On Wednesday, March 30, 2016, Stuart Gray, the president and CEO of recently-launched consumer beverage company Laguna Blends (OTC: LAGBF), was interviewed by Ray Grimm, the company’s Chief Corporate Consultant, in an audio call.
The call began with the introduction of Ray W. Grimm Jr, a direct selling and multi-level marketing expert, and co-founder of some of the top nutritional and weight loss companies. Mr. Grimm is knowledgeable in all things network marketing, and recently became a member of the advisory board and Chief Corporate Consultant at Laguna Blends. Mr. Grimm has what many consider to be the Midas touch in identifying and building multimillion dollar companies, three of which exceeded $50 million in sales within their first five years.
Mr. Grimm talked about first meeting the Laguna Blends CEO, Stuart Gray, and asking him many key questions about the company in evaluating its potential, and how he felt positive about all of the answers he received. He went on to introduce Mr. Gray, providing some important background information, describing how Mr. Gray has had over 20 years’ experience in business and marketing, founding several highly successful media and promotional related companies, showing special talents in network marketing and MLM, in addition to providing consulting to over 120 public and private companies in both the U.S. and Canada.
Mr. Gray began by describing why he decided to pursue a network marketing and hemp-based product orientation for Laguna Blends. His lengthy and positive experience with network marketing, together with his realization that there is so much confusion and misunderstanding relating to the benefits of hemp, suggested to him a major opportunity. Mr. Gray has worked to position Laguna Blends to take full advantage of a fast growing trend, the recognition of the nutritional benefits of hemp. And he sees MLM as the perfect marketing method to communicate a positive message about the real health benefits of hemp.
It’s an open opportunity because there are still many people that are not aware of the many health benefits of hemp. This is a great chance for Laguna Blends to cultivate this relatively young market by educating consumers, and to do it through an affiliate base model that is already expanding very rapidly.
Mr. Gray went on to talk about his vision for Laguna Blends for the next few years. He emphasized that, over the past couple of years, and together with his dedicated management team and consultants, he has constructed a sound business foundation for the company that should last for generations. The idea has always been to develop a non-hype approach that represents a genuine success engine for all participants. This action-versus-hype orientation is in contrast to many other companies in the network marketing industry. The difference is to have unmatched high-quality product offerings, tapping the best technology in the industry. Over the next five years, Mr. Gray sees Laguna Blends becoming a household name throughout North America, with a number of hot product categories, and growing throughout many countries of the world.
In particular, the company’s use of 3D immersive technology is exceptional. It’s a technology that Mr. Gray first brought to a real estate company, making it the fastest growing real estate brokerage company in history. Last year the company did $900 million in transactional revenue, and it represents a good comparison to the way the Laguna Blends model is being set up, though customized for the needs of Laguna. It’s a truly game-changing technology for this industry, allowing far greater efficiencies in communication throughout the network, reducing dependence upon traditional time-consuming hotel meetings and in-home parties.
Mr. Gray also described the importance of the Laguna Blends management team in creating an organization that will work and grow quickly. He emphasized the importance of trusted long-term relationships, which he has developed over his years of previous work in the network marketing industry. Mr. Gray has worked with some of the top leaders in the industry, and these contacts have allowed him to put together “the best of the best” for his management team, from tech to marketing to manufacturing and in all other aspects of the business. You only attract this kind of talent by offering a clearly unique opportunity. It’s why Laguna Blends has made so much progress is such a very short time.
As a network marketer that has been in the trenches, and understands what it takes to be successful, it’s absolutely critical that everyone on the management team respects the field leadership. They need to know that management is in constant communication with them, knows what’s going on, and is devoted to their success, being very generous in the way they are rewarded. This is what spurs real growth.
Mr. Gray then talked about the products being introduced, the first of which is Caffe, Laguna’s hemp coffee beverage that contains both whey and hemp protein, which is already getting rave reviews, and Pro369, Laguna’s flavored single serving hemp protein packs that can be added to cold beverages, which was just introduced. Consumables in general, and the functional beverage market in particular, has a record of being extremely positive for direct selling companies. In the case of Laguna’s Caffe product, coffee is the second most consumed beverage on the planet, while the Pro369 product is easily combined with any beverage. Together with the newly appreciated benefits of hemp protein, such products represent a perfect opportunity combination for network marketing. Laguna will be the first network marketing company that efficiently markets nutritional functional beverages containing hemp, and the company expects explosive growth in sales even when viewed conservatively. In the future, Laguna Blends will be expanding its product line, both in the hemp and non-hemp areas.
In summary, Mr. Gray expressed his confidence that Laguna Blends has all of the right ingredients in place, including the right manufacturing and shipping partners, the right technologies and marketing orientation, and the right products at the right time, and all with a financial structure that gives Laguna the ability to scale. Even though Laguna Blends is newly launched, the feedback has been overwhelming.
For more information, visit www.lagunablends.com
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