Jerry and Kendra Brassfield
Hi everyone. Welcome to The Founder’s Table. I’m Kendra Brassfield, the CEO of NeoLife International and in this podcast I’m going be sitting down with Jerry Brassfield, the Founder and Chairman of NeoLife International, and asking him to share stories and life lessons that have paved the way for international success as an entrepreneur with a life’s mission of making a measurable difference in peoples’ lives.
Welcome to today’s podcast. This is our very first episode of The
Founder’s Table. Growing up, the most valuable education I got didn’t
take place in school or even university. The lessons that I have
personally found to be priceless in developing a mindset for success,
and wealth management, and other critical aspects of being an
entrepreneur mostly took place during candid, off the record
conversations with my father and other successful people who have been
there and done it. And that’s what we want to accomplish in this
space—to invite listeners into those candid conversations.
So let’s start from the beginning. JB, can you tell us about what life was like growing up?
Jerry: Thank you Kendra. Life for me, as I think
back on my early childhood, things that stick out in my life are my
health, which was very poor. My family, we were a loving family, we were
maybe a notch above the poverty line but compared to the other kids
that I grew up with and went to school with, we did not have as much as
most people and although I think of it as a happy time I also think of
it as a time of struggle.
Kendra: In addition to the struggles that you had
growing up in a household that didn’t have a lot of wealth, what were
some of the other health challenges that you struggled with growing up?
Jerry: Well of course asthma was my main struggle
and I seem to have had a severe case of asthma, which was threatening to
kill me every year. It’s worse especially during the growing season
when the crops were in bloom and all the dust and pollen associated with
the farming area that I was in. And the fact that I turned out to be
having allergies as well as many things that contributed to severe
asthma and that asthma dominated my life. In my early childhood I
struggled.
Kendra: I always really enjoyed when I get to hear
you tell the story of a moment when you really had a wakeup call to
fight for your life and it gives us a glimpse into how bad your asthma
was. Can you tell us about that night?
Jerry: Yes, that stands out because I grew up in a
Christian home and my mother was the spiritual head of our family and on
one particular night I remember that she called the minister of our
church, Reverend Anderson, and asked him to come to our little house.
And he came I didn’t know he was coming but when he showed up I was
sitting up in bed and I was pulling for every breath. She of course
welcomed the minister in our home. The walls were thin so we could hear
from one room to the other if there was talking, and so outside my
bedroom that I shared with my brother Bob there was conversation with my
mother. I heard her say to the minister apologizing for calling him in
the middle of the night and saying the only reason that she did it
because she was afraid that I was not going to make it. I was not going
to live through the night! And so I heard this and that was definitely a
wakeup call for me if anything it just made me more determined that I
am going to try to survive.
Kendra: That is a great story and now your mother
didn’t stop at prayer did she? Can you tell us about what she ended up
going and doing that really was a turning point in your life?
Jerry: Yes my mother believed in prayer but she
believed that in taking action herself and that God would lead her in
the right direction. Through networking with other people in the
community and other mothers, one of her friends had a son who benefited
from supplementation and this lady friend introduced my mother to
supplements. She brought them home and these were things like cod-liver
oil that you take by the spoonful right out of the bottle so it didn’t
taste very good at all and it was also multi-vitamins in the form of
liquid vitamins. In those days you have to keep in mind this was 62-63
years ago that it tasted so bad that they didn’t even think about trying
to cover the taste of the vitamins with flavors. So my mother forced me
to take these everyday she would call me to come to the stand in front
of the refrigerator come on it’s time to take your vitamins and your
supplements and then she would give me a spoonful because I recall two
spoon full of each these—large table spoonful of cod-liver oil and two
large spoonfuls of vitamins and boy you had to choke this down with
water and I hated it.
Kendra: I think if I recall correctly, nutrition
really wasn’t something mainstream like it is today. How was nutrition
viewed back then?
Jerry: My father viewed it all as medicine and my
mother was more open minded and especially when I started to see
progress. My doctor was told that I was taking these supplements and
that I was improving and his response was “well he is just outgrowing it
now”. So no credit was given to the supplements but I learned over time
that when I did not take the supplements my asthma would return and so
as a result that was always in my mind. I knew from testing time to
time, either through stopping intentionally or just neglect, I would go a
short time without taking supplements and my asthma would return so I
learned early on that I needed these supplements. I didn’t know why, but
I just knew that my asthma was under control when I took the
supplements.
Kendra: Now shifting a little bit, I just want to
fast-forward a few years. I often find that people are surprised to find
out that you weren’t formally educated in university and I think you
mentioned after attending only one half of one semester of college you
decided on a different course. Can you tell us about that decision and
what was going through your mind at that time?
Jerry: Yes, I think that looking back on it I maybe
questioned everything around me more than I saw my peer group
questioning. For example, I was studying at the local college. It was
free, Porterville Junior College. I went in to see my counselor, it was
mandatory and I wanted to find out what I should be taking course wise. I
was concentrating on engineering courses that would lead me into that
direction, so a lot of math. I asked my counselor what I could expect
when I became an engineer and he looked at his book and showed me some
numbers. He said I could go to work for four hundred dollars a month
that I would maybe get one thousand dollars a month, maybe once I served
my apprentice. And that of course would be maybe equivalent to five or
six thousand dollars a month now, and maybe more. But I looked at him
and he could not give me satisfactory answers. And as I looked at him, I
just saw a man sitting there with his lunch pail, with his rundown
shoes, with his suit that didn’t fit, and I looked at him and I just
said you know this is not anybody I want advice from. When he finished
that interview telling me what I could expect I walked directly from
there to my locker, took my books out, walked into the office, set them
on the counter, and walked out and got into my car and drove away. I
decided that this was not for me, and not knowing exactly what I was
going to do, but I knew that I was not going to be held back by people
like this counselor in college.
NEOLIFE ONLINE REGISTRATION
TO ORDER NEOLIFE PRODUCTS ONLINE
To learn how to build a foundation of good nutrition for you and your loved ones, visit https://shopneolife.com/heritagenutrimedics/store/products
For more information please call/whatsapp +2348163154120.
Nutrition Startups
For any entrepreneurs out there who have a passion for sharing good health… NeoLife is also redefining the world of startups. Put simply, it’s like a tech start-up, but with nutrition. There’s low barriers to entry because NeoLife provides the infrastructure that any successful business needs, as well as consumable products, and a compensation plan.
So instead of having to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars to get started, it makes entrepreneurship accessible to everyone. When you become a Promoter, you own your own NeoLife business and it can be passed down as an income generating asset to future generations.
NEOLIFE BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY
You can own your own NeoLife business and it can be passed down as an income-generating asset to future generations.
NEOLIFE ONLINE REGISTRATION
TO ORDER NEOLIFE PRODUCTS ONLINE
To learn how to build a foundation of good nutrition for you and your loved ones, visit https://shopneolife.com/heritagenutrimedics/store/products
(Available in PDF Format)
DETAILED NEOLIFE BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY PROPOSAL FOR EXISTING PARTNERS
(Available in PDF Format)
HOME CARE PRODUCTS MANUAL FOR PARTNERS
STEVE JOBS - Walter Isaacson (Available in PDF Format)
RICH DAD POOR DAD - Robert T. Kiyosaki (Available in PDF Format)
JOURNEY TO WEALTH - Les Brown (Available in PDF Format)
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