AN HERBAL RECIPE FOR SUCCESS

Byline: BY JEFF RICHGELS, THE CAPITAL TIMES 
 

Jim and Ann Cue are living embodiments of the American Dream. 

They have literally gone from poverty -- Ann was once a single mother on welfare and Jim a struggling painting contractor -- to riches -- a $400,000 Parade of Homes dream home in High Point Estates. 

And they owe it all to something they once would have dismissed out of hand: Chinese herbs. 

``He used vitamin E and golden seal (an herb),'' Ann says. ``I believed in medication and nothing else. I figured I'd fix that after we got married -- none of this vitamin and herb stuff.'' 

Once they got into herbs and became convinced of their efficacy, there was no turning back. 

``We don't do anything halfway,'' Ann says. 

Eventually, they became distributors for Sunrider International and their company, Cues for Health, LLC, became one of Sunrider's top performers. 

Hard work has brought them a steady income of around $10,000 per month, travel and car bonuses, and their home, which features a waterfall and fish pond in the expansive foyer. 

It all began in Milwaukee on Sept. 6, 1974. 

Ann, now 53, a Thorp native who graduated from Maria High in Stevens Point, was then finishing her dissertation in American literature at Marquette University. 

A single parent on welfare, she was out ``for a TGIF'' on her birthday when her then 2-year-old son, Martin, ran up to Jim. 

Jim, now 62, an Oklahoma native, was in Milwaukee for a painting job. 

It was truly love at first sight. 

``I was done with men,'' Ann recalls. ``He was done with marriage -- his wife had died (of cancer) a couple years before.'' 

``I wasn't fit company for man or beast at the time,'' Jim adds matter-of-factly. 

Instead of going out, Ann ended up talking with Jim.

``Within the next two days I knew that I was going to marry him,'' Ann says. 

And they were married on Dec. 13, 1974. 

The couple made a deal: Jim wanted to live somewhere warm and Ann wanted a house, so they moved to San Diego. 

And that's where their herbal future began. 

``From watching a `Donahue' program I found out my son's nutrition could be altered to change his behavior -- he was what was then called hyperactive,'' Ann says. 

In December 1975 the Cues also became Amway distributors. Ann says Amway's draw was the opportunity to teach, not the income. 

One Amway product was Nutrilite, a blend of herbs and vitamins that Ann says was the beginning of the herbal industry in this country. 

``Jim made me eat it from the starter kit,'' Ann says. ``I did it to please him, truthfully. I was ill all the time and the benefits were obvious from the beginning. I couldn't deny it. 

``So being an academically oriented person, I started interviewing all the authorities on nutrition I could find. And California was loaded with them. And I became very well-versed in what whole food herbal nutrition can do to affect a person's health.'' 

A recurrence of rheumatic fever had left Ann barely able to walk due to rheumatoid arthritis. 

``I spent several days in the hospital,'' she says. ``I couldn't even hold chalk. The doctors said there was no hope (for a full recovery).'' 

Today she walks without any hint of pain. And gardening is her hobby. 

``As long as I'm on my products I am symptom free,'' she says. 

Ann soon was teaching herbalism at the YMCA and at home. She also moved from Amway to another multi-level company that did herbs called Natural Life International, headed by Dr. John Christopher. 

``I took three degrees studying under Dr. Christopher and I studied under other alternate health authorities,'' Ann says. ``And I had been a skeptic. I didn't believe I had any control over my health.'' 

But with Jim's painting business struggling in San Diego, the Cues were ``scraping the bottom of the barrel financially,'' Ann says. 

``Although it was more of a hobby, there were times when my knowledge of edible herbs is what put food on the table,'' Ann says, recalling one day when she had to sell some of their clothes for money and could only get $1 for one dress. 

So the couple prayed over what to do and received what they say was a ``very clear'' message to return to Wisconsin, which they did in May 1978. 

``We figured Madison was an academic place and I could get a teaching job,'' Ann says. 

Jim's painting business continued to have problems here, due to weather and struggles to get his name known. 

Ann, meanwhile, sought out the local alternative health people. 

``I said I wanted to train, and you know what I heard from people?'' Ann says. `` `We've been praying for an herbalist.' I put a poster up and the first week two or three people showed up in our living room in our little ramshackle house -- on Raywood Road where the Beltline is now -- and I gave them our lessons. The next week about 10 people came. The next week the house was full to overflowing.'' 

Their inventory grew from one box to their entire basement. By November 1978, Jim dropped painting to help out with the herbal business, training in massage, which he taught. 

Eventually the Cues opened the ``Wisconsin School of Natural Healing.'' 

``I finally was getting burned out from so many people that I figured if I charged $10 for a consultation, maybe I'd have less people, but I had more,'' Ann says. ``I raised it to $25 and I had even more people.'' 

``Eventually,'' she adds, ``I felt I needed to duplicate the kind of training I'd gotten and do an herbal pharmacology class.'' 

Her search led her to Dr. Tei Fu Chen, the founder of Sunrider, who at that time was the director of quality control and research for Natural Life. 

In December 1982, Dr. Chen bought Natural Life and created Sunrider (see accompanying story). 

For almost the next four years, the Cues continued doing individual consultations, selling the products they knew and eating some of the others. 

``It takes me a long time to become truly committed to something,'' Ann says. 

The pivotal moment in their lives came in September 1986 when they attended a Sunrider convention in Chicago where Dr. Chen was speaking. 

``We sat in that convention room and we looked around at people I had trained in herbs and they were healthier than me,'' Ann says. ``And with that same spiritual insight, Jim and I looked at each other and said, `This is it. We have to do just Sunrider.' '' 

Three-hour individual consultations were replaced by general seminars. 

``The herbs we had been using needed some kind of guidance in how to use them,'' Ann says. ``Sunrider, on the other hand, uses the herbs according to the ancient Chinese philosophy of Regeneration, which says, `Nourish the body so that it gets fewer problems, so that it can compensate for the problems it already has and so that it can prevent some problems from occurring.' '' Ann says what had been a ``meager'' income had turned into a hugely successful business within a year as they made a full commitment to Sunrider. 

``For the next nine months after hearing Dr. Chen speak, we went in debt every month,'' she says. ``We were determined to build up an inventory.'' 

Sunrider, like Amway, is a multi-level company. Typically, 80 percent of those involved are just consumers, 15 percent are average sellers and about 5 percent are leaders. 

The Cues reached the top of that 5 percent and are consistently among the top 20 Sunrider distributors in the country. 

The Cues traveled all over Iowa, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin, signing up customers and distributors under them. 

Within nine months of hearing Dr. Chen speak, they were paying off their debts and collecting awards for their sales levels that have included cars and travel, topped by a recent trip to China for the 1995 Sunrider Grand Convention. 

Their income hit $10,000 per month once in 1987, a couple of times in 1988 and has never dropped under since, providing them a consistent six-figure income. They have peaked above $20,000 in a couple of months. 

``Our first profit-sharing check in 1987 was about $10,000, and that was more than we'd ever made in a year,'' Ann says with a laugh. 

``The average person who commits to the business is doing $5,000 per month,'' Ann says. ``And anybody we sign up could make more than us within a year if they really worked at it.'' 

After spending years hovering along the poverty line, it took some time for the Cues' new-found wealth to sink in. 

``I remember one time shopping for winter gloves and I couldn't choose between this color and that color and all of a sudden it hit me: I don't have to make up my mind -- I can have them both!'' Ann recalls with a laugh. ``And it just blew my mind.'' 

``And then the tax bills came in,'' she adds. 

Success hasn't changed their values, the Cues say, but it has changed some things. 

``My health has changed so much that it's made me a different person,'' Ann says. ``And I now have options.'' 

Adds Jim, ``We're much more relaxed, because when you know you can change your own schedule, you feel more in control of your own life.'' 

The ultimate herbal benefit for the Cues, though, was when Ann gave birth to their son Corryn, 14 years ago. 

``It was a home birth -- no one else was there,'' Ann says. ``That would not have been possible'' without her health improvement from herbs. 

Their oldest, Martin, 23, is a sculpture major at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. Their daughter, Moira, 20, is an artist accepted at three New York art schools. 

``We have taken the appropriate steps so our children will inherit the business,'' Ann says. ``We are doing this for them. But which one of them will actually take over is up for grabs.'' 

*******

SUNRIDER PRODUCTS AIM AT BALANCING YIN AND YANG  Published on Friday, October 27, 1995  © 1995 Madison Newspapers, Inc.  Byline: BY JEFF RICHGELS, THE CAPITAL TIMES    Sunrider International herbal products are based on the ancient Chinese philosophy of Regeneration that says if the body is given the things it needs, it will reach its own natural balance.  Powerfully concentrated, all-natural elements are used for yin (nourishment) and yang (cleansing), with the body taking from the elements what it needs.  And while Sunrider says a body at its optimum level will perform better, the company makes no claims that its products can cure disease, the way some alternative therapies do. (Although a recent Washington Post story did detail new research that suggests a blend of Chinese herbs popular in Japan called Sho-saiko-to may help stave off liver cancer in some people who are at high risk of getting the disease.)  ``Doctors treat disease; Sunrider doesn't treat disease,'' says Madison's Ann Cue, who with her husband, Jim, owns Cues for Health, LLC, one of the leading Sunrider distributors in the country.  ``Sunrider is about prevention and maintenance, but sometimes it works so well it looks like a cure,'' adds Ann, who says that without Sunrider she would be in a wheelchair by now, due to rheumatoid arthritis.  Dr. Tei Fu Chen founded Sunrider, combining his expertise in Chinese herbalism with the training he received at Kaoshiung Medical College in Taiwan, where he earned a pharmacy degree. During college, Chen met his wife, Dr. Oi-Lin Chen, who practiced medicine for some years in the United States before joining Sunrider as head of operations.  ``The formulas that went into these products took thousands of years to develop, and they were developed by Oriental minds who think in a way that Westerners don't even approach,'' Ann says. ``We do not have the language and the chemical knowledge of the body to explain what some of these formulas are doing. Westerners think in terms of bullet medicine: you take this and it does that. The body is more complex than that.''  Sunrider products are not vitamins, although they deliver vitamins and nutrients to the body, Ann says.  ``Vitamins are chemical isolates,'' she says. ``The way your body would like to receive vitamins is in food, in herbs. The vitamin supplements I had taken had done very little for me because they were in a chemical state isolated from the synergy of the total package.''  Ann points to recent studies that have indicated that while certain vitamins may have positive effects, they also may cause health problems.  ``The Western health world is getting very aware of that,'' Ann says. ``There are articles published all the time saying that vitamins are not the answer. That's the bullet approach again -- a little fix-it doesn't really address the problem. Sunrider delivers vitamins in the form nature intended them.''  Ann says that when she began trying herbal foods 20 years ago and went to authorities for answers as to why she felt better, they told her vitamins in isolated form were not a correct principle.  Sunrider, which Chen founded in 1982, has modern plants in California, Taiwan and Guangzho, with future expansion planned.  The company says it pours much of its energy and funds into research and development and quality control.  What began with just a few products has grown into a line of more than 75 products, including toothpaste, cleaning and skin and beauty products.  Ann said customers can spend anywhere from under $1 per day for herbal tea to more than $10 a day for someone who is ``making massive changes in hopeless conditions,'' such as a terminal illness.  However, it is possible to effectively spend no money by using Sunrider products as replacements for other things, such as tea for sodas and bars for snacks, Ann says.  The only problem the Cues report is customers who quit once they start feeling better.  ``People say, `Oh, I feel great. I don't need it anymore,' '' Ann says. ``They don't realize it's food and your body uses it up every day.''  Prior to embracing the Sunrider philosophy in 1986, the Cues customized programs for each of their customers, prescribing a variety of herbs depending on the customer's specific needs.  The Sunrider philosophy doesn't require such customization, however, since it depends on the body to take from the products what it needs.  When the Cues began using Sunrider exclusively themselves, they also changed their diets back from pure vegan -- vegetarian plus no dairy products -- to a ``normal'' diet.  ``I had been so ill, so environmentally sensitive that was all I could survive on,'' Ann says of the vegan diet. ``When we went to Sunrider we ate more normal, and our health improved. It was fun and it was easier.  ``I think food is a complicated issue in our society. A lot of times we eat what we eat for emotional and social reasons, and I don't think anyone should tamper with that.''  Herbal products marketed as food products are not required to fall under the same regulations as medicines, so long as no claims are made that, for example, an herb can cure a disease.  And some laws were loosened a year ago so that anecdotal reports can be used.  ``The lid is off and we now can say what is true,'' Ann says. ``We can use testimonials and the FDA cannot say that's a false claim and seize the product.''  And Sunrider now will be able to sell a product called Stevia as a dietary supplement, where previously it was sold as ``skin care'' (but also often still used as a sweetener).  The FDA had classified Stevia in the same category with the chemical sweetener Nutrasweet and therefore required exhaustive testing.  But, says Ann, ``Sunrider doesn't do additives. Sunrider does nutritional dietary supplements that are food in their own right, meaning any amount is safe and your body will take from it what it needs. Stevia is a safe food and the fact that it is sweet is nice.''  Stevia leaves grow in Brazil and Paraguay. The natural extract has no calories, but is 250-300 times sweeter than processed sugar, Sunrider says.  The Cues say Stevia can help regulate a person's blood sugar, strengthen the pancreas and help people with diabetes. An $8 bottle lasts several months.  ``Your need for insulin may decrease as your pancreas gets stronger,'' Ann says.  The Cues say it really doesn't matter if the establishment embraces herbal products.  ``There are loads of people out there who are willing to give it the true test of trying it themselves,'' Ann says. ``If somebody tells you this is good for you and you eat it and you drink it and you don't like it and two weeks later you still don't feel anything, are you going to stay with it? No. But if you're feeling wonderful benefits, are you going to stay on it? Yes.''  The Cues say, in fact, that a skeptic is the best customer.  ``You need to be an open skeptic -- willing to try something,'' Ann says