FDA Coming Down on Nature’s Pearl

December 2018 Update.
About once a month, we have people who find this website who want
to buy the Muscadine Grape product. This fact alone is an indication
of the awesome upside potential this company had when it started.
If that happens to be you, this is the best source for the product.
The last I heard they were getting ready to merge their product line with
Youngivity, and it appears that happened.
I actually spent a day at the offices of Nature’s Perl with Mr. Smith and his
staff right after they had been in business about a year.
This is a story that I have watched play out over and over during my 35+
years in network marketing.
If you are familiar with my training then you understand what I talk about when
I say their are three categories of people involved in network marketing.
3% – 27% – 70% as I talk about in depth in the Masses Booklet.
However many company owners, or those who start network marketing
businesses are 1%ers.
They sincerely believe that “If I start it they will come”. They are business people and they
look at the cost of goods, and receivables within a network marketing structure and they
jump in, thinking they will strike gold.
In the case of Mr. Smith, and many of the owners I have consulted with over the years, he
had a life altering health experience with a Muscadine Grape product that was sold through
the Shaklee Corporation.
He made a small fortune in the bottle watered industry. I really liked this guy, but
like so many he had the confidence that goes with ignorance. He was a very intelligent man, but he thought if you have a great product then you can have a great network marketing company, and this is not a traditional business model.
In network marketing the real product is not Muscadine Grapes, Tropical Juices, Magical
Face Creme, or anything esle. THE REAL PRODUCT IS PEOPLE! If you build people,
people build the business.
To me, this statement has always been common sense, but to most people
and especially traditional business owners, who believe in their
Muscadine Grapes or any other product or service you want to think about.
When I say the real product is people, they look at me like I am talking
Chinese.
When I say “Confidence that goes with Ignorance” I am not saying that in a
derogatory way. I am honestly fascinated by this mentality, and when
consulting with network marketing owners, I run into mentality almost
on a weekly basis. But I embrace it, because when I can help them create
a break through in their business the ripple effect of the positive impact
their company can have on others is why I do what I do.
Some of the best products that known of us have ever heard about and their owners
and formulators have drowned in the : “If I build it they will join” MLM Ocean.
Instead of just enjoying the product from Shaklee, he decided he was going to
become Shaklee’s competitor.
He bought up all the Muscadine grapes he could, built a multi-million dollar cold storage
facility Set up his software and packaging and then opened for business. He convinced a
few of his close friend to become distributors, but other than that it was basically crickets.
No one in his world had experience build a volunteer army of independent contractors.
When I was hired for a day of consulting, we laid out exactly what it was going to take to
build a solid, long term business. Frankly he was looking for the quick hit, Fu Fu Dust.
He believed Muscadine Grape supplements from Natures Pearl where going to change
the world.
Maybe they could have, but not unless he was willing to look at this business model and
understand what it was going to take to build PEOPLE.
I cannot even begin to tell you how many times I have thought to myself, why have you
hired me, if you aren’t willing to get out of your own way and let me help you?
Anyway a couple of years later he did a bridge money deal with a former Amway Diamond.
It seemed like everyone in the company was making outrageous health claims (Which I strongly
warned him about during our time together).
The FDA came down on them, and again, the last I heard they closed their doors and merged
their product with Yongevity. Who is Youngivity? That is another topic for another time
and article.
The number of times I have watched the scenario play out over my lifetime is hard for any
normal thinking person to imagine.
By all accounts, Jerry Smith appeared to be a good man, with a wonderful product,
and the financial backing to build a special company.
However 1%ers seem to not be able to REALLY LISTEN to ANYONE ELSE. They have paid
me hundreds of thousands of dollars over the years to consult with them. However, when
push comes to shove they don’t have the patience to build methodically do what needs to
be done to build a network marketing organization and company they are proud of.
That is why today I am very selective about companies and individuals I consult with.
I don’t want their money, I want to see them maximize their upside potential within
the network marketing business model and impact a lot of people in a positive way
in the process.
I have come to understand as I have gotten older that to someone that BS’s the above
paragraph seems like BS. That is the only thing good about growing old, my track
record is documented, for anyone who cares enough to investigate. It is not BS it
is just oddly how I feel The network marketing business model changed my life,
and at this point I have a real Love -Hate relationship with it.
I am not a flavor of the month kinda guy. If I say it I believe it and have the research
and case studies to back it up. (Honestly probably the best thing about growing old
is grandchildren)
Anyway, I guess in many ways some company owners are no different than many of the
people that join network marketing organizations as distributors. Everyone is looking
for the quick, simple, way,to get rich quick.
It takes time and the ability to learn from the right people if you want to build a solid team
or network marketing company. That has been a very hard lesson for many to learn.
However:
“A wise person learns from their own mistakes, a really wise person learns
from the mistakes of others”
So here is what happened to Nature’s Pearl .
WARNING LETTER
(12-ATL-11)Jerry W Smith, CEO
Nature’s Pearl Corporation
3134 Cornatzer Road
Advance, NC 27006Dear Mr. Smith:
This is to advise you that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) reviewed your website at www.naturespearlproducts.com in December 2011 and has determined that your “Nature’s Pearl™ Premium Muscadine Grape Seed Supplement” product is promoted for conditions that cause the product to be a drug under section 201(g)(1)(B) of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (the Act) [21 U.S.C. § 321(g)(1)(B)]. The therapeutic claims on your website establish that this product is a drug because it is intended for use in the cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of disease. The marketing of this product with these claims violates the Act.
Examples of some of the claims observed on your website include:
Under the tab, “Science” and on the webpage titled, “Human Clinical Trials”: