Huebner, Bert & Helen
Helen Huebner and Bert Huebner were dressed in lime green suits when they emerged from one of the three aeroplanes their party hired to go to the Amway® Annual Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1967.
'With those planes, we caused quite a commotion,' says the pilot "She chuckles as she stacks cold cuts on a tray for her grandkids who are visiting from out of town.
"We had no intention of doing so.
We were only concerned with getting to Ada and making sure we didn't miss a single minute of the Convention. We were well aware that it was critical!"
"Rich DeVos came to Winnipeg a number of years before that, when we were just starting out in the business and were feeling really dejected," she recalls.
" What you must recognise is that not everyone is going to continue with this business; some people are going to quit, but you must not allow that to interfere with your own objectives.'
You must attend our Convention in Ada, which will be held this year.
"And because we were convinced he was right, we loaded up into a station waggon and drove straight through because we couldn't afford to stay in hotels.
We discovered that he was correct upon our safe arrival. That Convention was a great eye-opener for us, and we were quite enthusiastic about it.
The following year, there were enough of us to warrant bus transportation, and the following year, we chartered planes to transport us to the event, which was a major deal. It helps us to stay energised."
When you see Helen serve lunch to a kitchen full of family and friends, it is evident that she does not have a problem with energy.
In addition to recent excursions to Peter Island, Hawaii, Europe, California, and North Carolina, she says she spends most of her time travelling in the United States.
"'Oh Helen, you still go all over the world, don't you get bored of it?' people remark.
So I'm starting to think that maybe I should feel weary! Individuals, on the other hand, are like batteries: if they aren't being utilised, they become inactive; if they are being used, they become active.
Furthermore, having personal objectives always provides you with vitality.
Helen is a Double Diamond Direct Distributor who has created an international business on her own after Bert's death 20 years ago.
She is the only owner of the company. She spends a significant amount of time advising prospects and downline Independent Business Owners, in addition to demonstrating the Sales and Marketing Plan, retailing the products, and travelling to events.
"People require assistance in a variety of ways," she explains. "IBOs might sometimes hit a wall and require assistance in moving forward. Many people are simply disorganised.
They give the impression that they are working hard in the business, but in reality they are only thinking hard about it.
When couples start a business together, they may find that they are able to communicate with one another for the first time.
As a result, they must learn how to communicate. It becomes quite fulfilling to be able to assist others in their growth in this way.
Helen and Bert still live in the magnificent home on the Red River that they purchased shortly after starting their Amway business 30 years ago, and they continue to enjoy it.
Because Bert worked as a teacher, he and his wife required the extra cash to help them meet the financial needs of their four small children. Currently, Denise and Garry Stratychuk are the owners of Pearl Direct, with Denise serving as Helen's office manager.
Her daughter Michelle and her husband John Sherritt are Platinum in California, where John is also involved in land development, and her two sons, Mark, who is married to Stephanie and is an award-winning advertising writer in Toronto, and Brock, who is a Systems analyst married to Sandra, are all successful in their respective fields.
While watching her grandchildren frolic in the hot tub on her shady deck, Helen mechanically deadheads the geraniums and petunias, turns a pot of succulents, and secures a stray vine in her flowerbeds and garden. Gardening, as well as cooking, are two of her favourite pastimes.
She has an extensive cookbook collection and has edited three of them for various community organisations.
When Helen was growing up on a large Manitoba farm, she recalls that she spent a lot of time in the kitchen.
"The five of us were responsible for cooking three or four meals a day for up to 12 farm labourers, as well as our parents and three brothers," she recalls.
After a large breakfast, there would be a full supper at noon, followed by an early faspa at 4:00 p.m. Faspa was our Mennonite name for tea, and we would serve freshly baked buns, pastries, jelly, and cheese as part of the meal to our guests.
We would serve supper after the guys had done working in the fields, which would most likely consist of soup and cold cuts. On other days, that may be as late as midnight.
I recall lying down behind the table and dozing while we waited for the others.
"Even though we lived in a large house, we had a separate cookhouse where we made our meals and ate them.
My mother had a brick bake oven, which she would fill with flax straw and use to bake the bread, and that was how we baked the bread.
The cookhouse was built directly on top of an ice cellar, which was where we stored our food.
They had cattle, pigs, poultry, and horses and we assisted them with all of their needs.
When I wasn't needed in the kitchen, I was also in charge of the combine. We worked hard, but we also had a good time.
Every summer afternoon, we would go swimming with the neighbourhood kids in the nearby river, which was close by.
Despite the fact that I no longer live on the river, I still like swimming."
Helen's Mennonite ancestors lead her to a group of relatives in Germany, whom she recently visited.
"My father was from the Netherlands," she reveals "The Dutch Mennonites, on the other hand, were pacifists.
For their efforts, they were able to gain agreements with several kings that permitted them to live in a nation without conscription for a period of 100 years, despite the fact that they were poor.
They travelled from Holland to Germany to Russia on the basis of these 100-year agreements, and my ancestors came to Canada in 1874 as a result of these deals. Bert's relatives, on the other hand, were stranded in Russia during the revolution of 1917.
When the Iron Curtain fell, they fled their home in Siberia and settled in Germany, where we were able to make the link with them.
One of the amazing things about our experience was that we were able to speak almost immediately since the Mennonites brought their low-German accent with them wherever they travelled.
It's been an eye-opening experience for both of us."
Helen's favourite thing to do these days is sponsoring, and she loves it when a prospect's eyes light up when she says, "Oh, now I see, now I understand."
Developing these kinds of relationships has proven to be the most significant aspect of her Amway career.
She expresses herself as follows: "I believe that in order to truly help someone, you must first love them.
I usually have a lot more faith in them than they have in themselves, which is nice.
I've been in Amway for a long enough period of time to know that the business remains essentially unchanged.
You promote products and establish a network of contacts. Most of the people who come in have the same motivation - they all want to make more money!"
Helen Huebner is a successful parent, a devoted grandma, a tough businesswoman, and a well-respected business consultant to hundreds of small and medium-sized businesses.
Among her recollections is the following:
"We took a trip to Spain one year, and I had hoped to bring along a speaker, but there were none available at the time.
When I learned that Rich DeVos was going to be in Portugal at the time, I mustered up the confidence to write him a letter requesting that he speak at our event.
He agreed. After several days passed without receiving a response, we were forced to proceed with our 75 attendees and no speaker. Rich contacted the day before the banquet to confirm that he would be attending.
He had intended to surprise us, but decided at the last minute that it would be best if he told us in advance.
It was a surreal experience for us when he arrived with Helen and all the children.
"You see, you can't stand the thought of waiting for things to be perfect.
You have no choice but to get started, and you must believe that things will begin to develop in exactly fantastic ways once you get started."
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