THE JOHN POLK STORY
The Most Incredible Man I know
By: Joseph Berry
INTRODUCTION
I met the man a little over ten years ago—as a freelance writer I was seeking work and someone gave me his name—I telephoned him and he told me that he wasn’t hiring anyone for anything at the moment. “Figures,” I thought but we continued the conversation and with one word leading to another we met anyway. I wanted to meet him out of curiosity more than anything else because I had been told that he was one of the most impressive entrepreneurs around, so who knew, maybe I could learn something?
I didn’t know exactly what to expect but what I found myself confronting was a highly dynamic personality filled with enthusiasm and a zest for the future that was packed with energy and inspiration. I had no idea at the time that John had recently lost tens of millions of dollars, was having difficulties with a wife he loved and was carrying a “monkey” on his back that sends others into the depths of despair. (I would learn all this later and as our friendship grew).
On that day we were two strangers meeting for the first time. My story was that I was a lifelong writer who was seeking new clients with the purpose to entice John to hire me. As I say, little did I know that he was scraping the bottom of the financial barrel, was enduring the pain of a possible divorce, and, as said, he had lost his entire fortune. Had I known all that I would have been all the more impressed with his fiery enthusiasm for his tomorrows to come—in fact, he sat across the table from me telling me to “rise above my own challenges and succeed.” It was one of the most innovating motivational talks that I had heard and, truth be told, when I left the café that day I was truly feeling better about myself and the world. That was my introduction to John Polk and I will never forget it.
That was a little over ten years ago—John and I have had a great many conversations since and I have watched him stand tall and succeed in spite of the tremendous odds against him—in fact, these days, he is helping others create success stories from their struggles. Indeed, he has a special message that simply states, “If I can make it up from desperation and struggle…so can you!”
John does more than only howl this message to the moon, he actually helps people create their own positive, success stories; and, he not only points the way, he leads the way!
Because I know all this, I have decided to write the following. I believe if you are an ambitious human being, the type of person who (truly) desires financial and personal success, this is a story you will want to take time to read.
ONE: EARLY OBSERVATIONS
Before getting directly into the John Polk story, I will share a few major reasons I was so impressed by the man, the human being, who I was destined to be friends with. As I say in the above, when I first met John he was on a serious downturn and yet he was constantly inspiring and motivating others to pursue their dreams and grow their lives. It was only when John considered me a trustworthy friend that he shared his own struggles with me—I was surprised if not a little shocked since he had never signaled that he might be in the financial dumps beyond telling me that he wasn’t hiring. I mean here was a guy who had built fortunes in excess of 100 million dollars who was, at that time, virtually penniless. (It had taken him a few weeks before he began opening up to me).
I have a good reason for sharing this serious period of hard times John was having: While John had the “red carpet” of great wealth and an abundance of happiness pulled out from under him, he had not lost his own zest for succeeding, for making that climb from virtue rags to riches just as he had done by the time that he was in his mid-twenties. Nevertheless, after all his loses, he maintained a positive, aggressive and even joyful attitude for his tomorrow’s to come and I was most impressed by this because he actually walked as he talked. And, he was more than one of those motivators who tells others how to forge forward and build successful businesses but have never built a business or a brand themselves—John had actually done what he tells other to do. He had built, as the saying goes, a great many success stories from the ground up.
TWO: A BRIEF HISTORY
John was raised in a middle class neighborhood in a blue collar family. As a boy, he did not like school because he thought it was a waste of time for a person who was destined to be a world renowned artist (his childhood ambition) but somehow, he made it to college anyway. In college he was an aerospace engineer major and had visions of becoming a fighter pilot—a long way from art. He had a lot of promise however. He received a military scholarship with a promise of flight school. But times and minds change and the entire scenario of engineering began to bore him. He changed to Business. But then, after college, he took a job as carpenter to support himself and hopefully put some cash away. After all, no one was going to help him so he had to earn money on his own. He was in his very early twenties swinging a hammer for a living when one day driving home he spotted a building that “he fell in love with.” It was an old, two story brick place that had been built in the late 1930s or 1940s. John immediately thought that this place has the ambiance for a “pizza joint.” There was a challenge, however. The available space was upstairs and that is typically a serious negative for the restaurant business. John took on the challenge. He created an intimate and charming pizza pub called The Upper Crust (Making the upstairs location a plus) and put in live entertainment. He began earning very good money and his entrepreneurial future was launched.
Soon enough he was investing in real estate with his brother and earning even more money and he followed these success stories by launching a company called Contech International and at the same time he founded Group Resources—he was barely in his mid-twenties and was already earning a six figure income. His career as an entrepreneur was underway, and his rags to riches story had begun.
Then while enjoying the rewards of his efforts he happened to go to a public forum by the then incredibly popular speaker, Gary Halbert. John was memorized not only by the way Gary was inspiring the audience—including him—but there was something else going on: John, if you will, felt bells going off, that was something he could do (something he wanted to do)so he was struck up by an inner-fire to be a teacher and motivator in addition to everything else he was doing. He was destined to meet Gary Halbert, the copywriting super star, and be personally coached by him. The two men eventually became very close friends. Gary was encouraging to the young hopeful; he was a great guy!
John, however, did not jump into the public speaking business. He took a full year to study the techniques, to prepare his presentation. He was enthusiastic but he was also objective. If he was going to be a public speaker, he wanted to rank with the best.
His preparation paid off. He became an immediate success once selling an incredible1.2 million dollars of product after being on stage for only 90 minutes. It wasn’t long before he caught the attention of the country’s greatest minds in direct marketing—genius gurus like Dad Kennedy, who would soon enough write about John’s direct marketing talents in one of his many books. There was also Blade Thomas and so many others. Indeed, John would eventually collaborate with these giants in the industries and soon enough be called one of them. Some began saying that John Polk was the best in the business.
There’s more to his story and I’ll get to it in on a future page but for now I want to tell you about John’s downslide; of having ended up going from riches to rags.
THREE: THE DRIVER’S SEAT TO DEVESTATION
By the time John was in his thirties he was, in a term, rich. Well, for one thing, he had built a successful network marketing company—in fact, John was first to innovate an infomercial to network marketing while using seminars to sponsor people; he actually coined the term, “direct-net marketing.” In fact, he sponsored over 20,000 distributors in one year alone using his unique techniques. In addition he began marketing technology to a customer base that had only purchased nutritional supplements but then again, he originated and became intricate in the creation of the first software using a secret algorithm (a solving problem technique). He called it, Wave on Wall Street. Today that system is known as WIZETRADE and so John’s innovative thinking led to a brand new industry and a $300 million plus brand! I’ll get back to John’s accomplishments a little later but let’s take a moment here to talk about those incredible early days of his career—days of lecturing in every major city across the U.S. (yes he was that popular) and building one success story after another.
John was one “happy player” back then—who wouldn’t be—he was making a fortune, he had a beautiful wife and three little boys; a lovely, big home and lots toys that most of us only dream of. He fulfilled his boyhood dream and became a pilot. He also became an avid skydiver and sponsored one of the world’s most successful motocross teams. One of his riders was the French hero, David Veileman. For most of us, he had it all!
Then, seemingly out of “the blue” he was being accused of what basically was false advertising. Okay, He thought, no big deal. If “they” think my advertising isn’t right let them tell me what “they” want and I’ll make the changes. In any case,he had always been incredibly careful to follow proper rules and procedures in his business. As it turned out though, “they” wanted much more than John to rewrite some marketing material—they wanted John.
I am not going to go into John’s naivety to law enforcement here because I don’t want to make him sound like the whiner yelping out his innocents. I will say this much, however, even the Justice Department tells us that well over 90% of EVERYONE in the country has done something to go to prison for if all the subtle laws of the country were pursued. The point is that once law enforcement decides it “wants you” they have the power and authority to pick you up, take your belonging and, yes, ruin your life. This very thing happened to John.
It started with government officials offering him what is traditionally known as a plea bargain. John’s plea bargain was offered in a way that the “bargain” was all one sided. He was told, Look, if you just admit your guilt, we’ll make sure you don’t serve over three years..if you don’t work with us, we’ll guarantee you’ll get at least twenty-five year—twenty-five years is a long time away from your kids and wife. Think about it and let us know.
FOUR: THE DECISION
John didn’t know what to do. He had never been arrested or even had a serious confrontation with law authority before and now he was torn between fighting his case and risking a 25 year sentence or declaring guilt (which is NOT the same as admitting guilt) and only doing 3 years. The government authorities had already warned him that one way or another, he was going to prison.
One of the first things John did was go see his mentor the marketing guru, Gary Halbert. Gary had “battled” the government for eight years at tremendous cost and in the end, was sent to prison. It is impossible to fight the federal government, Gary insisted. Once they decide they want you, it’s like being in an earthquake, except in an earthquake you have some hope. If you do fight them, here’s what they’ll do—they’ll march people into court, a so-called jury of your peers but they won’t be your peers they’ll be people who will hate you because they’ll be led to believe a middle class guy like you must be a crook to amass a fortune; to have actually made the American Dream work for him. “Trust me,” Gary said to John, “they have a gun to your head, take their deal or they will destroy you and your family.”
John drove home feeling lost and confused—he had never even considered going to prison for anything that he had ever done—now he was being asked to take a plea bargain. The entire experience was feeling surreal to him. Then a feeling began tugging at his heart—he needed to go to Denver. He told Kathy, his wife, that he was going to take the motor home and go to Denver?
Denver, she responded, what’s in Denver…why are you going?
John didn’t know. He couldn’t explain his compulsion. Well, for one thing driving to Denver gave him a sense of freedom—a false sense but a feeling he needed nevertheless. He took a recorder with him and he recorded his thoughts, experiences and feelings for nearly 13 straight hours. Deep in his psyche he felt as if his life was over, he was creating a testimony that maybe his wife and kids would listen to one day. He told a lot of people how much he loved them. (Incidentally, he still has those tapes to this day. He calls them The Denver Adventure).
John also prayed a lot during that trip to the Rockies. He had been quite religious in his youth—even a missionary for 18 months and now all that was coming back to him as he continued driving. After all, He was frightened and feeling an empty aloneness that he had never before experienced. And yes, while he was scared, he was also angry. He felt like a puppet on strings that he never dreamed he’d be tied to.
Once he was in the mountains he stopped driving just to appreciate the vast beauty of the Rockies—up there everything was so at peace with itself and free. It was such a perfect place to contemplate one’s life and also talk to God. God, I need your help here. We’ve all been there at one time or another.
Then in an unexpected moment John felt an odd wave of heat ribbon through his body. For the first time in many weeks, he suddenly felt calm, even at peace with his world that was crumbling all around him. Nevertheless, he had a kind of Eureka moment. That is, the thought had “popped” into his mind that it was his destiny to go to prison; there was a reason for everything, was there not?
It was in those high Rockies that he decided to take “the deal.” He drove back to Dallas anxious to share the news with Kathy. As long as he had Kathy and his boys, he could survive anything….at least that is how he was feeling.
FIVE: RICHES TO RAGS
As soon as John agreed to the plea bargain, terrible and unexpected things began happening. The government immediately began confiscating money, property and so forth. John could not fight this even if he had wanted to. He was already behind bars being “processed” and so forth. And soon after this he was walking through those prison gates. The way he managed to stand tall during it all was that he kept reminding himself that he was fulfilling his destiny. He was convinced that he had had a spiritual experience in the mountains; that God or the Universe had whispered in his ear.
As said before, John had never been a religious thinker. That is, he believed in a Supreme Being but he was far from being a church going, Bible reader although many in his family were. Yet, for perhaps the first time in his life, he began sincerely seeking spiritual truths. He began reading feverishly. In fact, over those three years in prison he had nearly a thousand books mailed in—so many that he had to have other prisoners hide them for him.
Over those long years there were two things that kept John’s spirits up—his books and his visits with his wife. Just being able to see Kathy and talk with her became the love factor in his life, that which kept him feeling that he was going to be just fine. I believe male prisoners and soldiers on the battlefield will understand what I am attempting to explain here—when even thoughts of that special woman in their lives becomes paramount to their peace of mind and the hope in their hearts—their moms, their wives or even just their memories of a certain girl they once cared for. It’s a male phenomenon I supposed, a need for the scent of a woman so to speak.
With the above aside, John found his way of serving his time—he had absolutely decided to turn his prison experience into a positive experience.
SIX: 36 MONTHS OF HOPE, 3 YEARS OF TOUGH TIMES
Everyone does their time in their own way—some decide that like Jean Genet that they’ll become the evil they have been accused of as being. John knew it was those kinds of guys who were most apt to keep returning to prison—he was determined not to be one of them. He would use his prison time to learn, to seek truths and yes to plan his next free world business venture. John was and always has been, beyond all else, an entrepreneur.
Reading became John’s passion. He read every spiritual book that he could get his hands on—the works of such writers as Wayne W. Dyer and Deepak Chopra…histories of religions—Buddhism, Christianity, indigenous beliefs; he read the new science book—books by physicists like Paul Davies, Fred Allen Wolf and Fritjof Capra—and lots of motivational and inspirational books by the great minds like Anthony Robbins. Book, books, books. The reason was not just to pass the time but to learn and gain insight; if he was stuck in a cage, he was going to turn the cage into a college.
The truth is he was seeking that which would be his truth and give him meaning and purpose. Who knew, maybe his destiny was to reach out to prisoners and ex-cons…he was open to the future and that openness kept him enthusiastic, kept him in hope for his tomorrows to come.
Then release. What a joyful day of celebration that was for him; free air is very sweet after all. Kathy had picked him up and he was filled with grand ambitions as they drove toward their new dwelling place; the home they had before was long gone by then. Yet, as far as John was concerned, he was coming back to his second chance—after all he had served his time and whatever they said his “debt to society” was, that had been paid in full. He was ready to start all over. But then, he made a depressing discovery.
In our country there is no paying off one’s debt. Once a person has done time he is branded the felon and he is condemned to carry that label with him for the rest of his life. The very name “felon” creates images of the evil doer and people do not trust evil doers, do not rent to them, do not hire them—the felon in America is given a life sentence no matter how short his actual prison time was. Is it any wonder so many so-called ex-cons end up right back behind those prison walls?
John wanted to do something about this injustice but I will be telling you about this later. In the meantime he had to somehow make a living and open doors for himself in spite of now carrying such a heavy load on his shoulders; the load of being condemned as a branded man. For a time he went deep inside himself, he decided to write. But soon enough he realized that writing was not going to pay the bills or give rise to his positive future so he decided on creating his own energy drink brand. He had once had quite a success in a similar field and he thought that his idea would, in a term fly. All he needed was a few hundred thousand dollars.
He started out to put his company together doing his best to put those three horrible years of incarceration behind him.
SEVEN: UPS AND DOWNS, DOWNS AND UPS
He found people who trusted him in spite of being branded a felon by the system; people who saw past that “branding” and remembered John before the problems. And so, he was off and running and would name his new energy drink BooKoo. He was happy, feeling self-assured again but then, he would discover that his marriage had problems…serious problems. Well things happen when a man and woman are physically separated from years…John and his beloved Kathy were destined to separate. John had always known this happened to many men who had been imprisoned he just never thought it would happen to him. It did, and he was broken hearted. He fought his own emotions to remain loving and understanding. When the separation came, it was emotional but not angry, but John’s life had been changed…again. (He would later find a most beautiful young lady to love and so we can only assume the truth of Shakespeare’s wisdom—all’s well that ends well!
He did his upmost to sink his entrepreneurial teeth into the business and yet, at the same time, all those books and all that contemplation he had done in prison kept rolling around his head as well. Alone at night he also had time to think about how to overcome the heartbreaks and hardships that enter people’s lives. You have to remember, this is a man who had built a 100 million dollar enterprise and lost it all…a man who had the big home and all that goes with it and lost it all…a wife and three sons who he had also lost so he was seeking truths while trying to build the new brand. BooKoo!
Coming home at night he generally felt a lot of aloneness but he was determined NOT to see the world in the absence of things. He would DECIDE to bring love and light back into his life…he sat down at the kitchen table one evening, opened his computer and began writing The Love Factor; a small, gem of a book sharing his spiritual philosophy. Anyway, during all this time, John became an innovator in the energy drink category—he was first to introduce the 24 oz. can. And, he was able to do the near impossible—build that new category in an industry dominated by giants like Pepsi, Coke and Monster. But, using his unique marketing system he created a brand new marketing niche and within only three years after inception…the company sold for nearly $25 million dollars.
The rapid success wasn’t without celebration or challenge: One of the proudest accomplishments that John made is selling to 7-11 nationally. For anyone who creates products and new brands this is truly something to celebrate. 7-11 is very particular what products they represent. They were handling John’s brand! But now think about this—the government actually calls 7-11 to inform them that John is a felon and inquired why 7-11 was “working with him.”
John will forever be grateful to 7-11 because they told the government they liked his product and they were not holding his past against him. Even today, John’s heart gives a gentle beat when he talks about 7-11’s integrity and willingness to see into a human being as opposed to just look at him. This incident inspired John to want to help and support other felons to recapture their lives after release, to give them hope and support to rebuild which the current system makes almost impossible. Anyway, on the very night that John learned about the 7-11 incident he went home and began writing a new book. He titled, I Went to Prison and so SHOULD YOU.
The book is not yet available but if you would like to learn more about John’s work toward reform in the prison and justice system, go to www.thefelonproject.com and also, if you would like a copy of John’s, Love Factor—the little book mentioned in the above—go to www.thelovefactor.com John is all but giving them away as long as they last and, I promise whoever is reading this that little gem of a book can truly change the course of your life!
So this is a kind of overview of John’s come back—there were ups, there were downs and there were turnarounds. But, as John says, “If I can recover from losing everything and being at the bottom of the pit in all that horror that I’ve recovered from everyone else can rebuild and push forward too!” John is first to tell you that no matter where you are right now, you have to keep that old saying in your heart, The harder the fall, the higher the bounce.
John enjoys sharing his unique spiritual philosophy of love and helping people succeed in their lives; he likes sharing his secrets.
EIGHT:SHARING SECRETS
In 2006 John was doing well and working on new projects when a young man walked in one day and was looking for work. The young man told John that he was at a downturn and needed to make some money. Actually John was not in need of employees at the time but he immediately liked this young man and so gave him a part time job.
The young man was bright and tenacious and John liked him. He liked John too and admired John who eventually exchanged stories with him. The young man was smart enough to ask questions from the “older pro” who was a master marketer and builder of brands. He wanted to learn whatever John Polk had to teach him and John was a willing teacher.
Actually the young man was an aspiring song writer at the time but he also had another dream; the dream to make enough money so that he would be free to create his art; to write without having to worry about rent and a car payment. John told him thathe could accomplish whatever he wanted to accomplish, he was encouraging and the young man was a willing listener and…a willing learner. One thing that John had always done was gone to professionals to find our the best way to do things and the best path to follow. This was one of the reasons John took such a liking to the young man, he wasn’t afraid to ask questions and he had an unquenchable thirst for information and knowledge—he wanted to learn from John’s experience and John was a wiling teacher. There was something else—the young man had incredible ideas. He had even told John that he was an inventor. Oh yea, John responded with skepticism, what have you invented? The young man began coming into John’s office daily with a new inventive idea.
There was another reason why these two men hit it off so well. The younger man had tried to launch a singing career and John had started playing guitar and even thought of turning professional—they shared a love for music and talked about it a lot. (That friendship continues to this day). Anyway, John literally spent hundreds of hours with the young man telling him how to market, how to use media and how to build sales. He had enthusiastically shared his marketing secrets with the young man. The young man kept listening and kept pouring out creative ideas. Finally John said, “Hey man, enough talk. That last idea was your best so it’s time to stop talking and go for it. You have to put your thoughts into human action or they stagnate and die.”
Maybe I could put the product into the big pet stores?”
“No, absolutely not. Raise some money and direct market!”
The young man wanted to know if John wanted to invest.
“John said “no: that “he wasn’t a widget guy. (John now calls this one of the biggest business regrets of his life). The young man we’ve been talking about is Jayden Drelinger, the inventor of the Peticure—his commercial became so popular that it became a skit on Saturday Night Live; he was given The Entrepreneur of The Year Award. Today Jayden has his dream fulfilled—he can do his art without a single financial worry. Today both men discuss bringing love into the world but I’ll get to that subject a little later. For now, I merely wanted to show a result of John’s teaching. Not everyone John has taught has made it as big and wonderfully as Jayden of course but John has led a great number of people from lows to highs and from poverty to wealth. And, like others, Jayden thanks John to this day for his advice and, for that matter, all the sharing that they’ve done together. John even says from time to time, Jayden has given me a vital lesson too—that the master must be willing to listen to the student now and then.
