A dictionary definition

Main Entry: cue   Function: noun

1 a : a signal (as a word, phrase, or bit of stage business) to a performer to begin a specific speech or action

b : something serving a comparable purpose;  HINT

AN HERBAL RECIPE FOR SUCCESS

Published on Friday, October 27, 1995 

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.''  

Reprinted with permission of the Madison Capital Times

The story here is old but still wonderful, an accurate presentation of how it all began..