Let the ride begin...

11:39 p.m. EST
Somewhere over Maryland

Let the ride begin. Loren and I and a few friends are en route to Miami from NYC after a week of business, more business and even more business and some fun. Leadership School is fast approaching, so everyone is busy. This one will be more exciting than you can imagine and it will blow your mind! And so many partners are jumping on board...it's tough to keep up. But the knowledge and belief that we are changing the way people shop; becoming the Google of merchandising - creating a new economy makes it all worth it. Because ultimately that means economic freedom for millions.

Our week in New York...

The legendary Spanish music artist, Alejandro Sanz and his girl friend Raquel flew up with us on our chartered plane and stayed with us. We got settled and had several meetings to close deals for Leadership School. I can't wait to tell you about them. Loren had a shower for a best friend at Gramercy Hotel (the coolest in the city), so I got some work done. Later that night we had dinner with Marc Anthony and Jennifer Lopez. Loren was feeling the call of the city to shop, but there was no time; so she and her friends went online and had the stores send her everything to try. I don't know how she pulls that off - but she does. The girls were ready to empty our wallets, but there was nothing that great to buy. It was good to see that they could exercise restraint. I know they are saving it or later.

Friday was even busier with meetings all over the city and video conferences on Leadership School presentations. That night we all went to the Trinidad-Jones fight at the Garden and had front row seats. You may have seen us on TV. It was incredible sitting with Marc Anthony and Alejandra Sanz, and of course Amber, Loren and Raquel (three fashion icons and beauties). I had such a great time. Trinidad "Titto" loves Marc and they shouted out to each other throughout the match. Our man didn't win, but we made a presence in the Garden. I can't help but think how many wonderful friends we have in the Latino community and how great Market America will do there.

The week picked up momentum with Loren making an appearance on the Kimora Lee Simmons television show - "Life in the Fab Lane". The show is an inside look into the glamorous life of Baby Phat CEO and devoted mom Kimora Lee Simmons. The show will air in April and will include Kimora's appearance at Market America's Leadership School.

Kimora and ma are partnering together to distribute and merchandise an inclusive line of bath and body products under the "Fabulosity" brand. Kimora's cosmetics will also be available at marketamerica.com. Loren tells me that Kimora is a little nervous about speaking in front of 22,000 people. She's going to do great.

Next stop Madison Square Garden again but a totally different scene...

With a few friends in tow (including Loren's best friend Jennifer and her husband Marc, and Mexican pop sensation Paulina and her husband) we ventured over to the WaMu Theatre at Madison Square to see our friend Alejandro Sanz perform. By the way, for those of you who may not know who Alejandro is...he is the world's largest and most successful Spanish artist -including 21 million records sold and 15 Grammy Awards.

We walked into the theatre to thunderous roar of 6,000 people. I was taken aback by the feeling in the room. It reminded me of a Market America event. When the concert was over, we stepped out of the theatre into a throng of paparazzi, fans and police. The word is getting out about Market America.

I really have a sense that these artists GET IT. They see how Market America is the Internet powered by people. They understand the similarities of what Amazon did with books to our strategy to use entertainment and music to drive traffic to marketamerica.com

Leadership School is going to be great, the excitement and anticipation is undeniable. Market America's future is bright...I hope you will be a part of the movement.

Much more to come. Keep Growing, love - JR

Online Appearance of JR

A short while after Loren launches her blog, JR decided to drop some public love online as well. I've always thought it's somewhat neat for couples to share opinions online next to each other, "he said / she said - iVillage style". It gives couples a chance to vent without being interrupted.

No editors, legal, copy writers - just heart to heart talk from JR and Loren.

Loren Launches Her Own Blog

Loren Ridinger, VP of Market America, has launched her own blog, located at http://lorensfashioncents.blogspot.com/.

She's an excellent writer with great tastes in fashion and style. I'm sure her blog will be enjoyed by many.

Her first post:

This is an exciting time because so many wonderful things are happening.. It is a great new year and 2008 promises to be the best year yet... For everyone!! I am very excited about FashionCents, because I think it is a great way for us to communicate and share ideas about fashion, shopping and great tips that we can borrow from each other. This is so much fun, I feel like Carrie Bradshaw from Sex in the City. I arrived back from NYC last night and had an amazing time. It was my girlfriends baby shower and so we threw her a glamorous party in her honor. It was incredible. Then our friend Alejandro Sanz, (if you dont know him, he is a very very famous international singer) performed at Madison Square Garden on Friday night and we went with our very dear friends, Marc Anthony and Jennifer as well as our friends Paulino Rubio (the mexican pop star) and her wonderful new husband, Nicolas who is incredible. We danced all night and had the best time and celebrated after. It is always wonderful to be in NYC. I just love it there, it is somehow liberating. I was so excited to get out into the city and do some shopping. I wasn't really in need of anything or looking for anything in particular, but just wanted to feel the city and somehow you get sucked into all those stores. But strangely enough, as much as I love to shop, I just didn't have as much fun as I thought. It is real work to go into a store and try to find what you are looking for or even browse for that matter. You have to find someone to help you, then you have to hope that they have what you are looking for and if you are lucky enough to find it, you then have to stand in line and wait to pay for it and hope they ring it up right the first time:) I tried very hard to buy something in New York, believe me, I tried, I went into so many stores, but even JR was surprised to see me come home with nothing (and relieved:) But when I got home, I started to shop Market America's shopping site, and of course I ended up on Shopbop.com (one of my favorites...I always seem to end up there) and bought a bunch of goodies:) I love that store because you can find everything from bathing suits and sweatsuits to cocktail dresses and the shoes...all in one place.. love that concept.(be sure to check out the new colors of Juicy Couture, I got the lawn boy green and clementine orange, yummy!!!) (and of course if you are a Market America Unfranchise Owner, you get paid back for your purchases in cash:) Shopping online is so much easier and you get to browse without anyone hassling you....
Every once in a while, a girl has to indulge herself,
xox Loren

Note: I've seen a couple of comments on here for Loren, I think she'd appreciate it more if people were to leave comments on her first post here.

The Poll Results

So the poll results of the blog promotions for then official launch are in, and the interpretations are:

1. people really want us to create a new tab on the home page to promote the blog as a long-term solution.
2. For the short term, incorporate an ad in the front promotional flash and an image at the top right column above "sports".
3. There's a huge drop in votes after the 3 things listed above
4. The four "Others" are "Email blast", "what is a blog and how does it work?", "Product Card", and "profiles of success".

I'm usually against Email blasts, unless people have already signed up for Emails signifying interest in "news and announcements" from Market America. To the person asking what a blog is, please see explanation here. I personally am a part of the efforts for Market America's web-presence, so I have no idea what product card or profiles of success are.

I'd like to thank everyone who participated. One of the goals of Market America is to give the public what it wants and you guys definitely shared what you want through this poll.

Leadership School

Leadership School is only 12 days from now and we hope everyone is excited. With over 20,000 people in attendance at the American Airlines Arena - this will be a SPECIAL event in ma's history!

We have some exciting new product introductions, special guests, performances, and as always, a few surprises.

To access additional information about Leadership School, including the latest agenda, log onto unfranchise.com

Official Launch of Blog

Now that the blog is live and soft-launched, we will be going through an official launch with proper promotion sometime next week. Please help us decide what we're going to do for the official launch by filling out the poll below.

Market America Gears up for Leadership School in Miami

Leadership School is just two weeks away, and there is a lot of news that will be announced in Miami February 7-9 at American Airlines Arena. Market America executives and other invited speakers will detail plans for the March launch of Market America's Entertainment Portal and Social Networking site, announce important new partnerships and unveil over 50 new products available exclusively through Market America.

First, let's discuss the Entertainment Portal. It's scheduled to go live in March, and Market America executives will specify what Distributors, customers and fans of top artists can expect from the launch. In the meantime, Market America's president and CEO James Ridinger summed up the Entertainment Portal this way:

"Through the partnerships we are forming with top artists in the music industry, the entertainment portal will be the ultimate destination for fans to purchase CD's and products associated with their favorite artists, buy concert tickets for upcoming shows, download music, and will be a platform for interaction between fans and their favorite artists."

Moving on to Market America's Social Networking site, it will launch around the same time as the Entertainment Portal and will offer some of the same features as MySpace and Facebook in that it will provide a platform for Distributors, customers, friends, and virtually anybody for that matter, to chat and connect with friends. Additional features will include displaying virtual rooms to profile pages, allowing a user to display their lifestyle and customize their experience.

Market America will also unveil a skin care line by Kimora Lee Simmons under her "Fabulosity" product label. Here is a sneak peak at some of the exclusive products Market America is offering through its partnership with Simmons.

-- Silky Cleanser - Glistening body wash that lathers to leave moist, clean, and sweetly scented skin once rinsed and dried.

-- Body Lotion - Designed to make skin feel soft and supple and to stimulate the senses from its fresh exotic garden scent. The lotion contains caffeine and coenzyme A, to tighten and firm the skin.

-- Body Butter - A rich butter-like cream which absorbs in to the skin to soothe and provide moisture to dry parched skin. Ingredients include Shea butter, Illipe butter and Cocoa butter.

-- Sugar Body Scrub - Natural sugar crystals gently exfoliate dead skin cells from the body leaving behind smoother, softer, glowing skin. The sugar melts and rinses away when used with warm water. Ingredients also include Shea butter, Illipe butter and Cocoa butter.

Be sure to check MA News and this blog in the days leading up to the event, as we'll have more details on the new products and partnerships being launched at Leadership School.

Market America Launches Blog

Market America is proud to announce that a new blog is launched. The "soft launch" date will be Thursday January 24th of 2008. This blog will be talking about everything Market America related. There will be several authors, but one goal: to make communications easier and more informal from corporate to distributors and the general public.

This blog will NOT replace our current PR - both Press Release and Public Relations. It will be a part of Market America's public relations to the general public and it will mention different press releases, but it will NOT replace anything we currently are doing. However, it WILL enhance communications among different groups to help Market America become a better company catering to distributors' and users' wants and needs.

Special thanks:
--Upper management for the support for this project
--Project management director for overseeing the project, both project and tech points of view
--Project manager for pushing this through
--Technical people that worked on this for implementation of the blog
--Future authors for keeping this blog alive
--Future comment submitters for giving corporate an insight on the wants and needs of distributors, customers, and users of the site
--Myself for being awesome. :) j/k

We currently have a few blog posts in mind. Open Poll: what does everyone want to see more of posts about? News about the company? Special deals on products? References to press release? Recap of events? New products offered? Anything else?