and answer hashtags. We will talk about these actions in details in the upcoming social media blog.

If someone says something you'd like to reply to, use their name with the @ symbol in front (@username) and type your reply. Now they can see your response in their feed and reply. You can find replies to your own tweets by clicking on the "@mentions" tab, located on your Twitter Home page.

Happy Tweeting!

*USANA’s advertising policy only allows Gold Directors and above to use social media to advertise. And all advertising materials must be approved by USANA’s compliance department first. Download the ‘Social Media Dos’ & DON’Ts’ flyer here.

USANA is #1, for Two More Reasons

Now is a great time to be with USANA than ever! Why? Apart from the reasons we mentioned in our previous blog – Why USANA is #1? The newly achieved Australian Business Awards and the International Business Awards makes the why even bigger!

What is the Stevie Distinguished Honoree category in the International Business Awards?

The Stevie Awards are the world’s premier business awards. They are created to honour and generate public recognition of the achievements and positive contributions of organisations and employees worldwide. And USANA Australia and New Zealand was named as a Stevie Distinguished Honoree for the Marketing Campaign of the Year in the International Business Awards, for its outstanding Women In Business 2011 campaign. The objective of the campaign was to encourage and inspire more women to achieve financial freedom by taking action and changing their lives.

What is the Australian Business Awards?

The Australian Business Awards are an annual, national, all-encompassing awards program. They recognise Australia’s industry leaders who demonstrate the core values of business and product excellence. In 2010, USANA received two awards for Product Excellence (USANA Essentials) and Best E-Business Product (BDS:eAprentice). And in 2011, two more awards were won – Proflavanol C100 as the Best New Product and Health & Freedom Solution as the Best E-Business product.

What does this mean for USANA and USANA’s customers?

1. Increasing USANA’s brand awareness
It’s great to see USANA’s name appears on the prestigious awards’ website, such as:
The ‘Best New Product 2011 Winners’ page and
The ‘Best E-Business Product 2011 Winners’ page of the ABA website;
The ‘Marketing Awards Category Honorees’ page of the IBA website

These spots are coveted by other companies in numerous industries. With USANA receiving the awards, the company has taken its rightful place among the other leaders. We know USANA is the best and now even more people know it too.

2. 3rd party endorsements for USANA’s innovation and consistency
Yes, USANA has so many independent and prestigious validations already – Endorsement of the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) , NutriSearch Comparative Guide, Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA), the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), etc… but beyond that, we do need some recognition for our innovative spirit and commitment to delivering consistency and support to our Associates and Preferred Customers. And the awards reinforce this dedication!

3. A positive word-of-mouth
The awards not only reflect USANA’s commitment to business and product excellence, but also help with building a positive word-of-mouth environment – they provide existing Associates with highly credible information to share with others; and reinforce the confidence of Preferred Customers that USANA is the right choice and raise the interest of people who have never tried USANA products before.

So, join us in celebrating this success!

USANA Leaders Never Stop Going Forward

The sign of a rewarding experience is that you come away with more than you brought. The Diamond Forum and Gold Retreat 2011 in the Hunter Valley are just those types of experiences. What did our Associates and staff bring home? Sweet memories, inspiration and a strong belief in the future of USANA. Although the Diamonds spent only three days with the new Gold Directors their affect was long lasting. I was impressed by the spirit of USANA’s family members - they are all deeply engaged in what they do. They are open minded and passionate, they love to help others and are also excellent communicators… the right attributes for being a successful USANA leader.




Combine these attributes with a hunger for success and the recipe is exciting. In the USANA world, there are two leadership ranks between Gold and Diamond. Fresh Gold Directors mingled with seasoned Diamond leaders and this provided the necessary alchemy to turn precious metal into sought after jewels. The resulting chemistry created an environment that celebrated, motivated and illuminated the path from Gold to Diamond and USANA’s newest leaders unwrapped this gift absorbing the knowledge at every opportunity.



They played hard, but learned more…




Pictured above the leaders and USANA staff plant a ‘USANA’ family tree in the Hunter Valley Garden – this is a unique USANA way to nurture and witness the growth of our future. If you happen to be there, make sure you visit.

At the McWilliams’ Vineyard, we played team-building games. USANA leaders and staff were divided into teams and each team was asked to mix a bottle of wine, design a label and create and perform their commercial to sell the wine. Each team member was engaged in the games and had a lot fun. This is the winning team with their commercial:

Finally, you can tell our new Gold’s are very positive about their future in USANA – listen to their comments below:

There are hundreds of photos from this trip, go to Smugmug to view all of them now.

P.S. One of the leaders told me that beyond the health and wealth that USANA has brought him, he found something else. Something beyond his expectations – the sense of achievement in helping others with their health and wealth, and this is the motivation that keeps him going.